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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/28320-0.txt b/28320-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6a2ff5b --- /dev/null +++ b/28320-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,9149 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook of A Tramp's Wallet, by William Duthie + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: A Tramp's Wallet + stored by an English goldsmith during his wanderings in Germany and France + + +Author: William Duthie + + + +Release Date: March 13, 2009 [eBook #28320] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A TRAMP'S WALLET*** + + +This ebook was transcribed by Les Bowler. + + + + + + A + TRAMP’S WALLET; + + + STORED BY + AN ENGLISH GOLDSMITH + DURING HIS + Wanderings in Germany and France. + + BY + WILLIAM DUTHIE. + + DEDICATED, BY PERMISSION, TO CHARLES DICKENS, ESQ. + + * * * * * + + LONDON: + DARTON AND CO., 58, HOLBORN HILL. + MDCCCLVIII. + + * * * * * + + [_The right of Translation is reserved by the Author_.] + + * * * * * + + TO + + + CHARLES DICKENS, ESQ., + This Volume + IS RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED, + IN GRATEFUL ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF HIS SYMPATHY AND + ENCOURAGEMENT DURING + THE PUBLICATION OF THE GREATER PORTION OF ITS CONTENTS; + AND AS A SLIGHT TRIBUTE OF ADMIRATION + FOR HIS UNWEARYING LABOURS AS A PUBLIC WRITER, + TO THE ADVANCEMENT OF THE WHOLE PEOPLE, + BY HIS SINCERE ADMIRER, + + THE AUTHOR. + + + + +PREFACE. + + +During a stay of three years and a half in Germany and France, sometimes +at work, sometimes tramping through the country, the Author collected a +number of facts and stray notes, which he has endeavoured in these pages +to present to the public in a readable shape. + +Of the twenty-eight chapters contained in the volume, sixteen originally +appeared in “Household Words.” They are entitled THE GERMAN WORKMAN; +HAMBURG TO LÜBECK; LÜBECK TO BERLIN; FAIR-TIME AT LEIPSIC; DOWN IN A +SILVER MINE; A LIFT IN A CART; THE TURKS’ CELLAR; A TASTE OF AUSTRIAN +JAILS; WHAT MY LANDLORD BELIEVED; A WALK THROUGH A MOUNTAIN; CAUSE AND +EFFECT; THE FRENCH WORKMAN; LICENSED TO JUGGLE; PÈRE PANPAN; SOME GERMAN +SUNDAYS; and MORE SUNDAYS ABROAD. Several other chapters were published +in a weekly newspaper; and the remainder, together with the Introductory +Narrative, appear in print for the first time. For the careful and +valuable revision of that portion of his book which has appeared in +“Household Words,” the Author here begs to express his sincere thanks; +and to acknowledge, in particular, his obligation to some unknown +collaborator, who, to the paper called “The French Workman,” has added +some valuable information. + +The desire of the Author in writing the Introductory Narrative was to +present to his readers a brief outline of his whole journey, and a +summary of its results; and to connect, so far as it was possible, the +somewhat fragmentary contents of the body of the work. It was also hoped +and believed that the statistical information there given, although of so +humble a character, would be valuable as illustrative of the social +condition of workmen in the countries to which they refer, and of a +character hitherto rarely attempted. + +Written, as these chapters were, at intervals of time, and separately +published, each paper must be taken as complete in itself; and, as they +are separate incidents of one narrative, occasional repetitions occur, +which could scarcely have been erased, now that they are collected +together, without injuring the sense of the passage. For that portion of +the book which has appeared in print no apology will be expected; and, +with regard to the remainder, the Author has rather endeavoured to avoid +censure than hoped to propitiate it. + +In conclusion, the Author must add, in order that he may not stand +self-accused of misleading his readers with regard to his personal +position, that good fortune has so far favoured his own exertions, that, +although still of the craft, he can no longer lay claim to the title of a +Journeyman Goldsmith. It was while in that capacity that the greater +part of the following pages were written: he cannot but believe that they +may be of some practical utility; and if, added to this, their perusal +should afford to his readers some portion of that pleasure which their +composition yielded to him, his purpose will have been fully answered. + + + + +CONTENTS. + + INTRODUCTORY NARRATIVE + _Page_ +HAMBURG.—ON TRAMP TO BERLIN i +BERLIN AND LEIPSIC.—ON TRAMP TO VIENNA vii +VIENNA xv +ON TRAMP TO PARIS xxiii +PARIS xxix + _Chapter_ + I. HAMBURG 1 + II. ALTONA.—A POET’S GRAVE.—A DANISH 6 + HARVEST-HOME + III. “MAGNIFICENCE.”—AT CHURCH.—THE LAST HEADSMAN 9 + IV. WORKMEN IN HAMBURG 15 + V. PLAYS AND PICCADILLOES.—“HAMLET” IN GERMAN 19 + VI. THE GERMAN WORKMAN 24 + VII. HAMBURG TO LÜBECK 36 + VIII. LÜBECK TO BERLIN 41 + IX. BERLIN.—OUR HERBERGE 51 + X. A STREET IN BERLIN 56 + XI. POLICE AND PEOPLE 62 + XII. THE KREUTZBERG.—A PRUSSIAN SUPPER AND 65 + CAROUSE + XIII. FAIR-TIME AT LEIPSIC 70 + XIV. DOWN IN A SILVER MINE 76 + XV. A LIFT IN A CART 85 + XVI. THE TURKS’ CELLAR 94 + XVII. A TASTE OF AUSTRIAN JAILS 99 + XVIII. WHAT MY LANDLORD BELIEVED 108 + XIX. AN EXECUTION IN VIENNA 113 + XX. A JAIL EPISODE 116 + XXI. A WALK THROUGH A MOUNTAIN 121 + XXII. CAUSE AND EFFECT 130 + XXIII. GREECE AND HER DELIVERER 137 + XXIV. THE FRENCH WORKMAN 139 + XXV. LICENSED TO JUGGLE 149 + XXVI. PÈRE PANPAN 152 + XXVII. SOME GERMAN SUNDAYS 162 + XXVIII. MORE SUNDAYS ABROAD 173 + + + + + +INTRODUCTORY NARRATIVE. + + +HAMBURG.—ON TRAMP TO BERLIN. + + +There have appeared from time to time, in public print, sorrowful +recitals of journeys attempted by English workmen in foreign countries, +with no better result than the utter failure of the resources of the +adventurous traveller, and his return homeward by the aid of private +charity or the good offices of his consul. It is precisely because the +travels about to be here narrated were financially a success, being +prosecuted throughout by means of the wages earned during their progress, +that it is thought they may be worthy of publication; not that it is +imagined many such examples may not be found, but because success in such +an undertaking has not hitherto appeared so often before the public as +failure. This narrative is necessarily a personal one; and as it is my +especial object in this place to present these foreign rambles in a +pecuniary point of view, I trust I shall not be misunderstood in stating +minute items of receipt and expenditure, as such details, however trivial +they may appear, are of vital importance in estimating the comparative +position of the foreign and the English workman. + +There was more than one cause which prompted me to seek my fortune +abroad; but it is sufficient here to state, that I had worked in the +company of Germans, and had thus become interested in their country, and, +as great depression prevailed at the time among the goldsmiths in London, +I provided myself with a letter of introduction to a working jeweller in +Hamburg, and prepared to start for this outpost of the great German +continent. My whole capital amounted to five pounds sterling; and, armed +with a passport from the Hanseatic consul, and provided with an extra +suit of clothes, a few books, and some creature comforts, I embarked for +my destination on board the “Glory,” a trading schooner, then lying in +Shadwell basin. + +I paid thirty shillings for my passage, including provisions, and could +have slept in the cabin, and fared with the captain, for two pounds, but +in the weak state of my finances, considered it only prudent to content +myself with sailor’s beef and biscuit, and a hard bulk and coil of ropes +for my bed. After, to me, a rough sea and river passage of eight days, +marked by no greater incidents than belonged to the vicissitudes of the +weather, we crossed the sand-bar at the mouth of the Elbe, and were soon +safe at our moorings in the outer harbour of Hamburg. It was Sunday +morning; paddled on shore in the ship’s boat, I found myself in a town +utterly strange to me, armed only with a letter addressed to a person +with whom I could not converse, and written in a language I did not +understand. My chief comforts were three sovereigns, carefully wrapped +in a piece of cotton print, and deposited in my fob. + +In the course of a ramble through the town, I discovered an English +hotel, and was there happy in making the acquaintance of a needle-maker +of Redditch, Worcestershire, who at once offered to be my interpreter and +guide in search of employment. We began our peregrinations on the +morrow, and I was first introduced to the only English cabinet-maker +established in Hamburg, who, however, did not receive our visit +cheerfully. He drew a rueful picture of trade generally, but more +especially of his own. The hours of labour were long, he said; the work +was hard, and the wages contemptible. He concluded by assuring me that I +had been very ill advised to come there, and that the best course I could +pursue was to take the first ship home again. As I was not yet inclined +to follow this doleful piece of advice, we continued our enquiries. In a +short time I was shaking hands with the jeweller to whom my letter of +introduction was addressed; and before another hour had elapsed, acting +under his instructions, I had the gratification of knowing that I was “in +work,” and, best of all, under an employer who spoke the English, French, +and German languages with equal facility. Thus, in ten days from leaving +England, eight of which were spent on the passage, I had found both +friends and employment in a foreign city, and now that my greatest source +of anxiety for the future was removed, felt thoroughly independent and at +my ease. + +My companions in the workshop were a quiet Dane who spoke German, and a +young Frenchman, whom I will call Alcibiade, who had been in London, and +acquired a smattering of English. We worked twelve hours a day, +commencing at six o’clock in the morning—the whole city was up and busy +at that hour—and kept on till seven in the evening. Thirteen hours were +thus spent in the workshop, one of which was given to meals. The +practice of boarding the workmen is universal in Hamburg, and we +therefore fared at the table of our “principal,” and were amply and well +provided for. During the first week of my stay in Hamburg, I lodged at +an humble English hotel, where I paid at the rate of ten marks a week for +bed and board, a sum equal to eleven shillings and eightpence. +Reasonable as this may appear, it was beyond my resources, and would +indeed have been a positive extravagance under the circumstances. +Moreover, the arrangements of the workshop forbade it. My next lodging +was at a German hotel, where I slept in a little cupboard which hung over +a black, sluggish canal, and was without stove or fire-place. The cost +of this chamber was five marks a month, or scarcely one shilling and +sixpence a week. These expenses will appear paltry and insignificant, +till compared with the amount of wages received, when it will be apparent +that boarding and lodging in an English hotel at eleven shillings and odd +pence a week, was a monstrous extravagance; and that even an apartment in +a German gasthaus, at five marks a month, was more than the slender +pittance received would reasonably bear. Alcibiade, who, besides being +an expert workman, was an excellent modeller and draughtsman, received +seven marks a week, with board and lodging, or eight shillings weekly in +positive cash. Peterkin the Dane, who was yet a novice, was in the +receipt of four marks a week, and paid for his own lodging—weekly pay, +four shillings and eightpence. My own wages were seven marks a week and +board, while I paid for my own lodging; and when, upon the departure of +Alcibiade for Berlin, I took possession of his bedroom—a mere box without +a window—a deduction of one mark was made as an equivalent. I thus +received in wages six marks; lodging may be reckoned at one, and board at +five marks a week—total, twelve marks; which will yield in English money +the magnificent sum of fourteen shillings. + +In order to contrast these figures more fully with the pay of our English +artisans, it will be necessary to mention some further expenses to which +the workman in England is not liable, or in which the commercial +pre-eminence of his country gives him a marked advantage. With respect +to the former, as the employer in many cases furnishes only the ruder and +less portable machinery of the workshop, the workman has, to a certain +extent, to provide his own tools; and in regard to the latter, clothing +in general, and more especially cotton, woollen, and worsted articles of +apparel, are nearly as costly as in London. + +Of the social position of the workmen, and the rules of the trade Guilds, +I have endeavoured to treat under the head of “THE GERMAN WORKMAN;” but +there are some matters there omitted which may be worthy of mention. I +was forcibly struck, as well in Hamburg as in other towns and cities of +Germany, by the almost total want of that cheap serial literature which +is so marked a feature of popular education in England. There was, +indeed, a penny magazine published in Leipsic, after the type of the +original periodical of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge; +but it found no purchasers among any of my acquaintances, and was only to +be seen, with a few other literary magazines, at the better sort of +eating and coffee-houses. The workmen were gay, and fond of amusement, +but not recklessly so. They were passionately fond of music, and formed +little clubs among themselves for the practice of choral singing. There +was shown no want of respect for the Church and its institutions, quite +the reverse; and I well remember that we were gratified with a holiday on +a day set apart by the authorities for the public confirmation of the +youths about to be apprenticed, and the whole ceremonial of which wore an +imposing and solemn character. The conscription was, I believe, made +also on that day. With respect to the relation between employers and +employed, there existed a degree of amiability and consideration for +which we look too often in vain in England, while it must also be +confessed that every mark of respect was rigorously exacted by the +master, and that his affability towards the workmen sometimes assumed the +character of an affectionate condescension towards a favoured menial. I +did not personally know any one married journeyman in Hamburg; but there +was one jeweller who had entered into the silken bonds of wedlock, and +who was pointed out to me with a shrug of the shoulder and a shake of the +head, as a doomed mortal. + +It might be imagined that as the city of Hamburg claims the title of +“free,” such assumed liberty might extend to its social institutions; as +well as to its port and navigation. Indeed, the worthy citizens are +under some such delusion themselves, and boast of immunities, and +liberalities of government, such as would place them at the head of the +German nation. It would be hard to know in what they consist. The +passport system is enforced with all its rigours and impertinences; an +annual conscription is taken of its inhabitants, and the more solvent of +them perform military service (this may perhaps be considered a liberty), +as a national guard, with the additional luxury of providing their own +weapons and equipments. Moreover, they were, at the time I write of, +called upon to render certain services in case of an outbreak of fire: +one contributing a bucket, another a rope, and a third a ladder; none of +which articles, as might easily be imagined, were forthcoming when most +wanted. The city tolls were heavy, and stringently levied, and, what +more nearly concerned the exercise of public liberty and private +convenience, the city gates were nominally closed at a certain hour in +the evening, varied according to the season of the year, and were only to +be passed after the appointed period by the payment of a toll. It was +curious to see the people hurrying towards the Jacob Thor on a Sunday +evening as the hour of closing approached, jostling and mobbing each +other in their endeavours to escape the human poll tax. + +But men are free, or in fetters, only by comparison; and although the +rule of the senate of Hamburg, when contrasted with British government, +can scarcely be called a liberal one, there is little doubt that +identical laws are in Hamburg less stringently carried out than in other +and most parts of the great German continent. + +Seven months’ stay in Hamburg found me eager to commence the march into +Germany, which I had long meditated. Five months had already elapsed +since Alcibiade, my French fellow-workman, had departed for Berlin +(paying eight dollars for the journey by post), and he had never written +to inform me of his fortunes. I was resolved to follow him, and, if +possible, to seek him out, for we were already sworn friends; but my +finances would only allow of a journey on foot. During twenty-eight +weeks of employment in Hamburg, I had received two hundred and three +marks banco in wages, which would yield, in round numbers, twelve pounds +sterling, or exactly an average receipt of five shillings per week. +Against this sum were to be placed: expenses for tools, five shillings +and sixpence; trade society and police, five shillings and tenpence; +clothing and washing, three pounds, one shilling and twopence; and rent +and extra board, one pound seven shillings. Seventeen visits to theatres +at prices ranging from two shillings to sevenpence amounted to sixteen +shillings and sixpence, making a total of five pounds sixteen shillings. +The surplus of six pounds four shillings had been further reduced, by +outlay in necessities or indulgences, as the reader may assume according +to his fancy, to thirty marks banco. With this sum of thirty-five +shillings in English money, and consisting of two Dutch ducats and five +Prussian dollars, I started to tramp the two hundred miles between +Hamburg and Berlin. As a matter of explanation it may be stated that, +during a residence of seven months in Hamburg, I had acquired enough of +the German language to trust myself alone in the country. + +Under the impression that I might be required to set to work in any town +on my route, like any travelling tinker, I had packed in my knapsack my +best scoopers and an upright drillstock; and these tools, while they +added to its weight, presented so many obdurate points of resistance to +my back. Stowed within the knapsack were an extra suit, two changes of +linen, a few books, a flute, and a pair of boots. It weighed +twenty-eight pounds. My remaining personal property was safely packed in +a trunk, and left in the hands of a friend, to be forwarded by waggon as +soon as my resting place should be determined. + +I have only to deal in this place with the statistics of my first tramp. +The distance was lessened sixty miles by taking the _eilwagen_ from +Wusterhausen to Berlin, and nine days in all were spent upon the road. +My total expenses, including the dollar (three shillings) for coach fare, +amounted to eighteen shillings, or an average of two shillings a-day. Of +this sum I may particularise the cost of the straw-litter and early cup +of coffee at the outset of the journey, twopence; at Lübeck, where I +lodged respectably for one night, the bill was two shillings; at +Schönefeld, twopence halfpenny; a lodging, and board for two nights and a +day at Schwerin in a “grand hotel,” but faring with the servants, cost +one shilling and ninepence; at Ludwigslust, a comfortable bed after a +grand supper with the carpenters at their house of call, was charged one +shilling and sevenpence; and at Perleberg, where I lodged superbly, the +cost was sixteen silver groschens, or a fraction over one shilling and +sixpence. + +Against this I have to place the trade gift of two shillings at Lübeck, +being the whole contents of their cash box, and which was kindly forced +upon me. At Schönefeld I was urged by the masons to demand the usual +“geschenk” from the only jeweller in the village. “Why,” exclaimed the +landlord, enthusiastically, “if you only get a penny, it will buy you a +glass of beer!” I overcame the temptation. + + + +BERLIN AND LEIPSIC.—ON TRAMP TO VIENNA. + + +I was less fortunate in the search for work in Berlin than I had been in +Hamburg. Having started on my travels too early in the year, I paid the +penalty of my rashness. My guide into Berlin was a glovemaker, whose +acquaintance I had made upon the road, and through whom, curiously +enough, I succeeded in discovering my Parisian friend Alcibiade, the +first object of my search. Alcibiade, eccentric, but frank and generous, +received me like a brother. There was no employment to be obtained in +Berlin, or assuredly he would have ferreted it out; more especially as in +the search he had the assistance of one of those philological curiosities +met with in Germany more often than in any other country, a +school-teacher, who seemed to have any number of foreign languages glibly +at the end of his tongue. I stayed a week in Berlin, sleeping at the +Herberge in the Schuster Gasse, described in the body of this work; and +when forced at length to depart, Alcibiade pressed four dollars upon me +as a loan, to help me on my further wanderings. It must be remembered +that my stock was reduced to seventeen shillings on my arrival at Berlin, +and as my expenses in this capital, during a week’s vain search for +employment, amounted to nine shillings, I was but indifferently provided. +Under these circumstances I asserted my claim to the trade geschenk, and, +having fulfilled all the conditions of a tramp unable to find work, +received from the Guild twenty silver groschens, or two shillings. + +Leipsic was my natural destination, and thither I proceeded by railway, +paying two dollars eight groschens for the transit in an open carriage. +This would give seven shillings in English money. The journey occupied +about twelve hours, and although the average speed through the Prussian +territory was slow, no sooner did we come upon Saxon ground at the +frontier town of Köthen, than we spun along over the sandy waste with a +rapidity which reminded one of a trip on an English railway. It was +already dark when the train reached Leipsic, and in the drizzling rain I +wandered round the city ditch and rampart, unknowing where to find a +lodging. At length, directed by a stranger to a trade herberge in the +Kleine Kirche Hof, after some demur on account of my not belonging to the +proper craft, I was admitted to a sort of out-house, paved with red +bricks, and allowed a bed for the night. On the morrow I presented a +letter of recommendation, from my good genius Alcibiade, to one of the +principal jewellers in the city, and felt inexpressibly happy on being at +once taken into employment. I spent two delightful months in Leipsic. +My fortnight’s ramble, with its discomforts and anxieties, had given me a +desire for rest, and in the bustling town, (it was the Easter fair time), +skirted by its fringe of garden, and among its pleasant, good-natured +inhabitants, the time sped happily on. + +The pay was better than in Hamburg, but the living worse. My wages were +four dollars—twelve shillings per week—and board and lodging. I slept in +the same room with my one fellow workman and an apprentice. It was +light, and scrupulously clean, but had the single disadvantage of being +so low in the ceiling, that one could not stand upright in it. Saxony +has the unenviable distinction of being the country the worst fed in +Germany. I had no prejudice against Saxon fare upon my arrival in +Leipsic, but found, after a fortnight’s trial, that I could not possibly +endure its unvarying boiled fresh beef, excessively insipid, with no +other accompaniment than various kinds of beans stewed into a sort of +porridge. Potato dumplings were a luxury with us. + +I am afraid I seriously offended my worthy “principal,” on pleading my +inability to persist in this kind of training. But he acquiesced in the +desire to board myself, and generously made the additional payment of one +dollar sixteen groschens, or five shillings per week, for the purpose. I +found no difficulty in tracing out a “restauration,” the proprietor of +which readily undertook to furnish one principal meal per diem for +seventeen silver groschens, that is, one shilling and eightpence +halfpenny per week, paid in advance. Each dinner cost, therefore, a +fraction less than threepence. With the remainder of the allowance it +was easy to purchase a simple supper, and even some small luxuries now +and then. The dinners, although certainly not sumptuous, were wholesome, +and infinitely more relishing than the fresh beef and beans of the +“principal’s” table; while there was a relief in quitting the workshop +for a while, to descend the steep wooden staircase leading from the +street into the cellar, which formed the dining-room of the eating-house. + +The great Easter fair had just commenced as I reached Leipsic, and with +its termination came my stay in the city also to an end. The work was +exhausted. I had luxuriated in a few brilliants and the old Polish +rose-diamonds, and had descended to mounting a monstrous meerschaum pipe +in silver. But now there was nothing left but the turquoises and +Bohemian garnets, set in millegriffes, and the Herr shook his head, and +decided that they would not pay; so I received notice to leave in a +fortnight. During this period of six weeks, my receipts in wages were +six-and-twenty Prussian dollars, or three pounds eighteen shillings, +which would allow an average of eleven shillings per week with board and +lodging. Of expenses incurred there were: for Guild and police, +eightpence; and clothing and washing, fourteen shillings. The Leipsicers +have an ugly trick of doubling the prices of the theatre during the fair +time, so that my expenditure on that head was _nil_. My trunk, forwarded +from Hamburg in fourteen days, and weighing seventy pounds, cost three +shillings in the transit, including sixpence for city toll. + +After a vain search for further employment in Leipsic, and a +disappointment of obtaining a situation in Altenburg, there appeared +nothing before me but a toilsome march through Dresden to Vienna, with +little hope of finding occupation by the way, and scarcely more than +twenty shillings in my pocket. At this crisis there came a welcome +letter from Alcibiade, with the tidings that certain employment, for at +least two months, awaited me in Berlin. This was pleasant news indeed; +and the Herr entered so fully into the necessity of seizing this golden +opportunity, that he kindly released me from a day’s labor, that I might +have full time to make my preparations. One would naturally suppose that +a few hours would suffice to pack my little stores and to depart; but +there were the Guild regulations to fulfil, the railway officials to be +waited on, and the police to satisfy. The last-named gentlemen would not +consent to _vise_ my passport till I should produce my railway ticket, as +a proof of my intention to go; while the railway officials doubted the +propriety of issuing a ticket till I had received the authority of the +police for my departure. Here was a case of daggers—a dead lock; but the +railway was obliged to cede the ground, and I departed in peace. As I +was to start at six in the morning, the Herr rose earlier than was his +wont, prepared for me with his own hands a cup of hot coffee, kissed me +on both cheeks, and wished me God speed. + +My stay in Berlin was limited to six weeks. It would have been longer, +but that Alcibiade had set his heart upon tramping to Vienna at the end +of that period; and I was pledged to accompany him. We worked together +at one of the court jewellers. Alcibiade stood in high favour, and +received in wages thirty dollars per calendar month, or an average rate +of twenty-two shillings and sixpence a week. My own wages were fixed at +twenty-four dollars a month to begin with, or eighteen shillings a week; +but I received ten dollars for the last ten days of my engagement, which +brought me on a level with my Parisian friend. These were, I believe, +high wages. We worked twelve hours a day. The city of Berlin had +outgrown the feudal usages of Hamburg and Leipsic, and we were no longer +lodged under the same roof with the Herr, nor humbly ate at his table. +Alcibiade had an apartment in a rambling house with a princely staircase, +but the central court of which happened, unfortunately, to be a stable. +An extra bed and double rent enabled us to domicile together, and we paid +for this chamber, roomy and commodious (always overlooking the stable), +per month, together with morning coffee and a bullet of white bread, two +dollars eighteen groschens each. This would give, in English money, +seven shillings and tenpence, being less than two shillings a week. Our +average expenses for living were five shillings each per week; and thus, +while our whole weekly necessities were met by the sum of seven +shillings, we were in the receipt of eighteen shillings and twenty-two +shillings and sixpence respectively. Reckoning, however, the average +wages in Berlin at sixteen shillings a week, it will be seen that the +artisan, whose necessary outlay for food and lodging need certainly not +exceed seven shillings, is at least in as good a position as his +self-vaunted brother of London upon thirty shillings. It naturally +results that the mechanics of Berlin, unlike those of the smaller towns +of Germany, “are married and given in marriage,” although the practice is +regarded even there as indiscreet and improvident. It is doubtless a +creditable feeling which demands of the workman that he shall have past +out of his state of servitude, and have gained the position of an +employer of labor, before he dare assume still higher responsibilities; +but the system has also great evils. + +During my employment of one calendar month and ten days in Berlin, I +received thirty-four dollars in wages, or five pounds two shillings. Of +expenses, to the trade Guild, were paid tenpence; for a silk hat, four +shillings and twopence; a visit to Potsdam cost three shillings and +tenpence, including railway fare; and the fee for viewing the King’s +Palace in Berlin was tenpence. One shilling and twopence were lost in +_agio_, in exchanging my small remaining stock of Prussian dollars into +Austrian gold. I may mention, that the binding of an 18mo. volume in +boards, covered in paper, cost one groschen, eight pfennige, or, as +nearly as it can be calculated, twopence in English money. + +As we were upon the point of departure, there arrived in Berlin an old +friend whom we had known in Hamburg, a silversmith of Vienna, accompanied +by two other silversmiths, natives of Lübeck, all bound to the same goal. +We made common cause at once. We started by rail for Leipsic; Alcibiade +provided with a purse of no less than eighty dollars, or twelve pounds +sterling, his savings in Berlin, while my own stock, with all my sparing +and scraping, scarcely amounted to two pounds. + +The length of the railway between Berlin and Leipsic is between eighty +and a hundred miles. From Leipsic, where we stayed only one night, +sleeping at the herberge, and supping off roasted pigeons, we had, in +round numbers, about four hundred miles before us. + +Having narrated the chief incidents of this journey under other heads, I +will only mention isolated points there omitted, and sum up its general +results. Leipsic was our real starting-point for the tramp, and our +first haven the Saxon capital Dresden. We took the road through +Altenburg, thus diverging considerably from the common route, in order to +visit the silver mines of Freiberg, and ramble through the romantic +scenery of the Plaunischen Grund. We passed through Saxon Altenburg, +Zwickau, Lichtenstein, Chemnitz, Oderan, Freiberg, Tharant, and Wildsruf, +and arrived in the evening of the fifth day at Dresden. We had in +reality no business near Zwickau, but were seduced out of our direct +route by the offer of a cheap ride in an open waggon, and were thus led +to a secluded village, where our couch of rest was among the beer puddles +on the table of the village tap. On the morrow we found we were a day’s +march out of our road. Finding that my stock of cash was already reduced +to the half of its original bulk, that I had indeed expended one pound, I +seriously endeavoured to find employment in Dresden; but utterly failing +in that hope, I claimed the “viaticum” of the Guild, which was ten silver +groschens, or one shilling. We lodged at the herberge during our stay, +and were cleanly and comfortably housed, and at a reasonable cost. It is +a fact highly honourable to the Saxons, that the only trade herberges in +Germany which are in any way decent, are those of Leipsic and Dresden. +We rested in the Saxon capital during three days, visiting its principal +attractions, and then prepared once more for the road. + +There were many official regulations to observe before we could quit the +city. Alcibiade and I, who had passports, were not called upon to show +the condition of our finances, but our three companions, possessing only +wander-books, an inferior kind of pass which marks the holder as a simple +workman wholly dependent on his labor, were called upon to exhibit a sum +equal to at least ten shillings each. Now, the collective resources of +our three companions were certainly not equal to one pound ten shillings; +but, as may be easily imagined, a little sleight-of-hand would make any +one of them appear to be possessed of the stock of the whole. And this +was done; and thus the police were daily and hourly deceived. In +addition to the usual official routine—the testimony of the father of the +herberge to our having paid our score, the authority of the vorsteher +that we were not indebted to the Guild, and the usual police _visa_—we +had each to obtain the signature of his own consul; that of the Saxon +minister, as a testimony of his willingness to allow us to go; and of the +Austrian consul, as a sign that the Imperial Government was not +disinclined to receive us. This done, we departed under strict +injunctions to proceed through Pirna, a town which, as it was completely +out of our route, we never took any pains to reach. How we escaped +punishment for this infraction of police directions I scarcely know, but +we heard no more of the matter. When we had already passed through the +most romantic portion of Saxon Switzerland, and were slowly descending to +the plain, we met a poor, footsore wanderer, with a woe-begone visage, +who proved to be the dejected object of official vengeance. Four days +before, he had started from Dresden full of life and hope, but on +arriving at the frontier town of Peterswald, it was discovered that he +had neglected to obtain the signature of one of the numerous gentlemen of +whose existence he was scarcely even cognizant, and so was driven back to +Dresden to seek the required attestation, with loss of time, loss of +money, and almost broken-hearted. + +When we reached the Saxon frontier our little party, by the addition of +other tramps, had increased to the number of ten; and we leaped the +boundary line at word of command, and stood on Austrian territory. We +had been warned of a rigorous search for letters and tobacco at +Peterswald, and as we had made due arrangements for the visitation, we +felt somewhat slighted at our knapsacks being passed over with little +better than contempt. We had slept upon hay the previous night, but upon +our arrival at Töplitz, which we entered in a cabriolet, three of us +inside with five knapsacks, and other two companions hanging on behind, +we boldly took up our abode at one of the first hotels, and were, the +whole five of us, crammed into a little room on the top floor, and +charged a zwanziger (eightpence) a head for the accommodation. We looked +upon this charge as little short of a robbery. On the following day we +approached Prague, and I got a lift in a waggon, of about ten miles, and +then laid down by the city gates till my four friends should come up. +Upon presenting ourselves at the wicket, we were challenged by the +sentinel, our passes taken from us by the military guard, and a sort of +receipt given for them. Our three companions having only wander-books, +were imperiously directed to their herberge for accommodation, while we +were permitted to consult our own tastes upon the matter. Of course we +accompanied our friends. The herberge gained, we descended by a stone +step to the common room, a vaulted chamber half under ground, very ill +lighted, and provided only with a few rude tables and benches. We called +for beer, being weary and thirsty, (the Praguer beer is especially good) +and requested a private room for our party. The hostess, a fat, vulgar +woman, being called by the astonished servant maid, sneered at our +presumption, and said we must content ourselves with common tramps’ +lodging. We submitted; but the Viennese, who had a visit of some +importance to pay in the city, and wished to remove some of the stains of +travel, and make himself generally presentable, having requested some +simple means of making his toilet, was, after considerable delay, +presented with water in a pint mug, and a soiled neckcloth as a towel. +This was too much for the Austrian’s proud stomach; a storm of abuse in +the richest Viennese dialect was poured forth upon the landlady, her +maid, and the whole establishment, which being liberally responded to, +there resulted an uproar of foul language, such as was seldom heard, even +in those regions. The hostess threatened us with the vengeance of the +police, should we attempt to leave our authorised herberge, to which we +replied by tossing the beer into the kennel, buckling on our knapsacks, +and stalking into the street. We soon found a decent hotel, with the +accommodation of a large room containing five beds, and at so reasonable +a price that my whole expenses of entertainment during the two days and +three nights of our stay in Prague, amounted only to one florin and forty +kreutzers (schein), or one shilling and sixpence. We heard no more of +our Bohemian herberge and its landlady. I may mention as a further proof +of the different treatment which awaits the holder of the workman’s +wander-book, as compared with the bearer of a passport, that on attending +at the police office, Alcibiade and myself were at once called into the +bureau, and our duly _viséd_ passports handed to us with great +politeness, while our companions were left to cool their heels in a stone +paved hall, till the officials could find time to attend to them. We +soon left Prague, and were assisted on our journey towards Brünn by a +lift in a country cart, which brought us fifty English miles forward on +our road. We did not sleep in a bed during four consecutive nights; not, +indeed, till we reached the village of Goldentraum, on the Moravian +frontier. This was not the result of any wish of our own, but from an +apparent deficiency of beds in that part of the country. On one occasion +a heap of hay was delicately covered with a clean white cloth, lest the +stubbly ends should trouble our slumbers—a woman’s attention you may be +sure—while on another, we slept on the bare boards, with no other pillows +than our knapsacks, in a room, the air of which was at fever heat from +recent bread-baking, and where the fierce flies made circular sweeps at +our ears, and droned about our nostrils. But we did sleep in spite of +that, for we had tramped more than thirty miles during the day. + +From Goldentraum there were still twenty English miles to Brünn, the +capital of Moravia, and thence thirty-eight German stunden, or about +eighty English miles, to Vienna. My funds were now reduced to about four +shillings, and we had still one hundred miles before us. One of our +Lübecker silversmiths, who had been ailing throughout the whole journey, +was unable to proceed further on foot, and we left him at Goldenstraun to +take a place in the eilwagen later in the day. We had, however, scarcely +made half our journey, when Alcibiade and the Viennese also gave in—their +feet were fearfully blistered—and seated themselves by the road-side to +await the expected conveyance. The remaining Lübecker, whom we had +called Hannibal, and myself tramped on to Brünn. On the morrow we traced +out our three friends, but found them still so lame that they were +resolved to take the railway to Vienna at an expense of three guldens +(müntz), about six shillings each. As my own resources were reduced to +less than half that sum, and those of Hannibal were in much the same +condition, there remained to us two only a choice of evils: either to +borrow the requisite amount, or to tramp the remaining distance on our +diminished finances. We chose the latter course. We walked the eighty +miles between Brünn and Vienna in two days and a half, subsisting chiefly +on bread and fruit—pears and plums, which were very plentiful—and long +pulls at the pumps. We were once induced to indulge in a half seidle +(pint) of wine, which was offered at a temptingly low price, but found it +of such a muddy and sour quality, that we bitterly repented of our +bargain. + +When within a few miles of Vienna, having been on the march since five in +the morning, we laid down on the road-side to sleep. It was with +something like grief that I felt myself forced to abandon one pair of +boots, a few miles before Vienna. I had brought them from London, and +they had done me good service; but now, with split and ragged fronts, and +scarcely a sole, they were only a torture to my feet, and a long way past +repair. I perched them on a little hillock with their toes pointing +towards Vienna, and turned round more than once as we advanced, to give +another farewell look to such faithful and long companions. + +After a refreshing sleep on the road-side, we entered Vienna early in the +afternoon. Hannibal was no richer than I was, and my whole stock +consisted of six groschens, a sum equal to threepence. + + + +VIENNA. + + +My first notes in Vienna must undoubtedly be devoted to the police. As +Hannibal and I arrived at the guard-house of the Tabor Linie, or barrier, +we were ordered by the sentinel to halt and hand over our papers; and, +upon doing so, received a slip of very little better than sugar paper in +return, with printed directions in German, French, and Italian, +commanding our attendance at the chief police office within twenty-four +hours. We knew better than to disobey. On the following morning we +presented ourselves and handed in our tickets, when mine was returned to +me with the words: “Three days’ residence,” written on the back. + +“And should I not obtain employment in three days?” I inquired. “Then +you must leave Vienna.” + +Hannibal was permitted greater licence, being a native of one of the +states of the Bund; but both he and his fellow-townsmen of Lübeck were +taken into fictitious employment, in order to obtain the necessary +residence-card. Alcibiade, as a Frenchman, and, moreover, as being still +possessed of a certain amount of hard cash, was also more leniently dealt +with. Not having found work on the fourth day I waited again upon the +police, and was at first peremptorily ordered to depart; but, upon +explaining that I had friends in the city, a further stay of fourteen +days was promised, on the production of a written recommendation. On the +following day, through the friendship of our Viennese companion of the +road, I found work at a small shop-keeper’s in the suburb of Maria-hilf. +Mark the routine. From my new employer I received a written attestation +of my engagement; with this I waited upon the police commissioner of the +district for his signature, and thence to the magistrate of the suburb to +obtain the authority of his name to the act. This done, I was in a +position to face the head police authorities in the city, and they, to my +astonishment, doled out a six weeks’ permission of residence only, and +charged me a gulden, two shillings, for the document. I pleaded my +position as a workman, but was answered that my passport was that of a +merchant. This was disproved by every entry on its broad sheet, more +especially by a written description by the magistrate of Perleberg, +Prussia. All remonstrances were, however, in vain: while unemployed they +had dealt with me as a workman without resources; now that I was under +engagement, they taxed me like a proprietor. Alcibiade at once furnished +the means of meeting this new difficulty, as, indeed, of every other +connected with our finances at this period, and we consoled ourselves +with the assurance that one of us at least was in employment. Our +disgust was only equalled by our despondency when, upon reaching home, we +were met with the news that my new Herr refused to complete his +engagement, having met with an old workman whom he preferred to a +stranger. By law he was bound to furnish me with a fortnight’s work, and +I threatened him with an enforcement of my claim; but I knew I should +come off the worse in the struggle, and submitted to the injustice. + +In the meantime two of our silversmiths were under fictitious +engagements—a common occurrence, and almost excusable under the +circumstances—and were dining upon credit. The times were bad. I did +not really commence work till the fourth week, and Alcibiade a week +later. But, these first difficulties overcome, our condition improved +daily; and for myself I can say with gratitude, that nowhere in Germany +was I more happy than in Vienna. Our position was this: Alcibiade was +engaged as a diamond jeweller at a weekly sum of six guldens, or twelve +shillings, a little more than half the sum he had earned in Berlin; but +no doubt, had he remained longer in the Austrian capital, he would have +increased his rate of pay. Unfortunately, after three months’ stay there +came word from Paris requiring his presence by a certain day at the +military court of the department of Seine et Oise, to which, being a +native of Argenteuil, he belonged, to draw for the conscription. +Alcibiade was too good a Frenchman to hesitate about obeying this +summons, or even to murmur at the sacrifice it demanded of him. He left +Vienna with regret, but with the utmost alacrity; and thus I lost for a +time my best companion and sincerest friend. My first essay as a workman +in Vienna was discouraging, for I undertook, in my extremity, to execute +work to which I was unaccustomed, and made such indifferent progress at +the outset, that the Herr, a Russian from St. Petersburg, would only pay +me five guldens, or ten shillings a week. We worked twelve hours a day, +commencing at six o’clock in the morning in summer time; but there were a +number of fête and saint days in the year, which were paid for—I think +eight in all—including St. Leopold, the patron saint of Vienna; the birth +of the Virgin; _Corpus Christi Die_, and other church holidays. As I +improved in the practice of my new branch of business, I gained additions +to my wages, till I received nine gulden, eighteen shillings, a week; a +sum certainly much above the average pay. + +Alcibiade and I lodged in a narrow slip of a room, the last of a suite of +three, on the first floor of a house, or rather conglomerate of houses, +in the Neudegger Gasse, Josephstadt. Our landlord was a worthy Bohemian +cabinet-maker; his wife, a Viennese, who kept everything in the neatest +order. I do not know how many families lived in this house; but it was a +huge parallelogram with a paved courtyard, in the centre of which stood a +wooden pump. There was a common stair in each corner, all of stone, and +a common closet at the bottom of each staircase, equally of stone, seat +and all, and very common indeed. Each lodging consisted of three +continuous rooms, with only one entrance from the common stair: first was +the kitchen, with cooking apparatus, and the oven, which warmed the whole +suite; then a larger room with two windows, at once workshop, +dining-room, and bed-room; and beyond this the narrow closet with one +window, which was our dormitory. Thus we had to pass through our +landlord’s bed-room to get to our own. The other portions of the +building were arranged much in the same manner, and the house must have +had, in all, at least a hundred inhabitants. There are much larger +houses in the suburbs of Vienna, but they are all built upon the same +principle, with trifling modifications. Here are two cards of address, +which are models of exactness in their way, and will illustrate the +nature of these barracks in the best possible manner: + + “JOSEPH UBERLACHNER, + Master Tailor, + + Lives in the Wieden, in the Lumpertsgasse, next to the Suspension + bridge, No. 831, the left hand staircase on the second floor, door + No. 31.” + + “MARTIN SPIES, + Men’s Tailor, + + Lives in Neubau, Stückgosse, No 149, in the courtyard, the right hand + staircase, on the second floor, door on the left hand.” + +The entrance to our house from the street was small and unimportant, and, +as may naturally be supposed, always open. The law was, however, strict +upon this subject, and permitted the house to be open in summer from five +in the morning till ten o’clock at night only; in winter from seven till +nine. There was a little room opening from the passage, where dwelt the +porter of the mansion. It was his duty to close the door at the +appointed hours; a duty which he scrupulously fulfilled, seeing that the +law empowered him to levy a fine of six kreutzers for his own especial +benefit, upon every inhabitant or stranger seeking egress or ingress +after the authorised hour of closing. The Viennese insist upon it that +this impost is recoverable by law; but, as the porter’s whole existence +depends upon the employment of his labour in and about the house, and +therefore upon the good-will of its inhabitants, he takes care in general +not to be too pressing for his toll. + +Our dormitory, diminutive as it appeared, still managed to contain two +single bedsteads (French), a wash-hand-stand, wardrobe, used in common by +landlord and lodgers, a table, and two chairs. We paid in rent twelve +florins a month, or barely ten shillings between us; add to this, for +washing, candles, and morning coffee (a tiny cup at six in the morning, +before starting to work), another four florins, and our united expenses +for these necessaries did not exceed thirteen shillings per month. As in +Berlin, we dined at a “restauration,” or at the “Fress Madam’s” (Mrs. +Gobble’s), a jocose term for a private eating-house, well known to the +jewellers. The mid-day meal of the Viennese workman is remarkable for +strength and solidity, but also for its sameness. It always takes the +shape of fresh boiled beef and vegetables, the latter arranged in a thick +porridge of meal and fat. It commences, of course, with soup; is +followed by the “rind-fleisch and gemuse,” as above; and, if you can +afford it, is concluded by some such sweet dish as flour puddings stewed +with prunes, a common sort of cake called zwieback, omelette, macaroni, +or a lighter kind of cake, baked and eaten with jam. All solid, +wholesome, and of the best. There is a choice of other more relishing +dishes, and of these we usually partook, with an occasional descent into +the regions of beef and greens. Vienna prides itself upon its baked +chickens and Danube carps, but these were beyond our reach on ordinary +occasions; and our usual delectation was upon Augsburger sausages; bacon +and sour kraut; breaded veal cutlets; ditto lamb’s head; and roasted +liver and onions. When we drank the ordinary white wine, we did so much +diluted. To sup at the “restauration” would have entailed too great an +expense; we therefore contented ourselves with bread and a taste of +butter at home, moistened by a glass of a liquor resembling gin, seeing +that it was made of the juniper berry, which our landlord obtained for us +at about tenpence a quart. It was supposed to be smuggled from Hungary, +and Vater Böhm coloured and sweetened it with molasses, and called it +Schlipowitzer. + +Our weekly outlay for food during the first month of residence in Vienna, +especially while unemployed, did not exceed five florins, _i.e._ four +shillings each. We ate bread and fruit in large quantities; indeed, +during one day my “rations” consisted of: breakfast at eight, half of a +coarse loaf and thirty plums; at twelve, one dozen pears and the other +half of the loaf; at seven a whole loaf, and forty more plums. Cost of +the whole, nine kreutzers (schein), or scarcely three halfpence in +English money. It was not surprising that I should fall ill upon this +diet, and this I accordingly did. When, however, we were in constant +work, we lived as I have already described, and at an average expense of +seven florins—five shillings and tenpence each weekly—and thus the +individual outlay for lodging, food, and other necessaries, was, in round +numbers, seven shillings and sixpence a week. A dinner on New Year’s +Day, of baked pork and fried potatoes, with bread, wine, and apple puffs, +cost ninepence. + +To return to the police. When my six weeks’ permission of residence was +expired, I attended again at the chief office in the Stadt, with the +certificate of my employer, signed and countersigned by +police-commissioner and magistrate, and was granted thereon a further +term of three months at the same fee, two shillings; to me at that time a +day’s wages. Subsequently, however, the “Herr,” by means of a further +attestation, with vouchers from the landlord of the house, and the usual +official signatures, obtained for me a card of residence for six months, +gratis, and I experienced no more trouble on that head. This, and the +various other certificates, were upon stamped paper of the value of six +kreutzers, or one penny. While upon this subject I may observe, that +domestic servants must make known to the police every change of service. +They are hired by the month. Change of residence is also a matter of +official interference: a printed sheet is handed to the new lodger, with +spaces for name, age, country, religion, condition, married or single, +where last resided, and probable length of stay in new apartments. All +these particulars must be stated and signed, witnessed by your own +particular landlord, and attested by the landlord of the house. The +document is then deposited in the archives of the district police. + +At the termination of my first year’s stay in Germany, I found that my +receipts in wages, during the twelve months, amounted to twenty-one +pounds six shillings and fourpence, an average of eight shillings and +twopence-halfpenny per week; but it must be remembered that, during nine +months of that period, board and lodging formed part of my remuneration. +I stayed a full year in Vienna, and received in wages, in all, three +hundred and sixty-two guldens, thirty kreutzers, or thirty-six pounds +five shillings. This would give, in round numbers, fourteen shillings +per week throughout the year. Of this sum, as I have said, seven +shillings and sixpence were on an average spent weekly in lodging and +necessary food; there therefore remained six shillings and sixpence for +clothes, amusements, and savings. + +When the period arrived at which I had determined upon starting on foot +for Paris, my savings amounted to seven pounds sterling, and with that +sum I thought myself amply provided for the journey. In order that it +may not be supposed that I had suffered undue privations, or enforced, in +financial arrangements, anything beyond a reasonable economy, I must +state, that in addition to paying to the Guild and police, during the +year, eight florins twelve kreutzers, or six shillings and tenpence, I +had witnessed twenty-three theatrical representations, at prices varying +from fourpence to a shilling, at a total cost of eleven shillings and +fourpence; been present at eighteen concerts, at an outlay of seven +shillings and eightpence; and had visited the Brühl, Wöslau, Mödlin, +Laxenburg, Helena-Thal, Klosterneuburg, Grinzing, and Weinhaus; the +Treasure Chamber, and picture-galleries innumerable; which latter, +although supposed to be open to public inspection free of expense, were +not conveniently accessible without a fee. Twenty-five kreutzers, or +fourpence, was the price of a seat in the gallery of the suburban +theatres of the Leopold, Joseph, and Wiener vorstädte; while tenpence and +a shilling procured a similar place in the imperial opera and play-house. +Hot sausages and beer were the luxuries vended in the former; while ices, +coffee, and delicate pastry, were the _bonnes bouches_ prepared for the +latter. + +I found the workmen in Vienna industrious and submissive; gay, +thoughtless, and kind-hearted. In some trades it was still the practice +for the workmen, if not numerous, to sleep in the workshop. I knew a +cabinet-maker who did so, and he was very cleanly and well lodged. I +knew one or two married journeymen, and there were no doubt very many in +so large a capital as Vienna, but marriage among artisans was generally +condemned. The wages were on the average much less than I have stated; I +knew silversmiths who were earning only three and four florins a week—six +shillings and eight shillings; and I have no doubt that tailors, +shoemakers, carpenters, and others, were paid even less. I visited one +family circle in the Leopoldstadt which consisted of the man, his wife +and child, and three single men lodgers, who all lived and slept in one +room. I found the lodgers airing themselves in the court-yard, while the +beds were made and the room set in order. But I saw very little of +squalor or filth even in the poorest quarters. As a check upon the +assumed thoughtlessness of the Viennese artisans, the pawnbrokers are by +civil ordinance closed a week before and after every great holiday, such +as Easter, Whitsuntide, etc. + +There were very many small masters, known in England as master-men, who +worked at home, and by their skill and quickness earned superior wages. +My own landlord was one of them, and called himself a “Gallanterie +Tischler.” He was chiefly employed in ornamental woodwork for the +silversmiths, and, being tasty and expert, earned a very respectable +living. He used to buy English knives for certain parts of his work, on +account of the superiority of the steel, but he complained bitterly of +their clumsy and awkward fashion. He was extremely industrious during +the week, and many a pleasant Sunday visit have we paid to Weinhaus and +other suburban villages, when the “heueriger”—the young, half-made +wine—was to be tasted. Heueriger was sold at a few pence a quart, and is +a whitish liquid of an acid but not unpleasant flavour. It is a +treacherous drink, like most white wines, and from its apparently +innocent character tempts many into unexpected inebriation. The Viennese +delight in an Italian sausage called “Salami,” said to be made of asses’ +flesh, and a pale, but highly scented cheese, as the proper +accompaniments to the heueriger. + +Domestic servants in Vienna have one very laborious duty to perform, and +that is the fetching of water from the springs. These springs are simply +pumps in appearance, and were so formerly, but the flow of water is now +continuous, and to be obtained without effort. It is painful to see the +poor girls bending under the weight of their water troughs, which are +carried on the back, and shaped something like a pannier with a flat +side. They are made of wood, hooped like a barrel, and have a +close-fitting lid. The Bohemian women perform duties even more +unsuitable. They are bricklayers labourers; and sift sand, mix mortar, +and carry slates on their heads to the highest houses. In these labours +they are sometimes assisted, or set aside, by the soldiery, the more +well-behaved of whom are allowed to hire themselves as labourers and +porters. In one case, as I know, a soldier was “put in possession,” as +his Imperial Majesty’s representative, and provided daily with a sum of +money as an equivalent for food. + +There is another class of labourers who make themselves particularly +conspicuous in the streets of Vienna, and that is the “holzhacker,” or +wood-chopper. Wood is the universal fuel, and is sold in klafters, or +stacks of six cubic feet. A klafter consists of logs, each about three +feet long, and apparently the split quarters of young trees of a uniform +size. This wood, when delivered to the purchaser, is shot upon the +footpath in front of the house, or in the court-yard, if there be a porte +cochêre, which is not usual. The business of the holzhacker is to chop +the logs into small pieces for the convenience of burning, and this he +does in an incredibly short space of time, but to the great inconvenience +and sometimes personal risk of the passers by. He is, however, very +independent in his way, and is treated with astonishing forbearance by +the police. He is, moreover, the street wit of Vienna. + +The Viennese workmen are not merely uninformed of, but in general, +perfectly indifferent to political matters. This ignorance may in a +great measure result from the unthinking and pleasure-seeking character +of the Viennese public—which levity is encouraged by the Government, as +taverns and concert rooms are open long after private houses are +closed—but is also to be traced to the uneasy position which the citizens +hold with respect to the police. It is not alone that the restrictions +and impediments of official routine render his social existence a matter +of public legislation, but there is an unpleasant consciousness that his +landlord, his neighbour on the same flat, his barber, or his fellow +workman, may be a “vertrauter,” a spy in the pay of the police, and his +simplest actions, through their means, perverted into misdemeanours. A +worthy cooper, with whom I occasionally dined, on reading a skeleton +report of a public meeting in England, where working men had made +speeches and moved resolutions, exclaimed, as he threw down the paper: +“But, seriously, don’t you think this very ridiculous?” + + + +ON TRAMP TO PARIS. + + +We were three in number, a jeweller from Copenhagen, a Viennese +silversmith, and myself, who started from Vienna to walk to Paris. We +were all in tolerable feather as to funds. I was possessed of about +seventy guldens (seven pounds), and a little packet of fifty dozens of +piercing-saws, a trading speculation, which I hoped to smuggle over the +French frontier in my boots. I was better provided in all respects than +on any of my former journeys. We had forwarded our boxes to Strassburg, +our knapsacks were light, and we wore stout walking shoes with scarcely +any heels, and had prepared some well-boiled linen wrappers, intended, +when smeared with tallow, to serve the purpose of socks. They +effectually prevent blisters, and can be readily washed in any running +stream. Our first stage was by steam on the Danube to Linz, the capital +of Upper Austria; and we took our departure from Nussdorf amid the +valedictions and kisses of some thirty male friends, each of whom saluted +us thrice—on each cheek, and on the lips, for this is the true German +fashion, and may not be slighted or avoided. + +A voyage on the water may seem a curious commencement of a foot journey; +but the fact is, that no one knows better than the tramp that a railway +or a steamboat is always cheaper than shoe-leather and time; and no doubt +as these new means of progress increase in number they will entirely +change the character of German trade-wanderings. From Vienna to Linz is, +in round numbers, a distance of one hundred and fifty English miles, and +this one vessel, the “Karl,” got over in two days and a night. The wind +was against us, and it must be remembered that it is all up stream. The +Danube is upon the whole a melancholy river, of a sullen encroaching +character, for its whole course is marked by over-floodings and their +consequent desolation. The passage cost ten florins, twenty-five +kreutzers, or eight shillings and fourpence, and we slept on the table +below, on deck, or not at all, as we best could. + +Our real starting-point on tramp was Linz, whence we pursued our way +through Wells, Gmunden, Ebensee, and Ishl to Salzburg, in which beautiful +city we rested for a day and half. We steamed across lake Traun from +Gmunden, and paid a fare of twenty-five kreutzers, or fourpence. From +Salzburg we pushed on to Hallein, to visit the salt mines there, and +thence diverged still further from the beaten route for the sake of +seeing the water-fall of Golling—the stern terrors of the Œfen—and dream +away an hour upon the beautiful and romantic waters of Königsee, the +King’s Lake. We had crossed the frontier of Bavaria near Hallein, and, +having loitered so long among the delightful scenery of its +neighbourhood, we now hurried on towards Munich, through Reichenhall, +Fraunstein, Weisham, Rosenheim, Aibling, and Peiss. Thirsty and weary, +we overtook a timber waggon when within eight miles of the capital, and +made a bargain with the driver to carry us forward to our destination for +six kreutzers, about one penny, each; and upon the unhewn timber of the +springless log-waggon we rode into Munich. We had been already fourteen +days upon the road, ten of which had been spent on tramp, advancing at an +average rate of twenty-five miles a day. From Linz to Munich, by the +circuitous route we had taken, I reckon in round numbers at two hundred +and fifty miles. My share of the expenses amounted to thirty-six +florins, forty kreutzers, say one pound nine shillings in English money, +or an average outlay of two shillings a day. It may be added, that many +of our expenses were those of ordinary foot-tourists, rather than of +tramping workmen; that we had lived well although frugally; and that, +save in a goatherd’s hut on the Schaf-berg, we had never slept out of +bed. + +We spent five happy days in Munich: wandering among picture-galleries and +museums; visiting the royal palace in the capital, and the pleasure +retreat at Nymphenburg; and the churches, with their painted windows, +beautiful architecture, and radiant frescoes. We visited two theatres, +and roamed in the English garden, and among the wilder scenery of hills +in the environs. Munich is the real capital of modern art, and contains +more magnificent public buildings than any city of the same extent in the +world. Vulgar figures again: my expenses in Munich amounted to eight +guldens, forty kreutzers, Bavarian or Reich’s money, which will yield, as +nearly as the intricacies of German coinage will allow of the +calculation, fifteen shillings and fourpence. The fare by railway from +Munich to Augsburg, our next station, was one gulden, twenty-four +kreutzers,—two shillings and fourpence,—and from the latter fine old city +we proceeded entirely on foot to Strassburg. We took the road through +Ulm, Stutgard, Heilbron, Heidelberg, Manheim, Carlsruhe, Baden-Baden, and +Keil; wandering a little from the beaten path near Kissengan to see the +beautiful waterworks and garden there. These cities have all been +described by innumerable travellers, and I doubt whether I could add +anything to the knowledge already possessed of them. + +We had passed fifteen days upon the road, and traversed a distance, +roughly estimated, of two hundred and fifty miles. We rested in all four +days in the towns of Augsburg, Ulm, Heidelberg, (of glorious +recollection), and Carlsruhe; and thus, during the ten days of actual +tramp, we had advanced at an average rate of twenty-five miles a day. +Since leaving Vienna, we had walked five hundred miles. On one occasion +only did we march more than thirty miles in the day. This was between +Stutgard and Heilbron. As we limped wearily through the latter city, we +came upon a tavern at the sign of the Eagle, and inquiring, like cautious +travellers, the price of a bed, we found it was twelve kreutzers Reich’s +money, fourpence. This was beyond our mark, so we tottered onward to the +Stag, where we were very indifferently lodged for half the money. At +Heidelberg we paid twelve kreutzers for our bed, and were well +accommodated; but this was more by four kreutzers than we considered +ourselves in a position to pay. Our average expenses per day, while on +tramp at this period, were twenty-four kreutzers, or eightpence. My +total outlay from Munich to Strassburg was twenty-one florins, ten +kreutzers, or one pound five shillings; being at the rate of one shilling +and sixpence a day. + +It may be right to mention, that a German mile is divided into two +stunden, or hours, and the natural inference would be, that it would +occupy two hours to walk a mile. This is not the case, for a stunden can +generally be traversed in three quarters of an hour; but the German miles +are not uniform, and I well remember one terribly long one between Brünn +and Vienna, which was more than two hours walk. As three English miles +an hour is an average walking pace, a German mile, occupying on the +average an hour and a half in the traverse, should be equal to four and a +half English miles, and this is the rate at which I have estimated it, +although I have seen it variously stated at less than four, and even at +five English miles. + +While on tramp, we rose at five in the morning, and walked till eight +fasting, when we took breakfast—a simple affair of milk, or of coffee and +plain bread, with occasionally a little meat as a luxury—we then +proceeded on our march till twelve, always supposing that a town or +village was at such a distance as to render the arrangement possible, +when we dined. This meal consisted invariably of soup—milk soup, if +possible, peppered and salted like broth—and sometimes meat, but not +always, as it was dear, and supposed to be heavy for walking. As by this +time the sun was in its zenith, and our advance in the great heat would +be most fatiguing, and even dangerous, we laid ourselves down to rest +till three, in the open air if possible, and weather permitting; out on +the fields among the corn; stretched upon the hay in some shady nook; or, +as in Bavaria and Wurtemberg during a great part of the route, under the +apple and plum trees which lined the public way, eating of the fruit +unquestioned and without restraint. After this welcome repose we pursued +our march with renewed animation till eight o’clock, when we sought out a +place of rest; and for our evening meal usually indulged in something +more substantial than at any other time of the day. Our beds were not +always clean, and the lavatorial necessaries either deficient or wholly +wanting, in which latter case the pump was our only substitute. + +Our brief stays in towns or cities were by no means the least fatiguing +part of our journey; for it naturally happened that in our anxiety to see +whatever was remarkable or beautiful, in museum, picture-gallery, or +public building, that our time was tasked even more severely than on the +road; always remembering also, that the police required a great deal of +attention. My passport has fourteen distinct _visas_ during this +journey. We found the police in Bavaria the least civil among a very +exacting class of people. Here, for the first time, I heard a mode of +address which is, I think, peculiar to Germany. It is customary to +address strangers in the third person plural, _Se_; or, when on very +familiar or affectionate terms, in the second person singular, _Du_; but +of all modes of speech the third person singular, _Er_, when applied to +the person addressed, is the most opprobrious. A police official thus +interrogates a wandering workman:— + +“What is he?” “A currier.” + +“Where from?” “Siegesdorf.” + +“Where to?” “Ulm.” + +“Has he got the itch?” “No.” + +“Then let him sign this book.” + +At Augsburg the police were in a dilemma with respect to us. We had come +by rail from Munich, and, to our surprise, were suffered to pass through +the gate unchallenged by the sentinel, who paced leisurely before the +guard-house. The following morning, on presenting our papers at the +police-bureau, we were met with the accusation of having smuggled +ourselves into the city; and, as the usual official routine had been +departed from, we were ordered to proceed at once to the gates, and +humbly deliver up our passports to the sentinel in due form, that the +requirements of the law might be fulfilled. This sage proposition was, +however, overruled in consideration of our being jewellers: the +respectability of the craft being thus acknowledged. It was in Augsburg +also that I narrowly escaped being entered in the books of the Guild as +“Mr. Great Britain, native of London;” the slim apprentice whose duty it +was to make the entry, having mistaken the name of the country for that +of the individual in my English passport. + +I may not omit to mention, although I do it with a feeling of +humiliation, that during our journey we availed ourselves of whatever +assistance was granted by the Guild to “wandering boys” unable to obtain +employment. We had a perfect right to this aid, and had, while in work, +always contributed to the fund (in which we had, indeed, no option); but +I must confess that there was something exceedingly like asking for alms +in the whole process of obtaining it. Our slender resources must plead +as an excuse. The following were our individual receipts: in Linz, +twenty-four kreutzers; in Munich, thirty-six; Augsburg, eighteen; Ulm, +fifteen; Stutgard, thirty; Heilbron, twenty-four; Heidelberg, nine, +(begged from shop to shop, there being no general cash-box); and +Carlsruhe, twenty-four; making a total of one hundred and eighty +kreutzers, or the munificent sum of two shillings and sixpence in English +money. What must be the fate of those whose dependence was upon such a +pittance! + +I had passed two whole years and a few days in Germany, and during a +period of eighty-eight weeks, had been fully at work. I had received +fifty-six pounds thirteen shillings in wages, or an average, throughout +the whole term, of eleven shillings per week. I felt grateful for this +result in a strange country, and left Germany with a lingering step. + +As we crossed over the bridge of Kiel on our way to Strassburg, the +French soldiery were quietly fishing on their side of the Rhine, and the +sentinel, from whom we had expected a harsh summons to the guard-house, +and a rigorous search into our knapsacks, eyed us with a look of half +pity, half contempt, and allowed us to pass unchallenged. We were, to +him, only so many miserable “square-heads” (Germans) on our way to Paris. +The curiosities of Strassburg need not detain me: the cathedral, and the +wonderful clock; the theatre, which we visited; the fortifications, which +we overlooked from the lofty spire; those things are set down in every +traveller’s guidebook, and the recollection of them is probably much more +agreeable to me than their description would be to the reader. We had +resolved not to tramp through France, and we therefore sought places in +the diligence; and by the time I had paid forty-three francs for my seat +in that respectable vehicle, and ten francs for the carriage of my box +from Vienna to Strassburg, together with two francs for a passeport +provisoire; and by the time also that I had paid some two francs more for +extra luggage, including two loaves and a string of six Strassburger +sausages, which were all included in the weight, I found that I should +arrive in Paris with less than five francs in my pocket. And this I +accordingly did, after a very uncomfortable ride of fifty-two hours, and +within a day of six weeks from our departure from Vienna. + + + +PARIS. + + +We thought ourselves very ill-used on our first night in Paris, when, +having been wiled into a grand hotel near the Bourse, we were stowed away +on the fifth floor, three in a room, and charged six francs for our beds, +one more for a candle, and one for service. Our parsimonious Dane was so +highly irritated, that he took possession of the candle and carried it +off in his pocket. But Alcibiade was soon by our side, to give us help +and advice with his old kindness; and under his guidance we removed +immediately to more suitable lodgings, and were set in the proper course +to obtain employment. Although scarcely possessed of a single franc in +actual cash, I had fifty dozens of fine piercing-saws, my contraband +speculation, and for which I ultimately obtained about twenty francs. +What was of more importance, in less than a week from our arrival in +Paris I commenced work at the modest remuneration of four francs and a +half, three shillings and ninepence, a day. My two companions were +scarcely so fortunate, but lingered on for a week or two without +employment. + +I found myself in a motley company; at one time our atélier contained +three Russians, two Germans, two Englishmen, an Italian, and a Frenchman; +and sometimes a simple inquiry would have to pass through four languages +before it received its answer. I did not remain long amid this babel, +although long enough to be offered six francs a day to remain. I never +afterwards worked for a less rate of remuneration than six francs a day, +but never succeeded in obtaining a sous more. I had many “Patrons” in +Paris. In one establishment there were three workmen continually +employed in making crosses of honour, in gold and silver, to reward the +merit, or to purchase the affection and support, of the French people. I +was variously employed: in gold work; in setting small rose-diamonds; and +upon the most costly brilliant ornaments. Sometimes idling upon three +days a week, or totally unemployed; at other times slaving night and day, +Sunday and all, to complete some urgent order. I have worked nineteen +days in a fortnight. + +I have endeavoured to give some details with regard to the manner of +living, working, and lodging, among the labouring population of Paris, +under the head of “THE FRENCH WORKMAN;” and which details were in most +part personal, or such as I had learned from actual experience. My +business here is with results, and I will condense them into as few words +as possible. I stayed in all one year and five months in Paris, during +the whole of which period I was never out of a situation, although at +various times but scantily provided with employment. I received in wages +a total of two thousand three hundred and one francs, thirteen sous, or +ninety-two pounds two shillings and twopence-halfpenny. This would give +an average receipt, upon the seventy-one weeks of my stay, of one pound +three shillings and three-halfpence a week. I have said that during the +greater part of this time I earned at the rate of six francs, or five +shillings a day; if I now give the current expenses per week, a +comparison may from these data be drawn as to the comparative position of +the English and French workman. The usual outlay for food per week +amounted to twelve francs, or ten shillings, of course with fluctuations; +for I have lived a whole week upon five francs when unemployed, and have +luxuriated upon twenty when in full work. Upon striking a balance among +my various lodgings,—I lodged in company and slept double during the +whole period of my stay in Paris—I find the result to be, that we paid +twelve francs each per month, or two shillings and sixpence per week. +This did not include extras: a German stove hired at five francs a month +for the winter season; wood at four francs the hundred pounds weight; +candles at thirteen sous the pound, and soap at a fraction less. Nor +does it include the half franc to the concierge, an obligatory payment +upon presenting yourself at the street-door after midnight. Summing up +these items, we arrive at this result: for food, ten shillings; rent, two +shillings and sixpence; and miscellaneous necessaries, including twelve +sous for washing, of another two shillings and sixpence; or a total of +fifteen shillings of expenditure against, in my case, of one pound three +shillings and odd pence of income. The cost of pleasure in the French +capital must not be omitted; and I feel bound to state that twenty-seven +visits to the theatres, from the pit of the Italian Opera House at four +francs, to the same place at the Vaudeville for eighteen sous; and +thirteen public balls and concerts, from the grand masked ball to that of +the “Grande Chaumière,” were met by an outlay of sixty-eight francs +thirteen sous, or three pounds seven shillings and tenpence-halfpenny. + +After an absence of nearly three years and a half, I turned my steps +towards home. From the time that I had crossed the French frontier, and, +upon delivering my papers, had received a passeport provisoire at +Strassburg, I had never sustained cheque or molestation from the police; +but now that I was about to depart, and made the usual application for my +original passport, it was discovered that, as a workman, I should have +had a “livret” upon my first entering Paris, and a number of certificates +and attestations were required, in order to reinstate me in a legitimate +position in the eyes of the law. Escaped from this dilemma, and +officially recognised as _ouvrier_, it was with some surprise that I +found myself dubbed gentleman at the Bureau des Affaires Etrangéres, and +charged a fee of ten franca for the signature of the foreign minister. +Too old a traveller to be entrapped into the payment of so heavy a fine +upon my vanity, I strongly repudiated any more pretentious title than +that of simple workman; and after a tough struggle succeeded in carrying +off the necessary visa at an outlay of two francs. The journey, by +diligence, from Paris to Boulogne, cost twenty-seven francs; I lost a +clear six francs in changing my French savings into English gold—twelve +sovereigns—and, after a rough passage by the Boulogne boat to London, at +an expense of twelve francs, found myself once more in my native city. + +Let those who would estimate the value of such an enterprise as mine, +consider its cost and its result. I had passed several years in foreign +travel; I had undeniably profited in the acquisition of new experiences +in my trade; new modes of working, and additional manual skill. I had +rubbed off some of the most valued, and therefore most absurd, prejudices +against foreigners; and made some progress in the acquisition of two +languages—a gain which must ever be a source of mental profit and +gratification. To conclude: I had started on my journey but +indifferently clad, and with scarcely five pounds in my pocket, of which +sum two pounds had been remitted home; and I had been able not merely to +subsist by the labor of my hands, but to enjoy much that was costly, and +an infinite deal more that was pleasurable and advantageous; and to +return home, having liquidated every debt, save that of gratitude, well +provided with apparel, and with ten pounds sterling in my purse. + +I would not venture to urge upon any man to follow in my footsteps. I +should scarcely retrace them myself under the same conditions; but I +believe I have shown the practicability of such an undertaking, and its +probability of success, with no more unusual qualifications than a ready +hand, a patient will, and some perseverance. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + + +HAMBURG. + +Hamburg at last!—after eight days’ sail from London, three of them spent +in knocking about the North Sea, where the wind always blows in your +teeth. Never mind! we are now safely moored to these substantial +timbers; huge piles, driven in a line, which form the outer harbour of +Hamburg. The city lies before us, but there is nothing very imposing in +it; the houses, with gable roofs and whitened walls, look rather +lath-and-plastery, in fact; but we must not express our opinions too +rashly, for first impressions are not always the most faithful after all. + +“Now, Tom, is the boat ready?” + +“Ay, ay, sir!” + +We scramble down the sides of the British schooner, the “Glory,” and seat +ourselves along with Tom. What a confusion of boats, long-pointed +barges, and small sailing vessels! + +“Mind how you go, Tom.” + +“Ay, ay, sir!” replies Tom, contemptuously shifting his quid. + +These small sailing vessels we see are from the Hanoverian and Danish +coasts. Their cargoes consist principally of wood, and whole stacks of +vegetables, the latter ridiculously small. Those long-pointed barges are +for canal navigation, and are admirably adapted to Hamburg, threaded as +it is by canals in every direction. + +Steady! Do you see that curious, turret-looking building, old and +time-worn, guarded by a sentinel?—it is the fort to protect the +water-gate through which we are now passing. It is also occasionally +used as a prison. On the opposite side is a poor, dilapidated, wooden +building, erected on a barge, where permits are obtained for spirits and +tobacco—a diminutive custom-house indeed. There being no one to question +or molest us, we pass on, and in a few moments are at our landing-place, +a short flight of stone steps leading to the Vorsetzen or quay. + +Tom moors his boat with a grave celerity, leads the way up the stone +steps on to the quay, and as speedily disappears down a sort of trap +which gapes in the open street, in the immediate vicinity of the +landing-place. Let him alone; Tom knows the way. We follow him down an +almost perpendicular flight of stairs into a spirit kellar, and gratify +Tom’s little propensity for ardent liquors. + +Tom has disappeared, and is now paddling his way back to the “Glory,” and +we stand upon the humble water-terrace, the Vorsetzen, looking out upon +the shipping. It is a still, bright, Sunday afternoon in September. +There is no broiling sun to weary us; the sky is clear, and the air soft +and cheering, like the breath of a spring morning. We will turn our +backs upon the river and proceed up Neuerweg. + +We cannot walk upon the narrow strip of footpath, for, besides that there +is very little of it, our course would become a sort of serpentine as we +wound about the fresh young trees which skirt the edge of it at regular +intervals. But are they not pleasant to look upon, those leafy +sentinels, standing by the stone steps of the houses, shaking their green +tops in happy contrast to the whitened walls? So we will walk in the +road, and being good-tempered today, will not indulge in violent +invectives upon the round-topped little pebbles which form the pavement; +but, should we by chance step into a puddle which has no manner of means +of running out of our way, we will look with complacency at our dirtied +boots, and trip smilingly on. Yes, trip is the word, for I defy the +solemnest pedestrian in Christendom to keep a measured pace upon these +upright, pointed, shining-faced pebbles. + +There! we are in the Schaar-markt. Now look around, and say, would you +not fancy yourself in some quaint old English village? What a curious +complication of cross-beams is presented in the fronts of the houses!—a +barring and binding of huge timbers, with their angles filled in with red +bricks. How simple and neat is everything!—the clean stone steps leading +up to the principal entrance of each house, and the humbler flight which +conducts you to the _kellar_ and kitchen. You would imagine you had seen +the place before, or dreamt of it, or read of it in some glorious old +book when your memory was fresh and young. + +See that young damsel with bare arms, no bonnet, no cap, but her hair +cleanly and neatly parted in the middle of her head, and disclosing her +round, rosy, honest German face. She is not pretty, but how innocent and +good-tempered she looks; and see how lightly and easily she springs over +those, to us, ruthless pebbles, her short petticoats showing her clean +white stockings and bright shoes to advantage. + +And here comes a male native of the place; a shortish, square-built, and +somewhat portly man, clad in a comfortable, old-fashioned way, with +nothing dashing or expensive about him. He is not very brisk, to be +sure; and when you first look at his round face an idea of his simplicity +comes over you; but it is only for an instant, and then you read the +solid, sterling qualities quietly shining in his clear eyes. There is +not a great amount of intellectuality, that is to say nervous +intellectuality, in his contented countenance, but a vast quantity of +unstudied common sense. + +We will pass on, leaving the guard-house on our left; and winding up +Hohleweg, many simple and not a few pretty faces with roguish eyes do we +see at the open windows. + +We halt only for a moment to look at the noble Michaelis Kirche which +lies to our right, and turn off on the left hand, crossing an open space +of some extent called Zeughaus Platz, and behold us before the Altonaer +Thor, or Altona-gate. + +Ah, these are pleasant banks and noble trees! How green the grass upon +those slopes—how fresh the flowers! And what a splendid walk is this, +looking to the right down the double avenue of sturdy stems waving their +spreading tops across the path! You did not think that quaint old town +below could boast of such a border as this; but take a tour about the +environs, and you will find them cheerful, fresh, and beautiful, from +Neuer Kaye to Deich Thor. + +We will pass through the simple Altona-gate, and make towards +Hamburger-Berg. Do not be alarmed. Perhaps you have heard of the “Berg” +before, and virtuous people have told you that it is a godless place. +Well, so it is; but we will steer clear of its godlessness; we will avoid +the dancing-houses. Before us lies a broad open road, neither dignified +by buildings nor ornamented by trees, but there are plenty of people, and +they are worth our notice. There is a neat figure in a close boddice and +a hauben, or hood-like headdress; she has taken to winter attire early. +She carries no trailing skirts, nor has she ill-shapen ankles to hide. +Look at her healthy face, though the cheek-bones are rather too high; but +the mouth is ever breaking into a smile. Her hair is drawn back tightly +from her face, tied in a knot at the back, and covered with a velvet +skull-cap, richly worked with gold and silver wire and braid. The effect +is not bad. + +There is a country girl from Bardewick—Bardewick, you know, though now a +mere village, is traditionally said to have been once a large and +flourishing city. She has flowers to sell, and stands by the wayside. +She has neither shoes nor stockings, nor is her dark dress and white +apron of the longest. Her tightly fitting boddice is of blue cloth, with +bullet buttons, and has but a short waist, while a coral confines her +apron and dress. Her head-dress is only a striped coloured handkerchief, +tied under the chin, but in such a way that it presents a sort of +straight festoon just above her sparkling eyes, and completely hides her +hair. + +But here comes a curiosity of the male species. Surely this is Rip van +Winkle from the States. He has no sugar-loaf hat, but he wears the +trunkhose, stockings, and large buckled shoes of the old Dutchman, and +even his ample jacket, with an enormous sort of frill at the bottom. No, +my friend, let me give you to understand that this is a _Vierländer_, and +a farmer of some means. Do you not see that he has a double row of +bullet buttons on his jacket, down the front of his ample hose, and even +along the edges of his enormous pockets? They are solid silver, every +button of them, nor are the massive buckles on his shoes of any more +gross material. Here come more velvet skull-caps, with gold and silver +worked into them. How jauntily the wearers trip along! It is a fact, +the abominable pavement of Hamburg sets the inhabitants eternally on +their toes. + +Here is a Tyroler, and a tall fellow he is; straight as an arrow, and +nimble as a chamois; but yet with a steady, earnest look about him, +although a secret smile is playing round his handsome, mustachioed mouth, +that tells you of a strong and persevering character. He is shaped like +an Adonis, and his short jacket, breeches, pale striped stockings, and +tightly laced boots; the broad leathern embroidered band about his waist, +and the steeple-crowned hat with the little coquettish feather, all help +to make up a figure that you would like to see among his native +mountains. And yet he is but a dignified sort of pedlar, and would be +very happy to sell you a dozen or so of table napkins, Alpine +handkerchiefs, or a few pieces of tape. + +Well! he is gone, and before us comes a female figure, who forms a fit +companion to the silver-buttoned _Vierländer_ we have just past. Notice +her dress; she is a _Vierländerin_. Her petticoats are shamefully short, +you will say, stiff and plaited too as they are, but what a gallant pair +of red stockings she wears, and what a neat, bright pair of buckled +shoes! Her dress consists of a close boddice with long sleeves, all of +dark purple stuff, and her neat black apron does not make a bad contrast +to it. But her head-gear!—her hair is drawn from her face under a +closely fitting caul, while an exaggerated black bow, or rather a pair of +triangular wings, project some distance from the back of the head, and +beneath them two enormous tails of hair trail down her back, each +terminating in a huge red bow. + +This country girl appears to have sold all her fruit, and has placed her +basket upside down upon her head. No such thing; that is her peculiar +head-dress; look again, and you will see that it is a small plaited straw +basket, about a foot and a half in diameter, with a very deep straight +edge. It is fastened on her head by a caul sewn into the inside. Well! +at any rate this is a Quakeress we see coming at such a stately pace +along the gravelled road? Wrong again, my friend; this is a young lady +from Heligoland, the little island we passed at the mouth of the Elbe, +and a very prim and neat young lady she is, though where she got her +bonnet shape from I cannot say. + +The way is lined with hawkers of every description: fruit, songs and +sausages; toys, sticks and cigars; pipes, sweetmeats and tape; every +imaginable article that was ever sold at a fair is to be found here, and +every vender in a different dress, illustrating at one view the peasant +costumes of every village in the vicinity. As for tobacco, the air is +like a gust from some gigantic pipe. Here is the entrance to Franconi’s +Circus, though not yet open for public entertainment. Blasts of +obstreperous music rush upon you from every door; the shrill squealing of +a flageolet being heard above everything else. + +Knife-swallowers, mesmerisers, and the eternal Punch—here called +Caspar—ballad-singers, tumblers, quacks, and incredible animals, are here +for inspection. You would fancy it was some old English fair; for in +spite of yourself there is a quaint feeling steals over you, that you had +suddenly tumbled back into the middle of the last century. + +And who pays for all this? for whose especial amusement is all this got +up? For our old friend “Jack.” Here are English sailors, and French +sailors; sailors in green velveteen jackets; sailors with their beards +and whiskers curled into little shining ringlets. We meet our salt-water +friend everywhere, and, by the intense delight depicted on his features, +“Jack” is evidently in a high state of enjoyment. + +Let us go on; we have promised not to visit the dancehouses to-day, and +we will quit this clamorous crowd. + + + + +CHAPTER II. +ALTONA. + + +THE POET’S GRAVE.—A DANISH HARVEST HOME. + +We tread upon elevated ground, and far away to our left, down in a +hollow, flows the broad Elbe; placid indeed from this distance, for not a +ripple can we see upon its surface. A few ships are lazily moving on its +waters. Stand aside, and make way for this reverend gentleman; he is a +_prediger_, a preacher of the gospel; he is habited in a black gown, +black silk stockings and shoes, a small black velvet skull-cap on his +head, while round his neck bristles a double plaited frill, white as a +curd, and stiff as block tin. You would take him for the Dutch nobleman +in an old panel painting. It may appear rather grotesque to your +unaccustomed eyes, but remember there are many things very ridiculous at +home. + +A blackened gate, a confused mass of houses, an open square, and the +pebbles again, and we are in Holstein, Denmark, in the public square and +market place of Altona. Here it is that the Danish state lotteries are +drawn, and we might moralise upon that subject, but that we prefer to +press onwards to the real village of Altona. + +Here through this beautiful avenue of trees; here where the sunshine is +broken into patches by the waving foliage; far away from the din of +trumpets, huxterers and showmen; here can the sweet air whisper its low +song of peace and lull our fervid imaginations into tranquillity. This +is no solitude, though all is quiet and in repose. Under the trees and +in the road are throngs of loiterers, but there is no rude laughter, no +coarse jests; a moving crowd is there, but a quiet and happy one. And +now we come upon the venerable church with its low steeple, its +time-eaten stone walls, and its humble, grassy, flower-spangled graves. +We see a passer-by calling the attention of his friend to a stone tablet, +green and worn with age, and surrounded by a slight railing. Can it be +that there is a spirit hovering over that grave whose influence is peace +and love? May not some mighty man lie buried there, the once frail +tenement of a great mind whose noble thoughts have years ago wakened a +besotted world to truths and aspirations hitherto unknown? There is +veneration and respect in every countenance that gazes upon that simple +stone; a solemn tread in every foot that trenches on its limits. This is +the grave of a great poet. A man whose works, though little read in +modern times, were once the wonder of his country; and whose very name +comes upon the German people in a gush of melody, and a halo of bright +thoughts. It is like an old legend breathed through the chords of a +harp. This is the grave of Klopstock, the Milton of Germany. We will +enter the churchyard, and look for a moment on the unimposing tablet. +The inscription is scarcely legible, but the poet’s mother lies also +buried here, and some others of his family. Could there be anything more +humble, more unobtrusive? No; but there is something about the grave of +a great poet that serves to dignify the simplest monument, and shed a +lustre round the lowest mound. + +We will cross the churchyard to yonder low brick wall which confines it. +There are clusters of rosy, happy children, clambering about its +crumbling top; little knots of men too in the road beyond—evidently +expecting something. Even this is in keeping with the poet’s grave, +which should not be sombre and melancholy, like other graves; and what +could better embellish and enliven its aspect than young, blushing life +clustering around it? We linger awhile among the boisterous children +playing on the churchyard wall, and then we hear a confused sound of +voices and music in the distance. + +“What is this we hear, my friend?” we inquire. + +“It is the harvest-home; if you wait you will see the procession.” + +We turn out upon the high road, and soon come upon the first signs of +this Danish festival. An open gravelled space of some extent stretches +out before an imposing mansion of modern appearance; a plantation of +trees on each side shapes the space into a rude semicircle. This mansion +is the manor house, and in front, in the midst of a confused crowd, some +dozen young men in gay sylvan costumes are standing in a circle, armed +with flails, and vigorously threshing the ground. Jolly, hearty young +fellows they are, and a merry chant they raise. One eager thresher in +his zeal breaks his flail at the bend, and a shout from the bystanders +greets the exploit. + +Now they thresh their way from the great house to a hostelry where the +remaining portion of the pageant is awaiting their arrival. Let us stand +a little on one side and view the procession. The threshers lead the +way, singing and plying their flails as they advance, thus effectually +clearing the road for the rest. A merry group of other threshers, each +with his lass upon his arm, and his flail swung across his shoulder, come +tripping after, singing the harvest song and dancing to their own music. +Now a rude wooden car comes lumbering on, and within sits a grave man in +old German costume, who from a large sack before him takes handsful of +grain, and liberally casts it about him. This is the sower, but the +grain is in this instance only chaff. Now follow heavy instruments of +husbandry—ploughs and harrows—while rakes, scythes, and reaping-hooks +form a picturesque trophy behind them. A shout of laughter greets the +next figure in the procession, for it is no other than the jolly god +Bacchus. And a hearty, rubicund, big-bellied god he is, and very decent, +too, being decorously clad in a brown suit turned up with red, and cut in +the fashion of the time of Maximilian I., or thereabouts. A perpetual +smile mantles over his broad face, and complacently he pats his huge +rotundity of stomach as he rolls from side to side on the barrel astride +which he is seated. Is he drunk, or does he only feign? If it be a +piece of acting it is decidedly the most natural we ever saw. + +Next comes the miller; a lank rascal, with a white frock, a tall, white +tasselled nightcap, and a cadaverous, flour-besprinkled face; and he is +the reaper, too, it would seem by the scythe he bears in his hand: other +threshers close the procession. A happy train it is. God speed them +all! A merry time, and many a bounteous harvest! + +Let us turn now upon our steps. Once more before the antique church, the +reverenced grave; and with a soothed and grateful mind, we will bend our +way back to Hamburg, and diving into one of the odorous cellars on the +Jungfern Stieg, will delectate ourselves with beefsteaks and fried +potatoes, our glass of Baierisches Bier, and perhaps a tiny schnapschen +to settle our repast. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + + +MAGNIFICENCE.—AT CHURCH.—THE LAST HEADSMAN. + +“Herrlichkeit!” Magnificence! What a name! Ye Paradise-rows, ye +Mount-pleasants, what is your pride of appellation to this? In all +Belgravia there is not a terrace, place, or square that can match it. +Fancy the question, “Where do you reside?” + +“In Magnificence—number forty.” + +Yet it is a fact, Magnificence is a street in Hamburg. I have lived in +Magnificence. + +The Herrlichkeit, like many other places of imposing title, loses +considerably upon a close acquaintance. You approach it from the +waterside through a rugged way, blessed with the euphonious appellation +of Stuben Huck; and having climbed over two pebbly bridges—looking down +as you do so at the busy scene in the docks below, where crowds of canal +craft lie packed and jumbled together—you turn a little to the left hand +and behold—Magnificence! + +Magnificence has no footpath, but it is not singular in that respect. It +is of rather less than the average width of the streets in Hamburg—and +they are all narrow—and the houses are lofty. It is paved with small +pebbles, and has a gutter running down the centre; and as a short flight +of stone steps forms the approach to the chief entrance of each house, +the available roadway is small indeed. But they are grand houses in +Magnificence, at least they have been, and still bear visible signs of +their former character. + +Let us enter one house; it will serve as a type of many houses in +Hamburg. Having mounted the stone steps, we stand before a half-glazed +folding-door, and seeing a small brass lever before us, we test its +power, and find the door yield to the pressure. But we have set a +clamorous bell ringing, like that of a suburban huxter, for this is the +Hamburger’s substitute for a knocker. We enter a large stone-paved hall, +lighted from the back, where a glazed balcony overlooks the teeming +canal. You wish to wipe your shoes. Well! do you see this pattern of a +small area-railing cut in wood? That is our scraper and door-mat—all in +one. + +To our right is a massive oaken staircase. We ascend in gloom, for the +staircase being built in the middle of the house, only a few straggling +rays of light can reach it, and whence they proceed is a mystery. Every +few steps we mount we are upon the point of stumbling into the door of +some cupboard or apartment; they are in all sorts of places. At length +we reach a broad landing paved with stone. What a complication of doors +and passages, which the vague light tends to make more obscure! Here are +huge presses, lumbering oaken cabinets, jammed into corners. We ascend a +second flight and arrive at another extensive landing. Here are two +suites of apartments, besides odd little cribs in the corners which are +not occupied by other presses. There are still two floors above, but as +they are both contained in the huge gable roof of the house, they are +more useful as store-rooms than as habitable apartments. The quantity of +wood we see about us is frightful when associated with the idea of fire. + +We will enter the suite on the right hand; the apartments are light and +agreeable, and overlook the canal, and, when the tide is up, and the +canal full, and the grassy bleaching ground on the opposite bank is +dotted with white linen, it is a pleasant scene indeed; but when the tide +is out—ugh! the River Thames at low water is a paradise to it. The tidal +changes are carefully watched, and it is not an unusual occurrence to +hear the solemn gun booming through the air as a warning to the +inhabitants to block and barricade their cellars and kitchens against the +rush of waters. + + * * * * * + +It is Sunday morning, and the most beautiful melody of bells I ever heard +is toning through the air. They are the bells of S. Michael’s church, +and I am told that the musician plays them by a set of pedal keys, and +works himself into a mighty heat and flurry in the operation. But we +cannot think of the wild manner and mad motions of the player in +connection with those beautiful sounds, so clear and melodious; that half +plaintive music so sweetly measured. They ring thus every morning, +commencing at a quarter to six, and play till the hour strikes. + +We descend, and make our way through irregular streets and dingy canals +till we reach the church of St. Jacobi. It stands in an open space, is +neither railed in, nor has it a graveyard attached to it. It is of +stone, and has an immense gable roof, slated, and studded with eaved +windows. A shortish square basement is at one end, from which springs a +tall octangular steeple. Within all is quiet and decorous. The church +is paved with stone, and there is a double row of pews down the centre. +But is this a Protestant Church? Most assuredly; Lutheran. You are +astonished at the crosses, the images, the altar? True! there is +something Romish in the whole arrangement, but it is Protestant for all +that. You cannot help feeling vexed at the pertinacity with which the +Germans whitewash everything, nor do the pale lavender-coloured curtains +of the pulpit appear in keeping with the edifice. Everything is +scrupulously clean. + +We are too late to hear the congregational singing, the devotional union +of voices, for as we enter the minister ascends into the pulpit in his +black velvet skull-cap, and bristling white frill. Unless you are a good +German scholar you will fail to understand the discourse so earnestly, so +emphatically delivered. The echo of the building, and the high character +of the composition, will baffle and mislead you; while, at the same time, +the incessant tingling of the little silver bells suspended from the +corners of scarlet velvet bags, which are handed along the pews (at the +end of a stick), during the whole of the sermon, will distract and +irritate you. It is thus they collect alms for the poor. Yet even to +one ignorant of the language, there is a fullness and vigour in the style +and manner of delivery that would almost persuade you that you had +understood, and felt convinced of the truth of what you had heard. As we +quit the church we purchase at the door a printed copy of the sermon from +a poor widow woman, who is there to sell them at a penny each. + +We will loiter home to dinner. The streets are thronged with people, +with cheerful, contented faces, and in holiday attire. Who are these +grave gentlemen? This little troop in sable trappings; buskins, cloaks, +silken hose, hats and feathers, and shoes with large rosettes—all black +and sombre, like so many middle aged Hamlets? Can they be masqueraders +on the Sabbath? Possibly some of the senators in their official costume? +No! Oh, human vanity! A passer-by informs us that they are only +undertakers’ men—paid mourners. They are to swell the funeral +procession, and are the mere mimics of woe. The undertakers of Hamburg +vie with each other in the dressing of their men, and indeed, one +indispensable part of their “stock-in-trade” are some half-dozen +dress-suits of black, it matters not of what age or country, the stranger +the better, so that the “effect” be good. + + * * * * * + +We will take a stroll about the beautiful Alster this Sunday afternoon. +It is late autumn, and the early budding trees have already shed their +leaves. But rich, floating masses of foliage are still there—the +deepening hues of autumn, and here and there broad patches of bright +summer green. There are two Alsters, the “inner” and “outer,” each of +them a broad expanse of water; they are connected by flood-gates, +surrounded by verdure, and studded with pleasure-boats; while on the city +side several elegant pavilions hang on the water’s edge, where coffee and +beverages of every kind can be obtained, and the seldom omitted and +never-to-be-forgotten music of the Germans may be heard thrilling in the +evening air. + +It is already growing dusk; let us enter the _Alster Halle_. This is the +most important of these pavilions. It is not large; there is but the +ground-floor. It has much the appearance of a French _café_, the whole +space being filled with small, round, white marble tables, and +innumerable chairs. Here all the lighter articles of refreshment are to +be obtained; tea, coffee, wines, spirits and pastry in numberless shapes. +There is an inner room where the more quietly disposed can read his +newspaper in comparative silence; here are German, Danish, French, and +English journals, and a little sprinkling of literary periodicals. +Another room is set apart for billiards, where silent, absorbed +individuals may be seen playing eternally at poule. In the evening a +little band of skilled musicians, in the pay of the proprietor, perform +choice morsels of beautiful music, and all this can be enjoyed for the +price of a cup of coffee—twopence! + + + +THE LAST HEADSMAN. + + +Ten years ago the ancient city of Hamburg was awakened into terror by the +commission of a fearful murder. The cry of “Fire!” arose in the night; +the _nachtwächter_ (watchman) gave the alarm; and the few means at +command were resorted to with an energy and goodwill that sufficed soon +to extinguish the flames. It was, however, discovered that the fire had +not done the work it had been kindled for; it would not hide murder. +Among the smouldering embers in the _kellar_ or underground kitchen, +where the fire had originated, was discovered the charred body of a poor +old woman, whose recent wounds were too certain evidences of a violent +death. It was also ascertained that a petty robbery of some few dollars +had been committed, and the utmost vigilance was called into exercise to +discover the perpetrator. + +All surmises were in vain, till suspicion fell upon the watchman who had +first given the alarm; and the first evidence of the track of guilt being +thus fallen upon, it was not difficult to trace it to its source. +Numerous little scraps of evidence came out, one upon another, till the +whole diabolical plot was stripped of its mystery, and the guilt of the +_wächter_ clearly proved. He was convicted of the crime imputed to him, +and condemned to death by the Senate. But on receiving sentence, the +condemned man assumed a tone totally unexpected of him, for he boldly +asserted that the punishment of death had fallen into disuse; that it was +no longer the law of Hamburg; and concluded by defying the Senators to +carry the sentence pronounced into execution. + +It was indeed true that the ponderous weapon of the headsman had lain for +two-and-twenty years rusting in its scabbard; nor without reason. At +that period a criminal stood convicted and condemned to death. The law +gave little mercy in those days, and there was no hesitation in carrying +the sentence into effect. But an unexpected difficulty arose; the old +headsman was but lately dead, and his son, a fine stalwart young man, +was, from inexperience, considered unequal to the task. A crowd of eager +competitors proffered their services in this emergency, but the ancient +city of Hamburg, like some other ancient cities, was hampered with +antiquated usages. Its profits and other advantages were tied up into +little knots of monopoly, in various shapes of privileges and hereditary +rights. The young headsman claimed his office on the latter ground; to +the surprise of all, his mother, the wife of the old headsman, not merely +supported him in his claim, but persisted, with a spirit that might have +become a Roman matron but certainly no one else, that if her son were +incapable, she herself was responsible for the performance of her +husband’s duty, and would execute it. The Senate was in consternation, +for this assertion of hereditary right was unanswerable; and while they +courteously declined the offer of the chivalrous mother, they felt +constrained to accept the services of her son. + +The fatal morning came; the scaffold stood erected; and pressing closely +around the wooden barriers, stood the anxious crowd awaiting the +execution. The culprit knelt with head erect, his neck and shoulders +bared for the stroke, while the young headsman stood by his side armed +with the double-handed sword, the weapon of his office. At a sign given, +he swung the tremendous blade in the air, and aimed a fearful blow at the +neck of the condemned; but his skilless hand sloped the broad blade as it +fell, and it struck deeply into the victim’s breast. Amid a cry of +terror he raised his sword again; again it whirled through the air, and +again it failed to do its deadly work. The miserable wretch still lived; +and a third stroke was necessary to complete the task so dreadfully +began. Who can wonder that that fearful weapon had for years long rested +from its service? + +Influenced by this terrible scene, and, let us hope, as well by motives +of humanity as by the conviction of the utter uselessness of such a +spectacle as a moral lesson, the Senate of Hamburg had commuted the +punishment of death into that of a life imprisonment. Yet now they were +taunted with their unreadiness to shed blood, and dared to carry the law, +as it still stood upon the statute-book, into effect. For a while it +seemed that anger would govern the acts of the Senate, for every +preparation was made for the execution. The headsman, whose blundering +essay has been above related, was still living, but he had long filled +the humble office of a messenger, and made no claim to repeat his effort. +Among the many competitors who offered their services, a Dane was finally +selected, and the inhabitants of Hamburg, excited to the utmost degree by +the anticipation of the forthcoming spectacle, awaited the event with a +morbid and gloating curiosity. They were, however, disappointed; +humanity prevailed, and the guilty _wächter_ was conducted to a life +prison. + +The Senate of Hamburg has not formally abolished the punishment of death; +but the last _hereditary_ headsman is now growing an old man, and the +first and only stroke of his weapon was dealt thirty-two years ago. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + + +WORKMEN IN HAMBURG. + +Here amid the implements of labor, in the dingy _werkstube_ in Johannis +Strasse; lighted by the single flicker of an oil lamp, with the workboard +for a writing-desk, let me endeavour to collect some few scattered +details about the German workmen in Hamburg. + +German workmen! do not the very words recall to your memory old +amber-coloured engravings of sturdy men, with waving locks, grasping the +arm of the printing-press, by the side of Faust, Schœffer, and +Gottenberg? Or, perhaps, the words of Schiller’s “Song of the Bell” may +not be unknown to you, and hum in your ears: + + Frisch, gesellen, seyd zur hand! + Von der stirne heiss, + Rinnen muss der schweiss. + + Briskly, comrades to your work! + From the flushing brow + Must the sweatdrops flow. + +But your modern German workman is somewhat of a different stamp; he +points his moustaches with black wax, trims his locks _à la Française_, +and wears wide pantaloons. He tapers his waist with a leathern strap, +and wears a blouse while at his labors. He discards old forms and +regulations as far as he can or dare, and thus the old word “Meister” has +fallen into disrepute, and the titles “Herr” and “Principal” occupy its +place. Schiller, like a true poet, calls his workmen “gesellen,” which +is the old German word meaning companion or comrade, but modern +politeness has changed it into “gehülfe,” assistant; and “mitglied,” +member. In some places, however, the words “knecht” and “knappe,” +servant or attendant, are still in use to signify journeyman; as +“schusterknecht,” shoemaker; “schlächterknecht,” butcher’s man; +“muhlknappe,” miller; “bergknappe,” miner; but these terms are employed +more from habit than from any invidious distinction. + +Well! we live and work on the fourth floor of a narrow slip of a house in +Johannis Strasse. Herr Sorgenpfennig, our “principal,” occupies the +suite of four rooms, and devotes a central one (to which no light can +possibly come save at second hand through the door), to his “gesellen.” +We are three; a quiet Dane, full of sage precepts, and practical +illustrations of economy; a roystering Bavarian from Nuremberg, who never +fails to grieve over the thin beer of Hamburg, and who, as member of a +choral union near Das Johanneum, delights in vigorous and unexpected +bursts of song; and myself. + +Workmen in Hamburg are still in a state of villanage; beneath the roof of +the “Herr” do they find at once a workshop, a dormitory, and a home. We +endeavour so far to conform to the rules of propriety as to escape the +imprisonment and other penalties that await the “unruly journeyman.” The +table of Herr Sorgenpfennig is our own, and a very liberal one it is +esteemed to be. Let me sketch you a few of its items: delicious coffee, +“white bread and brown,” or rather black, and unlimited butter, make up +our breakfast. Dinner always commences with a soup, usually made from +meat, sometimes from herbs, lemon, sweet fruit, or other ingredients +utterly indescribable. Meat, to be fit for a German table, must be +carefully pared of every vestige of fat; if boiled it is underdone, +unless expressly devoted to the soup, when the juiceless shreds that +remain are served up with plums or prepared vegetables; if it be baked +(roasting is almost unknown) it is dry and tasteless. Bacon and +sausages, with their inevitable accompaniment, sourkraut, is a favourite +dish; but not so unvaryingly so as some choose to imagine. Acids +generally are much admired in German cookery. In nothing, perhaps, are +the Hamburgers more to be envied, in a gastronomic view, than in their +vegetables. Singularly small as are these products of the kitchen +garden, they are sweeter and more delicately flavoured than any I ever +tasted elsewhere. As _entremets_, and as accompaniments to meat, they +are largely consumed. The Hamburgers laugh at the English cooks who boil +green peas and potatoes in plain water, for here boiled potatoes are +scarcely known—that nutritious vegetable being cut into slices and fried; +while green peas are slowly stewed in butter or cream, and sweetened with +fine sugar. But we “gesellen” have plebeian appetites, and whatever dish +may be set before us, as surely vanishes to its latest shred. The little +patches of puff-paste, smeared with preserve, sent to us as Sunday treat, +or the curious production in imitation of our English pie, and filled +with maccaroni, are immolated at once without misgiving or remorse. If +we sup at all, it is upon pasty, German cheese, full of holes, as if it +had been made in water, or a hot liver sausage, as an extraordinary +indulgence. + +And our “Licht Braten?” Herr Sorgenpfennig rubs his short, fat hands, +and his round eyes twinkle again, as he tells his little cluster of +“Herren Gesellen” that there will be a feast, a sumptuous _abendbrod_, to +inaugurate the commencement of candle-light. The “Licht Braten,” as this +entertainment is called, is one of the old customs of Hamburg now falling +into disuse. It would be doing Herr Sorgenpfennig an eternal injustice +did we pass over it in silence, more especially as he boasts of it as +real “North German fare.” Here we have it: raw herrings to begin with. +Bah! I confess this does not sound well upon the first blush; but, then, +a raw dried herring is somewhat different to one salted in a barrel. To +cook it would be a sacrilege, say the Germans. And then the +accompaniments! We have two dishes of wonderful little potatoes, baked +in an oven, freshly peeled and shining; and in the centre of the table is +a bowl of melted butter and mustard well mixed together. You dip your +potato in the butter, and while you thus soften the deep-sea saltness of +your herring, the rough flavour of the latter relishes and overcomes the +unctuous dressing of your potato. I swear to you it is delicious! + +But where is our “braten,” the “roast,” in fact? Oh, thou unhappy Peter! +I see thee still, reeking over the glowing forge fire, cooking savoury +sausages thou art forbidden to taste! I see thee still, struggling in +vain to “bolt” the blazing morsel, rashly plucked (in the momentary +absence of Sorgenpfennig), from the bubbling, hissing fat, and thrust +into thy jaws. Those burning tears! those mad distortions of limb and +feature! God pity thee, Peter, but it was not to be! Those savoury +sausages are our “braten,” and they smack wonderfully after the herrings. +If there is one item in our repast to be deplored, it is the Hamburger +beer, which, however, is as good as it can be, I suppose, for the +money—something under an English penny a bottle. But here is wine; good, +sound wine, not indeed from the Rhine, nor the Moselle, but red, +sparkling, French _vin ordinaire_, at a mark—fourteen-pence the bottle. + +Truly, Hamburg, thou art a painstaking, industrious, money-making city, +with more available wealth among thy pitch and slime than other towns can +boast of in their trimness and finery, but spendthrift, and debauched, +and dissolute withal art thou! + + _Punch, du edler trank der Britten_! + Punch, thou noble drink of Britons— + +the outburst of some exhilarated poet—should be inscribed upon thy +double-turreted gate, good Hamburg! The odorous steam of rum and lemon +contends in thine open streets with the fumes of tobacco; the union of +these two perfumes make up thine atmosphere; while thy public walks are +strewn with the unsmoked ends of cigars, thick as the shrivelled leaves +in autumn. + +Seriously, the Hamburger toils earnestly, and takes his pleasure with a +proportionate amount of zeal. His enjoyments, like his labours, are of a +strong and solid description. The workmen trundle _kegle_ balls in long, +wooden-built alleys; and down in deep beer cellars, snug and warm, do +they cluster, fondling their pipes like favoured children; taking long +gulps of well-made punch, or deeper draughts of Bairisches beer. If they +talk, they do so vehemently, but they love better to sit and listen to +some little troop of _harfenisten_—street harp-players—as they tone the +waltzes of Lanner, or sing some chivalrous romance. Sometimes they form +themselves into bands of choristers, and sing with open windows into the +street, or play at billiards as if it were for life, or congregate in the +dance-houses, and waltz by the hour without a pause. In all they are +hearty, somewhat boisterous, but never wanting in good temper. + +As marriage is out of the question with the workman in Hamburg, whether +stranger or native—unless indeed the latter may have passed through the +probationary course of travel and conscription, and be already on the +verge of mastership—so also is honourable courtship. His low wages and +dependent position form an impassable barrier to wedlock, and a married +journeyman is almost unknown. By the law of his native city he must +travel for two or three years, independently of the chances of +conscription, and thus for a period at least he becomes a restless +wanderer, without tie or home. No prudent maiden can listen to his +addresses, and thus it is that Hamburg swarms with unfortunates; and this +it is which gives them rights and immunities unknown in any other city. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + + +PLAYS AND PICCADILLOES.—“HAMLET” IN GERMAN. + +It is Sunday again. Soberly and sedately do we pass our morning hours. +We waken with the sweet music of bells in our ears; bells that whisper to +us of devotion; bells that thrill us with a calm delight, and raise up in +us thoughts of gentleness and charity. + +There is no lack of churches; we see their tapering steeples and deep +gable roofs rising above the general level in many places, and there is a +Little Bethel down by the water’s side on the Vorsetzen, for the sailors. +There are two or three Little Pandemoniums in its immediate vicinity, or +at least by that classical title are they designated by the Bethlemites +over the way; but salt-water Jack and fresh-river Jack give them much +simpler names, and like them a great deal better, more’s the pity. We +have heard the little jangling bells in the church pews, and they will +not ring in tune, although they tell the deeds of charity; we have +marched staidly home, and joined in Herr Sorgenpfennig’s blessing over +the midday meal;—Herr Sorgenpfennig delivers it with the presence and +intonation of an Eastern patriarch, standing among his tribe;—and the +delicacies of German cookery having fulfilled their purpose and +disappeared, with a whispered grace and a bow of humbleness, we sidle out +of the room, and leave the “Herr Meister” to his meditations and his +punch. And so ends the service of the day. + +The blond-headed Bavarian begins to hum the last _Tafelliêd_, and our +quiet Dane smiles reservedly. “Whither, friends, shall we bend our +steps?” No! by the eternal spirit of modesty, we will not visit the +dance-houses to-day! Those vile shambles by the water-side, growing out +of the slime and filth of the river, and creeping like a noxious, +unwholesome weed, up the shaded hill, and by narrow ruts and gullies into +the open country. No! Those half-draped, yet gaping doors, have no +attractions for us; those whining notes of soulless music find no echo in +our ears or hearts. There, in their hideous blandishments, the shameless +sit, miserable in their tawdriness, their painted cheeks peeling in the +hot sun, which they cannot shut out if they would. Throughout the long +day the wearied minstrels pant over their greasy tubes of brass, or +scrape their grimy instruments with horny fingers, praying for the deep +night; and there, through the long day, does the echoing floor rebound +with the beating of vigorous feet; for salt-water Jack is there, and +fresh-river Jack is there, and while there is a copper _pfennig_ in their +pockets, or a flicker of morality in their hearts, doomed are they +equally; for what can escape spoliation or wreck among such a crowd? + +Yet from such commodities as these does the merchant spirit of the Senate +of Hamburg draw huge profits; indeed, it is said that the whole expense +of police and city, and what is worse, yet better, the tending of the +sick, the feeding of the poor, and the succouring of the helpless and +desolate, are alike defrayed from the produce of the city’s vice; and let +us add, the Senate’s fostering care of it. + +And if we wandered out beyond the walls to the right or to the left, what +do we find? On the one hand, “Peter Hund’s;” on the other “Unkraut’s +Pavilion;” mere dance-houses, after all, though for “the better sort.” +“Peter” has a tawdry hall, smeared with the escutcheons of all nations, +where music and waltzing whirl through the dense air, hour after hour; +and what is at least of equal consequence to him, Peter holds a tavern in +the next room, where spirits, beer, or coffee are equally at the command +of the drouthy or the luxuriant. And so also if we followed the road +which passes through Stein Thor, away across the leafy fringing of trees +and shrubs which ornament the city’s outline; and still on through the +shady avenues of youthful stems, when we come upon a great house with +deep overhanging eaves, square-topped chimneys, and altogether with a +Swiss air about it. There are idlers hanging about the door, for this is +“Unkraut’s,” and the brisk air of musical instruments streams out of the +open portal. Within all is motion and uproar. A large _salle de danse_ +occupies the greater part of the ground floor, the central portion of +which is appropriated to the waltzers, while a broad slip on each side, +beneath an overhanging gallery, running round the whole of the apartment, +remains for those who drink, or take a temporary repose. Sometimes, +however, the flood of waltzers pours in upon the side-tables, amid the +clatter of chairs, the ringing of glass and china, and the laughter of +the spectators. Gentlemen are not allowed to dance with their hats on; +(where else, in Heaven’s name, can they place them?) and must lay their +heavy pipes and cigars aside, as smoking is permitted only in the gallery +above. The company is of the “better sort” in the _salle_ below; that is +to say, that vice, shameless and unveiled, is not allowed to flaunt +without a check; but there is taint and gangrene among all; feeble wills +and failing hearts to bear up against the intoxicating stream of music, +and giddy heads for thought or reason amid the whirl and swimming of the +dance. + +“Unkraut’s” has, however, attractions apart from the ball-room. By a +quiet stair at the end of the gallery, through muffled doors that close +upon you as you enter, and shut out like walls the hum and hubbub below, +we come upon an ill-shapen apartment, where hushed, absorbed men are +seated at desks, as at a school, each with a huge frame dotted with +numbers before him. A strange contrast to the scene without. There is a +heavy quiet in the place, disturbed only by an occasional cough, a +shuffling of feet, and the silvery ringing of little plates of glass. A +monstrous game of Lotto is this. A mere child’s play of gambling, +requiring neither tact, wit, nor reasoning; a simple lottery, in fact, +dependent for success upon the accidental marking (each player upon his +own board or table) of the first five numbers that may be drawn. Now we +hear a strange rattling of wooden pieces, shaken in a bag, and as each +piece is drawn, a bustling man with an obstreperous voice, calls out the +number; not in full, sonorous German, but in broad, uncouth Platt +Deutsche (low German), and eager tongues respond from distant corners +claiming the prize. A dull-headed game is this, fitted only for the most +inveterate gamblers; but it yields money to the Stadt, and that is its +recommendation. + +As the day wears on, its attractions increase. The Elb Pavilion offers a +rare treat; exquisite music, executed with vigour, delicacy, and +precision. Moreover, its frequenters are decidedly of a respectable +class. But we will not be moved; we have set our hearts upon witnessing +a play of Shakespeare’s, announced for this night at the Stadt Theatre, +and that no less a one than “Hamlet, Prince of Denmark.” + +The Stadt Theatre in Hamburg enjoys a strange monopoly; for by the +Senate’s will it is declared that no other theatre shall exist within the +city walls. Yet, curiously enough, a wonderful old woman, by some +unaccountable freak, has the privilege, or hereditary right, of licensing +or directing a theatrical establishment within the boundaries, and thus a +second theatre contends for the favours of the public; and in order to +define its position and state of existence, it is entitled simply Das +Zweite Theatre (The Second Theatre). It is an especially favourite place +of amusement with the Hamburgers, although they play an incomprehensible +jumble of unconnected scenes, called “possen,” adapted solely to display +the peculiar talents of certain actors. One odd fellow there reaps +showers of applause for no other exhibition of ability than that of +looking intensely stupid, for he seldom utters a word; but assumes an +appearance of unfathomable vacuity that is inimitable. There are still +two theatres outside the city walls: the one, the Tivoli, devoted to +farces and vaudevilles; the other consecrated to the portrayal of the +deeply sentimental, and the fearfully tragic—with poison, dagger-blades, +convulsions and heavy-stamping ever at command. + +But our play! Here we are in the gallery of a splendid edifice, equal in +extent to our Covent Garden Theatre at home, having come to this part of +the house in anticipation of a feeble audience in preference to the +parterre or pit. Note also, that here we pay eight _schillinge_ only, +while a place below would cost us twenty. But the house is crammed, for +Shakespeare draws as well in Germany as in England, perhaps for the +simple reason that in no other country are his works so well translated. +We find ourselves in the midst of a dense cluster of earnest Danes, who +say the most impressive things in the quietest way in the world. They +are strongly interested in the coming performance, for “Hamlet the Dane” +has taken deep hold upon the Danish affections; and in Elsinore, so great +is the consideration entertained for this all but fabulous prince, that +they will point you out the garden wherein his royal father suffered +murder + + —most foul, strange, and unnatural, + +and the grave where the “gentle prince” himself lies buried. The play +begins; with the deepest earnestness the audience listen, and, crowded as +they are, preserve the utmost quiet. The glorious drama scene by scene +unfolds itself, and passage by passage we recognise the beauties of our +great poet. Herr Carr, starring it from Vienna, is no unworthy +representative of the noble-hearted Dane, although unequal, we think, to +the finer traits, and more delicate emotions of the character. The +dresses are admirable, sometimes gorgeous, and the groupings most +effective. The scenery alone is unsatisfactory; indecisive and +colourless as it is, without depth or tone, it strikes you as the first +effort in perspective of a feeble-handed amateur. As the play proceeds, +the action grows upon us, and the rapt spectators resent with anger the +least outcry or disturbance. The first scene with the players is +omitted, but the concluding portion is a triumph; for as _Hamlet_, +arriving at the climax of his sarcasm, and bursting for a moment into +rage, flings the flute away, with the exclamation: “S’blood, do you think +I am easier to be played on than a pipe?” the whole theatre rings with +the applause. + +Presently, however, we are aware of a gap, a huge hiatus in the +performance; a grave, and yet no grave, for the whole churchyard scene, +with its quaint and exquisite philosophy, the rude wit of the +gravediggers, and the pointed moralising of the prince, are all +wanting—all swept away by the ruthless hand of the critic; skulls and +bones, picks and mattocks, wit and drollery, diggers, waistcoats and all! +Not even _Yorick_, with his “gibes” and “flashes of merriment”—not even +he is spared. On the other hand, a portion of a scene is represented +which, until lately, was always omitted on the English stage. It is that +in which the guilty king, overcome by remorse, thus soliloquises:— + + O, my offence is rank, it smells to heaven! + +_Hamlet_, coming upon his murderous uncle in his prayers, exclaims:— + + Now might I do it, pat, while he is praying; + And now I’ll do ’t—and so he goes to heaven: + And so am I revenged? + +The omission or retention of this scene might well be a matter of +dispute, for while it represents the guilty Claudius miserable and +contrite, even in the height of his success, it also portrays the +anticipated revenge of _Hamlet_ in so fearful a light, that he stands +there, not the human instrument of divine retribution, but with all the +diabolical cravings of Satan himself. I leave this question to abler +critics, and, in the meantime, our play is finished, amid shouts of +delight and calls before the curtain. It is but half-past nine, yet this +is a late hour for a German theatre, where they rarely perform more than +one piece, and that seldom exceeding two hours in duration. Descending +to the street, wrapped in the recollections of the gorgeous poem whose +beauties still echo in our ears, we are vulgar enough to relish hot +sausages and Bavarian beer. + +An hour later we pace our half-lighted Johannis Strasse, seeking the +portal of our house amid the gloom. Suddenly we are startled by the +tramp of a heavy foot, and the clang and rattle of a steel weapon as it +strikes upon the ground. A burly voice assails us: “Whither are you +going?” + +Is this Bernardo, wandered from the ramparts in search of the ghost of +Hamlet’s father? + +Not so: it is but one of the night-watch, armed with an enormous halbert +which might have done good service in the thirty years’ war. The +faithful _nachtwächter_ strikes it upon the ground with the butt-end at +regular intervals, so that sinful depredators may have timely notice of +his approach. As it has a large hook at the back it is said to be +admirably adapted for catching thieves by the leg, if its opportune +clattering does not keep them out of its reach. + +We render a good account of ourselves, and are duly escorted to our home. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + + +THE GERMAN WORKMAN. + +That workmen in England may have some clear knowledge of the ways and +customs of a large number of their brethren on the Continent, I here +intend to put down for their use a part of my own knowledge and +experience. + +The majority of trades in Germany are formed into guilds, or companies. +At the head of each guild stands an officer chosen by the government, +whatever it may be—for you may find a government of any sort in Germany, +between an emperor and a senate—this officer being always a master, and a +member of the guild. His title differs in almost every German state, but +he is generally called Trade-master, or Deputy. Associated with him are +two or three of the oldest employers; or, in some cases, workmen in the +trade, under the titles of Eldermen, or Masters’ Representatives. These +three or four men govern the guild, and have under them, for the proper +transaction of business, a secretary and a messenger. Such officers, +however, do not represent their trade in the whole state or kingdom, but +are chosen, in every large town, to conduct the multifarious business +that may require attention within its limits. + +Although all these guilds are, in their original constitution, formed on +the same model, they differ materially in their internal arrangements. +Much depends upon the ruling government of the state in which they are +situated; for, while in despotic Prussia, what is there called Freedom of +Trade is declared for all, in the “free” town of Hamburg everything is +bound and locked up in small monopolies. + +In some parts of Germany there are “close trades,” which means to say +that the number of masters in each is definitely fixed. This is so in +Hamburg. For instance, among the goldsmiths, the number of new masters +annually to be elected is three, being about sufficient to fill up the +deficiencies occurring from death and other causes. I have heard of as +many as five being elected in one year, and I have also heard it asserted +that this was to be accounted for on the supposition that the aldermen +had been “smeared in the hand,” that is to say, bribed. + +There are other trades locked up in a different way. There exist several +of this kind in Nuremberg and thereabouts; as, the awl and punch-makers, +lead-pencil makers, hand-bell makers, gold and silver wire-drawers, and +others. They occupy a particular town or district, and they say, “Here +we are. We possess these trades, and we mean to keep them to ourselves. +We will teach no strangers our craft; we will confine it among our +relatives and townsmen; and in order to prevent the knowledge of it from +spreading any farther, we will allow our workmen to travel only within +the limits of our town or land;” and so they keep their secrets close. + +In other trades, the workmen are allowed to engage themselves only to a +privileged employer. That is to say, they dare not execute a private +order, but can receive employment from a master of the craft only. In +Prussia, and some few other lands, each workman can work on his own +account, and can offer his goods for sale in the public market +unhindered, so long as they are the production of his own hands alone; +but should he employ a journeyman, then he pays a tax to Government of +about ten shillings annually, the tax increasing in proportion to the +number of men he may employ. + +There are also “endowed” and “unendowed” trades. An endowed guild is one +the members of which pay a certain small sum monthly while in work, and +thus form a fund for the relief of the sick and the assistance of the +travelling members of the trade. There are few trades of the unendowed +kind, for the workmen of such trades have to depend upon the generosity +of their companions in the craft in the hour of need; and it is generally +found more economical to pay a regular sum than to be called on at +uncertain intervals for a donation; moreover, the respectability of the +craft is better maintained. + +While we talk of respectability, we may add that it was formerly the +especial care of the heads of each guild, to see that no disreputable +persons became members of the trade; and illegitimate children, and even +the lawful offspring of shepherds, bailiffs, and town servants were +carefully excluded. This practice exists no longer, except in some few +insignificant places; but the law is still very general which says that +no workman can become a master who has not fulfilled every regulation +imposed by his guild; that is to say, he must have been apprenticed at +the proper age to a properly-constituted master; must have regularly +completed his period of apprenticeship, and have passed the appointed +time in travel. The worst part of all these regulations is, that, as +they vary in almost every state, the unfortunate wanderer has to conform +to a new set of laws in every new land he enters. + +One other regulation is almost universal. Each guild must have a place +of meeting; not a sumptuous hall, but mere accommodation in a +public-house. It is called the “Herberge,” and answers, in many +respects, to our “House of Call.” This is the weary traveller’s place of +rest—he can claim a shelter here; indeed, in most cases, he dares sleep +nowhere else. Here also the guild holds its quarterly meetings. By way +of illustration, let us take the Goldsmith’s Herberge in Hamburg; the +“Stadt Bremen” is the sign of the house. In it, the goldsmiths use a +large, rectangular apartment, furnished with a few rough tables and +chairs, and a wooden bench running round its four walls. On the tables +are arranged long clay pipes, and in the centre of each table is a small +dish of what the uninitiated might take to be dried tea leaves. This is +uncut tobacco, which the host, the father of the House of Call, is bound +to provide. The secretary and messenger of the guild of goldsmiths are +there, together with one or two of the “Altgesellen” (elder journeymen), +who perform the active part of the duties of the guild. The minutes of +the last meeting, and the incidents of the quarter—possibly, also, an +abstract of the rules—having been read, and new officers, to supersede +those who retire, having been balloted for, the business of the evening +closes. Then commences a confusion of tongues; for here are congregated +Russians, Hungarians, Danes, Hamburgers, Prussians, Austrians; possibly +there may be found here a member of every state in the German Union. +None are silent, and the dialect of each is distinct. Assiduously, in +the pauses of his private conversation, every man smokes his long pipe, +and drinks his beer or punch. Presently two female harp-players +enter—sources of refreshment quite as popular in Hamburg as the punch. +They strike up an infatuating waltz. The effect is wonderful. Two or +three couples (men waltzing with men, of course) are immediately on their +feet, scrambling, kicking, and scraping round the room; hugging each +other in the most awkward manner. Chairs and tables are huddled into +corners; for the mania has seized upon two-thirds of the company. The +rest cannot forsake their beer, but congregate in the corners, and yell, +and scream toasts and “Lebe-hoch!” till they are hoarse. + +Two girls enter, with trifling articles of male attire for sale; stocks, +pomatum, brushes, and beard-wax; but the said damsels are immediately +pounced upon for partners. In the intervals of the music a grand +tournament takes place; the weapons being clay-pipes, which are speedily +shattered into a thousand pieces, and strewn about the room to facilitate +dancing. Such a scene of shuffling, whirling, shouting, and +pipe-crunching could scarcely be seen elsewhere. + +We will take a German youth destined to become an artisan, and endeavour +to follow him through the complication of conflicting usages of which he +stands the ordeal. Hans is fourteen years of age, and has just left +school with a decent education. Hans has his trade and master chosen for +him; is taken before the heads of the guild, and his indenture duly +signed and sealed in their presence, they themselves witnessing the +document. His term of apprenticeship is probably four years, perhaps +six; a premium is seldom given, and when it is, it shortens the period of +apprenticeship. The indenture, together with a certificate of baptism, +in some cases that of confirmation (which ceremony serves as an important +epoch in Germany), and even a documentary proof of vaccination, are +deposited in the coffers of the guild, and kept at the Herberge for +future reference. + +Obedience to elders and superiors is the one great duty inculcated in the +minds of all Germans, and Hans is taught to look upon his master as a +second father; to consider short commons as a regulation for his especial +good, and to bear cuffing—if he should fall in the way of it—patiently. +If he be an apprentice in Vienna, he may possibly breakfast upon a hunch +of brown bread, and an unlimited supply of water; dine upon a thin soup +and a block of tasteless, fresh-boiled beef; and sup upon a cold crust. +He may fare better or worse; but, as a general rule, he will sleep in a +vile hole, will look upon coffee and butter as undeniable luxuries, and +know the weight of his master’s hand. + +Hans has one great source of pleasure. There is a state school, which he +attends on Sundays, and where he is instructed in drawing and modelling. +In his future travels he will find the advantage he has acquired over +less educated mechanics in this necessary knowledge; and should he come +to England, he will discover that his skill as a draughtsman will place +him at once in a position superior to that of the chance-taught workmen +about him. He completes his apprenticeship without attempting to run +away. That is practically impossible; but he yearns, with all the ardour +of a young heart, for the happy day when he may tramp out of his native +town with his knapsack on his back, and the wide world before him. + +We will suppose Hans out of his time, and declared a free journeyman by +the guild. The law of his country now has it that he must +travel—generally for three years, perhaps four or six—before he can take +up the position of a master. He may work for a short period in his +native town as a journeyman, but forth he must; nor is he in any way +loth. One only contingency there is, which may serve to arrest him in +his course,—he may be drawn as a conscript—and, possibly, forget in the +next two or three years, as a soldier, all he has previously learned in +four as a mechanic. But we suppose Hans to have escaped this peril, and +to be on the eve of his departure. + +When an English gentleman, or mechanic, or beggar, in these isles, has +resolved upon making a journey, he has but to pack up his traps, whether +it be in his portmanteau, his deal-box, or his pocket-handkerchief; to +purchase his ticket at the railway or steam-packet station; and without +asking or consulting with anybody about the matter, to take his seat in +the vehicle, and off he goes. Not so Hans. He gives his master fourteen +days’ notice of his intention to wander; applies to the aldermen of his +guild for copies of the various documents concerning himself in their +possession; and obtains from his employer a written attestation of his +past services. This document is called a “Kundschaft;” is written in set +form, acknowledges his probity and industry, and is countersigned by the +two aldermen. He is now in a condition to wait upon the +“Herberges-Vater” (the landlord of the House of Call), and request his +signature also. The Vater, seeing that Hans owes nothing to him or to +any other townsman—and all creditors know that they have only to report +their claims at the Herberge to obtain for them a strict attention—signs +his paper, “all quit.” Surely he may start forth now! Not so; the most +important document is still wanting. He has, as yet, no passport or +wander-book. + +Hans goes to the police-bureau, and, as he is poor, has to wait a long +while. If Hans were rich, or an artist, or a master’s son, it is highly +probable that ho would be able to obtain a passport—and the possession of +a passport guarantees many advantages—but as Hans is simply a workman, a +“wander-book” only is granted to him. This does indeed cost him less +money, but it thrusts him into an unwelcome position, from which it is +not easy to escape. He is placed under stricter rule, and, among other +things, is forced, during his wandering, to sleep at his trade Herberge, +which, from the very monopoly it thus enjoys, is about the worst place he +could go to for a lodging. + +The good magistrate of Perleberg—the frontier town of Prussia, as you +enter from Mecklenburg—had the kindness to affix to my passport a +document entitled, “Ordinance concerning the Wandering of Working-men.” +I will briefly translate its contents. The “Verordnung” commences with a +preamble, to the effect that, notwithstanding the various things that +have been done and undone with respect to the aforesaid journeymen, it +still happens that numbers of them wander purposeless about the land, to +the great burden of their particular trades and the public in general, +and to the imminent danger of the common safety. Therefore, be it +enacted, that “passports,” that is to say, “passes,” in which the +distinct purpose of the journey is stated, such as a search for +employment; or “wander-books,” in which occupation by manual labour is +the especial object, are to be granted to those natives of Prussia only +who pursue a trade or art for the perfection of which travelling may be +considered useful or necessary. To those only who are irreproachable in +character, and perfectly healthy in body; this latter to be attested by a +medical certificate. To those only who have not passed their thirtieth +year, nor have travelled for the five previous years without +intermission. To those only who possess a proper amount of clothing, +including linen, as well as a sum of money not less than five dollars +(about sixteen shillings) for travelling expenses. So much for natives. +Foreigners must possess all the above-named requisites; must be provided +with proper credentials from their home authorities, and may not have +been more than four weeks without employment on their arrival at the +frontier. Again, every wanderer must distinctly state in what particular +town or city he intends to seek employment, and by what route he purposes +to get there; and any deviation from the chosen road (which will be +marked in the wander-book) will be visited by the punishment of expulsion +from the country. A fixed number of days will be allotted to the +wanderer in which to reach his destination, but should he overstep that +period, a similar punishment awaits him; expulsion from the country +always meaning that the offender shall retrace his steps, and quit the +land by the way he had entered it. This is the substance of the +“ordinance.” + +Hans is ready for the road. He has only now to take his farewell. A +farewell among workmen is simply a drinking-bout, a parting glass taken +overnight. Hans has many friends; these appoint a place of assemblage, +and invite him thither. It is a point of honour among them that the +“wandering boy” shall pay nothing. Imagine a large, half-lighted room; a +crowded board of bearded faces. On the table steams a huge bowl of +punch, which the chosen head of the party, perhaps Johann’s late master, +ladles into the tiny glasses. He proclaims the toast, “The Health of the +Wanderer!” The little crowd are on their feet, and amid a pretty +tinkling of glasses, an irregular shout arises, a small hurricane of +voices, wishing him good speed. + +What songs are sung, what healths are drunk, what heartfelt wishes are +expressed! The German workmen are good friends to one another—men who +are already away from friends and home, and whose tenderest recollections +are awakened in the farewell expressed to a departing companion. Many +tears are shed, many hearty presses of the hand are given, and not a few +kisses impressed upon the cheek. Little tokens of affection are +interchanged, and promises to write are made, but seldom kept. With this +mingling and outpouring of full hearts, the stream of punch still flows +through tiny glasses: but, since “Many a little makes a mickle,” the +farewell thus taken ends sometimes as a debauch. + +Hans, in the morning, is perhaps a little the worse for last night’s +punch. He is attired in a clean white blouse, strapped round the waist; +a neat travelling-cap; low, stout shoes; and, possibly, linen wrappers, +instead of socks. The knapsack, strapped to his back, contains a +sufficient change of linen, a coat artistically packed, which is to be +worn in cities, and a few necessary tools; the whole stock weighing, +perhaps, twenty or thirty pounds. On the sides of the knapsack are +little pouches, containing brushes, blacking, and soap; and in his +breast-pocket is stowed away a little flask of brandy-schnaps, to revive +his drooping spirits on the road. A stout stick completes his equipment. +A last adieu from the one friend of his heart, who will walk a few miles +with him on the way—and so he is launched fairly on his journey. + +Hans finds the road much harder, and his knapsack heavier than he had +expected. Now he is drenched with rain, and can get no shelter; and, +when he does, he will find straw an inconvenient substitute for a bed. +At last he arrives at Berlin. He has picked up a companion on the road; +and, as it frequently happens that several trades hold their meetings in +the same house, they both are bound to the same Herberge. Through +strange, half-lighted streets, along narrow edges of pavement, they +proceed till they enter a court, or wynd, with no footpath at all, and +they are in the Schuster Gasse, before the door of the Herberge. The +comrade of Hans announces them as they pass the bar, and the next moment +they are in the travellers’ room, amid as motley a group as ever met +within four walls. + +Tumult and hubbub. An indescribable odour of tobacco, cummin (carraway), +and potato-salad. A variety of hustled blouses. Sunburnt and haggard +faces. Ragged beards and unkempt locks. A strong pipe hanging from +every lip; beer, or kümmil (a spirit prepared with cummin) at every hand. +Wild snatches of song, and hurried bursts of dialogue. Some are all +violence and uproar; some are half dead with sleep and fatigue, their +arms sprawling about the tables. Such is the inside of a German trade +traveller’s room. + +Hans and his companion hand over their papers to the “father” as a +security, and their knapsacks to a sluttish-looking girl, who deposits +them in a cupboard in the corner of the room, and locks the door upon +them. Our travellers order a measure of Berliner Weiss Bier, to be in +keeping with the rest, and long for the hour of sleep. At length, a +stout young man enters, carrying a lighted lantern, and in a loud voice +of authority summonses all to bed. And there is a scrambling and +hustling among some of the travellers, a hasty guzzling of beer and +spirits, and a few low murmurs at being disturbed, but none dare disobey. + +A shambling troop of sixteen or eighteen, they quit the room, and enter a +small paved yard, preceded by the young man with the lantern. There is a +rough building resembling a stable, at the other end of the yard; and, in +one corner, a steep ladder, with a handrail, which leads to a chamber +above. They ascend, and enter a long, low loft, so completely crowded +with rough bedsteads that there remains but a narrow alley between them, +just sufficient to allow a single person to pass. Eight double beds, and +the ceiling so low that the companion of Hans can scarcely stand upright +with his hat on. + +“New-comers this way,” shouts the conductor. + +“What’s the matter, now?” inquires Hans of his comrade. + +“Take off your coat,” is the answer in a whisper; “undo the wristbands, +and throw open the collar of your shirt.” + +“What for?” + +“To be examined.” + +So they are examined; and, being pronounced sound, are allowed to sleep +with the rest of the flock. In this loft, each bed with at least two +occupants, and the door locked—without consideration for fire, accident, +or sudden indisposition,—Hans passes the first night in Berlin. + +But there is no work in Berlin, and Hans must pursue his journey. He +waits for hours at the police-office, as play-goers wait at the door of a +London theatre. By and by, he gets into the small bureau with a +desperate rush. That business is settled, and he is off again. Time +runs on; and, after a further tramp of good two hundred miles, Hans gets +settled at last in the free city of Hamburg. + +With the exception of a few factories, such as the silk-works at +Chemnitz, in Saxony, and the colony of goldsmiths at Pfortzheim, in +Wurtemburg, there are few extensive manufactories in Germany. Trade is +split up into little masterships of from one to five or six men. This +circumstance materially affects the relation between the employer and +employed. + +The master under whom Hans serves at Hamburg is a pleasant, affable +gentleman; his apprentice Peter may be of a different opinion, but that +is of no consequence. The master has spent the best years of his life in +England and France; has learned to speak the languages of both countries +with perfect facility, and is one of the lucky monopolists of his trade. +He employs three workmen; one of them, who is possessed of that peculiar +cast of countenance generally attributed to the children of Israel, has +been demurred to by the Guild,—and why? Because a Jew is legally +incapable of working in Hamburg. He is, however, allowed the usual +privileges on attesting that he is not an Israelite. + +Our master accommodates under his own roof one workman and his apprentice +Peter. The others, whom he cannot lodge, are allowed each one mark-banco +(fourteen pence) per week, to enable them to find a bed-chamber +elsewhere. They suffer a pecuniary loss by the arrangement. Hans sleeps +in a narrow box, built on the landing, into which no ray of heaven’s +light had ever penetrated. His bedding is a very simple affair. He is +troubled with neither blankets nor sheets. An “under” and an “over” bed, +the latter rather lighter than the former, and both supposed to be of +feathers, form his bed and bedding. Hans is as well off as others, so he +does not complain. As for the apprentice, Peter, it was known that he +disappeared at a certain hour every evening; and from his appearance when +he turned out in the morning, Hans was under the impression that he +wildly shot himself into some deep and narrow hole, and slept the night +through on his head. + +And how does Hans fare under his master’s roof? Considering the +reminiscences of his apprenticeship, he relishes his cup of coffee in the +morning; his tiny round roll of white bread; the heavy black rye-loaf, +into which he is allowed to hew his way unchecked; and the beautiful +Holstein butter. Not being accustomed to better food, it is possible +that he enjoys the tasteless, fresh boiled beef, and the sodden baked +meat, with no atom of fat, which form the staple food at dinner. Whether +he can comprehend the soups which are sometimes placed before him,—now +made of shredded lemons, now of strained apples, and occasionally of +plain water, with a sprinkling of rice, is another matter; but the +sourkraut and bacon, the boiled beef and raisins, and the baked veal and +prunes, are certain to be looked upon by him as unusual luxuries. + +The master presides at the table, and blesses the meat with the air of a +father of his people. Although workmen in Germany are little better than +old apprentices, this daily and familiar intercourse has the effect of +breaking down the formal barriers which in England effectually divide the +capitalist and the labourer. It creates a respectful familiarity, which +raises the workman without lowering the master. The manners of both are +thereby decidedly improved. + +Hans gradually learns other trade customs. His comrade falls sick, and +is taken to the free hospital, a little way out of the city. This +hospital is clean and well kept, but fearfully crowded. The elder +journeymen of the Guild are there too, and they comfort the sick man, and +hand him the weekly stipend, half-a-crown, allowed out of the sick-fund. +Hans contributes to this sick-fund two marks—two shillings and +fourpence—a quarter. He does it willingly, but the master has power to +deduct it from his wages in the name of the Guild. His poor sick friend +dies; away from home and friends—a desolate being among strangers. But +he is not, therefore, to be neglected. Every workman in the trade is +called upon to contribute his share—about sevenpence—towards the expenses +of the funeral; and the two senior, assisted by four other journeymen, in +full evening dress, attend his funeral. His effects are then carefully +packed up, and sent—a melancholy memorial of the dead—to his relations. + +From the same fund which relieves the sick, are the “wandering boys” also +assisted. But the “Geschenk” (gift), as it is called, is a mere trifle; +sometimes but a few pence, and in a large city like Berlin it amounts to +but twenty silver groschen—little more than two shillings. It is not +considered disgraceful to accept this donation; as all, when in work, +contribute towards the fund from which it is supplied. + +And what is the amount of wages that German workmen receive? In Hamburg +wages vary from five to eight marks per week, that is, from seven +shillings to ten and sixpence, paid monthly. In Leipsic they are paid +fortnightly, and average about ten shillings per week. In Berlin wages +are paid by the calendar month, and average twenty-four dollars (a dollar +is rather more than three shillings), for that period; so that a workman +may be said to earn about eighteen shillings a week, but is dependent on +his own resources for food and lodging. In Vienna the same regulation +exists, and wages range from five to eight guldens—ten to sixteen +shillings per week—paid weekly, as in England. But a workman in Vienna +may be respectably lodged, lighted, and washed for at the rate of +half-a-crown a week. In Berlin and Vienna married journeymen are to be +met with, but not in great numbers, and in smaller towns they may almost +be said to be unknown. Dr. Korth, in his address to his young friends, +the “travelling boys,” on this subject, emphatically says—“Avoid, in +God’s name, all attachments to womankind, more especially to those of +whom your hearts would say, ‘These could I love.’” And then the quaint +old gentleman proceeds to say a number of ungallant things, which are not +worth translating. + +No! the German workman is taught to hold himself free, that he may carry +out the law of his land to the letter; that he may return from his +travels at the appointed time “a wiser and a better man;” that he may +show proofs of his acquired skill in his trade, and thereupon claim the +master’s right and position. He is then free to marry, and is looked +upon as an “eligible party.” But how seldom does all this come to pass, +may the thousands who swarm in London and Paris; may the German colonies +which dot the American States, sufficiently tell. Many linger in large +cities till they feel that to return to the little native village, and +its old, poor, plodding ways, would be little better than burial alive; +and some return, wasted with foreign vice and purchased adversity, +premature old men, to die upon the threshold of their early homes. + +One more question—what are their amusements? It would be a long story to +tell, but certainly home-reading is not a prominent enjoyment among them. +German governments, as a rule, take care that the people’s amusements +shall not be interfered with. The workmen throng in dance-houses, +beer-cellars, cafés, and theatres, which are all liveliest and most +attractive on a Sunday; and, as they are tolerably cheap, they are +generally a successful lure from deep thinking or study. Besides, the +German workman has no home. If he stay there at all in holiday hours, it +is to draw, or model, or sing romances to the strumming of his guitar. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + + +HAMBURG TO LÜBECK. + +The bleak, icy winter of North Germany is past. We have trodden its +accumulated snows as they lay in crisp heaps in the streets of Hamburg; +and have watched the muffled crowd upon the frozen Alster, darting and +reeling, skating, sliding, and sleighing upon its opaque and motionless +surface. We have alternately loved and execrated the massive German +oven, which warmed us indeed, but never showed us a cheerful face. We +have sipped our coffee or our punch in the beautiful winter garden of +Tivoli, under the shade of lemon-trees, with fragrant flowers and shrubs +around us; and finally, have looked upon the ice-bound Elbe with its +black vessels, slippery masts, and rigid cordage, and seen the Hanoverian +milk lasses skimming its dun expanse laden with their precious burdens. +We have got over the slop and drizzle, and half-thawed slush, too; and +the boisterous March wind dashes among the houses; and what is better +than all, the fresh mornings are growing brighter and longer with every +returning sun. + +Away, then, out of the old city, alone on the flat, sandy road that lies +between Hamburg and Berlin. Here we are, with hope before us, resolution +spurring us on, and a twenty-eight pound knapsack on our backs. Tighten +the straps, my friend, and you will walk easier with your load. + +My journey as a workman on the tramp from Hamburg to Berlin I propose to +tell, as simply as I can. I have no great adventures to describe, but I +desire to illustrate some part of what has already been said about the +workmen in Germany, and I can do this best by relating, just as it was, a +small part of my own road experience, neither more nor less wonderful +than the experience which is every day common to thousands of Germans. + +I was very poor when I set out from Hamburg in the month of March, with +my knapsack strapped to my back, my stick in my hand, and my bottle of +strong comfort slung about my neck after the manner of a locket. I was +not poor in my own conceit, for I had in my fob—the safest pocket for so +large a sum of money—two gold ducats and some Prussian dollars: English +money, thirty-five shillings. I thought I was a proper fellow with that +quantity of ready cash upon my person, and a six weeks’ beard on my chin. + +Many adieus had been spoken in Hamburg at our last night’s revel, but a +Danish friend was up betimes to see me out of town. At length he also +bade the wanderer farewell, and for the comfort of us both my locket +having passed from hand to hand, he left me to tramp on alone, over the +dull, flat, sandy road. There was scarcely a tree to be seen, and the +sky looked like a heavy sheet of lead, but I stepped out boldly and made +steady progress. The road got to be worse; I came among deep ruts and +treacherous sloughs, and the fields on each side of the road were +flooded. In some parts the road was a sand swamp, and the walk became +converted into a gymnastic exercise; a leaping about towards what seemed +the hard and knobby places that appeared among the mud. This exercise +soon made me conscious of the knapsack, to which I was then not +thoroughly accustomed. It was not so much the weight that I felt, but +the tightness of the belt across the chest, which caused pain and +impediment of breathing. Custom, however, caused the knapsack to become +even an aid to me in walking. + +A sturdy young fellow who did not object to mud was pushing his way +recklessly behind me. I was soon overtaken, we exchanged kind greetings, +and jogged on together, shoulder to shoulder. He had been upon his +travels; had been in Denmark for two years, and had left Copenhagen to +return to his native village, that lay then only eight or ten miles +before us. What was his reason for returning? He was required to +perform military service, and for the next two years at least—or for a +longer time, should war break out—was doomed to be a soldier. He did not +think the doom particularly hard, and we jogged on together in a cheerful +mood until his knowledge of the ground became distressingly familiar, and +he illustrated portions of the scenery with tales of robbery and murder. +The scenery of the road became at every turn more picturesque. Instead +of passing between swampy fields, it ran along a hollow, and the ground +was on each side broken into deep holes with rugged edges; black leafless +bushes stood out from the grey and yellow sand, while farther away in the +background, against the leaden sky, there was a sombre fringe of thickly +planted fir-trees. The daylight, dim at noon, had become dimmer as +evening drew near; the grey sky darkened, and the tales of robbery and +murder made my thoughts anything but cheerful. As the hills grew higher +on each side of us, it occurred to us both that here was a fine place for +a murder, and I let my companion go before, handling my stick at the same +time as one ready to strike instantly if any injury were offered. I was +just demonstrative enough to frighten my companion. We were a mere +couple of rabbits. Each of us in his innocence feared that the other +might be a guilty monster, and so we were both glad enough to get out of +the narrow pass. On the other side of the glen the road widened, and my +companion paused at the head of a little path that led down to a deeper +corner of the hollow, and across the fields. That was his way home. He +had but a mile to go, and was already anticipating all the kisses of his +household. He wished me a prosperous journey; I wished him a happy +welcome in his village; and we shook hands like two young men who owed +amends to one another. + +He had told me before we parted that there were two houses of +entertainment not far in advance. Already I saw the red-tiled roof of +one, that looked like a respectable farm-house. From the door of that +house, however, I was turned away; and as the darkness of the evening was +changing into night, I ran as fast as I was able to the next place of +shelter. By the pump, the horse-trough, and the dirty pool I knew that +there was entertainment there for man and horse. I therefore raised the +wooden latch, and in a modest tone made my request for a bed. A vixenish +landlady from the midst of a group of screaming children cried to me, +“You can’t have a bed, you can have straw.” That would do quite as well, +I said. + +I sat down at a table in a corner of the large room, called for a glass +of beer, produced some bread and sausage that I had brought with me from +Hamburg, and made a comfortable supper. There was a large wood fire +blazing on the ample hearth, but the landlord and his family engrossed +its whole vicinity. The house contained no other sitting-room and no +other sleeping accommodation than the one family bedroom and the barn. + +While I was at supper there came in other wandering boys like myself. I +had escaped the rain, but they had not; they came in dripping: a stout +man, and a tall, lank stripling. The youth wore a white blouse and hat +covered with oil-skin; his trousers were tucked halfway up his legs, and +he had mud up to his ankles. We soon exchanged our scraps of information +about one another. The stout man was a baker from Lübeck on the way to +Hamburg; the stripling, probably not yet out of his teens, was part +brazier, part coppersmith, part tinman; had been three weeks on his +travels, and had come, like myself, from Hamburg since morning. He was +very poor. He did not tell us that; but he ordered nothing to eat or +drink, and except the draught of comfort that he got out of my bottle, +the poor fellow went supperless to bed. Not altogether supperless +though, for he had some smoke. We made a snug little party in the +corner, and talked, smoked, and comforted ourselves, after the children +had been put to bed, and while the landlord, landlady, and an old +grandfather told stories to each other in Low German by the fire. At +nine o’clock the landlord lighted his lantern, and told us bluffly that +we might go to bed. We therefore, having handed him our papers—passports +and wander-books—for his security and for our own, followed into the +barn. That was a place large enough to hold straw for a regiment of +soldiers. It was a continuation of the dwelling-house, sheltered under +the same roof. We mounted three rude ladders, and so got from floor to +floor into the loft. Having guided us safely thither, he quitted us at +once with a “good night;” taking his lantern with him, and leaving us to +make our beds in the thick darkness as we could. The straw was not +straw: it was short-cut hay, old enough to have lost all scent of hay, +and to have acquired some other scents less pleasing to the nose; hay, +trodden, pressed, and matted down, without a vestige in it of its ancient +elasticity. There was nothing in it to remind us of a summer tumble on +the hay-cock. The barn roof was open, and the March night wind whistled +over us. I took off my boots to ease my swollen feet; took my coat off +that I might spread it over my chest as a counterpane; and struggled in +vain to work a hole for my feet into the hard knotted bank of hay. So I +spent the night, just so much not asleep that I was always conscious, +dimly, of the snoring of the baker, and awoke sometimes to wonder what +the landlord’s cock had supped upon, for it was continually crowing in +its sleep, on the barn-floor below. When morning broke we rose and had a +brisk wash at the pump, scraped the mud from our boots, and breakfasted. +The baker and I had plain dry bread and hot coffee. The tinman +breakfasted on milk. He said it was better—poor fellow! he knew it was +cheaper. By seven o’clock we were all afoot again, the baker journeying +to Hamburg, the tinman and I road-companions to Lübeck. + +At noon, after a five hours’ walk, a pleasant roadside inn with a deep +gable roof and snug curtains behind its lattice windows, tempted me to +rest and dine. “We shall get a good dinner here,” I said; “let us go +in.” The tinman would hear of no such thing. “We must get on to +Lübeck,” he replied. “Two more hours of steady walking and we shall be +there.” Poor youth! At Lübeck he could demand a dinner at his herberge, +and he had no chance of any other. So we trudged on till the tall +turrets and steeples of Lübeck rose on the horizon. The tinman desired +to know what my intentions were. Was I going straight on to Berlin +without working? Should I seek work at Lübeck? If not, of course I +would take the _viaticum_. “I thought not,” I told him. “Ah, then,” he +said, “you have some money.” The viaticum is the tramp-money that may be +claimed from his guild by the travelling workman. Germans, like other +people, like to take pills gilded, and so they cloak the awkward incident +of poverty under a Latin name. + +Lübeck being in sight we sat down upon a grassy bank to make our toilet. +A tramp’s knapsack always has little pouches at the side for soap, +brushes, and blacking. We were not so near to the tall steeples as we +thought, and it took us a good hour and a half before we reached the city +gates. The approaches are through pretty avenues of young trees and +ornamental flower-plots. The town entrance at which we arrived was +simply a double iron gate, like a park gate in England. As we were about +to pass in, the sentinel beckoned and pointed us towards a little +whitened watchbox, at which we stopped to hand our papers through a +pigeon-hole. In a few minutes the police officer came out, handed to me +my passport with great politeness, and in a sharp voice bade the tinman +follow him. Such is the difference between a passport and a wander-book. +I, owner of a passport, might go whither I would: tinman, carrying a +wander-book, was marched off by the police to his appointed house of +call. I took full advantage of my liberty, and, as became a weary young +man with two gold ducats in his fob, went to recruit my strength with the +best dinner I could get. Having taken off my knapsack and my blouse, I +soon, therefore, was indulging in a lounge upon the sofa of one of the +best hotels in the sleepy and old-fashioned free city of Lübeck. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + + +LÜBECK TO BERLIN. + +By right of churches full of relics, antique buildings, and places +curiously named, Lübeck is, no doubt, a jewel of a town to antiquarians. +Its streets are badly paved, but infinitely cleaner than the streets of +Hamburg. I did not much wonder at that, for I saw no people out of doors +to make them dirty, when I exposed myself to notice from within doors as +a solitary pedestrian, upon my way to take a letter to a goldsmith in the +market place. The market place is a kind of exchange; a square building +with an open court in the centre, around which there is a covered way +roofed quaintly with carved timbers. In this building the mechanical +trades of Lübeck are collected, each trade occupying a space exclusively +its own under the colonnade. Here, all the tradesmen are compelled to +work, but are not permitted to reside. Each master has his tiny +shop-front with a trifling show of goods exposed in it, and his small +workshop behind, in which, at most, two or three men can be employed. In +some odd little nooks the doors of these boxes are so arranged, that two +masters cannot go out of adjoining premises at the same time without +collision. + +Though my friend in Lübeck was a stranger, as a brother jeweller he gave +me friendly welcome. Having inquired into my resources, he said, “You +must take the _viaticum_.”—“It is like begging,” I answered.—“Nonsense,” +he replied; “you pay for it when you are in work, and have a right to it +when travelling.”—“But I might find employment, on inquiry.”—“Do not be +alarmed, my friend; there is not a job to be done in the whole city.” I +was forced, therefore, by my friend’s good-natured earnestness, to make +the usual demand throughout the little group of goldsmiths, and having +thus satisfied the form, I was conducted to our Guild alderman and +treasurer. A little quiet conversation passed between them, and the +cash-box was then emptied out into my hand; it contained twenty-eight +Hamburg shillings, equal to two shillings in English money. + +I returned to my hotel and slept in a good bed that night. The morning +broke heavily, and promised a day’s rain. Through the lowering weather +and the dismal streets I went to the police office to get my passport +_viséd_ for Schwerin in Mecklenburg. Most dismal streets! The Lübeckers +were complaining of loss of trade, and yearned for a railway from Lübeck +to Hamburg. But the line would run through a corner of Holstein, and no +such thing would be tolerated by the Duke. The Lübeckers wanted the +Russian traffic to come through their town and on to Hamburg by rail. +The Duke of Holstein wished to bring it through his little port of Kiel +upon the Baltic. + +Too poor to loiter on the road, having got my passport _viséd_, I again +strapped the knapsack to my back, and set out through the long avenues of +trees over the long, wet road, through bitter wind and driving rain. +Soaked with rain, and shivering with cold, I entered the village of +Schöneberg at two o’clock, just after the rain had ceased, as deplorable +a figure as a man commonly presents when all the vigour has been washed +out of his face, and his clothes hang limp and damp about his body. +Wearied to death, I halted at the door of an inn, but was told +inhospitably—miserable tramp as I seemed, and was—that “I could go to the +next house.” At the next house they again refused me, already humbled, +and advised me to go to The Tall Grenadier. That is a house of call for +masons. I went to it, and was received there hospitably. My knapsack +being waterproof, I could put on dry clothes, and hang my wet garments +round the stove, while the uproarious masons—terrible men for beer and +music—comforted me with unending joviality. They got into their hands a +book of German songs that dropped out of my knapsack, and having +appointed a reader, set him upon the table to declaim them. Presently, +another jolly mason cried out over a drinking song—declaimed among the +others in a loud monotonous bawl—“I know that song;” and having hemmed +and tuned his voice a little, broke out into music with tremendous power. +The example warmed the others; they began to look out songs with +choruses, and so continued singing to the praise of wine and beauty out +of my book, until they were warned home by the host. I climbed a ladder +to my bedroom, and slept well. The Grenadier was not an expensive hotel, +for in the morning when I paid my bill for bed and breakfast, I found +that the accommodation cost me fourpence-halfpenny. + +Since it is my desire not to fatigue the reader of this uneventful +narrative, but simply to illustrate by a few notes drawn from my own +experience the life of a German workman on the tramp, I shall now pass +over a portion of the road between Hamburg and Berlin in silence. My way +lay through Schwerin; from Schöneberg to Schwerin is twenty-six English +miles, and we find it a long way. In reckoning distances, the Germans +count by “stunden”—_i.e._ hours—and two “stunden” make one German mile. +From experience, I should say that five miles English were about equal to +one mile German; but they vary considerably. Having spent a night in the +exceedingly neat city of Schwerin beside its pleasant waters, and under +the protection of the cannon in the antiquated castle overhead, I set out +for a walk of twenty miles onward to Ludwigslust. The road was a +pleasant one, firm and dry, with trim grass edgings and sylvan seats on +either side. The country itself was flat and dull, enlivened only now +and then by a fir plantation or a pretty village. Brother tramps passed +me from time to time with a cheerful salutation, and at three o’clock I +passed within the new brick walls of Ludwigslust; a town dignified as a +pleasure seat with a military garrison, a ducal palace, and an English +park. + +The inn to which I went in Ludwigslust, was the house of call for +carpenters. The carpenters were there assembled in great force, +laughing, smoking, and enjoying their red wine, which may have come from +France, for Mecklenburg is no wine country. It was the quarter-day and +pay-day of the carpenters, who were about to celebrate the date as usual +with a supper. I went to sit down in the small travellers’ room, and was +assailed instantly by the whole army of joiners, some with bleared eyes; +with flushed faces under caps of every shape and colour; and a flexible +pipe hanging from every mouth—Who was I?—What was I?—Whence did I +come?—Where was I born? and whither was I going? etc., etc. When they +had found out all about me and confirmed their knowledge by examination +of my passport, which one dull dog persisted in regarding as a book of +ballads, out of which he sang, I began to ask concerning food. “Nothing +warm in the house,” said the housefather, a carpenter himself. “There +will be a grand supper at six o’clock, and everything and everybody is +wanted in the preparation of it. Make yourself easy for the present with +brown bread and dripping, and a glass of beer, and then you can make your +dinner with us when we sup.” That suited me well enough. + +The carpenters flowed out into the street, to take a stroll and get their +appetites, leaving behind them one besotted man, who propped himself +against the oven, and there gave himself a lecture on the blessings of +equanimity under all circumstances of distress. + +“Do you sleep here to-night?” inquired the host. Certainly, I desired to +do so. “Then you must go to the police bureau for a permission.”—“But +you have my passport; is not that sufficient?”—“Not in Ludwigslust; your +passport must be held by the police, and they will give you in exchange +for it a ticket, which I must hold, or else I dare not let you have a +lodging.” I went to the police office at once; through the ill-paved +street into the middle of the town. I went by a large gravelled square, +which serves as a riding ground for the cavalry in the adjoining +barracks; and a long broad street of no great beauty, ending in a flight +of steps, led me then to the police office, and would have led me also, +had that been my destination, to the ducal palace. The palace fronts to +a paved square; it is a massive, noble edifice of stone, having before it +a fine cascade with a treble fall. To the left, across a green meadow, I +observed the church—the only church—a simple whitewashed building with a +colonnaded front. At the foot of the low flight of steps was the police +office, in which I found one man, who civilly copied my passport into a +book, put it aside, and gave me a ticket of permission to remain one +night in Ludwigslust. I was desired to call for my passport before +leaving in the morning. + +At seven o’clock there was no sign of supper. At eight o’clock the cloth +was spread in a long, low lumber-room at the back of the inn, and the +assembled carpenters took their seats before the board, or rather boards +supported upon tressels. I took my place and waited hungrily. Very soon +there was a great steam over the whole table sent up from huge tureens of +boiled potatoes; smaller dishes of preserved prunes, boiled also, +occupied the intervals. A bottle of red wine was placed for every two +men. We then began our meal with soup; thin, sorry stuff. Then came the +chief dishes, baked veal and baked pig’s head. The prunes were to be +eaten with the veal, which meat, having been first boiled to make the +soup, and then baked in a deep dish in a close oven to bring out some of +the faded flavour, was a sodden mass, and the whole meal was removed a +very long way from the roast fillet of veal and pickled pork known to an +Englishman. Our pig’s head was, however, capital,—no soup had been made +out of that. The carpenters, with assiduous kindness, heaped choice bits +upon my plate, and as I had not dined, I supped with energy. The drunken +man who had fallen asleep by the stove sat by my side with greedy looks, +eating nothing, for he had not paid his share; he was a man who drank +away his gains, and he received no pity. + +Then after supper there came toasts. The president was on his legs, all +glasses were filled; men ready. “Long live the Guild of carpenters! +Vivat h—o!” The ho! was a howl; the glasses clashed. “Long live all +carpenters! Vivat ho—o!” At ten o’clock there was a bustle and +confusion at the door, and a long string of lads marched, two and two, +cap in hand, into the room. These were all the carpenters’ apprentices +in Ludwigslust. Every quarterly night the hospitable carpenters have +them in after supper to be regaled with beer and cordials, and initiated +into the mysteries of jollity that are connected with the existence of a +master carpenter. “Long live all carpenters’ apprentices! Vivat +ho—o—o!” The apprentices having revelled in as much beer and spirits as +could be got through, shouting included, in a quarter of an hour, formed +double line again, and marched out under a fire of lusty cheers into the +street. Some jolly carpenters still lingered in the supper room, smoking +or singing choruses, or making partners of each other for mad waltzes +round the table to the music of their tongues. + +Longing for bed, I was obliged to wait until the landlord was at leisure +to attend to me. After I rose next morning, I waited for three hours +impatiently enough until the sleepy host had risen; for until I had +received my ticket back from him I was unable to get my passport and go +on. At length, however, I got out of the brick walls of Ludwigslust, and +marched forward under a clear sky on the way to Perleberg, my next stage, +distant about fifteen English miles. + +Having passed through two dirty, ill-paved towns, and being in some +uncertainty about the road, I asked my way of a short, red-faced man who, +being himself bound for the frontier station, favoured me so far with his +company. He was a post-boy whose vocation was destroyed, but who was +nevertheless blessed with philosophy enough to recognise the merits of +the railway system, and to point out the posts marking the line between +Berlin and Hamburg, with the comment that “the world must move.” It +seemed to be enough for him that he lived in the recollection of the +people on his old road-side, and that he could stop with me outside a +toll-gate, the first I had seen in Germany, sure of the production of a +bottle for a social dram, in which I cordially joined. Then presently we +came to a small newly-built village, the Prussian military station. A +sentinel standing silent and alone by his sentry box striped with the +Prussian colours, black and white, marked where the road crossed the +Prussian frontier. We passed unchallenged, and found dinner upon the +territory of the Black Eagle, in a very modest house of entertainment. + +Travelling alone onward to Perleberg, I stopped once more for refreshment +at a melancholy, dirty place, having one common room, of which the chairs +and tables contained as much heavy timber as would build a house. I +wanted an hour’s rest, for my knapsack had become a burden to me, and the +handles of the few tools I was obliged to carry dug themselves +relentlessly into my back. “White or brown beer?” asked the attendant. +Dolt that I was to answer Brown! They brought me a vile treacley +compound that I could not drink; whereas the Berlin white beer is a +famous effervescing liquor; so good, says a Berliner, that you cannot +distinguish it from champagne if you drink it rapidly with closed eyes, +and at the same time press your nose between your fingers. In the +evening I got to Perleberg, and walking wearily up the old, irregular +High Street, established myself at the Londoner Schenke—the London +Tavern. I found the parlour pleasant and almost private, the hostess +quiet and lady-like. While she was getting coffee ready for me, I paid +my call of duty upon the police; for though my passport had been _viséd_ +to Berlin in half a dozen places, the law required that I should not +sleep in a new kingdom without first announcing my arrival. + +At the upper end of the market place I found a red brick building with a +gloomy door, opening upon a broad stone staircase, by which I mounted to +the magistrate’s room. That was a lofty hall, badly lighted by two +little windows, and scantily furnished with a few seats. Behind a +railing sat the magistrate in a velvet skull-cap and black robe; a short +fat man with a satisfied face, but unsatisfied and restless eyes. Two +armed soldiers shared with him the space beyond the rail. Two townsmen, +hat in hand, were patiently waiting for their passes. Having mentioned +my business, I was told that I might wait; standing, of course. The +heavy quiet of the room was broken presently by the entrance of two young +workmen in clean blouses, bound upon an errand like my own, who hovered +in a tremulous condition near the doorway. + +The magistrate of Perleberg, after awhile, looked at my passport, and +asked “Have you the requisite amount of travelling money to show?” I had +not expected such a question, but the two gold ducats were still in my +fob, and I produced them with the air of a fine gentleman. One of the +soldiers took them in his hand, examined them and passed them to his +comrade, who passed them to the townspeople. “They are good,” said the +soldier, as he put them back into my hand.—“Is that enough?” I asked, as +though there had been thousands of such things about other parts of my +person, for I saw that I had made an impression. “That will do,” said +the magistrate, “you may sit down.” O miserable homage before wealth! +They would not keep me standing. + +It had grown dark, and a lighted candle had been placed upon the desk of +the chief magistrate, a most diligent man in his office, who, seeing no +description of my person in the passport, set to work with the zest of an +artist upon the depiction of my features. Examining each feature +minutely with a candle, he put down the results of his researches, and +then finally read off his work to me with this note at the bottom—“The +little finger of his left hand is crooked.” + +The hostess of the London Tavern, when I got back to my quarters, must +have heard about my wealth. That pleasant little maiden lady told me all +about her house, and how it had been named afresh after the King of +Prussia slept there on his way to London, where he was to act as sponsor +to the Prince of Wales. I, who had been turned away from the doors of +the humblest inns, was flattered and courted by a landlady who had +entertained His Majesty of Prussia. The neatest of chambermaids +conducted me to an elegant bedchamber—“her own room,” the little old maid +had said as I left her—and there I slept upon the couch sacred to her +maiden meditations, among hangings white as snow. + +The next morning I went out into Perleberg,—a ricketty old place, full of +rats and legends. There is a colossal figure in the market-place of an +armed knight, eighteen or twenty feet high, gazing eternally into the +fruit baskets below. He has his head uncovered, his hand upon his sword, +and is made of stone; but who he is nobody seemed to know; I was only +told that the statue would turn any one to stone who fixed his eyes upon +it in intense gaze for a sufficiently long time. I visited the chief +jeweller, a wonderful man, who was said to have visited nearly all parts +of the known world except London and Paris. I found him with one +workman, very busy, but not doing much; and he was very civil, although +manifestly labouring under the fear that I had come to ask for a +“_viaticum_.” I did not. I went back to eat a hearty breakfast at the +London Tavern, where I found the mistress gracious, and the handmaid very +chatty and coquettish. From her talk I half concluded that I was +believed to be an Englishman who travelled like a journeyman for the +humour of the thing: the English are so odd, and at the London Tavern +they had not been without experience of English ways. My display of the +gold pieces must have been communicated to them overnight, by one of the +townspeople who heard me tell the magistrate at what inn I was staying. + +From Perleberg to Keritz was eighteen miles. Upon the road I came up +with a poor fellow limping pitiably. He had a flat wooden box upon his +back, being a tramping glazier; and he made snail’s progress, having his +left thigh swollen by much walking. I loitered with him as long as my +time allowed, and then dashed on to recover the lost ground. Passing at +a great pace a neat road-side inn, singing the while, a jolly red face +blazed out upon me from the lattice window. “Ei da! You are merry. +Whither so fast?”—“To Berlin.”—“Wait an instant and I’m with you.” Two +odd figures tumbled almost at the end of the instant out of the house +door. One a burly man with a red face and a large moustache, the other a +chalky young man with a pair of Wellington boots slung round his neck. +They were both native Prussians on the way from Hamburg to Berlin, having +come through Magdeburg, travelling, they declared, at the rate of about +six-and-twenty English miles a day. These Prussians will talk; but at +whatever rate my friends might have travelled, they were nearly dead +beat. They had sent on their knapsacks by the waggon, finding them +unmercifully heavy. The stout traveller had a white sack over his +shoulders, his trousers tucked up to his knees, and his Wellington boots +cut down into ankle-jacks to ease his chafed shins, that were already +dotted with hectic red spots from over-exertion. His young friend +carried his best Wellingtons about his neck, and wore a pair of cracked +boots, through which I could see the colour, in some places, of his dark +blue socks, in other places of his dark red flesh. Both were lamed by +the same cause, inflammation of the front of the leg, in which part I +also had begun to feel some smartings. + +We got on merrily, in spite of our legs, and overtook two very young +travellers, whom I recognised as the flutterers before the presence of +the magistrate at Perleberg. One proved to be a bookbinder, the other a +wood-turner. They were fresh upon their travels, and their clean white +blouses, the arrangements of their knapsacks, and the little neatnesses +and comforts here and there about them, showed that they had not yet +travelled many days’ march from a mother’s care. Then we toiled on, +until our elder friend grew worse and worse about his feet, laughing and +joking himself out of pain as he was able. Finally, he could go no +farther, and we waited until we could send him forward in a passing cart. + +He being dispatched, we travelled on, I and my friend with the +boot-necklace, till we met a little crowd of men in blouses, little queer +caps, knapsacks, and ragged beards, all carrying sticks. They were +travelling boys like ourselves, bound from Berlin to Hamburg. “Halloo!” +they cried. “Halloo!” we answered, shouting in unison as we approached +each other. When we met, a little friendly skirmish with our sticks was +the first act of greeting. A storm of questions and replies then +followed. We all knew each other in a few minutes; carpenters, turners, +glovers were there,—not a jeweller among them but myself. We parted +soon, for time was precious. “Love to Berlin,” cried one of them back to +us. “My compliments to Hamburg,” I replied; and then we all struck up an +amatory chorus of the “Fare thee well, love” species, that fitted +properly with our position. + +Continuing upon our way we found our lame companion smoking a pipe +comfortably outside the village inn at Warnow. His cart was resting +there for bait to man and horse. We baited also and discussed black +bread-and-butter, and Berlin white beer, till the cart carried away our +moustachioed friend, never again, perhaps, to meet us in this world, and +not likely to be recognised by his moustachios in the other. + +My chalky comrade, who was also very lame, lay on the ground in a +desperate condition before the day was over, and it was with some +difficulty that I brought him safe by nightfall into Wusterhausen. He +had become also mysterious, and evidently inquisitive as to the state of +my finances, exhibiting on his own part hasty glimpses of a brass medal +wrapped up in fine wool, which he wished me to look upon as a double +ducat. When we got to the inn-door, my friend made a hurried proposition +very nervously, which made his purpose clear. There were sixty English +miles of road between us and Berlin; he was knocked up, and a fast coach, +or rumbling omnibus, accommodating six insides, would start for Berlin in +the morning. He thought he could bargain with the coachman to take us to +Berlin for a dollar—three shillings—a piece, if I did not mind advancing +his fare, because he did not want to change the double ducat until he got +home. I put no difficulty in his way, for he was a good fellow, and +moreover would be well able to help me in return, by telling me the +addresses of some people I depended upon finding in Berlin. He +proceeded, therefore, into the agonies of bargaining, and was not +disappointed in his expectation. At the price of a dollar a-piece we +were packed next morning in a frowsy vehicle, tainted with much +tobacco-smoke, to which he came with his swollen feet pressed only +half-way down into the legs of his best Wellingtons. The ride was long +and dull, for there was little prospect to be caught through the small, +dirty window; and the air tasted of German tinder. From a cottage villa +on the roadside, a German student added himself to the three passengers +that started from Wusterhausen. He came to us with a pipe in his mouth, +unwashed, and hurriedly swaddled in a morning gown, carelessly tied with +a cord about the middle. After a few miles travelling the vehicle was +full, and remained full—until we at last reached Berlin. + +There I found no work, and wandered listlessly through the museums and +picture-galleries; for a troubled mind is a poor critic in works of art. +So I squeezed myself into the Police Court, meaning to leave Berlin, and +had the distinction of being beckoned, before my turn out of the reeking +mass of applicants for passports, because my clothes had a respectable +appearance, and I wore a showy pin in my cravat. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + + +BERLIN.—OUR HERBERGE. + +Fairly in Prussia! We have passed the frontier town of Perleberg, and +press onward in company with a glovemaker of Berlin, last from +Copenhagen, whom we have overtaken on the road towards Wusterhausen. + +“Thou wouldst know, good friend, the nature of my prospects in Berlin +when I arrive there? Have I letters of recommendation—am I provided in +case of the worst? Brother, not so! I am provided for nothing. I dare +the vicissitudes of fortune. I had a friend in Hamburg, a Frenchman, who +departed thence five months ago for Berlin, under a promise to write to +me at the lapse of a month. He has never written, and he is my hope. +That is all. Let us go on.” + +“I have a cousin,” says the glovemaker, “who is a jeweller in Berlin. I +will recommend you to him. His name is Kupferkram.” + +“Strange! I knew a Kupferkram in Hamburg; a short, sallow man, with no +beard.” + +“A Prussian?” + +“Yes.” + +“It cannot be that my cousin was in Hamburg and I not know it. I was +there twelve months.” + +“Why not? A German will be anywhere in the course of twelve months +except where you expect to find him.” + +“His name is Gottlob—Gottlob Kupferkram.” + +“The very man! Does he not lisp like a child, and his father sell +sausages in the stadt?” + +“Donnerwetter! Ja!” + +This may not appear to be of much importance, but to me it is everything; +for upon the discovery of this vender of sausages depends my meeting with +my best and only friend in Berlin, Alcibiade Tourniquet, of Argenteuil, +the Frenchman before mentioned. It is at least a strange coincidence. + +We came into the capital of Prussia in the eil-wagen from Wusterhausen. +We had tramped the previous day a distance of good two-and-thirty English +miles, through a flat, uninteresting country, and being dead beat, had +made an anxious bargain with the driver of the “Fast-coach,” to carry us +to Berlin for a dollar a-head. It was late in the evening as we rumbled +heavily along the dusty road, and through the long vista of thick +plantations which skirt the public way as you enter the city from +Spandau. We dismounted, cramped and weary, from our vehicle, and my +companion, a native of Berlin, unwilling to disturb his friends at that +late hour, and in his then travel-worn guise; and I myself being unknown +and unknowing in the huge capital, led the way at once to “Our Herberge.” + +The English term “House of Call” is but an inadequate translation of the +German “Herberge.” It must be remembered that the German artisan is +ruled in everything by the state; for while English workmen, by their own +collective will, raise up their trade or other societies, in whatever +form or to whatever purpose their intelligence or their caprices may +dictate to them, the German, on the contrary, discovers among his very +first perceptions that his position and treatment in the world is already +fixed and irrevocable. He becomes numbered and labelled from the hour of +his birth, and the gathering items of his existence are duly recorded—not +in the annals of history—but in the registry of the police. Thus he +finds that the State, in the shape of his Zunft or Guild, is his Sick +Benefit Club and his Burial Society, his Travellers’ Fund and his Trade +Roll-Call; aspires indeed to be everything he ought to desire, and +certainly succeeds in being a great deal that he does not want. + +I have a little paper at my hand presented to me by the police of +Dresden, which may help to elucidate the question of associations of +workmen in Germany. It is an “Ordinance” by which “We, Frederick +Augustus, by God’s grace King of Saxony, &c., &c., make known to all +working journeymen the penalties to which they are liable should they +take part in any disallowed ‘workmen’s unions, tribunals, or +declarations;’” the said penalties having been determined on by the +various governments of the German Union. “Independently,” says the +Ordinance, “of the punishment” (not named) “which may be inflicted for +the offence, the delinquent shall be deprived of his papers, which shall +be sealed up and sent to his home Government. On his release from +prison(!) he shall receive a restricted pass for his immediate and direct +return home; and on his arrival there he shall be strictly confined +within its limits, nor ever be permitted to travel into the other states +of the German Union, until by a long course of repentance and good +behaviour his home government may think him worthy of such a favour.” It +will easily be understood from this that mechanics’ or other +institutions, independent of the government, are unknown. + +The German Herberge is the home of the travelling workman. It should be +clean and wholesome; there should he be provided, together with simple +and nutritious food, every necessary information connected with his +trade, and such aid and reasonable solace as his often wearisome +pilgrimage requires. All this is to be rendered at a just and +remunerative price, and it is usually supposed that the fulfilment of +these requisites is guaranteed by the care and surveillance of the +police. But this is a fiction. + +Our Herberge is in the Schuster-gasse; and a vile, ill-conditioned, +uncleanly den it is; nor, I am sorry to say, are its occupants, in +appearance at least, unworthy of their abode. But we must not be +uncharitable; it is a hard task this tramping through the length and +breadth of the land; and he is a smart fellow who can keep his toilet in +anything like decent condition amid the dust, the wind, the pelting rain +or the weltering sunshine that beset and envelope him on the implacable +high road. As there is no help, we take our places among the little herd +of weary mortals without a murmur; among the ragged beards and uncombed +locks; the soiled blouses and travel-worn shoe-leather; the horny hands +and embrowned visages of our motley companions. We are duly marshalled +to bed at eight o’clock with the rest; huddled into our loft where nine +beds await some sixteen occupants; and having undergone the customary +examination as to our freedom from disease and vermin, are safely locked +in our dormitory, to be released only at the good will of the “Vater” in +the morning. + +Your German is truly a patient animal; the laws of his Guild compel him +to wander for a period of years, but the laws of his country do not +provide him with even the decencies of life upon the road. With his +humble pack, and his few hoarded dollars, he sets forth upon the road of +life; he is bullied and hustled by the police upon every step of his +journey; burdened with vexatious regulations at every halting-place; and +while the law forbids him to seek any other shelter than that of his +Herberge, it leaves it to the mercy of his host to yield him the worst +fare, spread for him the vilest litter, and to filch him of his scanty +savings in the bargain. What, in Heaven’s name! are the accommodations +for which we in the Schuster-gasse are called upon to pay? There is the +common room with its rude benches and tables; a stone-paved court-yard +with offices, doubtless at one period appropriated as stabling, but the +ground floor of which is now penned off for some few choice biped +occupants; while the story above, reached by a railed ladder, and, in +fact, no more than a stable loft, is nightly crammed to the door with +sweltering humanity. For the purpose of cleanliness there is no other +toilette apparatus than the iron pump in the yard; and for the claims of +nature and decency, no better resource than is afforded by the sheltering +arch of the nearest bridge over the Spree. + +The goldsmiths and jewellers in Berlin are too inconsiderable a body to +have a Herberge of their own, and therefore we crowd in with the turners, +the carpenters, and the smiths; the glove-makers, bookbinders, and others +who claim the hospitalities of the asylum in the Schuster-gasse. Let us +take a sketch or two among them that may serve as a sample of the whole. + +We have a sturdy young carpenter from Darmstadt, bound to Vienna, or +wherever else he may find a resting-place, who makes his morning and +almost only meal of _Kümmel_—corn spirit prepared with caraways—and brown +bread; and whose great exploit and daily exercise is that of lifting the +great table in the common room with his teeth. An iron-jawed fellow he +is, with every muscle in his well-knit body to match. Fortunately, +though a Goliath in strength, he is as simple-minded and joyous as a +child. + +Then comes a restless pigmy of a Hungarian, a jeweller, last from +Dresden, full of life and song, but who complains ruefully that the +potatoes of Berlin are violently anti-dyspeptic. This suffering wanderer +from the banks of the Theiss is also vehemently expressive in his opinion +that the indiscriminate use of soap is injurious to the skin, and, as a +matter of principle, never uses any. + +Near him stands a lank native of Lübeck, a fringe-maker, whose whole +pride and happiness is concentrated in his ponderous staff of pilgrimage; +a patriarchal wand, indeed! rightly bequeathed as an heirloom from father +to son, and in its state and appearance not unworthy of the reverence +with which it is regarded. It is no flimsy cane to startle flies with, +but a stout stem some six feet long, duly peeled, scraped and polished, +and mounted with a chased head of massive silver. + +Close by his side an effeminate leather-dresser from Carlsruhe sits +stroking his yellow goat’s beard. Instead of strapping his knapsack to +his back like a stalwart youth, after the manly fashion of his +forefathers when on the tramp, he trundles behind him as he goes, a +little iron chaise loaded with his pack and worldly equipage. + +There broods a sombre cordwainer from Bremen, gloating over his enormous +pipe, in form and size like a small barrel, raising an atmosphere for +himself of the fumes of coarse uncut _knaster_. He has doffed his white +kittel (blouse), and has wriggled himself into a short-waisted, +long-skirted, German frock-coat, which, having been badly packed in his +knapsack, exhibits every crease and wrinkle it has acquired during a +three weeks’ march. Know, friend, that the skilful folding of apparel, +to be worn on his arrival in every important town, is one of the +necessary acquirements of the German wanderer. + +Add to these a rollicking saddler from Heldesheim, who figures in a full +beard, a rich cluster of crisp, brown curls, his own especial pride, and +the object of deep envy to his less hirsute companions; and who, far too +fond of corn brandy-wine, goes about singing continually the song of the +German tramp, “_Ich Liebe das liederliche Leben_!”—This vagabond life I +delight in!—an earnest, quiet student, who, for reasons of economy, has +made the Schuster-gasse his place of refuge; and a dishevelled +button-maker, last from Hamburg, who has just received his geschenck, or +trade-gift, amounting to fifteen silver groschens, about eighteenpence in +English money; and who ponders drearily over it as it lies in the palm of +his hand, wondering how far this slender sum will carry him on the road +to Breslau, his native place, still some two hundred miles away. + +We have among us the wily and the simple, the boisterous and the patient, +the taciturn and the unruly; but though they will sing songs before they +go to sleep, and swagger enormously among themselves, they become as +still and meek as doves at the voice of the Herberges-Vater (the father +of the Herberge), and quake like timid mice beneath the eye of the +police. + + + + +CHAPTER X. + + +A STREET IN BERLIN. + +Berlin is a fine city, let the wise Germans of the East say what they +will. It may be deficient in those monumental records of “the good old +times,” the crumbling church, the thick-walled tower, the halls and +dungeons of feudal barbarism, but it abounds with evidences of the vigour +and life of modern taste and skill; and instead of daily sinking into +rotten significance, like some of its elder brethren, is hourly growing +in beauty and strength. It has all the attributes of a great +city—spacious “places,” handsome edifices, broad and well-paved streets. +Its monuments, while they are evidences of great cultivation in the arts, +tell of times and events just old enough to be beyond the ken of our own +experiences, yet possess all the truth and vividness of recent history. +“Der Alter Fritz,” Blucher, Zieten, Seyditz, Winterfeldt, Keith, and “Der +Alter Dessauer”—what names are these in Prussian story! + +The entrance into Berlin, on the western side, from Spandau, by the +Brandenburger Gate, is the finest that the capital of Prussia has to +present. A thickly-planted wood skirts the road for a mile or two before +you reach the city. The trees are dwarfed and twisted, for they cannot +grow freely in the dense, eternal sands of this part of North Germany, +but they form a rough fringing to the white road; while the noble gate +itself, built of massive stone in the Doric order of architecture, and +surmounted by an effective group of a four-horse chariot, within which +stands the figure of Victory raising the Roman eagle above the almost +winged steeds, might grace the entrance to the city of the Cæsars. + +This Brandenburger Thor, as it is called, is a copy of the Propylæa of +the Acropolis of Athens, but built on a much grander scale. The central +gate is of iron, eighteen feet high; of the fourteen land gates of Berlin +it is immeasurably the finest, and it acquires a still deeper interest +when some enthusiastic Berliner, pointing to the prancing steeds upon the +summit of the arch, tells you how Napoleon in his admiration had ordered +this self-same group to be transported to Paris in 1807, to ornament a +French “_arch de triomphe_,” and how “We, the Prussians,” had torn the +spoil from the eagle’s very nest in 1814, to replant it on its original +site. A glow of military ardour flushes over your heart at the recital, +and the echoes of a hundred battles thunder in your ears. + +Through this gate, which is in the Dorotheen Stadt, after crossing the +Square of Paris, we enter upon one of the handsomest streets in the +world, and one bearing the most poetical of titles: +“Unter-den-Linden,”—“Under the Lime Trees!”—there is something at once +charming and imposing in the very sound. Nor is this appellation an +empty fiction, for there stand the lime trees themselves, in two double +rows with their delicate green leaves rustling in the breeze, forming a +two-fold verdant allée, vigorous and fragrant, down the centre of the +street, and into the very heart of the city. Unter-den-Linden itself is +two thousand seven hundred and fifty-four feet in length, and one hundred +and seventy-four in width; but it extends, under another title, for a +much greater distance. This is the summer evening’s ramble of your true +Berliner, and not a little proud and pompous he is as he parades himself +and family beneath the leafy canopy; and here, in the snowy winters, when +the city lies half buried in the snowdrift, the gaily dressed sleighs go +skimming under the leafless branches, filling the bright cold air with +the music of their bells. + +As we proceed deeper into the city, we find gay shops and stately houses. +A noble range of buildings appropriated to the foreign embassies rises +upon the left hand, and is succeeded by the Royal Academy; while some +distance beyond stands the University, an edifice of a rather sombre +appearance, although graced with columns and pilasters of the Corinthian +order. To enter it you traverse a spacious court-yard, and it may be +that the nature of its contents impart a melancholy character to the +building itself; for, on ascending its stone staircase, and wandering for +a brief period among its bottles and cases, its wax models and human +preserves, we find them of so unsightly and disgusting a character that +we are happy to regain the echoing corridor which had led us into this +huge, systematised charnel-house. + +As we cross to the opposite side of the broad street, the Royal Library +faces us; a massive temple of stored knowledge, polyglot and universal; +while to the right of it, in the centre of a paved space of considerable +extent, stands the Catholic church of St. Hedwig, at once a model of +Roman architecture, and the emblem of the liberty of faith. + +Close at hand is the Opera-house, once already purified by fire, like so +many of its companion edifices, and only lately rebuilt. Some idea may +be formed of the extent of its interior from the fact that it affords +accommodation for three thousand spectators. Our way lies onward still. +What noble figure is this? Simple but commanding in character and +attitude, it fixes your attention at once. Look at the superscription. +Upon a scroll on its pedestal are the words “Frederick William III. to +Field Marshal Prince Blucher of Wahlstatt, in the year 1826.” Yes! the +impetuous soldier, figured in eternal bronze by the first sculptor of +Prussia, Rauch himself, here claims and receives the admiration of his +countrymen. Bare-headed stands the old warrior, but is duly crowned with +laurels on every returning anniversary of the well remembered day, the +18th of June. + +Leaving the sanctuary of the Christian Deity, the heathen temple of +Terpsichore, and the effigy of the renowned soldier, thus grouped +together, we traverse the fine road, and pause for a moment to look at a +severe but elegant structure, erected, we are told, in exact imitation of +a Roman _castrum_, or fortress, and therefore eminently in character with +the purpose for which it is intended. The smart Prussian infantry are +grouped about its pillared entrance, which is graced also by two statues +of military celebrities—for this is the royal guard-house. + +“Der Alter Fritz.” “Old Fred!” This is the familiar title bestowed upon +a great monarch; and there is something in this nickname a thousand times +more telling to the ear and heart of a Prussian than the stately +appellation of “Frederick the Great.” The former is for their own hearts +and homes, the latter for the world. And for the world also is the noble +equestrian statue upon which we now gaze. It is a question whether a +work of sterling genius does not speak as effectively to the eye of the +uninitiated as to that of the most inveterate stickler for antecedents of +grace and technicalities of beauty. This statue of Frederick of Prussia +tells upon the sense at once, because it is true to art as established by +ancient critics, but more so, because it is imitated nature, which art +too often only presumes to be, reckoning too much upon fixed rules and +time-honoured dogmas. It is noble and impressive, because it is _like_; +no antiquated Roman figure in _toga_ and _calcei_, but the representation +of the living man. + +Das Zeughaus, or arsenal, which we now approach, is a massive +quadrangular building, and the warlike character of its architectural +decorations strikingly indicate the nature of its contents. We pass +through the open gate into an inner court, and looking round upon the +sombre walls which inclose us, see the fearful faces of dead and dying +men, cut in stone, which the taste or caprice of the architect has +considered their fittest ornament. There is something strangely original +and attractive in the grotesque hideousness of these heads, agonised with +pain, scowling in anger, or frightful with their upturned eyes in the +rigidity of death, all bleached and shadowed as they are by the +vicissitudes of the weather. + +Within the arsenal we find walls of glistening steel, columns of lances, +architectural and other devices worked out in dagger blades and pistol +handles; while battered armour and faded draperies, in the shape of +pennons and standards, storm and battle-tattered, help to make up +trophies, and swing duskily in every corner. + +After a rapid survey, we are about to leave this magazine of Bellona, +when we are struck by the sight of an object which reminds us so +completely of one of those “gorgeous processions” in Eastern “spectacles” +at home, that we wonder for a moment whether it be “part of the play,” or +tangible, sober reality. Yes! placed upon a scarlet cushion lies an +enormous gilt key (such a one as clown in the pantomime might open his +writing-desk with, or such as hangs over a locksmith’s door), and above +it glistens a golden legend to the effect that the treasure beneath was +presented to “William of Prussia by his loving cousin, Nicolas, Emperor +of all the Russias,” and is no less a prize than the identical key of the +captured city of Adrianople! Has, then, the Russian Emperor so many such +trophies of Eastern spoliation that his own museums at Petersburg are +insufficient to contain them? + +Up the steep way towards the residence of the Prince of Prussia, guarded +by its zealous sentries, we pursue our course, and reach the first bridge +we have yet seen, being one of the very many which span the Spree as it +meanders through the city. This river does not present an imposing +appearance in any part of Berlin. The Berliners may shake their heads, +and talk of the “Lange Brücke,” but let them remember that in no part +does the Spree exceed two hundred feet in width. Moreover, the manner in +which it is jammed up between locks, like a mere canal—one is puzzled +sometimes to know which is canal and which river—does not improve its +appearance, while the use to which some of its bridges are appropriated +does not increase its purity. Passing onwards we come upon the Schloss +Platz, which is itself half a garden, and find ourselves in the midst of +an assemblage of public wonders—the Museum, the Protestant Cathedral, a +handsome basin and fountain (the pride of the true Berliner), the +Exchange, and the Old Palace. + +The Museum stands on the left-hand, gracefully shaded by young trees. +Traversing this miniature grove, which guards its entrance, and passing +by the lofty fountain scattering its spray upon the leaves, we come upon +an elegant vase of gigantic proportions, sculptured from a solid mass of +native granite. Ascending into the body of the building by a sombre +stone staircase, we reach the Gallery of Antiquities and the Museum of +Paintings. The latter, though no doubt very valuable, appeals +unsatisfactorily to me (not presuming to be a critic), and is of a +peculiarly rigid, ecclesiastical character, of the early school; +certainly one of its chief features is a crowd of martyred St. +Sebastians. + +The portion of the Museum appropriated to painting, unlike the National +Gallery of London, and the Pinakothek at Munich, receives a lateral +light. Imagine a long gallery divided into small cabinets by partitions, +which advance only so far from the outer wall as to leave a commodious +passage along its entire extent; imagine also that each of these cabinets +has a lofty window, and that on its side walls (the partitions) are +suspended the paintings for exhibition,—and you will form something like +a notion of the general arrangement. An effective _ensemble_ is out of +the question; but, on the other hand, every painting is well lighted, and +a better opportunity is afforded for quiet observation and study. + +We descend into the “Platz,” and proceed towards the palace, a huge +rectangular building, striped with columns, dotted with windows, and +blackened as few continental edifices are. + +The palace of the kings of Prussia—few as they have been—has surely its +thrilling historical records. Doubtless; and through them all the spirit +of the _one_ king, “Der Alter Fritz,” shines, all but visible. Here did +he hold his councils, here sit in private study; this was his favourite +promenade, here did he take his rest. These details light up the +imagination; but when we have traversed the echoing galleries, admired +the gilt mouldings and the costly hangings, the quaint furniture and +beautiful pictures: when we have, in short, become wrought into +enthusiasm by the clustering memories of a great monarch, by traits and +traditions which fill the very air, what do we see next? We are ushered +into a private chamber, and called upon to express our especial reverence +for a miserable figure, dressed up in the Great Frederick’s “own +clothes;” seated in his own chair, stuck into his identical boots; his +own redoubtable stick dangling from its splayed fingers, and the whole +contemptible effigy crowned by the very three-cornered hat and crisp wig +he last wore! The spirit of mountebankism overshadows the spirit of the +mighty man, and his very relics are rendered ridiculous. + +We turn from this puppet-show to contemplate with a melancholy wonder the +truly iron records of the almost life-imprisonment of Baron von Trenck. +For here, a silent memorial of at least one bad act of the Prussian +monarch, are iron cups and utensils engraved with scrolls and legends; +the work, not of the skilled artisan with tempered and well-prepared +gravers, but of the patient hands of a state prisoner with a mere nail +sharpened on the stony walls of his dungeon, and the painful result of +long and weary years. A strange contrast! the waxen image of the jailer, +tricked out in his last garments; the solitary labours of his captive. + +Thinking more of the soldier and less of the king, we quit the palace and +turn on the left hand once more towards the waters of the Spree. Here is +one other monument we must not forget in our hasty ramble through the +main artery of the Prussian capital. In the centre of the Lange Brücke +(the Long Bridge) stands the bronze figure of the last Elector and Duke +of Brandenburg, Frederick William, the grandfather of Frederick the +Great. It is a well-executed equestrian statue, but to my mind the four +figures clustered round the pediment, on whose hands still hang the +broken chains of slavery, are better works of art, as well as admirable +emblems of the energetic materials—the oppressed but spirited inhabitants +of a few small states—of which the now powerful kingdom of Prussia was +originally formed. + +We might follow the course of the wandering river over whose waters we +now stand, and thus penetrate into the heart of the old city, but we +should find little that was picturesque, and a great deal that was very +unclean. Indeed, in spite of its general beauty, Berlin is lamentably +deficient in the modern and common-place article, sewerage. But even +this will come; and in the meantime we may well ponder over the rapid +growth of the city, since the brief space of time that has elapsed since +it was the little town of Cologne upon the Spree, to distinguish it from +the then greater one of Cologne upon the Rhine. + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + + +BERLIN.—POLICE AND PEOPLE. + +It may not appear correct to an English reader to couple the people and +the police thus cavalierly together, but in Prussia, as in the rest of +Germany, the police are so completely bound up in, and their services so +entirely devoted to, the every-day existence, as well as any more +prominent acts of the people, that it is impossible to proceed far with +the one without falling into the company of the other. A few facts may +serve to illustrate this point. + +We (Alcibiade and I) are here duly received into the employment of Herr +Stickl, Jeweller to the Court. This may appear a matter of no importance +to any but ourselves; nevertheless the “Herr” is bound duly to notify the +circumstance to the police, with date and certification, and must also +instruct the Forsteher, or chief of the Guild of goldsmiths and +jewellers, of the matter, that we may be properly registered by +corporation and police. This is item number one. But I am still +unhoused, and here my good friend and fellow-workman, Alcibiade +Tourniquet, native of Argenteuil, stands me in good stead. Tourniquet +claims to be a Parisian, and has lofty notions about style and +appearances. He lives in Jerusalem Strasse in a grand house, with a +_porte cochère_, and a wide, scrambling staircase. He offers me a share +in his apartment, which is light and commodious; and as his landlady +generously consents to provide an additional bed for my accommodation, on +condition of doubling the rent, that matter is satisfactorily arranged. +Alcibiade has experiences to relate, and this is one of them: + +“Pense donc!” cries he. “I arrive in Berlin a perfect stranger. Without +work and without friends, I find living at an hotel too expensive: Bon!—I +look about me for some quiet little chambre garni, and finding one to my +liking, up a great many stairs, genteelly furnished, and not too dear, I +move myself and my little baggage into it without further inquiry. Bon! +Imagine me on the first night of residence, snugly coiled up between my +two feather beds in true German fashion, dreaming of la belle France, and +of the grapes at Argenteuil, when rap, rap, rap! comes a tantamarre at +the chamber door, and I start up wide awake all at once, and hear a +shuffling noise outside, and a rough voice which calls to be admitted. +‘Diable! qu’est que tu veux, donc?’ I inquire. But before I can make up +my mind whether to admit them or not, crack! goes the door, and half a +dozen Prussian police take my citadel by storm, and surround me in a +moment. I complain indignantly, but it is of no use. I hurl at them—not +my boots—but all the hard words I know of in their own abominable +language, together with a considerable quantity of good French, but all +of no avail; for they make me dress myself and carry me off bodily with +bag and baggage to the police-bureau. And what was it all about, pense +tu? Just this: they said I had got into a suspected house, and that it +was for my own protection I was made a prisoner of! Nom de Dieu! that +might be all very well, but there was no necessity to pull me out of bed +to take care of me; and it was not till I had shown that my papers were +all _en regle_, and threatened an appeal to the French Ambassador, that +they gave me these soft words, and expressed their regret at my +discomfiture. Du reste, what can you expect? they are only Prussians.” +This is item number two. + +I too have a little experience of the Prussian Police; let me relate it. +Being regularly domiciled, it was necessary that I should inform them of +my residence. I stand within the dingy little bureau, and hand over a +certificate from my landlord in proof of my place of habitation. The +liveried functionary casts it back to me, with the curt remark, “It is +imperfect, the year is omitted.” And so it is; and I trudge back to my +landlord to have this rather important omission rectified. Returning, in +haste, I re-present my document, corrected and revised, for inspection. +“This won’t do,” exclaims the irate registrar of apartments; “the day of +the week should be mentioned.” Dull-headed landlord! unlucky lodger!—it +should have been written, “_Wednesday_, the 19th of,” etc. This looks +something like quibbling, however, and no doubt I express as much by my +countenance as I leave the bureau, and race back to Jerusalem Strasse +once more. For the third time I offer my credentials. “This will do,” +observes the official, with a ferocious calmness, “but I must have a +duplicate of this, for the convenience of entry and reference.” Now, by +all the gilded buttons on the best coat of the British Ambassador, this +is too bad! and I say as much. “You have nothing of this sort in +England, I suppose?” sneers the clerk-policeman. “No, thank Heaven!” I +exclaim, as I rush home once more to obtain the copy of my certificate. +This is item the third. To a Prussian, all this is a mere matter of +course, yet to such a degree does this home interference extend, that the +_porte cochère_ of our grand house, and the door of every other house in +Jerusalem Strasse, is officially closed at nine o’clock in the evening; +and no man can enter his own residence after that hour without first +applying to the police-watchman, who retains in his keeping, literally +and in fact, the “key of the street.” + +While on my way to Berlin, I had been frequently warned by Germans, +natives of other states, of the boastful and deceptive character of the +Prussians. Such was the general opinion expressed; and although I never +found them deceptive, the epithet of boastful seemed only too truthfully +bestowed. A Prussian is naturally a swaggerer; but then, unfortunately +for other Germans, who are swaggerers too, the Prussian has something to +boast of. He feels and thinks differently to those around him; for, by +the very impetus of his nature, he stands on a higher position. It is +because Prussia has progressed like a giant, while the rest of Germany +has been lagging behind, or actually losing ground, that every individual +in her now large area seems personally to have aided in the work, and +acts and speaks as if the whole ultimate result depended upon his own +exertions. This naturally leads to exaggeration, both in words and +actions, and your true Berliner figures as a sort of Ancient Pistol, with +more words than he knows properly what to do with, and more pretensions +than he is able to maintain. One striking characteristic of the people +of Berlin is the Franco-mania, which prevails among all classes. This +may be the result of the decided leaning towards France and its +literature, which was evinced by their almost idolised king, Frederick +the Great; but one would think that the events of the last war with +Napoleon must have effectually obliterated that. But, no; in their +language, their literature, their places of public amusement, their +shops, and promenades, French words sound in your ears, or meet your eye +at every turn; while the sometimes ridiculous mimicry of French habits +forces itself upon your attention. There would be nothing so very +remarkable in this, if the opinion generally expressed of the French +people were consonant with it; but while the Berliner apes the Parisian +in language and manners, he never fails to express his derision, and even +contempt, for the whole French nation on every convenient opportunity. I +suspect, however, that these remarks might not inaptly apply to the +inhabitants of the British capital, as well as those of Berlin. + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + + +KREUTZBERG.—A PRUSSIAN SUPPER AND CAROUSE. + +Herr Kupferkram the elder, I have done thee wrong. I have set thee down +as a mere vender of sausages, and lo! thou holdest tavern and +eating-house; dispensing prandial portions of savoury delicacies in flesh +and vegetable, at the charge of six silver groschens the meal. I beg a +thousand pardons; and as a sincere mark of contrition, will consent to +swallow thy dinners for a while. + +“Will the Herrn Tourniquet and Tuci,” said the Frau Kupferkram one +morning, with a duck and a smirk, “do us the honour of supping with us +this evening? There will be a few friends, for this is the ‘nahmenstag’ +of our dear Gottlob, now in England.” + +“Liebe Frau Kupferkram, we shall be delighted!” + +I ought, perhaps, to observe, that in Prussia, although a Protestant +country, the Catholic custom of commemorating the “saint” rather than the +“birth-day,” is almost universal. The former is called the “nahmenstag,” +or name-day. + +But the day is yet “so young,” that nothing short of the most inveterate +gluttony could bend the mind at present upon the evening’s festivity; and +moreover, the Berlin races have called us from the workshop and the cares +of labour, and our very souls are in the stirrups, eagerly panting for +the sport. My dear reader, how can I describe what I never saw? Did we +not expend two silver groschens in a programme of the races, and gloat +over the spirited engraving of a “flying” something, which was its +appropriate heading, and which you would swear was executed somewhere in +the neighbourhood of Holywell Street, Strand? Did we not grow hotter +than even the hot sun could make us, in ploughing through the sand, and +commit some careless uncivilities in struggling among the crowd that +hemmed the course as with a wall? See? Of course not! Nobody at the +Berlin races ever does see anything but the mounted police and the dust. +Yes, sir, lay out two dollars in a “card” for the grand stand, and fix it +in your hat-band like a turnpike ticket, and you may saunter through the +whole police-military cordon; but be one of the crowd, and trust to no +other aid than is afforded by your own eyes, and the said cordon will be +the extent of your vision. + +A fig for the races! we will go and see the Kreutzberg instead. Our way +lies through the Halle gate—Halle, a town that belonged to the Saxons +before the French invasion, but lost through their adherence to Napoleon, +is now the seat of a Prussian university—and by the Place of the Belle +Alliance. What “alliance?” The alliance of sovereigns against +destruction, or of people against tyranny? One and both; but while the +union of the former has triumphed over the common leveller, the latter, +by whose aid it was effected, still drag their unrelenting chains. The +Kreutzberg is consecrated to the same magniloquent union, and bears upon +its head a military monument illustrative of the triumph of a roused and +indignant people against a great oppression; but alas! it does not record +the emancipation of that same people from intestine slavery. But that is +their business and not ours. + +The Kreutzberg stands about a mile and a half from the city gates, and +rears its grey height like a mountain amid the general level, commanding +a prospect of thirty miles around. Berlin, half garden, half palace, +lies at your feet, rising majestically from the sandy plain, and +irregularly divided by the winding Spree. The surrounding country, by +its luxuriance, gives evidence of the energy of an industrious race +struggling against a naturally barren soil. Turning our eyes upwards +upon the military monument which graces the summit of the hill, we cannot +repress our gratification at its beauty. A terrace eighty feet in +diameter rises from the bare ground, and in its centre, upon a +substructure of stone, towers an iron temple or shrine in the turreted +Gothic style, divided into twelve chapels or niches. In each recess +stands a figure, life size, emblematical of the principal battles +(defeats included) fought in the campaigns of 1813, 1814, and 1815. A +noble cluster of idealised military heroism they stand; some in the +stubborn attitude of resistance, others in the eager impetuosity of +attack, all wonderfully spirited. When you have warmed your imagination +into a glow by the sight of these effigies of war, read and ponder over +this inscription:— + +“The Sovereign to his People, who at his summons magnanimously poured +forth their Blood and Treasure for the Country. In Memory of the Fallen, +in Gratitude to the Living, as an Incitement to every future Generation.” + +One is tempted to add, “and of sacred promises still unfulfilled.” There +is a beautiful garden and saloon called the Tivoli, close at hand, and +from our heroics we soon slide into the peaceful enjoyment of a “baisser” +and a cup of coffee; lounging luxuriantly among the flowers till the hour +approaches for our departure. + +We are a snug little party of a dozen, not including Herr Kupferkram and +the Frau, who will insist upon waiting on us. There is the smug +master-butcher from round the corner, who has a very becoming sense of +his own position in society; two mild-spoken bookseller’s clerks, who +scarcely find their voices till the evening is far advanced; my friend +and fellow-tramp the glovemaker; a spruce little model of a man, with the +crispest hair, and the fullest and best trimmed moustache in the world, +and who is no doubt a great man somewhere; a tremendous fellow of a +student, who talks of cannon-boots, rapiers, and Berliner Weiss Bier; and +an individual whose only distinguishing feature is his nose, and that is +an insult to polite society. The rest have no characteristics at all. + +But ah! shall I forget thee, the beautiful Louise!—the affianced of +Gottlob, the blonde, the coquettish, and the gay! Have you not asked me, +in half confidence (Alcibiade being present), whether the German +“_geliebte_,” is not changed in English into “_süsses herz_,” +“sweet-heart,” as Gottlob had told you in his last letter from London? +And you think the sentiment “so pretty and poetical!” And so it is; but +we dunderheads in England have used the word so often that we have half +forgotten its meaning. + +Down we sit to supper; commencing with a delicate gravy soup and liver +fritters; following up with breaded pork-chops and red saurkraut; +continuing upon baked veal and prunes; not forgetting the _entremets_ of +green pease and finely-sliced carrots stewed in butter together; going on +with a well-made sallad; and winding up with a syllabub and preserves. +Hah! Bread unlimited, and beer without discretion. How can we sing +after all that and yet we do, and talk unceasingly. The tables are +cleared; and, accompanied by a beautiful tinkling of tiny bell-shaped +glasses, the china punch-bowl, odorous with its steaming orange fluid, is +placed at the head of the table. How the meek bookseller’s clerks shine +out! They are all voice now. And we drink a “Lebe hoch!” to Gottlob far +away; and to Gottlob’s mother, and to Gottlob’s father, chinking our +glasses merrily every time, and draining them after each draught on our +thumb nails, to show how faithfully we have honoured the toasts. We +shout “Vivat h-o-o-o;” till the old German oven quakes again. + +“Sing, fair Louise, I prithee sing!” Louise is troubled with a cold, of +course; and, after due persuasion, lisps and murmurs some incoherent +tremblings; exceedingly pretty, no doubt, if we could only make out what +they meant. Then the student, who, although diminutive, has the voice of +a giant, shouts a university song with the Latin chorus:— + + “Edite, bebite, collegiales, + Post multa sæcula procula nulla!” + + “Eat ye then, drink ye then, social companions, + Centuries hence and your cups are no more!” + +The mildest of the clerks comes out well with Kotzebue’s philosophical +song:— + + “Es kann ja nicht immer so bleiben, + Hier unter den wechselnden Mond; + Es blüht eine Zeit und verwelket, + Was mit uns die Erde bewhont.” + + “It cannot remain thus for ever, + Here under the changeable moon; + For earthly things bloom but a season, + And wither away all too soon.” + +The spruce gentleman with the crisp hair throws back his head, and with +closed eyes warbles melodiously:— + + “Einsich bin ich nicht allein.” + + “Alone I’m not in solitude.” + +The butcher has forgotten his dignity, and joins vigorously in every +chorus. At this crisis Louise gracefully retires, leaving us to our +replenished bowl. + +“My friends!” shouts the student, mounting on a chair, “listen to me for +a moment.” And then he plunges into an eloquent discourse upon the +beauties of fraternity, and the union of nations, concluding his harangue +by proposing a “Lebe hoch” to Alcibiade and myself. Alcibiade is +decidedly the lion of the evening, and bears his honours gracefully, like +a well-tamed creature. “Se sollen leben! Vivat ho—o!” it roars in our +ears, and amid its echoes we duly acknowledge the compliment. + +“That’s beautiful!” exclaims the student, whose name, by the bye, is +Pimblebeck. “And now grant me one other favour. Thou Briton, and thou +son of France, let us drink brotherhood together. What say ye? Let it +be no longer ‘you’ and ‘yours’ between us, but ‘thou’ and ‘thine.’” +Having reached the affectionate stage of exhilaration, we enter at once +into the spirit of the proposal, and each in his turn, glass in hand, +locking his arm in that of the enthusiastic Pimblebeck, drinks eternal +friendship: to love truly; to defend valiantly; and to address each other +by no other title than that of “thou” and “thee” for the rest of our +lives. + +I confess to a certain obliviousness here; a mental haze, amid which the +mingled airs of “Rule Britannia” and the “Marsellaise” float +indistinctly. But above all, and through all, with terrible +distinctness, tones the voice of Pimblebeck; his boyish form dilated into +the dimensions of a Goliath, as he pours forth the words of a Prussian +revolutionary song, some few of which stand out in letters of fire in my +memory still, thus:— + + “Prinzen vom Land hinaus, + Denn kommt der Bürger Schmaus; + Aristokraten + Werden gebraten; + Fürsten and Pfaffen die werden gehangt!” + + “Drive out the prince and priest, + Then comes the burger’s feast; + Each aristocrat + Shall broil in his fat, + And nobles and bigoted bishops be hanged.” + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + + +FAIR TIME AT LEIPSIC. + +From Berlin to Leipsic by rail, in an open carriage, is not the most +interesting journey in the world. Whirr, whizz, burr! away we hum +through the keen Spring air, between pleasant banks and dark fir-woods, +not very rapidly indeed, for we travel under government regulations, but +pleasantly enough if it were not for the sparks and the dust. There are +few objects of interest on our route, till we perceive the towers of +Wittenberg rising out of the hollow on the left, and we are at once +buried in a dream about the simple monk of Eisleben, who, in his struggle +against the papal authority, grew into the gigantic proportions of a +Luther. + +At Köthen we change carriages, for we are on the Saxon frontier. With a +snort and a roar, we start upon our journey over the dull waste, which +can be described in no better way than by the single word repeated: sand, +sand, sand. And now it comes on to rain, and my thin blouse is but a +sorry shred to withstand the cold, dead drizzle. By degrees the heavy +night clouds wrap themselves round us, fold by fold, till we see the +engine fire reflected on the ground like a flying meteor; and the forms +of lonely trees on the roadside come upon us suddenly, like spectres out +of the darkness. + +“Have you a lodging for the night, friend?” inquires a kind voice near +me, speaking to my very thoughts. + +“No. I am a stranger in Leipsic.” + +“And your herberge?” + +“I know nothing of it.” + +The inquirer is a little man with a thin face, and a voice which might be +disagreeable, were it not mellowed by good nature. He tells me, then, +that he is a jewel-case maker, and has no doubt that I shall find a ready +shelter in the herberge of his trade till the morning, if I am willing to +accept of it. It is in the Little Churchyard. In spite of this ominous +direction I shake the good man heartily by the hand, and, although I lose +him in the darkness and confusion of the railway-station, cling mentally +to the Little Churchyard as a passport to peace and rest. I don’t know +how it is that I escape interrogation by the police, but once out of the +turmoil of the crowd, I find myself wandering by a deep ditch and the +shadowy outline of a high wall, seeking in vain amid the drizzling mist +for one of the gates of the city. When almost hopeless of success, a +welcome voice inquires my destination; and, under the guidance of a +worthy Saxon, I find myself in Kleine Kirche Hof at last. There is the +herberge in question, but with no light—welcoming sign!—for it is already +ten o’clock, and its guests are all in bed. Dripping with rain, and with +a rueful aspect, I prefer my request for a lodging. The “vater” looks +dubiously at me out of the corner of one eye, till, having inspected my +passport, he brightens up a little, and thinks he can find me a bed, but +cannot break through the rules of his house so far as to give me any +supper. It is too late. + +Lighting a small lantern he leads the way across a stone-paved yard, and, +opening one leaf of the folding-doors of a stable at its upper end, +inducts me at once into the interior. It also is paved with stones, is +small, and is nearly choked up with five or six bedsteads. The vater +points to one which happily is as yet untenanted, and says, “Now, make +haste, will you? I can’t stop here all night.” Before I have time to +scramble into bed we are already in darkness, and no sooner is the door +closed than my bed-fellows, who seemed all fast asleep a moment before, +open a rattling fire of inquiries as to my parentage, birthplace, trade, +and general condition; and having satisfied all this amiable questioning +we fall asleep. + +We turn our waking eyes upon a miserable glimmering which finds its way +through the wooden bars of our stable-door; but it tells us of morning, +of life, and of hope, and we rise with a bound, and are as brisk as bees +in our summary toilet. With a dry crust of bread and a cup of coffee, we +are fortified for our morning’s work. I have a letter of introduction +upon Herr Herzlich of the Brühl, at the sign of the Golden Horn, between +the White Lamb and the Brass Candlestick. Every house in Leipsic has its +sign, and the numbers run uninterruptedly through the whole city, as in +most German towns; so that the clown’s old joke of “Number One, London,” +if applied to them, would be no joke at all. + +I leave the gloomy precincts of Little Churchyard, and descending a +slight incline over a pebbly, irregular pavement, with scarcely a sign of +footpath, arrive at the lower end of the Brühl. There is a murmur of +business about the place, for this is the first week of the Easter Fair, +but there are none of those common sounds usually associated with the +name to English ears. No braying of trumpets, clashing of cymbals, or +hoarse groaning of gongs; no roaring through broad-mouthed horns, +smacking of canvass, or pattering of incompetent rifles. All these +vulgar noises belonging to a fair, are banished out of the gates of the +city: which is itself deeply occupied with sober, earnest trading. + +Leipsic has the privilege of holding three markets in the year. The +first, because the most important, is called the Ostermesse, or Easter +Fair, and commences on Jubilee Sunday after Easter. It continues for +three weeks, and is the great cloth market of the year. The second +begins on the Sunday after St. Michael, and is called Michialismesse. It +is the great Book Fair, is also of three weeks’ duration, and dates, as +does the Easter Fair, from the end of the twelfth century. The New +Year’s Fair commences on the First of January, and was established in +fourteen hundred and fifty-eight. Curiously enough, the real business of +the Fair is negotiated in the week preceding its actual proclamation; it +is then that the great sales between manufacturers and merchants, and +their busy agents from all parts of the continent, are effected, while +the three weeks of the actual Fair are taken up in minor transactions. +No sooner is the freedom of the Fair proclaimed than the hubbub begins; +the booths, already planted in their allotted spaces—every inch of which +must be paid for—are found to be choked up with stock of every +description, from very distant countries: while every town and village, +within a wide radius, finds itself represented by both wares and +customers. + +It is not, however, all freedom even at fair time. The guild laws of the +different trades, exclusive and jealous as they are, are enforced with +the utmost severity. Jews, in general, and certain trades in +particular,—shoemakers, for example,—are not allowed the same privileges +as the rest; for their liberty to sell is restricted to a shorter period, +and woe to the ambitious or unhappy journeyman who shall manufacture, or +expose for sale, any article of his trade, either on his own account or +for others, if they be not acknowledged as masters by the Guild. Every +such article will be seized by the public officers, deposited in the +Rathhaus, and severe punishment—in the shape of fines—inflicted on the +offender. The last week of the Fair is called the pay-week; the Thursday +and Friday in this week being severally pay and assignation days. The +traffic at the Easter Fair, before the establishment of railways, was +estimated at forty millions of dollars, but since, by their means, +increased facilities of transit between Leipsic and the two capitals, +Berlin and Dresden, have been afforded, it has risen to seventy millions +of dollars, or ten millions five hundred thousand pounds sterling. + +In the meantime, here we are in the Brühl, a street important enough, no +doubt, so far as its inhabitants and traffic are concerned, but neither +beautiful nor picturesque. The houses are high and flat, and, from a +peculiarity of build about their tops, seem to leer at you with one eye. +Softly over the pebbles! and mind you don’t tread on the pigeons. They +are the only creatures in Leipsic that enjoy uncontrolled freedom. They +wriggle about the streets without fear of molestation; they sit in rows +upon the tops of houses; they whirl in little clouds above our heads; +they outnumber, at a moderate estimate, the whole human population of the +city, and are as sacred as the Apis or the Brahmin bull. As we proceed +along the Brühl, the evidences of the traffic become more perceptible. +Square sheds of a dingy black hue line one side of the way, and are made +in such a manner, that from being more closed boxes at night, they +readily become converted into shops in the daytime, by a falling flap in +front, which in some cases is adjusted so as to perform the part of a +counter. These booths form the outer depositories of the merchandise of +the fair, and are generally filled with small and inexpensive articles. +The real riches accumulated in Leipsic during these periods, are stowed +in the massive old houses: floor above floor being filled with them, till +they jam up the very roof, and their plenitude flow out into the street. +The booths, where not private property, are articles of profitable +speculation with the master builders of the city. They are of planed +deal painted, and are neatly enough made. They are easily stowed away in +ordinary times, and, when required, are readily erected, being simply +clammed together with huge hooks and eyes. + +We have not proceeded half-way down the Brühl, when we are accosted by a +veritable child of Israel, who in tolerably good English requests our +custom. Will we buy some of those unexceptionable slippers? In spite of +my cap and blouse, it is evident that I bear some national peculiarity +about me, at once readable to the keen eyes of the Jew; and upon this +point, I remember that my friend Alcibiade, of Argenteuil, jeweller, once +expressed himself to me thus: “You may always distinguish an Englishman,” +said he, “by two things: his trousers and his gait. The first never fit +him, and he always walks as if he was an hour behind time.” + +We are at the sign of the Golden Horn. Its very door-way is blocked up +for the moment by an enormous bale of goods, puffy, and covered with +cabalistic characters. When we at length enter the outer gate of the +house, we find ourselves in a small court-yard paved with stone and open +to the sky, but now choked with boxes and packages, piled one upon the +other in such confusion, that they appear to have been rained from above, +rather than brought by vulgar trucks and human hands. Herr Herzlich, +whose house this is, resides on the third floor. As we ascend the +winding stair to his apartments, we perceive that the building occupies +the four sides of the courtyard, and that on the third floor a wooden +gallery is suspended along one side, and serves as a means of connection +between the upper portions of the house. Queerly-shaped bundles, and +even loose goods, occupy every available corner; and as we look down from +the gallery into a deep window on the opposite side, we perceive a +portly, moustachioed gentleman busily counting and arranging piles of +Prussian bank-notes, while heaps of golden coin, apparently Dutch ducats, +or French louis d’or, are built up in a golden barricade before him. We +pause before the door of Herr Herzlich, master goldsmith and house-owner, +and prepare to deliver our letter of introduction. They are trying +moments, these first self-presentations; but Herr Herzlich is a +true-hearted old Saxon, who raises his black velvet skullcap with one +hand, as I announce myself, while with the other he lowers his silver +spectacles from his forehead on to his nose. Then, with all sorts of +comforting words, as to my future prospects in Leipsic, he sends me forth +rejoicing. + +Once more in the open street, we pass up the crowded way into the +market-place. A succession of wooden booths lines the road; and many of +the houses have an overhanging floor resting on sturdy posts, which makes +the footpath a rude colonnade. Here are piled rolls and bales of cloth, +while the booths are crammed with a heterogeneous collection of articles +of use and ornament diversified beyond description. A strange knot of +gentlemen arrests our attention for a moment. They are clad in long +gowns of black serge, and wear highly-polished boots reaching to the +knee. Some have low-crowned hats, others a kind of semi-furred turban, +but they all have jet black hair arranged in innumerable wiry ringlets, +even to their beards. They are Polish Jews, and trade chiefly in pearls, +garnets, turquoises, and a peculiar sort of ill-cut and discoloured +rose-diamonds. + +The market-place is scarcely passable for the crowd, and the wooden +booths are so thickly studded over its whole space, as to allow of only a +narrow footway between them. Here we see pipes and walking-sticks, +enough not only for the present, but for generations unborn. Traversing +the ground by slow degrees, we bend towards the Dresden gate, and come +upon the country people, all handkerchief and waistcoat, who line the +path with their little stores of toys, of eggs, butter, and little pats +of goats’-milk cheese. Here is a farmer who has straggled all the way +from Altenburg. He wears a queer round-crowned hat, with the rim turned +up at the back; a jacket with large pockets outside, a sort of trunk +hose, and black boots reaching to the knee. A little beyond him is a +band of musicians with wind instruments, in the full costume of the +Berg-leute, or mountaineers of Freiberg. With their jackets of black +stuff, trimmed with velvet of the same hue, and edged at the bottom with +little square lappets; their dark leggings and brimless hats, they look +like a party of Grindoff the miller’s men in mourning. + +As we approach the gates, the stalls and wares dwindle into +insignificance, until they disappear altogether; and so we pass out of +the city to the picturesque promenades which surround it. Afar off we +hear the booming and occasional squeal of the real Fair. It is not +without its drollery, and, if not equal to “Old Bartlemy” in noise and +rude humour, has a word to say for itself on the point of decency. It +is, however, but child’s play after all, and abounds with toys and games, +from a half-penny whistle to an electric machine. Leipsic is now in its +waking hours; but a short time hence her fitful three weeks’ fever will +have passed away, and, weary with excitement, or as some say, plethoric +with her gorge of profits, she will sink into a soulless lethargy. Her +streets will become deserted, and echo to solitary footsteps; and whole +rows of houses, with their lately teeming shops, will be black and +tenantless, and barred and locked in grim security. The students will +shine among the quiet citizens; the pigeons will flap their wings in +idleness, and coo in melancholy tones as they totter about the streets; +and the last itinerant player (on the flageolet, of course) will have +sounded his farewell note to the slumbering city. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + + +DOWN IN A SILVER MINE. + +The sojourner in Leipsic, while strolling through its quaint old streets +and spacious market-place, will be attracted, among other peculiarities +of national costume, by one which, while startling and showy, is still +attractive and picturesque. The wearer is most probably a young man of +small figure and of pallid appearance. He is dressed in a short jacket, +which is black, and is enriched with black velvet. The nether garments +are also black. His head is covered with a black brimless hat, and a +small semicircular apron of dark cloth is tied, not before, but behind. +This is one of the Berg-leute, mountain people; he comes from the +Freiberg silver district, and is attired in the full dress of a miner. + +Doubtless, these somewhat theatrically attired mountaineers hold a +superior position to the diggers and blasters of the earth. The dress +is, perhaps, more properly that worn in the mountains, than that of the +miners themselves. Still, even their habiliments, as I afterwards +learned, are but a working-day copy of this more costly model; and the +semicircular apron tied on behind, is more especially an indispensable +portion of the working dress of the labouring miner. + +From Leipsic, the mines are distant about seventy English miles. We—who +are a happy party of foot-wanderers bound for Vienna—spend three careless +days upon the road. Look at this glorious old castle of Altenburg, +gravely nodding from its towering rock upon the quaint town below. It is +the first station we come to, and is the capital of the ancient dukedom +of Saxon-Altenburg. Look at the people about us! Does it not strike you +as original, that what is here called modest attire, would elsewhere be +condemned as immoral and ridiculous? Each of the males, indeed, presents +an old German portrait, with short plaited and wadded jacket, trunk +breeches, and low hat, with a rolled brim. But the women! With +petticoats no deeper than a Highlandman’s kilt, and their legs thus +guiltless of shoes or stockings, the bust and neck are hideously covered +by a wooden breastplate, which, springing from the waist, rises at an +angle of forty-five degrees as high as the chin; and on the edge of it is +fastened a handkerchief, tied tightly round the neck. A greater +disfigurement of the female form could scarcely have been devised. Yet, +to these good people, it is doubtless beauty and propriety itself; for it +is old, and national. + +Through pretty woods and cultivated lands; beside rugged, roadside dells, +we trudge along. We halt in quiet villages, snug and neat even in their +poverty; or wend our way, in the midst of sunshine, through endless +vistas of fruit-laden woods, the public road being one rich orchard of +red-dotted cherry-trees: purchasable for a mere fraction, but not to be +feloniously abstracted. Through Altenburg, Zwickau, Oederon, and +Chemnitz; up steep hill paths, and by the side of unpronounceable +villages, until, on the morning of the fourth day, we straggle into +Freiberg. + +Freiberg is the walled capital of the Saxon ore mountains, the +Erzgebirge; the centre of the Saxon mining administration. One of its +most spacious buildings is the Mining Academy, which dates from 1767. +Here are rich collections of the wonderful produce of these mountains; +models of mining machines, of philosophical and chemical apparatus; class +and lecture rooms, and books out of number. Here Werner, the father of +geology, and Humboldt, the systematiser of physical geography, were +pupils. The former has bequeathed an extensive museum of mineralogy to +the Academy, which has been gratefully named after its founder, the +Wernerian Museum. + +Freiberg holds up its head very high. The Mining Academy stands one +thousand two hundred and thirty-one feet above the sea, although this is +by no means the greatest altitude in the long range of mountains, which +form a huge boundary line between the kingdoms of Saxony and Bohemia. +The general name for the whole district is the Erzgebirg-Kreis—the circle +of ore mountains—and truly they form one vast store of silver, tin, lead, +iron, coal, copper, and cobalt ores; besides a host of chemical compounds +and other riches. The indefatigable Saxons have worked and burrowed in +them for more than seven hundred years. + +We proceed to the Royal Saxon Mining Office, and request permission to +descend into the “bowels of the land.” This is accorded us without +difficulty, and we receive a beautiful specimen of German text, in the +shape of a lithographed Fahrschein, or permission to descend into +Abraham’s Shaft and Himmelfahrt, and to inspect all the works and +appliances thereunto belonging. This Fahrschein especially informs us, +that no person, unless of the Minerstand (fraternity of miners), can be +permitted to descend into the Zechen or pits, who is not eighteen years +old; nor can more than two persons be intrusted to the care of one guide. +We cheerfully pay on demand the sum of ten silver groschens each (about +one shilling), for the purpose—as we are informed in a note at the bottom +of the Fahrschein—of meeting the exigencies of the Miners’ Pension and +Relief Fund. + +The mine we are about to inspect, which bears the general title of +Himmelsfurst—Prince of Heaven—is situated near to the village of Brand. +How fond these old miners were of Biblical designations! and what an +earnest spirit of religion glowed within them! There is another mine in +the vicinity, at Voightberg, called the Old Hope of God; but we must +recollect that Freiberg was one of the strongholds of early +Protestantism, and that the first and sternest of the reformers clustered +about its mountains. They have a cold, desolate look; and we think of +the gardens we have left at their bases, and of the forests of fir-trees +which wave upon some of the loftier pinnacles of these same Erzgebirge. +Nor are the few men we meet of more promising appearance: not dwarfed nor +stunted, but naturally diminutive, with sallow skins and oppressed +demeanour. How different are the firm, lithe, sun-tanned mountaineers, +who breathe the free air on the summits of their hills! + +We are near the entrance of the mine; and, entering the neat, wooden +office of the Schachtmeister, or mine-controller, we produce our +credentials. Having signed our names in a huge book (in which we +decipher more than one English name), we are passed to the care of an +intelligent-looking guide; who, although still in early manhood, is of +the same small and delicate growth observable in the miners generally. + +Our guide, providing himself with small lanterns and an ominous-looking +bundle, leads the way out of the Schachtmeister’s office to another +portion of the same building. Here are heaps of dark grey “macadamised” +stones;—silver and lead ores just raised from the pit; over whose very +mouth we are unknowingly standing. A windlass is in the centre of the +chasm; and it is by means of this windlass that the metalliferous +substance is raised to the surface in square wooden boxes. Here the +dressing of the ores commences; boys cluster in all directions, under the +wooden shed, and in oilier sheds beyond that. Here the ores are picked +and sorted, washed and sieved, and, we believe, crushed or pulverised, +according to the amount of metal contained in them, till they are in a +fit state for the smelting furnace. We are not admitted to a minute +inspection of these processes; but, under the direction of our guide, +turn towards the mouth of the pit which we are to descend. Ere we leave +the shed, we pick out a small block of ore as a memorial of the visit, +and are astonished at its weight; bright yellow, and dull lead-coloured +crystals gleam over its surface; and a portion of the gneiss, from which +it has been broken, still adheres to it. + +We follow our guide across a dusty space towards a wooden building with a +conical roof; and, as we approach it, we become conscious of, rather than +hear, the sweet, melancholy sound of a bell, which, at minute intervals, +tones dreamily through the air. Whence comes that sad sound? In the +centre of the shed is a square box, open at the top; and immediately +above hangs the small bell; thence comes the silvery voice. + +“For what purpose is this bell?” we inquire of our guide. + +“It is the bell of safety.” + +“Does it sound a warning?” + +“No, the reverse; its silence gives the warning. The bell is tolled by a +large water-wheel, immediately below the surface. By means of this +wheel, and others at greater depths, the whole drainage of this mine is +effected. If, by any means, these waterwheels should cease to act, the +bell would cease to sound, and the miners would hasten to the day, for no +man could tell how soon his working might be flooded.” + +“And can it be heard throughout the mine?” + +“Through this portion of it. Probably the water acts as a conductor of +the sound; but the miners listen earnestly for its minute tolling.” + +Toll on, thou messenger of comfort! May thy voice ever tell of safety to +the haggard toiler, deep in the earth! + +Our guide now directs us to attire ourselves in the garments disgorged +from the portentous-looking bundle. They consist of a pair of black +calico trousers, a dark, lapelled coat, a leathern semicircular apron, +buckled on behind—the strap of which serves to hook a small lantern on in +front—and a terrible brimless felt hat, which we feel to be a curse the +moment we put it on, and which we never cease to anathematise, up to the +instant when we take it off. These habiliments being drawn over our +ordinary clothing, do not facilitate our motions, or help to keep us in +so cool a state as might be desirable. + +Over the edge of the square box, and down a stone staircase cut through +the solid granite, we follow our guide. We pause on the first few steps, +and are just able to distinguish the huge, broad water-wheel, slowly +revolving in its stony chamber: its spokes, like giant arms, sweep +through the wet darkness with scarcely a sound, but a low dripping and +gurgling of water. That terrible staircase! dark and steep and slimy! +Water drips from its roof and oozes from its walls. It is so low, that +instead of bending forward as the body naturally does when in the act of +descent, we are compelled to throw our heads back at the risk of +dislocating our necks, in order that the detestable hat may not be driven +over our eyes by coming in contact with the roof. Down, down the +slippery steps; feeling our way along slimy walls: through the dense +gloom, and heavy, moist air! The way seems to wave and bend we scarcely +know how; sometimes we traverse level galleries, but they only lead us +again to the steep, clammy steps, cut through the tough rock, always at +the same acute angle. Down, down, six hundred feet! and our guide +whispers to us to be careful how we go, for we are in a dangerous place: +he has brought us to this portion of the mine to show us how the water +accumulates when undisturbed. + +The vein of ore has, in this part, ceased to yield a profit for the +necessary labour, and the works have been abandoned. We creep +breathlessly down until our guide bids us halt; and, holding out his +lantern at arm’s length, but half reveals, in the pitchy darkness, a +low-roofed cavern, floored by an inky lake of still, dead water; in which +we see the light of the lantern reflected as in a mirror. It is fearful +to look on—so black and motionless: a sluggish pool, thick and +treacherous, which seemingly would engulf us without so much as a wave or +a bubble; and we are within a foot of its surface! We draw involuntarily +back, and creep up the steep stair to the first level above us. + +Along a narrow gallery we proceed for a short space, and then down again; +still down the interminable steps, till our knees crack with the ever +uniform motion, and the hot perspiration streams from every pore. The +air is so thick and heavy, that we occasionally draw breath with a half +gasp; and still we descend, till we hear the muffled ring of steel,—tink, +tink, tink,—immediately near us, and are suddenly arrested in our +downward course by the level ground. + +We are in a narrow gallery, considerably loftier than any we have yet +seen; for we can walk about in it without stooping. At the further end +are two miners, just distinguishable by the tiny glow of their lanterns. +From these proceed the ring of steel—the muffled tinkling in the thick +air we had heard—and we see that they are preparing for a “blast.” With +a long steel rod, or chisel, they are driving a way into the hard rock +(geologists say there is little else in the Erzebirge than the primitive +gneiss and granite), and thus prepare a deep, narrow chamber, within +which a charge of gunpowder is placed and exploded. The hard material is +rent into a thousand pieces, bringing with it the ore so indefatigably +sought. + +With every limb strained and distorted, the miners pursue their cramping +labours, grovelling on the earth. The drilling or boring they are +engaged in is a slow process, and the choice of a spot, so that the +explosion may loosen as much of the lode and as little of the rock as +possible, is of considerable importance. They cease their labours as we +enter, and turn to look at us. The curse of wealth-digging is upon them. +They, in their stained and disordered costume, seated on the ground on +their semicircular leather aprons (for that is the obvious use of this +portion of the dress, in these moist regions); we, in our borrowed +garments and brimless beavers, with flushed features and dripping hair. +The miners do not wear the abominable hats, at least “beneath the day,” +that is, in the mines. + +“Is this the bottom of the mine?” we inquire anxiously. + +The guide smiles grimly as he answers, “We are little more than half-way +to the bottom; but we can descend no deeper in this direction.” + +Heaven knows we have no desire! + +“This is the first working,” he continues. “The rest of the mine is much +the same as you have already seen. We have no other means of reaching +the workings than by the stone staircases you have partly descended.” + +“What are the miners’ hours of work?” + +“Eight hours a day for five days in the week at this depth,” is the +answer. “In the deeper workings the hours are fewer.” + +“What is the extent of the mine?” we demand. + +“I cannot tell. There is no miner living who has traversed them all. +The greater portion is out of work, and spreads for miles under ground.” + +“And the depth?” + +“About two hundred fathoms—twelve hundred feet—the sea level. The ‘Old +Hope of God’ is sixty feet below the level of the sea.” + +“Are there many mines like this?” + +“There are about two hundred mines in all, with five hundred and forty +pits: in all the mines together there are some four thousand eight +hundred hands, men and boys. This mine occupies nine hundred of them.” + +“And your pay?” + +“One dollar a week is a good wage with us.” + +One dollar is about three shillings of English money! This seems small +pay, even in cheap Saxony. + +“But,” we pursue our inquiries, “you have no short time, and are +pensioned?—at least, so says our Fahrschein.” + +“We are paid our wages during sickness, and are never out of work. When +we can no longer use the pick, nor climb these staircases, we can retire +upon our pension of eight silver groschens a week.” + +Tenpence! Magnificent independence! This is digging for silver with a +vengeance. + +But we are faint with fatigue; and, bidding adieu to the two miners, we +gladly agree to our guide’s suggestion of ascending to the happy +daylight. Our way is still the same; although we mount by another shaft, +most appropriately named Himmelfahrt—the path of heaven; but we clamber +up the same steep steps; feel our way along the same slimy walls, and +occasionally drive our hats over our eyes against the same low, dripping +roof. With scarcely a dry thread about us; our hair matted and dripping; +beads of perspiration streaming down our faces, we reach the top at last; +and thank Heaven, that after two hours’ absence deep down among those +terrible “diggins,” we are permitted once more to feel the bracing air, +and to look upon the glorious light of day. + +Our labours, however are not over. Distant rather more than an English +mile from Himmelsfürst are the extensive amalgamation works, the smelting +furnaces and refining ovens. Painfully fatigued as we are, we cannot +resist the temptation of paying them a brief visit. The road is dusty +and desolate; nor are the works themselves either striking or attractive. +An irregular mass of sheds, brick buildings, and tall chimneys, present +themselves. As we approach them we come upon a “sludge hole”—the bed of +a stream running from the dredging and jigging works; where, by the +agency of water, the ore is relieved of its earthy and other waste +matter, and the stream of water—allowed to run off in separate +channels—deposits, as it flows, the smaller particles washed away in the +first process. These are all carefully collected, and the veriest atom +of silver or lead extracted. It is only the coarser ores that undergo +this process; the richer deposits being pulverised and smelted with white +or charred wood and fluxes, without the application of water, and refined +by amalgamation with quicksilver. The two metals are afterwards +separated by distilling off the latter. + +Here are heaps of scoria—stacks of piglead, wood, coke, limestone and +waste earth, everything, indeed, but silver; although we are emphatically +in a silver mining district, silver is by no means the material which +presents itself in the greatest bulk. Having placed ourselves under the +direction of one of the workmen, we are led into some newly built brick +buildings, where force-pumps and other water appliances, erected at great +cost by the Saxon government, are gratefully pointed out to us. These +water-works are equally applicable to the extinction of fire, as to the +preparation of ores. + +Into what an incomprehensible maze of words should we be betrayed, were +we to attempt a description of the multifarious operations for the +extraction and refining of metals! Every description of ore, or +metalliferous deposit, requires a different treatment: each suggested and +verified by laborious experience and vigilant attention. In some cases +the pure silver is separated by mechanical means; in others the ore is +roasted, in order to throw off the sulphur, arsenic, and other volatile +matters, which are separately collected and form no inconsiderable +portion of the valuable produce of the mine. These roastings again are +smelted with a variety of fluxes, and in different states of +purification, until they are ready for refining. + +Here are roasting furnaces, dull and black; huge brick tubes with swollen +ends; others built in, and ready for ignition. Everywhere, we see pigs +of lead, sometimes lying about in reckless confusion, at others, neatly +packed in square stacks. Now, they bring us to a huge circular oven, +with at least half-a-dozen firmly closed iron doors, and as many glowing +caves; and a swarthy man, armed with an iron rake, swinging open one of +the iron doors with a ring and a clatter, we look in upon a small lake of +molten silver, fuming, and steaming, and bubbling. The iron rake is +thrust in, and scrapes off the crumbling crust—the oxide of lead, which +has formed upon its surface. The silver fumes and flashes, and a white +vapour swims in the air. The swarthy man swings the iron door to with a +clang, takes us by the arm, and bids us look through into a dark cavity, +and watch the white drops which fall at intervals like tiny stars from +above. This is the quicksilver evaporated from the heated silver in the +furnace, which passes through the chimney into a kind of still, and is +restored to its original condition. + +And what is the result of all this skill and labour? We find that the +average produce of the Saxon mines is from three to four ounces of silver +to the hundred pounds’ weight of ore; and that the mines about Freiberg +yield annually nearly four hundred and fifty thousand ounces of silver. +We find further that the total mines of the Erzgebirge-Kreis—“circle of +ore mountains”—of which those of Freiberg form a portion, produce a total +of seven hundred and twenty thousand ounces of silver every year; besides +from four hundred to five hundred tons of lead, one hundred and forty +tons of tin, about thirty tons of copper, from three thousand five +hundred to four thousand tons of iron, and six hundred tons of cobalt. +They are rich also in arsenic, brimstone, and vitriol, and contain, in no +inconsiderable quantities, quicksilver, antimony, calamites, bismuth, and +manganese. Even precious stones are not wanting; garnets, topazes, +tourmalines, amethysts, beryls, jaspers, and chalcedonies having been +found. + +A shrewd old workman tells us, with a proud satisfaction, that when +Napoleon’s power was crushed, and Saxony had to pay the penalty of her +adhesion to the French conqueror, in the shape of various parings and +loppings of her already narrow territories—that Prussia gloated with +greedy eyes, and half stretched out an eager hand to grasp the Erzgebirge +and their mineral riches. “_Aber_,” exclaims he with a chuckle, “_die +sind noch Sächische_, _Gott sey dank_!” “But they are still Saxon, +thanks be to God!” + +All things considered (the Australian diggins included), we came to the +conclusion, from our small experience of Saxon mines, that there are more +profitable, and even more agreeable occupations in the world than +mining—pleasanter ways, in short, of getting a living, than digging for +silver in Saxony, or even for gold in Australia. + + + + +CHAPTER XV. + + +A LIFT IN A CART. + +We left Dresden in the middle of July, a motley group of five: a +Frenchman, an Austrian, two natives of Lübeck, and myself; silversmiths +and jewellers together; all of us duly _viséd_ by our several ambassadors +through Saxon Switzerland, by way of Pirna, on to Peterswald. The latter +is the frontier town of Bohemia, and forms, therefore, the entrance from +Saxony into the Austrian empire. + +At dusk we were on the banks of the Elbe, at the ferry station near +Pillnitz, the summer dwelling of the King of Saxony. Having crossed the +broad stream, we leapt joyously up the steep path that led into a mimic +Switzerland; a country of peaks, valleys, and pine trees, wanting only +snow and glaciers. For three days we wandered among those wild regions; +now scaling the bleak face of a rock; now stretched luxuriously on the +purple moss, or gathering wild raspberries by the road side. From the +abrupt edge of the overhanging Bastei we looked down some six hundred +feet upon the wandering Elbe, threading its way by broad slopes, rich +with the growth of the vine; or by bleached walls of stone, upon which +even the lichens seemed to have been unable to make good their footing. +From the narrow wooden bridge of Neu Rathen, we looked down upon the +waving tops of fir trees, hundreds of feet beneath us. Then down we +ourselves went by a wild and jagged path into a luxuriant valley called +by no unfit name, Liebethal—the Valley of Love! + +Then there was Königstein, seen far away, a square-topped mountain, +greyish white with time and weather, soaring above the river’s level some +fourteen hundred feet. And we clambered on, never wearying; by mountain +fall and sombre cavern, and round the base of an old rock up to a +fortress, till we reached the iron gates; and, amid the echo of repeated +passwords and the clatter of military arms, entered its gloomy portal. +We entered only to pass through; and having admired from the summit a +glorious summer prospect, we journeyed on again into the plains beyond, +and so entered the Austrian territory at Peterswald. + +Then there was a great change from fertility to barrenness. From the +moment we entered Bohemia we were oppressed by a sense of poverty, of +sloth, or some worse curse resulting from Austrian domination, which +seemed to have been enough to cripple even Nature herself as she stood +about us. It was evident that we had got among another race of people, +or else into contact with a quite different state of things. At the +first inn we found upon the road, although it was a mighty rambling +place, with stone staircases and spacious chambers, there was not bedding +enough in the whole establishment for our party of five, and yet we were +the only guests. We were reduced to the expedient of spreading the two +mattresses at our disposal close together upon the bare boards, and so +sleeping five men in one double bed. A miserable night we had of it. We +fared better at Prague, which town we entered the next day. That is a +fine old city. From the first glimpse we caught of it from an adjoining +hill, bathing its feet, as it were, in the Moldan, we were charmed. +There was a wonderful cluster of minarets and conical towers, half +Eastern, half German, piled up to the summit of the castle hill. There +was the beautifully barbarous chapel of Johann von Nepomuk, with its +silver tomb. It was all one mass of picturesque details, beautiful in +their outline and impressive in their very age,—and, I may add, dirt. A +rare picture of middle-age romance is Prague—a fragment of the past, +uninjured and unchanged. The new suspension bridge across the Moldan +looks ridiculous; it is incongruous; what has old Prague to do with +modern engineering? It is a noble structure, to be sure, of which the +inhabitants are proud; but it was designed and executed for them by an +Englishman. + +From Prague we tramped with all the diligence of needy travellers to +Brünn, the capital of Moravia. Our march was straggling. Foremost +strode Alcibiade Tourniquet, jeweller and native of Argenteuil, the best +fellow in the world: but one who would persist in marching in a pair of +Parisian boots with high, tapering heels, bearing the pain they gave with +little wincing. For him the ground we trod was classical, for we were in +the neighbourhood of Austerlitz. Immediately in his rear swaggered the +Austrian, with swarthy features and black straggling locks, swaddled and +dirty; he was called “bandit” by general consent. The other three men of +our party tramped abreast under the guidance of a Lübecker, a smart +upright fellow, who, on the strength of having served two years in an +infantry regiment, naturally took the position of drill-sergeant, and was +dignified with the name of Hannibal on that account. + +We halted to rest in the village of Bischowitz, where the few straggling +houses, and the dreary, almost tenantless hostelry, told their own +sorrows. But we got good soup, with an unlimited supply of bread, which +formed a dinner of the best description; for, besides that the adopted +doctrine in Germany is that soup is the best meat for the legs, we found +that it also agreed well with our pockets. While in the full enjoyment +of our rest, we observed that an earnest conversation had sprung up +between the landlord and a ruddy-featured fellow in a green half-livery. + +“Whither are you going, friends?” inquired the landlord at length, +advancing towards us. + +“We were going to Brünn by the high-road,” we answered. + +“This man will carry you beyond Chradim for a _zwanziger_ a head,” said +the landlord, pointing to the half-liveried fellow, who began +gesticulating violently, and marking us off with his fingers as if we +were so many sheep. This was a tempting offer for foot travellers, each +burthened with a heavy knapsack. Chradim was eleven German miles on our +road—a good fifty miles in English measurement—and we were all to be +transported this distance for a total of about three shillings and +sixpence. We therefore inspected the _furwerk_, which did not promise +much; but as it was drawn by a neat sturdy little horse, who rattled his +harness with a sort of brisk independence that spoke well for a rapid +journey, we readily decided upon the acceptance of the offer made by the +Bohemian driver. That worthy shook his head when we addressed him, and +grunted out “_Kein Deutsch_,”—“No German.” Indeed we found that, +excepting people in official situations, innkeepers, and the like, the +German language was either unknown to, or unacknowledged by the natives. +In less than half an hour we had tumbled our knapsacks into the +cart—which was a country dray, of course without either springs or +seats—and disposing ourselves as conveniently as we could on its rough +edges, were rattling and jolting off over the uneven road towards Collin, +our station for the night. + +The country through which we passed was uncultivated and uninteresting; +but, like the rest that we had seen, it spoke of a poverty rather induced +than natural. With the exception of the two villages of Planinam and +Böhmishbrod we scarcely saw a house, and human creatures were extremely +scarce. As we approached Collin we halted for a moment to look at a +column of black marble erected on the roadside to commemorate the +devotion of a handful of Russian troops, who had at this spot checked the +progress of the whole French army for many hours. A little later, and we +were lodged at our inn in the market-town of Collin, where we supped on +bread and cheese and good Prague beer. A wild chorus of loud voices, and +an overwhelming odour of tobacco and onions, were the accompaniments of +our meal. The morrow being market-day in Collin, the whole population of +the district had flocked to the town, and the houses of accommodation +were all full. Our common room was quite choked up with sturdy forms in +white loose coats; broad country faces, flushed with good humour, or +beer, shone upon us from all sides. Our driver, who had been very sedate +and reserved during the whole of the day, soon joined a cluster of +congenial spirits in one corner, and was the thirstiest and most +uproarious of mortals. As for ourselves, we seemed to be made doubly +strangers, for there was not a word of German spoken in our hearing. +Hours wore on, and the country folks seemed to enjoy their town excursion +so extremely well, that there were no signs of breaking up, till mine +host made his appearance and insisted upon the lights being put out, and +upon the departure of his guests to bed. But, beds; where were they? +Our military Lübecker laughed at the idea. + +“There are never more than two beds in a Bohemian house of +entertainment,” said he, “and the landlord by law claims the best of the +two for himself. The other is for the first comer who pays for it. +Perhaps we shall get some straw, perhaps not. At the worst there are the +boards.” + +But we did get some straw, after considerable trouble, and the whole +crowd of boozers (with the exception of our driver, who went to bed with +his horses) set about preparing couches for themselves, with a tact that +plainly showed how well they were accustomed to it. The straw was spread +equally over the whole chamber, and each man turned over his heavy oaken +chair, so that its back became a pillow. Divested of boots and coats, we +were soon stretched upon our litters, thirty in a room. + +Our morning duty was to shake the loose straw out of our hair and ears, +and then to clear away every vestige of our night accommodation, in order +that a delicious breakfast of rich, black, thick coffee, and plain bread, +might be spread before us in the same room. The country folks were all +at market, and, as far as we could see, so was our driver. He was +nowhere to be found. We had vague notions of his having decamped; but +considering that we had only paid him two zwanzigers out of the five +bargained for, the supposition seemed hardly a reasonable one. After +seeking him in vain through every room in the house, in the crowded +market place, and in the neat little town, full of low, square-built +houses and whitened colonnades, we thought of the stable, and there we +found our friend, stretched on his back among the hoofs of his horse, +who, careful creature, loving him too well to disturb him, never stirred +a limb. + +We saw our guide in a new light that day. In spite of all our urging, it +was nine o’clock before we fairly quitted Collin, and he was then already +in an exhilarated state, having taken several strong draughts to cool his +inward fever. We would have given much to have been able to converse +with him; for, as we were about to start, he grinned and gesticulated in +such a violent way—having, evidently, something to communicate which he +was unable to express—that we called the host to our assistance. + +“You must not be alarmed,” said the landlord in explanation, “if he +should swerve from the high-road, for he thinks of taking you cross +country, and it may be a little rough.” + +We started at last, and the brave little horse rattled along at a gallant +pace. “Hi, hi, hi!” shouted the Bohemian, and away we went along the +well-beaten high-road, jolted unmercifully; our knapsacks dancing about +our feet like living creatures. We were too much occupied in the task of +keeping our seats, to be able to devote much attention to the country, +until, having passed Czaslau, we turned suddenly out of the high-road, +and came upon a scene of cultivation and refinement that was very +charming. A rapid cooling down of our driver’s extravagance of manner +was the immediate result of our entering upon the well-kept paths, and +between smooth lawns; we went at a decent trot, following a semicircular +road, by which we were brought immediately in front of a noble mansion. +At the door of an inn, which pressed upon the pathway, our Bohemian +halted and addressed to us a voluble and enthusiastic harangue in his own +language (one that has a soft and pleasant sound): evidently he meant to +impress us with the beauty of the scene. + +We soon learned all about it from the landlord of the inn. Our driver +was a liveried servant of the Prince before whose mansion we had stopped, +and he was probably running much risk of dismissal in letting his grace’s +country cart for hire. He was a sad dog, for, in the course of a quarter +of an hour he ran up a score upon the strength of an alleged promise on +our parts to pay all expenses, and succeeded in wheedling another +zwanziger in advance out of our cashier, the military Lübecker. This +piece of money, however, on being proffered in payment of a last +half-pint of beer, was instantly confiscated by the landlord for previous +arrears. + +Amid a hurricane of abuse, exchanged between landlord and driver, we +clattered out of private ground to the main road again. Our charioteer +had risen into a state of exaltation that defied all curb, and in a short +time we were again firmly planted before the sign-post of a public-house. +But here there was no credit, and our good-natured Lübecker having doled +out a fourth zwanziger on account, was scarcely surprised to see it +pounced upon and totally appropriated by the host in liquidation of some +ancient score. With a shout of rage, or rather a howl, from our Bohemian +whip, we again set forward. “Hi, hi, hi!” and helter-skelter we went, +through bush and bramble, where indeed there was no trace or shadow of a +beaten track. The Bohemian was lost to control; he shouted, he sang, he +yelled, savagely flogging his willing beast all the while, until we began +to have serious fears for the safety of our necks. Presently we were +skimming along the edge of the steep bank of a broad and rapid stream, +wondering internally what might possibly come next, when, to our terror, +the Bohemian, pointing with his whip to the opposite bank, suddenly +wheeled the horse and rude vehicle round, and before we could expostulate +with or arrest him in his course, plunged down a long slope and dashed +into the river, with a hissing and splashing that completely blinded us +for a few seconds, and drenched us to the skin. We held on with the +desperation of fear; but before we could well know whether we swam or +rode we had passed the stream, and our unconquered little horse was +tugging us might and main up the opposite bank. That once obtained, we +saw before us a wide expanse of heath, rugged and broken, and no trace of +any road. + +But horse and driver seemed to be alike careless about beaten tracks. +The Bohemian grew wilder at every step, urging on his horse with mad +gestures and unearthly cries. His driving was miraculous; along narrow +strips of road, scarcely wide enough to contain the wheels, he passed in +safety; sometimes skimming the outer ridge of a steep bank, and when, +seemingly about to plunge into an abyss, suddenly wheeling both horse and +cart round at an acute angle, and darting on with a reckless speed to new +dangers and new escapes. We had been told that he was an admirable hand +at the rein when sober; but, when drunk, he certainly surpassed himself. +As for ourselves, we were in constant fear of our lives; and, being +utterly unacquainted with the country and the language, and unable to +control the extravagances of our driver, we calmly awaited, and almost +invoked, the “spill” that seemed inevitable. + +But the paroxysm of the Bohemian had reached its height; from an +incarnate devil, in demeanour and language, he rapidly dropped into +childish helplessness, and finally into a deep uncontrollable slumber. +This was a state of things which, at first, threatened more danger than +his open madness; but then it was the horse’s turn to show _his_ quality. +He saw that a responsibility devolved upon him, and he was quite equal to +the occasion. He seemed to know his way as well without as with his +master. We guessed this; and, taking the reins from the hands of the +quite helpless Bohemian, we left the gallant animal to take whatever +course he thought most prudent. The good beast brought us well out of +the tangled heath, and once more to a level, open road. + +Soon, a neat village was before us, and we came to the resolution that we +would dismount there at all hazards. But then our sleepy driver suddenly +started into life, and, with a terrible outburst of wrath, gave us, by +motions, to understand that we had gone beyond his destination. We paid +very little heed to him; but, leaping from the cart, felt grateful for +the blessing of whole bones. There remained still one zwanziger unpaid; +but, to our astonishment, the Bohemian relapsed into his old rage when +this was tendered to him, and, by a complication of finger reckoning, +explained to us that he had never received more than two. In fact, he +ignored all that had passed during his drunken fit. Argument being on +each side useless, we also betook ourselves to abuse, and a terrible +conflict of strong language, in which neither party understood the other, +was the result. We entered the chief inn of the village, followed by the +implacable Bohemian, who, though ejected several times, never failed to +re-appear, repeating his finger calculations every time, and concluding +each assault with the mystical words, “_Sacramentum hallaluyah_!” The +landlord came at length to our assistance; and, by a few emphatic words +in his own language, exorcised this evil spirit. + +We pursued our way by Hohenmauth, and having missed somehow the larger +village of Chradim, lodged for the night in a lonely hamlet. We walked +fully thirty-two miles the next day, through a wild, neglected country, +and hobbled into Loitomischl as the night was setting in. + +We were now upon the borders of Bohemia, and saw glaring on the wall of a +frontier hostelry, “Willkommen zu Mähren”—“Welcome to Moravia.” We +sealed the welcome by a sumptuous breakfast of sausages and beer in the +frontier town of Zwittau—a pleasant place, with a spacious colonnaded +market-square—and finished our meal on a green bank on the outskirts of +the town, with a heap of sweet blackberries, of which we had purchased a +capful for six kreutzers shein. It was a quiet, beautiful Sunday +morning, and the country folks were streaming towards the church. They +were all in holiday trim, with a strong tendency to Orientalism in the +fashion of their garments. The women’s head-dresses were arranged with +much taste, consisting generally of a large handkerchief, or shawl, +folded turban-wise, with hanging ends; but the heads of the men were +surmounted by an atrocious machine, in the shape of a hat, which, with +its broad, rolled brim, its expanded top, and numerous braidings and +pendants, could be nothing less than an heirloom in a family. We marched +some twenty-five miles that day, and as the even darkened, entered the +village of Goldentraum—Golden dream—happy name! for here, after four +nights of straw-litter, we slept in beds. + +Seated in the travellers’ room was a group which at once arrested our +attention. A swarthy man, with scattered, raven locks, and a handsome +countenance, was filling a glass with red wine from a round-bellied +flask. His companion, a black, shaggy-bearded fellow, ragged and filthy, +sat opposite to him; while close by the wall, squatted on the ground, was +a squalid, olive-skinned woman, with black, matted hair, who was vainly +endeavouring to still the cries of a child, swaddled at her back. The +men wore slouched Spanish hats, and wide cloaks, which, partly thrown +aside, revealed the rags and dirt beneath. Bohemian gipseys—real +Bohemians were they—filchers and beggars, whose ample cloaks were +intended as much for a convenient means of concealing stolen property, as +articles of dress. Our military Lübecker thought they would be very +useful as a foraging party. They sat laughing and sipping their wine, +now and then handing a glass of the liquor, in an ungracious way, to the +woman squatted on the ground; and who received it with a real or assumed +humility which was, perhaps, the most curious part of the picture. Here +three of our companions, Alcibiade, the Viennese silversmith, and one of +the Lübeckers, were unable to proceed further on foot, and took places in +the “fast coach;” while “Hannibal” and myself tramped the remaining +twenty miles which lay between us and Brünn, the capital of Moravia. + +It was again Sunday, our usual rest day, and I stood in the open square +before the huge church at Brünn, watching the motley, shifting, and +clamorous crowd which had converted its very steps into a market-place. +There was something strikingly Eastern in the character of the women’s +attire: intensely gaudy and highly contrasted; and their head-dresses the +very next thing to a turban with double-frilled ends. There was also +something peculiarly Catholic in the nature of the articles exposed for +sale; beads, crosses, coloured pictures of saints, and tiny images of +suffering Saviours; but more especially in the manner in which the Sunday +had been turned into a market-day. Above all, and through all, the +impressive tones of the solemn chant, mingled with bursts of inspiring +music, pealed out of the open doorway, round which clustered the kneeling +devotees. + +Our lame companions started on the following day by rail for the Austrian +capital, while we took the high road. The country through which we +passed was beautifully undulated; hill and dale following each other in +regular succession, and in a far different state of order and cultivation +to the neglected plains of Bohemia. We were now in Austria proper, and +everything spoke of prosperity and comfort. Neat, populous villages, +hung upon every hill-side—the southern side invariably—and there were no +shortcomings in the accommodation for man or horse. But our finances +were in a miserable plight; and our sustenance during the two and a half +days occupied in tramping the more than eighty miles between Brünn and +Vienna, consisted for the most part of fruit, bread, and water. We +crossed the Danube at a place called “Am Spitz,” where there is an +interminable bridge across the broad flood, and entered Vienna almost +penniless. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. + + +THE TURKS’ CELLAR. + +You enter the old town of Vienna from Leopoldstadt by the Ferdinand +Bridge; and, walking for a few minutes parallel with the river, come into +a hollow called the Tiefer Grund; passing next under a broad arch which +itself supports a street spanning the gulley, you find on the left hand a +rising ground which must be climbed in order to reach a certain open +space of a triangular form, walled in by lofty houses, called “Die +Freiung,”—the Deliverance. In it there is an old wine-house, the Turks’ +Cellar, and there belongs to this spot one of the legends of Vienna. + +In the autumn of the year sixteen hundred and twenty-seven, when the city +was so closely invested by the Turks, that the people were half famished, +there stood in the place now called “Freiung,” or thereabouts, the +military bakery for that portion of the garrison which had its quarters +in the neighbourhood. The bakery had to supply not only the soldiers, +but bread was made in it to be doled out to destitute civilians by the +municipal authorities; and, as the number of the destitute was great, the +bakers there employed had little rest. Once in the dead of the night, +while some of the apprentices were getting their dough ready for the +early morning batch, they were alarmed by a hollow ghostly sound as of +spirits knocking in the earth. The blows were regular and quite +distinct, and without cessation until cockcrow. The next night these +awful sounds were again heard, and seemed to become louder and more +urgent as the day drew near; but, with the first scent of morning air, +they suddenly ceased. The apprentices gave information to the town +authorities; a military watch was set, and the cause of the strange +noises in the earth was very soon discovered. The enemy was under +ground; the Turks, from their camp on the Leopoldiberg, were carrying a +mine under the city; and, not knowing the levels, had approached so +nearly to the surface that there was but a mere crust between them and +the bakehouse floor. + +What was to be done? The danger was imminent—the remedy must be prompt +and decisive. A narrow arm of the Danube ran within a hundred yards of +the place: pick and spade were vigorously plied, and in a short time a +canal was cut between the river and the bakery. Little knew the Turks of +the cold water that could then at any time be thrown upon their +undertaking. All was still. The Viennese say that the hostile troops +already filled the mine, armed to the teeth, and awaiting only a +concerted signal to tell them that a proposed midnight attack on the +walls had diverted the attention of the citizens. Then they were to rush +up out of the earth and surprise the town. But the besieged, forewarned +and forearmed, suddenly threw the flood-gates open and broke a way for +the water through the new canal under the bakehouse floor; down it went +bubbling, hissing, and gurgling into the dark cavern, where it swept the +Mussulmans before it, and destroyed them to a man. + +This was the origin of the Turks’ Cellar; and although the title is +perhaps unjustly appropriated by the winehouse I have mentioned, yet +there is no doubt that the tale is true, and that the house at any rate +is near the spot from which its name is taken. Grave citizens even +believe that the underground passage still exists, walled and roofed over +with stone, and that it leads directly to the Turks’ camp, at the foot of +the Leopoldiberg. They even know the size of it, namely, that it is of +such dimensions as to admit the marching through it of six men abreast. +Of this I know nothing; but I know from the testimony of a venerable old +lady—who is not the oldest in Vienna—that the bakers’ apprentices were +formerly allowed special privileges in consideration of the service once +rendered by some of their body to the state. Indeed, the procession of +the bakers, on every returning anniversary of the swamp-in of the Turks, +when they marched horse and foot from the Freiung, with banners, emblems, +and music, through the heart of the city to the grass-grown camp outside +the city walls, was one of the spectacles that made the deepest +impression on this chatty old lady in her childhood. + +The Turks’ Cellar is still famous. It is noted now, not for its bread or +its canal-water, but for its white wine, its baked veal, and its savoury +chickens. Descend into its depths (for it is truly a cellar and nothing +else) late in the evening, when citizens have time and money at their +disposal, and you find it full of jolly company. As well as the +tobacco-smoke will permit you to see what the place resembles, you would +say that it is like nothing so much as the after cabin of a Gravesend +steamer on a summer Sunday afternoon. There is just such a row of tables +on each side; just such a low roof; just such a thick palpable air, +uncertain light, and noisy steamy crowd of occupants. The place is +intolerable in itself, but fall-to upon the steaming block of baked veal +which is set before you; clear your throat of the tobacco-smoke by mighty +draughts of the pale yellow wine which is its proper accompaniment; +finally, fill a deep-bowled meerschaum with Three Kings tobacco, creating +for yourself your own private and exclusive atmosphere, and you begin to +feel the situation. The temperature of mine host’s cellar aids +imagination greatly in recalling the idea of the old bakehouse, and there +comes over you, after a while, a sense of stifling that mixes with the +nightmare, usually constituting in this place an after-supper nap. In +the waking lethargy that succeeds, you feel as if jostled in dark vaults +by a mob of frantic Turks, labouring heavily to get breath, and sucking +in foul water for air. + +Possibly when fully awakened you begin to consider that the Turks’ Cellar +is not the most healthful place of recreation to be in; and, cleaving the +dense smoke, you ascend into sunlight. Perhaps you stroll to some place +where the air is better, but which may still have a story quite as +exciting as the catastrophe of the imperial bakehouse: perhaps to +Bertholdsdorf; a pretty little market-town with a tall-steepled church, +and a half ruined battlement, situated on the hill slope about six miles +to the south of Vienna. It forms a pretty summer day’s ramble. Its +chronicler is the worthy Markt-richter, or Town-justice, Jacob +Trinksgeld; and his unvarnished story, freely translated, runs thus:— + +“When the Turkish army, two hundred thousand strong without their allies, +raised the siege of Raab, the retreating host of rebels and Tartars were +sent to overrun the whole of Austria below the Enns on this side of the +Danube, and to waste it with fire and sword. This was done. On the +ninth of July, detached troops of Spahis and Tartars appeared before the +walls of Bertholdsdorf, but were beaten back by our armed citizens. +Those attacks were repeated on the tenth and twelfth, and also repulsed; +but as at this time the enemy met with a determined resistance from the +city of Vienna, which they had invested, they gathered in increased force +about our devoted town, and on the fifteenth of July attacked us with +such fury on every side that, seeing it was no longer possible to hold +out against them, partly from their great numbers, and partly from our +failing of powder; and, moreover, seeing that they had already set fire +to the town in several places, we were compelled to seek shelter with our +goods and chattels in the church and fortress, neither of which were as +yet touched by the flames. + +“On the sixteenth, the town itself being then in ashes, there came a +soldier dressed in the Turkish costume, save that he wore the leather +jerkin of a German horseman, into the high street, and waving a white +cloth, he called out in the Hungarian language, to those of us who were +in the fortress, that if we would ask for grace, both we and ours should +be protected, and a safe conduct (salva quartier) given to us, that +should be our future defence. Thereupon we held honest counsel together, +citizens and neighbours then present, and in the meantime gave reply, +translated also into Hungarian, that if we should agree thereto, we would +set up a white flag upon the tower as a sign of our submission. Early on +the morning of the nineteenth of July there came a Pasha from the camp at +Vienna, at the head of a great army, and with him the same Turk who had +on the previous day made the proposal to us. And the Pasha sat himself +down upon a red carpet spread on the bare ground, close by the house of +Herr Streninger, till we should agree to his terms. It was five o’clock +in the morning before we could make up our minds. + +“Then, when we were all willing to surrender, our enemies demanded, in +the first place, that two of our men should march out of the fortress as +hostages, and that two Turks should take their places with us; and that a +maiden, with loose streaming hair, and a wreath upon her forehead, should +bring forth the key of the town, seeing that this place had never till +then been taken by an enemy. Further, they demanded six thousand florins +ransom from us, which, however, we abated to four thousand, handing to +them two thousand florins at once, upon three dishes, with the request +that the remainder should be allowed to stand over till the forthcoming +day of John the Baptist. As soon as this money had been paid over to +them, the Pasha called such of our faithful garrison as were in the +church to come out and arrange themselves in the square, that he might +see how many safe-conducts were required; but, as each armed man came to +the door, his musket was torn out of his hand, and such as resisted were +dragged by the hair of the head into the square by the Turks, and told +that they would need no weapons, seeing that to those who sought for +mercy, the passes would be sufficient protection. And thus were our arms +carried away from us. + +“As soon as the whole garrison, thus utterly defenceless, were collected +in the public square, there sprang fifty Turks from their horses, and +with great rudeness began searching every one of them for money or other +valuables; and the citizens began already to see that they were betrayed +into a surrender, and some of them tried to make their escape—among +others, Herr Streninger, the town-justice; but he was struck down +immediately, and he was the first man murdered. Upon this, the Pasha +stood up, and began to call out with a loud, clear voice to his troops, +and as they heard his words, they fell upon the unarmed men in the +market-place, and hewed them down with their scimitars without pity or +remorse—sparing none in their eagerness for the butchery, and which, in +spite of their haste, was not ended till between one and two o’clock in +the afternoon. Of all our citizens, only two escaped the slaughter, and +they contrived to hide themselves in the tower; but those who fled out of +the town were captured by the Tartars, and instantly dispatched. Then, +having committed this cruel barbarism, they seized the women and children +who had been left for safety in the church, and carried them away into +slavery, taking care to burn and utterly destroy the fortress ere they +departed. And when Vienna was relieved, and the good people there came +among the ruins of Bertholdsdorf, they gathered together the headless and +mangled remains of our murdered citizens to the number of three thousand +five hundred, and buried them all in one grave.” + +In “eternal remembrance” of this catastrophe, the worthy town-justice, +Trinksgeld, in seventeen hundred ordered a painting to be executed, +representing the fearful scene described. It occupies the whole of one +side of the Town-hall, and in its quaint minuteness of detail, and +defiance of perspective—depicting, not merely the slaughter of the +betrayed Bertholdsdorfers, but the concealment of the two who were +fortunate enough to escape, and who are helplessly apparent behind some +loose timber—would be ludicrous, were it not for the sacred gravity of +the subject. + +As it is, we quit the romantic little town with a sigh, and turning our +faces towards Vienna, wonder what the young Turks of eighteen hundred and +fifty-four may possibly think of the Old Turks of one hundred and thirty +years ago. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII. + + +A TASTE OF AUSTRIAN JAILS. + +At the “Fete de Dieu,” in Vienna (the _Frohnleichnamsfest_), religious +rites are not confined to the places of worship—the whole city becomes a +church. Altars rise in every street, and high mass is performed in the +open air, amid clouds of incense and showers of holy water. The Emperor +himself and his family swell the procession. + +I had taken a cheering glass of Kronewetter with the worthy landlord of +my lodgings, and sauntered forth to observe the day’s proceedings. I +crossed the Platz of St. Ulrick, and thence proceeded to the high street +of Mariahilf—an important suburb of Vienna. I passed two stately altars +on my way, and duly raised my hat, in obedience to the custom of the +country. A little crowd was collected round the parish church of +Mariahilf; and, anticipating that a procession would pass, I took my +stand among the rest of the expectant populace. A few assistant police, +in light blue-grey uniforms with green facings, kept the road. + +A bustle about the church-door, and a band of priests, attendants, +and—what pleased me most—a troop of pretty little girls came, two and +two, down the steps, and into the road. I remember nothing of the +procession but those beautiful and innocent children, adorned with +wreaths and ribbons for the occasion. I was thinking of the rosy faces I +had left at home, when my reflections were interrupted by a peremptory +voice, exclaiming, “Take off your hat!” I should have obeyed with +alacrity at any other moment; but there was something in the manner and +tone of the “Polizeidiener’s” address which touched my pride, and made me +obstinate. I drew back a little. The order was repeated; the crowd +murmured. I half turned to go; but, the next moment, my hat was struck +off my head by the police-assistant. + +What followed was mere confusion. I struck the “Polizeidiener;” and, in +return, received several blows on the head from behind with a heavy +stick. In less than ten minutes I was lodged in the police-office of the +district; my hat broken and my clothes bespattered with the blood which +had dropped, and was still dropping, from the wounds in my head. + +I had full time to reflect upon the obstinate folly which had produced +this result; nor were my reflections enlivened by the manners of the +police-agents attached to the office. They threatened me with heavy +pains and punishments; and the Polizeidiener whom I had struck, assured +me, while stanching his still-bleeding nose, that I should have at least +“three months for this.” + +After several hours’ waiting in the dreary office, I was abruptly called +into the commissioner’s room. The commissioner was seated at a table +with writing materials before him, and commenced immediately, in a sharp +offensive tone, a species of examination. After my name and country had +been demanded, he asked: + +“Of what religion are you?” + +“I am a Protestant.” + +“So! Leave the room.” + +I had made no complaint of my bruises, because I did not think this the +proper place to do so; although the man who dealt them was present. He +had assisted, stick in hand, in taking me to the police-office. He was +in earnest conversation with the Polizeidiener, but soon left the office. +From that instant I never saw him again; nor, in spite of repeated +demands, could I ever obtain redress for, or even recognition of, the +violence I had suffered. + +Another weary hour, and I was consigned to the care of a police-soldier; +who, armed with sabre and stick, conducted me through the crowded city to +prison. It was then two o’clock. + +The prison, situated in the Spengler Gasse, is called the +“Polizei-Haupt-Direction.” We descended a narrow gut, which had no +outlet, except through the prison gates. They were slowly opened at the +summons of my conductor. I was beckoned into a long gloomy apartment, +lighted from one side only, and having a long counter running down its +centre; chains and handcuffs hung upon the walls. + +An official was standing behind the counter. He asked me abruptly: + +“Whence come you?” + +“From England,” I answered. + +“Where’s that?” + +“In Great Britain; close to France.” + +The questioner behind the counter cast an inquiring look at my escort:— + +“Is it so?” he asked. + +The subordinate answered him in a pleasant way, that I had spoken the +truth. Happily an Englishman, it seems, is a rarity within those prison +walls. + +I was passed into an adjoining room, which reminded me of the back +parlour of a Holywell Street clothes shop, only that it was rather +lighter. Its sides consisted entirely of sets of great pigeon-holes, +each occupied by the habiliments or effects of some prisoner. + +“Have you any valuables?” + +“Few enough.” My purse, watch, and pin were rendered up, ticketed, and, +deposited in one of the compartments. I was then beckoned into a long +paved passage or corridor down some twenty stone steps, into the densest +gloom. Presently I discerned before me a massive door studded with +bosses, and crossed with bars and bolts. A police-soldier, armed with a +drawn sabre, guarded the entrance to Punishment Room No. 1. The bolts +gave way; and, in a few moments, I was a prisoner within. + +Punishment Room No. 1, is a chamber some fifteen paces long by six broad, +with a tolerably high ceiling and whitened walls. It has but two +windows, and they are placed at each end of one side of the chamber. +They are of good height, and look out upon an inclosed gravelled space, +variegated with a few patches of verdure. The room is tolerably light. +On each side are shelves, as in barracks, for sleeping. In one corner, +by the window, is a stone sink; in another, a good supply of water. + +Such is the prison; but the prisoners! There were +forty-eight—grey-haired men and puny boys—all ragged, and stalking with +slippered feet from end to end with listless eyes. Some, all eagerness; +some, crushed and motionless; some, scared and stupid; now singing, now +swearing, now rushing about playing at some mad game; now hushed or +whispering, as the loud voice of the Vater (or father of the ward) is +heard above the uproar, calling out “Ruhe!” (“Order!”) + +On my entrance I was instantly surrounded by a dozen of the younger +jail-birds, amid a shout of “Ein Zuwachs! Ein Zuwachs!” which I was not +long in understanding to be the name given to the last comer. “Was haben +sie?” (What have you done?) was the next eager cry. “Struck a +Polizeidiener!” “Ei! das ist gut!” was the hearty exclamation; and I was +a favourite immediately. One dirty villanous-looking fellow, with but +one eye, and very little light in that, took to handling my clothes; then +inquired if I had any money “up above?” Upon my answering in the +affirmative my popularity immediately increased. They soon made me +understand that I could “draw” upon the pigeon-hole bank to indulge in +any such luxuries as beer or tobacco. + +People breakfast early in Vienna; and, as I had tasted nothing since that +meal, I was very hungry; but I was not to starve; for soon we heard the +groaning of bolts and locks, and the police-soldier who guarded the door +appeared, bearing in his hand a red earthen pot, surmounted by a round +flat loaf of bread “for the Englishman.” I took my portion with thanks, +and found that the pipkin contained a thick porridge made of lentils, +prepared with meal and fat; in the midst of which was a piece of fresh +boiled beef. The cake was of a darkish colour; but good wholesome bread. +Altogether, the meal was not unsavoury. Many a greedy eye watched me as +I sat on the end of the hard couch, eating my dinner. One wretched man +seeing that I did not eat all, whispered a proposal to barter his dirty +neckerchief—which he took off in my presence—for half of my loaf. I +satisfied his desires, but declined the recompense. My half-emptied +pipkin was thankfully taken by another man, under the pretence of +“cleaning it.” + +One of my fellow-prisoners approached me. + +“It is getting late,” said he; “do you know what you have got to do?” + +“No.” + +“You are the Zuwachs (latest accession), and it is your business to empty +and clean out the ‘Kiefel’” (the sink, etc.) + +“The devil!” + +“But I dare say,” he added, carelessly, “if you pay the Vater a +‘mass-bier,’” (something less than a quart of beer), “he will make some +of the boys do it for you.” + +“With all my heart.” + +“Have you a rug?” + +“No.” + +“You must ask the Corporal, at seven o’clock; but I dare say the Vater +will find you one—for a ‘mass-bier’—if you ask him.” + +I saw that a mass-bier would do a great deal in an Austrian prison. + +The Vater, who was a prisoner like the rest, was appealed to. He was a +tall, burly-looking young man, with a frank countenance. He had quitted +his honest calling of butcher, and had taken to smuggling tobacco into +the city. This is a heavy crime; for the growth, manufacture, and sale +of tobacco is a strict Imperial monopoly. Accordingly, his punishment +had been proportionately severe—two years’ imprisonment. The sentence +was now approaching completion; and, on account of good conduct, he had +received the appointment of Vater to Punishment Room No. 1. The benefits +were enumerated to me with open eyes by one of the prisoners—“Double +rations, two rugs, and a mass-bier a day!” + +The result of my application to the Vater was the instant calling out of +several young lads, who crouched all day in the darkest end of the room—a +condemned corner, abounding in vermin; and I heard no more of the sink +and so forth. The next day a newcomer occupied my position. + +At about seven o’clock the bolts were again withdrawn, the ponderous door +opened, and the Corporal—who seemed to fill the office of +ward-inspector—marched into the chamber. He was provided with a small +note-book and a pencil, and made a general inquiry into the wants and +complaints of the prisoners. Several of them asked for little +indulgences. All these were duly noted down to be complied with the next +day—always supposing that the prisoner possessed a small capital “up +above.” I stepped forward, and humbly made my request for a rug. “You!” +exclaimed the Corporal, eyeing me sharply. “Oh! you are the +Englishman?—No!” + +I heard some one near me mutter: “So; struck a policeman! No mercy for +him from the other policemen—any of them.” + +The Vater dared not help me; but two of his most intimate friends made me +lie down between them; and, swaddled in their rugs, I passed the night +miserably. The hard boards, and the vermin, effectually broke my +slumbers. + +The morning came. The rules of the prison required that we should all +rise at six, roll up the rugs, lay them at the heads of our beds, and +sweep out the room. Weary and sore, I paced the prison while these +things were done. Even the morning ablution was comfortless and +distressing; a pocket-handkerchief serving but indifferently for a towel. + +Restless activity now took full possession of the prisoners. There was +not the combined shouting or singing of the previous day; but there was +independent action, which broke out in various ways. Hunger had roused +them; the prison allowance is one meal a day: and although, by husbanding +the supply, some few might eke it out into several repasts, the majority +had no such control over their appetite. Tall, gaunt lads, just starting +into men, went roaming about with wild eyes, purposeless, pipkin in hand, +although hours must elapse before the meal would come. Caged beasts pace +their narrow prisons with the same uniform and unvarying motion. + +At last eleven o’clock came. The barred door opened, and swiftly, yet +with a terrible restraint—knowing that the least disorder would cost them +a day’s dinner—the prisoners mounted the stone steps, and passed slowly, +in single file, before two enormous caldrons. A cook, provided with a +long ladle, stood by the side of each; and, with a dexterous plunge and a +twist, a portion of porridge and a small block of beef were fished up and +dashed into the pipkin extended by each prisoner. Another official stood +ready with the flat loaves. In a very short time, the whole of the +prisoners were served. + +Hunger seasoned the mess; and I was sitting on the bedstead-end enjoying +it, when the police-soldier appeared on the threshold, calling me by +name. + +“You must leave—instantly.” + +“I am ready,” I said, starting up. + +“Have you a rug?” + +“No.” + +I hurried out into the dark passage. I was conducted to the left; +another heavy door was loosened, and I was thrust into a gloomy cell, +bewildered, and almost speechless with alarm. I was not alone. Some +half-dozen melancholy wretches, crouching in one corner, were disturbed +by my entrance; but half-an-hour had scarcely elapsed, when the +police-soldier again appeared, and I was hurried out. We proceeded +through the passage by which I had first entered. In my way past the +nest of pigeon-holes “up above,” my valuables were restored to me. +Presently a single police-soldier led me into the open street. + +The beautiful air and sunshine! how I enjoyed them as we passed through +the heart of the city. “Bei’m Magistrat,” at the corner of the Kohlmarkt +was our destination. We entered its porticoed door, ascended the stone +stairs, and went into a small office, where the most repulsive-looking +official I have anywhere seen, noted my arrival in a book. Thence we +passed into another pigeon-holed chamber, where I delivered up my little +property, as before, “for its security.” A few minutes more, and I was +safely locked in a small chamber, having one window darkened by a wooden +blind. My companions were a few boys, a courier—who, to my surprise, +addressed me in English—and a man with blazing red hair. + +In this place I passed four days, occupied by what I suppose I may +designate “my trial.” The first day was enlivened by a violent attack +which the jailer made upon the red-haired man for looking out of window. +He seized the fiery locks, and beat their owner’s head against the wall. +I had to submit that day to a degrading medical examination. + +On the second day I was called to appear before the “_Rath_,” or counsel. +The process of examination is curious. It is considered necessary to the +complete elucidation of a case, that the whole life and parentage of the +accused should be made known; and I was thus exposed to a series of +questions which I had never anticipated:—The names and countries of both +of my parents; their station; the ages, names, and birthplaces of my +brothers and sisters; my own babyhood, education, subsequent behaviour, +and adventures; my own account, with the minutest details of the offence +I had committed. It was more like a private conference than an +examination. The Rath was alone—with the exception of his secretary, who +diligently recorded my answers. While being thus perseveringly +catechised, the Rath sauntered up and down; putting his interminable +questions in a friendly chatty way, as though he were taking a kindly +interest in my history, rather than pursuing a judicial investigation. +When the examination was concluded, the secretary read over every word to +me, and I confirmed the report with my signature. + +The Rath promised to do what he could for me; and I was then surprised +and pleased by the entrance of my employer. The Rath recommended him to +write to the English Embassy in my behalf, and allowed him to send me +outer clothing better suited to the interior of a prison than the best +clothes I had donned to spend the holiday in. + +I went back to my cell with a lightened heart. I was, however, a little +disconcerted on my return by the courier, who related an anecdote of a +groom, of his acquaintance, who had persisted in smoking a cigar while +passing a sentinel; and who, in punishment therefor, had been beaten by a +number of soldiers, with willow rods; and whose yells of pain had been +heard far beyond the prison walls. What an anticipation! Was I to be +similarly served? I thought it rather a suspicious circumstance that my +new friend appeared to be thoroughly conversant with all the details (I +suspect from personal experience) of the police and prison system of +Vienna. He told me (but I had no means of testing the correctness of his +information) that there were twenty Rathsherrn, or Counsellors; that each +had his private chamber, and was assisted by a confidential secretary; +that every offender underwent a private examination by the Rath appointed +to investigate his case—the Rath having the power to call all witnesses, +and to examine them, singly, or otherwise, as he thought proper; that on +every Thursday the “Rathsherrn” met in conclave; that each Rath brought +forward the particular cases which he had investigated, explained all +their bearings, attested his report by documentary evidence prepared by +his secretary, and pronounced his opinion as to the amount of punishment +to be inflicted. The question was then decided by a majority. + +On the third day, I was suddenly summoned before the Rath, and found +myself side by side with my accuser. He was in private clothes. + +“Herr Tuci,” exclaimed the Rath, trying to pronounce my name, but utterly +disguising it, “you have misinformed me. The constable says he did not +_knock_ your hat off—he only _pulled_ it off.” + +I adhered to my statement. The Polizeidiener nudged my elbow, and +whispered, “Don’t be alarmed—it will not go hard with you.” + +“Now, constable,” said the Rath; “what harm have you suffered in this +affair?” + +“My uniform is stained with blood.” + +“From _my_ head!” I exclaimed. + +“From _my_ nose,” interposed the Polizeidiener. + +“In any case it will wash out,” said the Rath. + +“And you,” he added, turning to me,—“are you willing to indemnify this +man for damage done?” + +I assented; and was then removed. + +On the following morning I was again summoned to the Rath’s chamber. His +secretary, who was alone, met me with smiles and congratulations: he +announced to me the sentence—four days’ imprisonment. I am afraid I did +not evince that degree of pleasure which was expected from me; but I +thanked him, was removed, and, in another hour, was reconducted to +Punishment Room No. 1. + +The four days of sentence formed the lightest part of the adventure. My +mind was at ease: I knew the worst. Additions to my old companions had +arrived in the interval. We had an artist among us, who was allowed, in +consideration of his talents, to retain a sharp cutting implement +fashioned by himself from a flat piece of steel—knives and books being, +as the most dangerous objects in prison, rigidly abstracted from us. He +manufactured landscapes in straw, gummed upon pieces of blackened wood. +Straw was obtained, in a natural state, of green, yellow, and brown; and +these, when required, were converted into differently-tinted reds, by a +few hours’ immersion in the Kiefel. He also kneaded bread in the hand, +until it became as plastic as clay. This he modelled into snuffboxes +(with strips of rag for hinges, and a piece of whalebone for a spring), +draughts, chess-men, pipe-bowls, and other articles. When dry, they +became hard and serviceable; and he sold them among the prisoners and the +prison officials. He obtained thus a number of comforts not afforded by +the prison regulations. + +On Sunday, I attended the Catholic chapel attached to the prison—a damp +unwholesome cell. I stood among a knot of prisoners, enveloped in a +nauseous vapour; for there arose musty, mouldy, effluvia which gradually +overpowered my senses. I felt them leaving me, and tottered towards the +door. I was promptly met by a man who seemed provided for emergencies of +the kind; for he held a vessel of cold water, poured some of it into my +hands, and directed me to bathe my temples. I partly recovered; and, +faint and dispirited, staggered back to the prison. I had not, however, +lain long upon my bed (polished and slippery from constant use), when the +prison guard came to my side, holding in his hand a smoking basin of egg +soup “for the Englishman.” It was sent by the mistress of the kitchen. +I received the offering of a kind heart to a foreigner in trouble, with a +blessing on the donor. + +On the following Tuesday, after an imprisonment of, in all, nine days, +during which I had never slept without my clothes, I was discharged from +the prison. In remembrance of the place, I brought away with me a straw +landscape and a bread snuff-box, the works of the prison artist. + +On reaching my lodging I looked into my box. It was empty. + +“Where are my books and papers?” I asked my landlord. + +The police had taken them on the day after my arrest. + +“And my bank-notes?” + +“Here they are!” exclaimed my landlord, triumphantly. “I expected the +police; I knew you had money somewhere, so I took the liberty of +searching until I found it. The police made particular inquiries about +your cash, and went away disappointed, taking the other things with +them.” + +“Would they have appropriated it?” + +“Hem! Very likely—under pretence of paying your expenses.” + +On application to the police of the district, I received the whole of my +effects back. One of my books was detained for about a week; a member of +the police having taken it home to read, and being, as I apprehend, a +slow reader. + +It was matter of great astonishment, both to my friends and to the +police, that I escaped with so slight a punishment. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII. + + +WHAT MY LANDLORD BELIEVED. + +My Bohemian landlord in Vienna told me a story of an English nobleman. +It may be worth relating, as showing what my landlord, quite in good +faith and earnest, believed. + +You know, Lieber Herr, said Vater Böhm, there is nothing in the whole +Kaiserstadt so astonishing to strangers as our signboards. Those +beautiful paintings that you see—Am Graben and Hohe Markt,—real works of +art, with which the sign-boards of other countries are no more to be +compared, than your hum-drum English music is to the delicious waltzes of +Lanner, or the magic polkas of Strauss. Imagine an Englishman, who knows +nothing of painting, finding himself all at once in front of one of those +charming compositions—pictures that they would make a gallery of in +London, but which we can afford to put out of doors; he is fixed, he is +dumb with astonishment and delight—he goes mad. Well, Lieber Herr, this +is exactly what happened to one of your English nobility. Milor arrived +in Vienna; and as he had made a wager that he would see every notability +in the city and its environs in the course of three days, which was all +the time he could spare, he hired a fiaker at the Tabor-Linie, and drove +as fast as the police would let him from church to theatre; from museum +to wine-cellar; till chance and the fiaker brought him into the Graben. +Milor got out to stretch himself, and to see the wonderful shops, and +after a few turns came suddenly upon the house at the sign of the Joan of +Arc. + +“Goddam!” exclaimed Milor, as his eye met the sign-board. + +There he stood, this English nobleman, in his drab coat with pearl +buttons, his red neckcloth, blue pantaloons and white hat, transfixed for +at least five minutes. Then, swearing some hard oaths—a thing the +English always do when they are particularly pleased—Milor exclaimed, “It +is exquisite! Holy Lord Mayor, it is unbelievable!” + +Mein Lieber, you have seen that painting of course, I mean Joan of Arc, +life-size, clad in steel, sword in hand, and with a wonderful serenity +expressed in her countenance, as she leads her flagging troops once more +to the attack upon the walls. It has all the softness of a Coreggio, and +the vigour of a Rubens. Milor gave three bounds, and was in the middle +of the shop in a moment. + +“That picture!” he exclaimed. + +“What picture—Eurer Gnaden?” inquired the shopkeeper, bowing in the most +elegant manner. + +“It hangs at your door—Joan of Arc, I wish to buy it.” + +“It is not for sale, Eurer Gnaden.” + +“Bah!” ejaculated Milor, “I must have it. I will cover it with guineas.” + +“It is impossible.” + +“How impossible?” cried Milor, diving into the capacious pocket of the +drab coat with the pearl buttons, and drawing forth a heavy roll of +English bank-notes, “I’ll bet you anything you like that it is possible.” + +You know, mein Lieber, that the English settle everything by a wager; +indeed, betting and swearing is about all their language is fit for. For +a fact, there were once two English noblemen, from Manchester or some +such ancient place, who journeyed down the Rhine on the steam-boat. They +looked neither to the right nor to the left; neither at the vine-fields +nor the old castles; but sat at a table, silent and occupied with nothing +before them but two lumps of sugar, and two heaps of guineas. A little +crowd gathered round them wondering what it might mean. Suddenly one of +them cried out, “Goddam, it’s mine!” “What is yours?” inquired one who +stood by, gaping with curiosity. “Don’t you see,” replied the other, “I +bet twenty guineas level, that the first fly would alight upon my lump of +sugar, and by God, I’ve won it!” + +To return to Milor. “I’ll bet you anything you like that it is +possible,” said he. + +“Your grace,” replied the shopkeeper, “my Joan of Arc is beyond price to +me. It draws all the town to my shop; not forgetting the foreigners.” + +“I will buy your shop,” said the Englishman. + +“Milor! Graf Schweinekopf von Pimplestein called only yesterday to see +it, and Le Comte de Barbebiche.” + +“A Frenchman!” shouted Milor. + +“From Paris, your grace.” + +“Will you sell me your Joan of Arc?” was the furious demand. “I will +cover it with pounds sterling twice over.” + +“Le Comte de Barbebiche—” + +“You have promised it to him?” + +“Yes!” gasped Herr Wechsel, catching at the idea. + +“Enough!” cried the English nobleman; and he strode into the street. +With one impassioned glance at the figure of La Pucelle, he threw himself +into his fiaker, and drove rapidly out of sight. + +On reaching his hotel, he chose two pairs of boxing gloves, a set of +rapiers, and a case of duelling pistols; and, thus loaded, descended to +his fiaker, tossed them in, and started off in the direction of the +nearest hotel. “Le Comte de Barbebiche”—that was the pass-word; but +everywhere it failed to elicit the desired reply. He passed from street +to street—from gasthaus to gasthaus—everywhere the same dreary negative; +and the day waned, and his search was still unsuccessful. But he never +relaxed; the morning found him still pursuing his inquiries; and midday +saw him at the porte cochére of the Hotel of the Holy Ghost, in the +Rothenthurm Strasse, with his case of duelling pistols in his hand, his +set of rapiers under his arm, and his two pairs of boxing-gloves slung +round his neck. + +“Deliver my card immediately to the Comte,” said he to the attendant; +“and tell him I am waiting.” He had found him out. Luckily, the Comte +de Barbebiche happened to be in the best possible humour when this +message was conveyed to him, having just succeeded in dyeing his +moustache to his entire satisfaction. He glanced at the card—smiled at +himself complacently in the mirror before him, and answered in a gracious +voice, “Let Milor Mountpleasant come up.” + +Milor was soon heard upon the stairs; and, as he strode into the room, he +flung his set of rapiers with a clatter on the floor, dashed his case of +duelling pistols on the table, and with a dexterous twist sent one pair +of boxing-gloves rolling at the feet of the Comte, while, pulling on the +other, he stood in an attitude of defence before the astonished +Frenchman. + +“What is this?” inquired the Comte de Barbebiche. + +“This is the alternative,” cried the Englishman. “Here are weapons; take +your choice—pistols, rapiers, or the gloves. Fight with one of them you +must and shall, or abandon your claim to Joan of Arc.” + +“Mon Dieu! What Joan of Arc? I do not have the felicity of knowing the +lady.” + +“You may see her, Am Graben,” gravely replied Milor, “outside a shop +door, done in oil.” + +“Heh!” exclaimed the astonished Comte, “in oil—an Esquimaux, or a Tartar, +pray?” + +“Monsieur le Comte, I want no trifling. Do you persist in the purchase +of this picture? I have set my heart upon it; I love it; I have sworn to +possess it. Make it a matter of money, and I will give you a thousand +pounds for your bargain; make it a matter of dispute, and I will fight +you for it to the death; make it a matter of friendship, and yield up +your right, and I will embrace you as a brother, and be your debtor for +the rest of my life.” + +The Comte de Barbebiche—seeing that he had to do with an Englishman a +degree, at least, more crazed than the rest of his countrymen—entered +into the spirit of the matter at once, and chose the easiest means of +extricating himself from a difficulty. + +“Milor,” he exclaimed, advancing towards him, “I am charmed with your +sentiments, your courage, and your integrity. Take her, Milor—take your +Joan of Arc; I would not attempt to deprive you of her if she were a real +flesh and blood Pucelle, and my own sister.” + +The Englishman, with a grand oath, seized the Comte’s hand in both his +own, and shook it heartily; then scrambling up his paraphernalia of war, +spoke a hurried farewell, and disappeared down the stairs. + +The grey of the morning saw Milor in full evening costume, pacing the +Graben with hurried steps, watching with anxious eyes the shop front +where his beloved was wont to hang. He saw her carried out like a +shutter from the house, and duly suspended on the appointed hook. She +had lost none of her charms, and he stood with arms folded upon his +breast, entranced for awhile before the figure of the valiant maiden. + +“Herr Wechsel,” said he abruptly, as he entered the shop; “Le Comte de +Barbebiche has ceded his claim to me. I repeat my offer for your Joan of +Arc—decide at once, for I am in a hurry.” + +It certainly does appear surprising that Herr Wechsel did not close in +with the offer at once; perhaps he really had an affection for his +picture; perhaps he thought to improve the bargain; or, more probably, +looking upon his strange customer as so undoubtedly mad, as to entertain +serious fears as to his ever receiving the money. Certain it is, that he +respectfully declined to sell. + +“You refuse!” shouted Milor, striking his clenched fist upon the counter; +“then, by Jove! I’ll—but never mind!” and he strode into the street. + +The dusk of the evening saw Milor in the dress of a porter, pacing the +Graben with a steady step. He halted in front of his cherished Joan; +with the utmost coolness and deliberation unhooked the painting from its +nail, and placing it carefully, and with the air of a workman, upon his +shoulder, stalked away with his precious burden. + +Imagine the consternation of Herr Wechsel upon the discovery of his loss. +His pride, his delight, the chief ornament of his shop was gone; and, +moreover, he had lost his money. But his sorrow was changed into +surprise, and his half-tearful eyes twinkled with satisfaction as he read +the following epistle, delivered into his hands within an hour after the +occurrence:— + + “Sir,—You will find placed to your credit in the Imperial Bank of + Vienna the sum of five thousand pounds, the amount proffered for your + Joan of Arc. Your obstinacy has driven me into the commission of a + misdemeanour. God forgive you. But I have kept my word. + + “I am already beyond your reach, and you will search in vain for my + trace. In consideration for your feelings, and to cause you as + little annoyance as possible, I have placed _my_ Joan of Arc into the + hands of a skilful artist; and I trust to forward you as accurate a + copy as can be made. + + “Yours, MOUNTPLEASANT.” + +And Milor kept his word, mein Lieber, and the copy hangs Am Graben to +this day in the place of the original. The original shines among the +paintings in the splendid collection of Milor at Mountpleasant Castle. + +I will not pretend to say, concluded Vater Böhm, reloading his pipe, that +the English have any taste, but they certainly have a strange passion for +pictures; and, let them once get an idea into their heads, they are the +most obstinate people in the world in the pursuit of it. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX. + + +AN EXECUTION AT VIENNA. + +Carl Fickte, a native of Vienna, stood condemned for execution. His +crime was murder. He was convicted of having enveigled his nephew, of +eight years old, to the Mölker bastion of the city fortification, and of +having thrown him over the parapet into the dry ditch below. The depth +of the fall was between thirty and forty feet, and the shattered body of +the boy explained his miserable death. His nephew’s cloak became +loosened in the struggle, and remained in the hands of Fickte, who sold +it, and spent the produce in a night’s debauch. This cloak led to the +discovery of the murderer, and after a lapse of eight months to his +conviction and execution. + +I had resolved to witness the last act of the law, and started from home +at six o’clock on the appointed morning. A white mist filled the air, +and gradually thickened into rain; and by the time I had reached the +spot—a distance of about two miles—a smart shower was falling. The place +of execution is a field in the outskirts of the city, bounded on one side +by the main road, and close to the “Spinnerinn am Kreuz,” an ancient +stone cross, standing on the edge of the highway. From this spot a +beautiful view of the city is obtained. + +The crowd was already gathering, and carts, benches, and platforms were +in course of arrangement by enterprising speculators, for the +accommodation of the people. A low bank which skirted the field was soon +occupied, and every swell of the ground was taken advantage of. Soon the +rain fell in torrents, and the earth became sodden and yielding; but no +pelting shower, no sinking clay, could drive the anxious crowd from the +attractive spectacle. Still on they came, men and women together; +laughing and joking; their clothes tucked about them, and umbrella-laden. +Over the field; on to the slippery bank, whence, every now and again, +arose a burst of uproar and laughter, as some part of the mound gave way, +and precipitated a snugly-packed crowd into the swamp below. + +Venders of fruit, sausages, bread, and spirits, occupied every eligible +situation, and from the early hour, and the unprepared state of the +spectators, found abundant patronage. + +A clatter was heard from the city side, and a body of mounted police +galloped along the high road, halted at the gallows, and formed +themselves into a hollow square around it. The gibbet was unlike our +own, it had no platform, and no steps; but was a simple frame formed by +two strong upright, and one horizontal beam. There was a little +entanglement of pulleys and ropes, which I learned to understand at a +later hour. + +Still the rain came pouring down, in one uninterrupted flood, that +nothing but the excitement of a public execution could withstand. And +still the people clustered together in a dense crowd, under the open air +and pelting rain, shifting and reeling, splashing and staggering, till +the field became trodden into a heavy, clinging paste of a full foot +deep. But no one left the spot; they had come for the sight, and see it +they would. Over the whole field and bank, and rising ground, a perfect +sea of umbrellas waved and swayed with the crowd, as they vainly sought a +firmer resting place among the clogging clay. An hour went by, but there +was no change, except a continued accession to the crowd. It was +wonderful how patiently they stood under the watery hurricane; helplessly +embedded in a slimy swamp; feverish and anxious; with no thought but the +looming gallows, towards which all eyes were turned, and the miserable +culprit, whose sudden end they were awaiting to see. + +Fagged, at length, and soaked with rain, I left the slough, and gaining +the highroad, pressed towards the city to meet the cavalcade. A rushing +of people, and a confused cry, told me of its approach. “There he is!” +Yes, there! in that open cart, surrounded by mounted police, and pressed +on all sides by a hurrying crowd. On either side of him sit the prison +officials; while in front, an energetic priest, with all the vehemence +and gesticulation of the wildest religious fervour, is evidently urging +him to repentance. + +It is the law of Austria, that no criminal, however distinctly his crime +may have been proved by circumstantial evidence, can suffer death, till +he has himself confirmed the evidence by confession. But any artifice +can be lawfully employed to entrap him into an acknowledgment of his +guilt; therefore, although the sentence of the law may often be deferred, +it is rare indeed that its completion is averted. Fickte had of course +confessed. A flush was on his face; but there was no life or +intellectual spirit there. + +Another battle with the crowd, and I stood in the rear of the gibbet. +After a weary interval, the scharfrichter—executioner—mounted, by means +of a ladder, to the cross beam of the gallows. By the action of a wheel +the culprit slowly rose into the air, but still unhurt. Three broad +leathern straps confined his arms; and perfectly motionless, held in a +perpendicular position by cordage fixed to the ground, and to the beam +above, he awaited his death. No cap covered his face. A looped cord +passing through another pulley, was placed under his chin, the cord +running along the cross-beam, and the end fixed to a wheel at the side of +the gibbet. + +The culprit kissed the crucifix; a single turn of the wheel; a hoarse cry +of “Down with the umbrellas!” and his life had passed away; though no +cry, no struggle, announced its departure. The scharfrichter laid his +hand upon the heart of the criminal, then, assured of his death, +descended. And still, amid the incessant rain, with eager eyes bent upon +the dead, the crowd waited, gloating on the sight. According to the +sentence of the law, the corpse, with nothing to hide its discoloured and +distorted features, remained hanging till the setting of the sun. + +Ashamed, wearied, and horrified, I hurried home; only halting on my way +to purchase the “Todesurtheil,” or “Death-sentence,” which was being +cried about the streets. This is an official document, and indeed the +only one with which the people of Vienna are gratified on such a subject. +Trials are not public, nor can they be reported; and although the whole +of the details invariably ooze out through the police, no authentic +account appears before the public till the sentence is carried out. + +The “Todesurtheil” appears, like our “Last Dying Speech,” at the time of +the execution, but contains no verses; being a simple, and very brief +narrative of the life and crime of the condemned. He is designated by +his initials only, out of delicacy to his relatives, although his real +name is, somehow or other, already well known. + +Six months later there occurred another execution, but I had no curiosity +to witness it. The condemned was a soldier, who, in a fit of jealousy, +had fired upon his mistress; but killed a bystander instead. There was +no mystery about the affair, and he was condemned to death. + +On the day previous to his execution, he was allowed to receive the +visits of his friends and the public. Only a single person was admitted +at a time. He awaited his visitor (in this instance, an acquaintance of +my own), with calmness and resolution; advanced with outstretched hand to +meet him; greeting him with a hearty salutation. The visitor, totally +unprepared for this, trembled with a cold shudder, as he received the +pressure of the murderer’s hand; murmured a blessing; dropped a few coin +into the box for the especial benefit of his soul, and hurriedly +withdrew. + +On the following morning the condemned quitted his prison for the gibbet. +But the soldier, unlike the civilian—the soldier who has forfeited his +right to a military execution—must walk to his death. The civilian rides +in the felon’s cart; the soldier, in undress, must pace the weary way on +foot. Imagine a death-condemned criminal walking from the Old Bailey to +Copenhagen Fields to the gallows, and you have a parallel case. + + + + +CHAPTER XX. + + +A JAIL EPISODE. + +While in the full enjoyment of that luxury, “A Taste of Austrian Jails,” +already related in these pages, I met with a man whose whole life would +seem to signify perversion; a “dirty, villanous-looking fellow, with but +one eye, and very little light in that.” A first glance at this fellow +would call up the reflection, “Here is the result of bad education, and +bad example, induced perhaps by natural misfortunes, but the inevitable +growth of filth and wretchedness in a large city.” + +With thin, straggling wisps of hair thrown, as it were, on his head, a +dull glimmer only in his one eye, and his whole features of a crafty, +selfish character—such he was; clad in a long, threadbare, snuff-coloured +great-coat, reaching almost to his heels, and which served to hide the +trowsers, the frayed ends of which explained their condition; on his bare +feet he wore a pair of trodden-down slippers, with upper leathers gaping +in front with open mouths; a despicable rascal to look at, and yet this +was a brother of one of the magistrates of Vienna. + +It was soon evident to me that this individual was held in great respect +by the rest of the prisoners; such an influence has education,—for he was +an educated man,—even in such a place as a common jail. + +I was soon informed of the peculiar talent which gave him a prominent +position. He was an inexhaustible teller of stories; and, added my +informant, “he can drink as much beer as any three men in Vienna.” + +This was saying a great deal. + +On the second night of my incarceration in Punishment Room No. 1, I had +an opportunity of judging of his powers; for, on our retiring to our +boards and rugs, which, according to prison regulations, we were bound to +do at the ringing of the eight o’clock bell, I heard his peculiar voice +announce from the other side of the room, where he lay, propped up +against the wall by the especial indulgence of his comrades, that he was +about to tell a story. I could not sleep, but lay upon the hard planks +listening, as he recounted with a wonderful power of language, and no +mean amount of elocutionary dignity, some principal incidents in the life +of Napoleon. His companions lay entranced; they did not sleep, for I +could hear their whispers, and, now and then, their uneasy shiftings on +the relentless wood. And so he went on, and I fell off to sleep before +he had come to a conclusion. + +This was repeated each night of my confinement, for which he received his +due payment in beer from his fellow prisoners. + +He professed to have a great affection for me; would take my arm, and +walk with me up and down the ward, telling me of his acquirements, little +scraps of his history, and invariably making a request for a little beer. + +On one occasion it was suggested by the “Vater” that he should tell us +his own story. + +“My story!” chuckled the unashamed rascal. “Why, all Vienna knows my +story. I am the brother of Rathherr Lech, of the +Imperial-royal-city-police-bureau of Vienna. My brother is a great man; +I am a vagabond. _He_ deserves it, and _I_ deserve it; but he is my +brother for all that, and I put him in mind of it now and then. + +“My brother, by his zeal and talent, has acquired great learning, and +raised himself to a position of honour and independence. And why have I +not done the same? Because I am lazy, have got weak eyes, and am fond of +beer. I do not care for your wine; good Liesinger beer is the drink for +me. + +“My brother wished me to attain a lofty position in the world. I am the +younger. He paid teachers to instruct me, and I learned a great deal; +but it was dry work, and I sought change, after days of study, in +beer-cellars, among a few choice boosers. And my eyes were weak, and +close study made them worse; and many a day I stole from my lessons on +the plea of failing sight. My brother, who is a good fellow, only that +he does not sufficiently consider my weakness, employed physicians and +oculists out of number; and among them I lost the sight of one eye. It +was of no use; I did not like the labour of learning, and I made my weak +eyes an excuse for doing less than I could have done. + +“At last I gave it up altogether, and my brother got me into the +‘Institute for the Blind.’ _That_ would not do for me at all; I was not +blind enough for _that_. So, one day, when the door was open, and the +weather fine, I strolled home again to my brother. This vexed him +greatly; but he got over it, and then he placed me in the ‘Imperial +Bounty.’ A stylish place, I can tell you, where few but nobles were +allowed. + +“But how could I, a lusty young fellow, be happy among that moping, +musty, crampt-up lot of old respectables? Not I! so, as I could not +easily get out in the day-time, I ran away one night, and went back to my +old quarters. At first my brother would not see me; but that passed +over, for he could not let me starve. He then obtained for me a post in +the ‘Refuge for the Aged;’ about the dullest place in all Vienna. I was +too young to be one of the members, so they gave me a birth, where I did +nothing. But what was the use of that? I could not live among that +company of mumbling, bible-backed old people; and if I could, it was all +the same, for they kicked me out at the end of a month for impropriety. + +“It was lucky for me that I tumbled into a legacy about this time, of +eighty gulden münz. I enjoyed myself while it lasted, and never troubled +my brother with my presence. + +“It did not last long; for, what with drinking beer, and wearing fine +clothes, and taking a dashing lodging on the Glacis, I found my eighty +guldens gone, just as I was in a position to enjoy them most. But I was +never very proud; so, seeing that there was nothing to be done, but to go +without beer, or to humble myself to my brother, the rath, I chose the +latter course as the most reasonable, and made my peace with him at once. + +“And what do you suppose he did for me? He said I had disgraced myself +and him at all the other places, so he could do nothing but send me to +the ‘Asylum for the Indigent.’ But I did not stay there long. There was +no beer there; nothing but thin soup and rind-fleish (fresh boiled beef) +all the year round. And a pretty lot of ill-bred, miserable ignoramuses +they were—the indigent! Not a spark of life or jollity in the place. + +“One day I coolly walked out of the ‘Asylum,’ made off to a house I well +knew, and ran up a credit account in my brother’s name of good eight +guldens for beer and tobacco. A glorious day! for I forgot all about the +‘asylum,’ and the ‘indigent,’ and every mortal pain and trouble in this +inconvenient world. + +“I was awakened from a deep dream by a heavy hand on my shoulder, and a +loud voice in my ear. + +“‘Holloa! friend Lech.’ + +“‘What’s the matter?’ inquired I, gaping. + +“‘Get up, and I’ll tell you.’ + +“‘Who are you?’ + +“‘You’ll know that soon enough; I am a police officer.’ + +“‘And where am I, in God’s name?’ + +“‘Why, lying on your back, on the open Glacis.’ + +“That was pleasant, was it not? So they took me to the police-bureau, in +the first case, for lying out in the open air; and when they found that I +had used my brother’s name to incur a debt, without his permission, they +gave me two months for fraudulent intentions. + +“‘Why did you not stay at the “Bounty?”’ expostulated my friend, the +police-assistant, as we were talking the matter over. + +“‘Because it was too aristocratic and uncomfortable,’ answered I. + +“‘Perhaps the Rathherr, your brother, will be able to get you into the +“Refuge,”’ said he, in a consoling way. + +“‘God bless you! they have kicked me out of there long ago.’ + +“‘Then I know of nothing but the “Indigent” left for you.’ + +“‘My worthy friend,’ said I, ‘that is the very last place I came from.’ + +“But I was determined to be revenged. When my time was expired, I +sallied forth with my mind fully made up as to what I was to do. I knew +the hour when my brother, in pursuance of his duties, usually entered the +magistrate’s office, and, attired as I was—look at me! just as I am +now—in this old coat, the souvenir of the ‘Indigent,’ and these +free-and-easy slippers, I waited at the great entrance of the Magistracy, +to pay my respects to my brother, the Rath. + +“I saw him coming; and, as soon as he reached the foot of the flight of +stone steps, I marched forward, gave him a mock salute, and exclaimed, in +a loud voice, + +“‘Good morning, brother!’ + +“‘What is the meaning of this?’ demanded he. + +“‘Look here, brother!’ said I, ‘look at this coat, and these shoes.’ + +“‘Remove this fellow!’ exclaimed he to the police, who were standing at +his heels. + +“I knew what would be the result, but had determined to have the play +out. So I drew off my slipper, and, thrusting my hand right through the +hole at the toe, I made a bit of play with my fingers, and shouted in his +ear: + +“‘Look at this, brother. Are you not ashamed to see me? Look here! +Look at this kripple-gespiel (puppet show)! Look!’ + +“Of course I was laid hold of; and here I am for another two months, for +insulting a city functionary.” + +This story was received with a glee only equalled by the gusto with which +it was related. The last expression, “kripple-gespiel,” was peculiarly +his own. + +Before leaving Vienna, about a month after my release, I had determined +to see the Brühl, a wild, wooded, and mountainous district, at a short +distance from the city. We had spent a delightful day among its thick +pine woods, and on its towering heights, and in the evening made our way +to the small town of Mödling, where we intended to take the railway to +Vienna. But there was a grand fête in the pleasure grounds close to the +town, accompanied by a magnificent display of fireworks. This whiled +away the time, and it was already dark, as we at length bent our steps +towards the railway station. + +Suddenly a voice that I knew too well, struck upon my ear. + +“Pity the poor blind!” it exclaimed. + +I turned, and behold! there was my one-eyed jail acquaintance, planted +against a brick wall, a stout staff, at least six feet long, in his hand, +and his apparently sightless eyes turned up to the sky. + +“Pity the poor blind!” + +In the greatest fear lest, even in his present blind condition, he might +recognise, and claim me as an acquaintance, I hurried from the spot with +all the speed of which I was capable, and, thank Heaven, never set eyes +upon him again. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI. + + +A WALK THROUGH A MOUNTAIN. + +I lately took a walk through the substance of a mountain, entering at the +top, and coming out at the bottom, after a two or three mile journey +underground. Perhaps the story of this trip is worth narrating. The +mountain was part of an extensive property belonging to the Emperor of +Austria, in his character of salt merchant, and contained the famous salt +mine of Hallein. + +The whole salt district of Upper Austria, called the Salzkammergut, forms +part of a range of rocks that extends from Halle in the Tyrol, passes +through Reichenthal in Bavaria, and continues by way of Hallein in +Salzburg, to end at Ausse in Styria. The Austrian part of the range is +now included in what is called the district of Salzburg, and that +district abounds, as might be expected, in salt springs, hot and cold, +which form in fact the baths of Gastein, Ischl, and some other places. +The names of Salzburg (Saltborough), the capital, and of the Salzack +(Saltbrook), on the left bank of which that pleasant city stands, +indicate clearly enough the character of the surrounding country. +Hallein is a small town eight miles to the south-east of Salzburg, and it +was to the mine of Hallein, as before said, that I paid my visit. + +On the way thither, we, a party of three foot-travellers, passed through +much delightful rock and water scenery. From Linz, the capital of Upper +Austria, we got through Wells and Laimbach to the river Traun, and +trudged afoot beside its winding waters till we reached the point of its +junction with the Traunsee, or Lake of Traun. At Gmunden, we stopped to +look over the Imperial Salt Warehouses. The Emperor of Austria, as most +people know, is the only dealer in salt and tobacco with whom his +subjects are allowed to trade. His salt warehouses, therefore, must +needs be extensive. They are situated at Gmunden to the left of the +landing-place, from which a little steamer plies across the lake; and +they are so built as to afford every facility for the unloading of boats +that bring salt barrels from the mine by the highway of the Traun. The +warehouses consisted simply of a large number of sheds piled with the +salt in barrels, a few offices, and a low but spacious hall, filled, in a +confused way, with dusty models. There were models of river-boats and +salt moulds, mining tools, and tram ways, hydraulic models of all kinds, +miniature furnaces, wooden troughs, and seething pans. We looked through +these until the bell from the adjacent pier warned us, at five o’clock in +the evening, to go on board the steamer that was quite ready to puff and +splash its way across the beautiful green lake. We went under the shadow +of the black and lofty Traunstien, and among pine-covered rocks, of which +the reflections were mingled in the water with a ruddy glow, that +streamed across a low shore from some fires towards which we were +steering. + +The glow proceeded from the fires of the Imperial Saltern, erected at +Ebensee. We paid a short visit to the works, which have been erected at +great cost; and display all the most recent improvements in the art of +getting the best marketable salt from saline water. We found that the +water, heavily impregnated, is conducted from the distant mines by wooden +troughs into the drying pan. The pan is a large shallow vessel of metal, +supported by small piles of brick, and a low brick wall about three feet +high, extending round two-thirds of its circumference; leaving one-third, +as the mouth of the furnace, open to the air. Among the brick columns, +and within the wall, the fire flashed and curled under the seething pan. +Ascending next into the house over the great pan, and looking down upon +the surface and its contents through sliding doors upon the floors, we +saw the white salt crusting like a coat of snow over the boiling water, +and being raked, as it is formed, by workmen stationed at each of the +trap doors. As the water evaporated, the salt was stirred and turned +from rake to rake; and finally, when quite dry, raked into the +neighbourhood of a long-handled spade, with which one workman was +shovelling among the dried salt, and filling a long row of wooden moulds, +placed ready to his hand. These moulds are sugar-loaf shaped, and +perforated at the bottom like a sugar mould, in order that any remaining +moisture may drain out of them. The moulds will be placed finally in a +heated room before the salt will be considered dry enough for storeage as +a manufactured article. + +The brine that pours with an equable flow into the seething pan at +Ebensee, is brought by wooden troughs from the salt mine at Hallein, a +distance of thirty miles in a direct line. It comes by way of mountains +and along a portion of the valley of the Traun, through which we +continued our journey the same evening from Ebensee, until the darkness +compelled us to rest for the night at a small inn on a hill side. The +next day we went through Ischl and Wolfgang, and spent three hours of +afternoon in climbing up the Scharfberg, which is more than a thousand +feet higher than Snowdon, to see the sunset and the sunrise. There was +sleeping accommodation on the top: so there is on the top of Snowdon. On +the Scharfberg we had a hay-litter in a wooden shed, and ate goat’s +cheese and bread and butter. We saw neither sunset nor sunrise, but had +a night of wind and rain, and came down in the morning through white mist +within a rugged gully ploughed up by the rain, to get a wholesome +breakfast at St. Gilgen on the lake. More I need not say about the +journey than that, on the fifth day after leaving Ebensee, having rested +a little in the very beautiful city of Salzburg, we marched into the town +of Hallein, at the foot of the Dürrnberg, the famous salt mountain, +called Tumal by old chroniclers, and known for a salt mountain seven +hundred and thirty years ago. + +After a night’s rest in the town, we were astir by five o’clock in the +morning, and went forward on our visit to the mines. In the case of the +Dürrnberg salt mine, as I have already said, the miner enters at the top +and comes out at the bottom. Our first business, therefore, was to walk +up the mountain, the approach to which is by a long slope of about four +English miles. + +We met few miners by the way, and noticed in them few peculiarities of +manners or costume. The national dress about these regions is a sort of +cross between the Swiss Alpine costume and a common peasant dress of the +lowlands. We saw indications of the sugar-loafed hat; jackets were worn +almost by all, with knee-breeches and coloured leggings. The clothing +was always neat and sound, and the clothed bodies looked reasonably +healthy, except that they had all remarkably pale faces. The miners did +not seem bodily to suffer from their occupation. + +As we approached the summit of the Dürrnberg, the dry brownish limestone +showed its bare front to the morning sun. We entered the offices, partly +contained in the rock, and applied for admission into the dominion of the +gnomes. Our arrival was quite in the nick of time, for we had not to be +kept waiting, as we happened to complete the party of twelve, without +which the guides do not start. It was a Tower of London business; and, +as at the Tower, the demand upon our purses was not very heavy. One +gulden-schein—about tenpence—is the regulated fee. Our full titles +having been duly put down in the register, each of us was furnished with +a miner’s costume, and, so habited, off we set. + +We started from a point that is called the Obersteinberghauptstollen; our +guides only having candles, one in advance, the other in the rear. + +We were sensible of a pleasant coldness in the air when we had gone a +little way into the sloping tunnel. The tunnel was lofty, wide, and dry. +Having walked downwards on a gentle decline for a distance of nearly +three thousand feet through the half gloom and among the echoes, we +arrived at the mouth of the first shaft, named Freudenberg. The method +of descent is called the “Rolle.” It is both simple and efficacious. +Down the steep slope of the shaft, and at an angle, in this case, of +forty-one and a half degrees, runs a smooth railway consisting of two +pieces of timber, each of about the thickness of a scaffold pole; they +are twelve inches apart, and run together down the shaft like two sides +of a thick ladder without the intervening rounds. Following the +directions and example of the foremost guide, we sat astride, one behind +the other, on this wooden tramway, and slid very comfortably to the +bottom. The shaft itself was only of the width necessary to allow room +for our passage. In this way we descended to the next chamber in the +mountain, at a depth of a hundred and forty feet (perpendicular) from the +top of the long slide. + +We then stood in a low-roofed chamber, small enough to be lighted +throughout by the dusky glare of our two candles. The walls and roof +sparkled with brown and purple colours, showing the unworked stratum of +rock-salt. We stood then at the head of the Untersteinberghauptstulm, +and after a glance back at the narrow slit in the solid limestone through +which we had just descended, we pursued our way along a narrow gallery of +irregular level for a further distance of six hundred and sixty feet. A +second shaft there opened us a passage into the deeper regions of the +mine. With a boyish pleasure we all seated ourselves again upon a +“Rolle”—this time upon the Johann-Jacob-berg-rolle, which is laid at an +angle of forty-five and a half degrees—and away we slipped to the next +level, which is at the perpendicular depth of another couple of hundred +feet. + +We alighted in another chamber where our candles made the same half +gloom, with their ruddy glare into the darkness, and where there was the +same sombre glittering upon the walls and ceiling. We pursued our track +along a devious cutting, haunted by confused and giant shadows, suddenly +passing black cavernous sideways that startled us as we came upon them, +and I began to expect mummies, for I thought myself for one minute within +an old Egyptian catacomb. After traversing a further distance of two +thousand seven hundred feet we halted at the top of the third slide, the +Königsrolle. That shot us fifty-four feet deeper into the heart of the +mountain. We had become quite expert at our exercise, and had left off +considering, amid all these descents and traverses, what might be our +real position in the bowels of the earth. Perhaps we might get down to +Aladdin’s garden and find trees loaded with emerald and ruby fruits. It +was quite possible, for there was something very cabalistic, very strong +of enchantment in the word Konhauserankehrschachtricht, the name given to +the portion of the mine which we were then descending. +Konhauser-return-shaft is, I think, however, about the meaning of that +compound word. + +So far we had felt nothing like real cold, although I had been promised a +wintry atmosphere. Possibly with a miner’s dress over my ordinary +clothing, and with plenty of exercise, there was enough to counteract the +effects of the chill air. But our eyes began to ache at the uncertain +light, and we all straggled irregularly along the smooth cut shaft level +for another sixty feet, and so reached the Konhauser-rolle, the fourth +slide we had encountered in our progress. + +That cheered us up a little, as it shot us down another one hundred and +eight feet perpendicular depth to the +Soolererzeugungswerk-Konhauser—surely a place nearer than ever to the +magic regions of Abracadabra. If not Aladdin’s garden, something +wonderful ought surely by this time to have been reached. I was alive to +any sight or sound, and was excited by the earnest whispering of my +fellow adventurers, and the careful directions as to our progress given +by the guides and light-bearers. + +With eager rapidity we flitted among the black shadows of the cavern, +till we reached a winding flight of giant steps. We mounted them with +desperate excitement, and at the summit halted, for we felt that there +was space before our faces, and had been told that those stairs led to a +mid mountain lake, nine hundred and sixty feet below the mountain’s top; +two hundred and forty feet above its base. Presently, through the +darkness, we perceived at an apparently interminable distance a few dots +of light, that shed no lustre, and could help us in no way to pierce the +pitchy gloom of the great cavern. The lights were not interminably +distant, for they were upon the other shore, and this gnome lake is but a +mere drop of water in the mountain mass, its length being three hundred +and thirty, and its breadth one hundred and sixty feet. + +Our guides lighted more candles, and we began to see their rays reflected +from the water; we could hear too the dull splashing of the boat, which +we could not see, as old Charon slowly ferried to our shore. More lights +were used; they flashed and flickered from the opposite ferry station, +and we began to have an indistinct sense of a spangled dome, and of an +undulating surface of thick, black water, through which the coming boat +loomed darkly. More candles were lighted on both sides of the Konhauser +lake, a very Styx, defying all the illuminating force of candles; dead +and dark in its dim cave, even the limits of which all our lights did not +serve to define. The boat reached the place of embarcation, and we, +wandering ghosts, half walked and were half carried into its broad clumsy +hulk, and took each his allotted seat in ghostly silence. There was +something really terrible in it all; in the slow funereal pace at which +we floated across the subterranean lake; in the dead quiet among us, only +interrupted by the slow plunge of the oar into the sickly waters. In +spite of all the lights that had been kindled we were still in a thick +vapour of darkness, and could form but a dreamy notion of the beauty and +the grandeur of the crystal dome within which we men from the upper earth +were hidden from our fellows. The lights were flared aloft as we crept +sluggishly across the lake, and now and then were flashed back from a +hanging stalactite, but that was all. The misty darkness about us +brought to the fancy at the same time fearful images, and none of us were +sorry when we reached the other shore in safety. There a rich glow of +light awaited us, and there we were told a famous tale about the last +Arch-ducal visit to these salt mines, where some thousands of lighted +tapers glittered and flashed about him, and exhibited the vaulted roof +and spangled lake in all their beauty. As we were not Archdukes, we had +our Hades lighted only by a pound of short sixteens. + +We left the lake behind us, and then, traversing a further distance of +seventy feet along the Wehrschachtricht, arrived at the mouth of the +Konhauser Stiege. Another rapid descent of forty-five feet at an angle +of fifty degrees, and we reached Rupertschachtricht, a long cavern of the +extent of five hundred and sixty feet, through which we toiled with a +growing sense of weariness. We had now come to the top of the last and +longest “slide” in the whole Dürrnberg. It is called the +Wolfdietrichberg-rolle, and is four hundred and sixty-eight feet long, +carrying us two hundred and forty feet lower down into the mountain. We +went down this “slide” with the alacrity of school-boys, one after +another keeping the pot boiling, and all regulating our movements with +great circumspection, for we knew that we had far to go and we could +never see more than a few yards before us. + +Having gained the ground beneath in safety, our attention was drawn to a +fresh water well or spring, sunk in this spot at great cost by order of +the Archduke, and blessed among miners. Amid all the stone and salt and +brine, a gush of pure fresh water at our feet was very welcome to us all. +The well was sunk, however, to get water that was necessary for the +mining operations. We did not see any of those operations underground, +for they are not exhibited; the show-trip underground is only among the +ventilating shafts and galleries. Through the dark openings by which we +had passed, we should have found our way (had we been permitted) to the +miners. I have seen them working in the Tyrol, and their labours are +extremely simple. Some of the rock-salt is quarried in transparent +crystals, which undergo only the process of crushing before they are sent +into the market as an article of commerce. Very little of this grain +salt is seen in England, but on the continent it may be found in some of +the first hotels, and on the table of most families. It is cheaper than +the loaf salt, and is known in Germany under the title of _salzkorn_, and +in France, as _selle de cuisine_. In order to obtain a finer grained and +better salt, it is necessary that the original salt-crystals should be +dissolved, and for this purpose parallel galleries are run into the rock, +and there is dug in each of them a dyke or cistern. These dykes are then +flushed with water, which is allowed to remain in them undisturbed for +the space of from five to twelve months, according to the richness of the +soil; and, being then thoroughly saturated with the salt that it has +taken up, the brine is drawn off through wooden pipes from Hallein over +hill and dale into the evaporating pans. + +We had traversed the last level, and had reached what is generally called +the end of the salt-mine; but we were still a long way distant from the +pure air and the sunshine. We had travelled through seven galleries of +an aggregate length of nearly two miles; we had floated across an earthy +piece of water; had followed one another down six slides, and had +penetrated to the depth of twelve hundred feet into the substance of the +mountain limestone, gypsum, and marl. Having done all this, there we +were, in the very heart of the Dürrnberg, left by our guides, and +intrusted to the care of two lank lads with haggard faces. We stood +together in a spacious cavern, poorly lighted by our candles; there was a +line of tram-rail running through the middle of it, and we soon saw the +carriage that was to take us out of the mountain emerging from a dark +nook in the distance. It was a truck with seats upon it, economically +arranged after the fashion of an Irish jaunting car. The two lads were +to be our horses, and our way lay through a black hollow in one side of +the cavern, into which the tram-rail ran. + +We took our seats, instructed to sit perfectly still, and to restrain our +legs and arms from any straggling. There was no room to spare in the +shaft we were about to traverse. Our car was run on to the tram-line, +and the two lads, with a sickly smile, and a broad hint at their expected +gratuity, began to pull, and promised us a rapid journey. In another +minute we were whirring down an incline with a rush and a rattle, through +the subterranean passage tunnelled into the solid limestone which runs to +the outer edge of the Dürrnberg. The length of this tunnel is +considerably more than an English mile. + +The reverberation and the want of light were nothing, but we were +disagreeably sensible of a cloud of fine stone dust, and knew well that +we should come out not only stone deaf, but as white as millers. +Clinging to our seats with a cowardly instinct, down we went through a +hurricane of sound and dust. At length we were sensible of a diminution +in our speed, and the confusion of noises so far ceased, that we could +hear the panting of our biped cattle. Then, straight before us, shining +in the centre of the pitchy darkness, there was a bright blue star +suddenly apparent. One of the poor lads in the whisper of exhaustion, +and between his broken pantings for breath, told us that they always know +when they have got half way by the blue star, for that is the daylight +shining in. + +A little necessary rest, and we were off again, the blue star before us +growing gradually paler, and expanding and still growing whiter, till +with an uncontrollable dash, and a concussion, we are thrown within a few +feet of the broad incomparable daylight. With how much contempt of +candles did I look up at the noonday sun! The two lads, streaming with +perspiration, who had dragged us down the long incline, were made happy +by the payment we all gladly offered for their services. Then, as we +passed out of the mouth of the shaft, by a rude chamber cut out of the +rock, we were induced to pause and purchase from a family of miners who +reside there a little box of salt crystals, as a memento of our visit. +Truly we must have been among the gnomes, for when I had reached the inn +I spread the brilliant crystals I had brought home with me on my bedroom +window sill, and there they sparkled in the sun and twinkled rainbows, +changing and shifting their bright colours as though there were a living +imp at work within. But when I got up next morning and looked for my +crystals, in the place where each had stood, I found only a little slop +of brine. That fact may, I have no doubt, be accounted for by the +philosophers; but I prefer to think that it was something wondrous +strange, and that I fared marvellously like people of whom I had read in +German tales, how they received gifts from the good people who live in +the bowels of the earth, and what became of them. I have had my +experiences, and I do not choose to be sure whether those tales are +altogether founded upon fancy. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII. + + +CAUSE AND EFFECT. + +One September evening we rode into Carlsruhe. We made our entry in a +crazy hackney cab behind a lazy horse that had been dragging us for a +long time with cheerless industry between a double file of trees, along a +road without a bend in it; a long, lanky, Quaker road, heavily +drab-coated with dust; a tight-rope of a road that comes from Manheim, +and is hooked on to the capital of Baden. Out of that _allée_ we were +dragged into the square-cut capital itself, which had evidently been +planned by the genius of a ruler—not a prince, but the wooden measure. +The horse stopped at the City of Pfortzheim, and as his decision on the +subject of our halting-place appeared to be irrevocable, we got out. + +At the capital of a grand dukedom, except Weimar, it is better to sleep +(it is the only thing to be done there) and pass on; but it so happened +that on that particular evening Carlsruhe was in a ferment: there was +something brewing. I heard talk of a procession and of certain names, +particularly the names Kugelblitz and Thalermacher. Never having heard +those names before, and caring therefore nothing in the world about them, +I tumbled into bed. To my delight, when I got up in the morning, I found +the little town turned upside down. Landlord, boots, and chambermaid, +overwhelmed me with exclamations, surmises, and incoherent summaries of +the night’s news. There had been an outbreak. _Lieber Herr_, a +revolution! One entire house razed to the ground. “Hep! hep!” that is +the old cry, “Down with the Jews!” All their bones would be made powder +of. Tremendous funeral of Kugelblitz. Students on their way in a body +from Heidelberg. Thalermacher the rich Jew, soldiers, the entire court, +Meinheer, all in despair; a regular sack. Not only Kugelblitz, but +Demboffsky, the Russian officer, killed. O hep! hep! a lamentable +tragedy. “For they were two such fine-looking young men,” mourned the +chambermaid, “especially Demboffsky.” “You had better,” said the +landlord, “stay in Carlsruhe till to-morrow.” + +Roused by the incoherent tidings, I hurried to the centre of the tumult. +The house of the firm of Thalermacher and Company was situated in the +High Street; and though, certainly, it had a doleful look, it was there +situated still: it held its ground. Not a brick was displaced; but—gaunt +and windowless, disfigured with great blotches of ink and dirt, its +little shop rent from the wall and split up into faggots—it looked like a +house out of which all life had been knocked; but there was the carcase. +In the street before the house, there were by that time a few splinters +of furniture remaining; the rest had been broken up or hidden by kind and +cunning neighbours. The shop had been cobbled together with the broken +shutters; and half-a-dozen soldiers, quite at their ease, were lounging +pleasantly about the broken door. + +The outbreak, I was told by the bystanders, was quite unpremeditated. A +few stragglers had halted before the house at about eight o’clock on the +preceding evening, and had been discussing there the dreadful tale +connected with its owner. One gossip, in a sudden burst of anger, hurled +a bottle of ink—then by chance in his hand—at the Jew’s house. The idea +was taken up with such good will that a hard rain of stones, bottles, and +other missiles was soon pelting against Thalermacher’s walls. Where all +are unanimous it is not difficult to come to a conclusion. An hour’s +labour, lightened by yells and shouts of “Hep, hep!” was enough; and, the +zeal of the people burning like a fire, soon left of the house nothing +but its shell. + +The authorities in Germany, usually so watchful and so prompt to +interfere, were either taken completely off their guard, or tacitly +permitted the rude work of vengeance; for, although there was a +guard-post in the immediate vicinity, the whole efforts of the military +were confined to conducting Thalermacher and his family into a place of +safety. The protection Thalermacher received was of a peculiar kind. +Under the plea of insuring him against public attack, he was conducted +under escort, to the fortress of Rastadt, and there held a close +prisoner, until the whole affair could be investigated. + +The funeral procession of Lieutenant Kugelblitz was not a thing to be +missed. I went, therefore, to the other end of the city, whence the +procession was to start. The scene was impressive. Not merely his +brothers-in-arms of the artillery, but the general-staff—all the officers +of distinction in the Baden army, whose duties allowed them to be +present—and even the Russian companions of his antagonist Demboffsky, +acted as mourners. + +As the procession came before the house of Thalermacher, I observed that +a strong guard had been posted there for its protection. The funeral +passed by without any demonstration whatever. Presently we turned up a +narrow passage, leading from the high street towards the cemetery, and +our progress became tediously slow as we moved with the close mass of +people. At the burial-place every mound and stone was occupied. Flowers +were trampled under foot, shrubs broken or uprooted, and the grass all +stamped into the mould. The whole crowd listened to the impressive +tone—only a few could hear the words—of the funeral harangue, and to the +solemn hymn which followed. The service closed with the military honour +of musketry fired over the soldier’s grave. That over, I was sucked back +by the retreating tide of citizens into the main street of Carlsruhe. + +The crowd instantly dispersed; and, as I wandered through the side +streets, I soon saw that the authorities had come to life. My attention +was first called to an official announcement freshly posted, which warned +all persons from assembling in the public street in knots or clusters, +even of three or four, on pain of being instantly dispersed by the +military. Another placard fulminated an injunction to parents, masters, +and burghers to restrain and confine all persons under their charge—such +as workmen, servants, and children—within their respective houses; +because, for any offence committed by them against the public peace, such +masters or parents would be held responsible. I began to fancy myself in +a state of siege. Wandering again into the main street I was met by a +strong division of dusty dragoons, in full equipment of war, which came +sweeping and clashing along from adjacent parts of the country, evidently +under urgent orders. Another and another followed. Troops of infantry +tramped hastily along the side streets. The very few civilians I met in +the streets seemed to be hurrying to shelter from a coming storm. Was +there really any social tempest in the wind? Or were all these +precautions but a locking of the stable door after the steed was stolen? + +Having roamed by chance into a sequestered beer-house, I was surprised to +find myself in the midst of a large party of students; probably from +Heidelberg. They were well-grown youths, with silken blond beards; and +in their behaviour, half-swaggerers, half-gentlemen. These were, +perhaps, the enemies of order against whom the tremendous military +preparations had been made. + +As the day wore on it became evident that the authorities were ready to +brave the most overwhelming revolution that ever burst forth. Troop +after troop of cavalry galloped in; every soldier, indeed, of whatever +arm stationed within an available distance of Carlsruhe, was brought +within its walls. By eight o’clock in the evening the military +preparations were completed: a picket of infantry was stationed at every +street corner; and, from that hour to the break of day, parties of +dragoons swept the main thoroughfares, clashing and clattering over the +paved road with a din that kept me awake all night. Intercourse between +one street and another, except on urgent business, was interdicted; and +the humblest pedestrian found abroad without an urgent errand was +conducted home with drums beating, colours flying, and all the honours of +war. The display of force answered its purpose in preventing a second +attack of Christians on Jews. The pale ghost of insubordination was laid +and dared not walk abroad—especially at night. + +I must say I felt a little relieved when it was ascertained for certain +that the city was safe. I am no friend to despotism nor to political +thraldom of any kind; but really it is impossible not to feel for the +solemn aristocracies of German Grand-Duchies (who, if they be despots, +are extremely amiable) when, poor people, they are in the least put out +of their way: they are so dreadfully fussy, so fearfully piteous, so +distraught, so inconsolable. I was glad therefore that, the revolution +being put down, they could retire in peace to their coffee, their +picquet, and their metaphysics. Doubtless Thalermacher (some Hebrew +millionaire, perhaps) and Kugelblitz (a fire-eater, for certain) had +headed a frightful band of anarchists; who, but for the indomitable +energy of the authorities, would peradventure have changed the destiny of +the entire Duchy, of Germany, of Europe itself! Nothing but so +illimitable an apprehension could have been the cause of such a +siege-like effect. What else could have occasioned the entire blockade +of Carlsruhe? + +I had, however, exaggerated the cause as well as the danger; and I will +now relate the real circumstances which had led to all these awful +results; for the facts were afterwards made known in the Carlsruhe and +Baden-Baden public journals of the day. + +Early in the month of August, eighteen hundred and forty-three, the +inhabitants of Baden-Baden gave a ball in honour of the Grand-Princess +Helene of Baden, and the Duchess of Nassau. Among the names on the +subscription-list stood that of Herr Heller von Thalermacher. Some +unexplained animosity existed between this gentleman and Lieutenant +Kugelblitz, who was also one of the subscribers. + +Baron Donner von Kugelblitz, chief lieutenant of the Baden artillery, +although only in his twenty-ninth year, had already spent fourteen years +in military service, and was highly esteemed for his soldierly qualities +and straightforward bearing. He was tall, remarkably handsome, of an +impetuous temperament, and his natural strength had been well developed +by constant practice in manly and athletic exercises. Herr Heller von +Thalermacher, or rather the firm of which he was the prominent member, +was distinguished for qualities far different, but equally deserving of +goodwill. The banking-house of Thalermacher was one of the most +responsible in South Germany; and, at great expense and sacrifice, had +introduced into the grand, but by no means affluent, duchy of Baden +several branches of industry, which had enriched the ducal treasury, and +furnished employment for thousands of industrious subjects. It had +revived the almost extinguished mining interest; had introduced extensive +spinning machinery; and had established a factory for the manufacture of +beetroot sugar. + +Lieutenant Kugelblitz, to whose opinion deference was due, expressed +himself in such offensive terms with respect to Herr von Thalermacher, in +relation to the ball, that the gentlemen who had prepared the +subscription-list at once erased the objectionable name: Herr von +Thalermacher at once demanded satisfaction from his accuser, but this +Lieutenant Kugelblitz refused, on the ground that the banker was not +respectable enough for powder and shot. Hereupon two courts of honour +were formed, one composed of gentlemen civilians in Baden-Baden, and the +other of the officers in Carlsruhe. Both appeared to have been called +together at the wish of Lieutenant Kugelblitz, to inquire into and +pronounce upon the point at issue. The civilians came to no decision. +The military court of honour put the result of its deliberations in the +_Carlsruhe Zeitung_, as a public advertisement, couched in these terms: +“The Herr von Kugelblitz may not fight with the Herr von Thalermacher.” +Thus posted as a scamp, Thalermacher advertised back his own defence; +and, by public circulars and bills, declared the accusation of Kugelblitz +to be false and malicious, and his behaviour dishonourable and cowardly. +At the same time, a Russian officer of good family,—Demboffsky—who had +acted throughout as negotiator and friend on the part of Thalermacher, +and who felt himself deeply compromised by the imputations put forth +against his principal, declared publicly that the military court which +had condemned the Herr von Thalermacher, after hearing only his accuser, +was a one-sided and absurd tribunal, and that it was not competent to +give any decision. + +The result of this declaration was a challenge from Lieutenant +Kugelblitz. Demboffsky said that he was quite willing to give his +challenger the satisfaction he demanded, on condition that he should +first arrange his quarrel with Herr Thalermacher, as became a gentleman. + +On the night of the first of September (at the beginning of our English +shooting season), the Russian being on a visit to his friend +Thalermacher, in his apartments, assured him in the most positive terms +that he would keep promise, and would make no hostile arrangement with +Lieutenant Kugelblitz. Prince Trubetzkoi and other friends then present +completely coincided in this mode of action. At half-past eleven at +night, Demboffsky quitted his friend, and hastened homewards. Be had +advanced only a few steps on the road, when suddenly two figures strode +up to him, and stayed his progress. He at once recognised Kugelblitz, +and a Spaniard named Manillo, who had lived for many years in Germany. + +“Will you fight with me?” shouted Kugelblitz in a passion. + +The Russian, although taken completely by surprise, replied that he would +do as he had already said. He would fight with Senor Manillo at once if +it were thought desirable; but he would engage in no hostilities with +Kugelblitz, until the quarrel with Thalermacher was adjusted. Great was +the wrath of Kugelblitz. He clenched his fist, shook it in the face of +Demboffsky, and demanded furiously that he should give his word of honour +to fight him in the morning. The Russian, who expected bodily violence, +then said that since the insult had been pushed so far, there remained no +other course open to him, than to accept the challenge; which he +accordingly did, pledging himself to meet Kugelblitz on the morrow. He +then hastened back to his friend Thalermacher, and related the occurrence +to him. + +On the following day the duel took place. It happened that Lieutenant +Kugelblitz was under orders to mark out the artillery practice-ground at +Hardwald, near Rastadt, and as he could not leave his post, the meeting +took place in its neighbourhood. The two officers stood forward in +deadly opposition with a measured distance of ten paces only. + +Nevertheless, the first fire was without result; but, at the second fire, +Kugelblitz was struck in the breast; yet he still held his weapon +undischarged. He pressed his left hand on the wound as he pulled the +trigger with his right. The pistol missed fire. Another cap was placed +upon the nipple, but it also failed. The second of Demboffsky then +handed another weapon to the dying man; who, with quiet resolution, still +closing his wound with his fingers, drew for the third time upon his +opponent, and with such effect, that, uttering a wild cry, and the words +“_Je suis mort_!” “I am dead!” the Russian leapt up into the air, and +then rolled upon the ground a corpse. Kugelblitz, exhausted by the +efforts he had made to die like a gentleman, sank into the arms of his +second, Manillo, and was carried insensible to Carlsruhe. He died at +noon on the second day after the duel. + +Thereupon the discerning and indignant public, a little biassed—as it too +often has been in Germany—against the Jews in general, gutted the house +of Herr von Thalermacher. + +The state also fell in with the common notion; and, under the plea of +sheltering an injured man, lodged him in prison for eleven days. Seals +were also placed upon his papers and apartments. The State then set +about ascertaining privately in how far the victim of mob law had been +guilty of the mischief which by general acclamation was imputed to him. + +After a hunt through the banker’s desk, and an inspection of his drawers, +the decision of the court tribunal of Rastadt was delivered. It was +ordered that the Herr Heller von Thalermacher be forthwith liberated from +the fortress of Rastadt, free and untainted. Further: that the seals be +removed from his apartments and papers, seeing that nothing among them +had been found which could cast the faintest shadow upon his reputation. + +We had all been yelling at the wrong man. Kugelblitz was, after all, the +author of the tragedy. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII. + + +GREECE AND HER DELIVERER. + +Four happy tramps in company, we passed the frontiers of Austria and +Bavaria, near Berchtesgaden, in the hazy shimmering of an autumn morning +sun. We came from the lakes and mountain regions of Upper Austria, and +already yearned towards Munich, the Bavarian capital, as our next station +and brief resting place. The sun seemed to have melted into the air, for +we walked through it rather than beneath it, and sought in vain for +coolness and shelter among the plum trees which lined the public road. +Halting as the night closed in at the frontier town, Reichenhall, with +its quaint old streets, and its distant fortress, casting a lengthened +protective shadow over the place, we felt the indescribable luxury of the +foot-traveller’s rest; as readily enjoyed at such times on a litter of +straw in the common room of an alehouse as between the cumbersome +comforts of two German feather beds. Both the ale and the feather beds +were at our service at Reichenhall, and we did not neglect them. + +In the morning our road lay by sombre, romantic Traunstein, and what was +better still, by the glistening waters of the lake of Chiem, whose broad +surface was so unruffled, that the wide expanse seemed to lie in a +hollow, and a delicious coolness whispered rather than blew across its +tranquil waves. The day was waning as we made a half circuit round the +edge of the lake, and the deepening night only stayed our steps and drove +us to rest, after a march of twenty-four miles, in the village of +Seebruck. At Rosenheim we were challenged by the Bavarian sentinel, who +held post on a stone bridge leading to the town, but it was rather in +kindliness than suspicion; and with some useful information as to our +route, and a cheering valediction, we pursued our way. The villages of +Weisham and Aibling lay before us, and must be passed before night; and +it was in the immediate neighbourhood of these places, although I confess +to some indistinctness as to the precise locality, that we came upon an +object which at once surprised and delighted us. + +By the side of the road, on a slight elevation, stood a beautiful stone +monument, of the purest Grecian architecture, and of the most delicate +workmanship. It was fresh and sharp from the chisel of the sculptor, and +looked so stately and graceful in the midst of the level landscape and +simple village scenery that we halted spontaneously to examine it. “Can +it be the memorial of some battle?” exclaimed one. “Or a devotional +shrine?” “Or a tomb?” Not any one of these. Its purpose was as +singular as the sentiment it expressed would have been beautiful and +touching, but for its presumption. Graven deeply into the stone were +words in the German language to this effect: “This monument is raised in +remembrance of the parting of Louis, King of Bavaria, with his second son +Otho, who here left his bereaved father to become the Deliverer of +Greece.” As we stood and read these words the vision of the fond father +and proud king, taking his last farewell of the son whom he fondly +believed destined to fulfil so great a mission, floated before us, to be +replaced the next instant by the no less eloquent picture of the court of +the then King Otho, a German colony in the midst of the Greek people, +living upon its blood, and wantoning with its treasure; and of this same +Greek people, driven at length into fury by the rapacity of the hated +Tudesca, who filled every position of authority and grasped at every +office of emolument, and hunting them like a routed army out of the land. +Still there was a depth of paternal affection in the words upon the +monument, which impressed us with respect, as the miniature temple, with +its delicate columns and classical proportions, had inspired us with +admiration. + +We pursued our way along the dull road, now halting a moment to cool our +fevered feet, now restlessly shifting our knapsacks in the vain hope of +lightening the burden, when, being in the immediate neighbourhood of the +village of Aibling, we came upon a second monument equally classical in +form, though of less pretensions than the first. A twice-told tale, +uttered this time in a woman’s accents; for the block of stone repeated +the same story in almost identical words. + +“Here the Queen of Bavaria parted with her beloved second son Otho, only +comforted in her affliction by the knowledge that he has left her to +become the Deliverer of Greece.” + +The hopes of the King and Queen of Bavaria, thus unluckily commemorated +by these monuments, were no less at that time the hopes and the belief of +all Europe—with what little of prophetic spirit full twenty years of +experience has shown. Greece, swarming with Bavarian adventurers, till +goaded to the utmost she drove them from her bosom; Greece, bankrupt, +apathetic, and ungrateful; a Greek port blockaded by the ships of her +first defender, and her vessels held in pawn for the payment of a +miserable debt; Greece, piratical, dissembling, and rebellious, aiding in +her weak and greedy ambition the worst enemy of Europe—so runs the +story—but Greek deliverance not yet. Her joint occupation by French and +English forces, and the possible imposition of a provisional government, +may indeed lead to the unprophesied consummation—her deliverance—from +King Otho. + +No doubt, those monuments of mingled weakness and arrogance still whiten +in the air; as for us, we continued our march towards the Bavarian +capital, slept at a pilgrimage church that night, and on the following +morning made a bargain with the driver of a country cart who had +overtaken us, and seated on the rough timber which formed his load, +jolted into Munich. + +King Louis then reigned in Bavaria, but being so indifferent a prophet +could not foresee his own speedy abdication. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV. + + +THE FRENCH WORKMAN. + +The original stuff out of which a French workman is made, is a street boy +of fourteen years old, or, perhaps, twelve. That young _gamin de Paris_ +can sing as many love ditties and drinking songs as there are hairs upon +his head, before he knows how much is nine times seven. He prefers +always the agreeable to the useful: he knows how to dance all the +quadrilles: he knows how to make grimaces of ten thousand sorts one after +the other without stopping, and at the rate of twenty in a minute. Of +his other attainments, I say little. It is possible that he may have +been to one of the elementary schools set up by the Government; or, it +may be that he knows not how to read; although, by Article 10 of a law +passed in eighteen hundred and thirty-three, it was determined that no +chief town of a department, or chief place of a commune, containing more +than six thousand inhabitants, should be without at least one elementary +school for public instruction. + +Such as the boy may be, he is made an apprentice. He needs no act, or, +as you say in England, indenture. His contract has to be attested at the +Prefecture of Police, Bureau of Passports, Section of Livrets. Formerly, +it was the custom in France for the apprentice to be both fed and lodged +by his master; but, as the patron seldom received money with him, he was +mainly fed on cuffs. Apprenticeship in Paris, which is France, begins at +ages differing according to the nature of the trade. If strength be +wanted, the youth is apprenticed at eighteen, but otherwise, perhaps, at +fourteen. There are in Paris nineteen thousand apprentices dispersed +among two hundred and seventy branches of trade. + +Of all the apprentices whose number has been just named, only one in five +is bound by a written agreement with his master. The rest have a verbal +understanding. The youths commonly are restless; and, since they are apt +to change their minds, the business of the master is not so much to teach +them as to obtain value for himself as soon as he can out of their +labour. It is the apprentice who is sent out to take orders in the town, +and to play the part of messenger. In consequence of the looseness of +the tie, it often happens that a thoughtless parent, when his son is able +to earn wages, tells the youth that his master is sucking him and +fattening upon his unpaid labour; that he might earn money for the house +at home. The youth is glad to earn, and throws up his apprenticeship for +independent work. It soon occurs to him that his parents are sucking +him, and that his earnings ought to be for himself, and not for them. He +then throws up his home dependence, as he had thrown up dependence on his +master, takes a lodging, falls into careless company, and works on, a +half-skilled labourer, receiving all his life a less income than he could +have assured to himself by a few years of early perseverance. + +When I was apprentice, eight years ago, I found that to be a good +workman, it was needful to design and model. “Come with me,” said my +comrade Gredinot, “I will show you a good school.” It was a winter +evening; our work was over; and, with leave of the patron, we left our +shop in the Rue Saint Martin, and went by Saint Saviour to the Rue +Montorgueil. We bought as we went about twelve pounds of modelling clay. +At the upper end of the street, my friend Gredinot turned up a dark +passage. I followed him. A single lamp glimmered in the court to which +it led us. We went up a few steps to the schoolroom. “Here we are,” +said Gredinot, in opening the door. We entered, carrying our caps. +There was a low room lighted by flaring oil lamps; but in it were busts +and statues of such beauty that it seemed to me to be the most delightful +chamber in the world. Boys and youths and a few men, all in blouses like +ourselves, laboured there. We threw our clay upon a public heap in a +wooden trough near the door. There was only that mud to pay, and there +were our own tools to take. Everything else was free. Gredinot +introduced me to the master, and I learnt to model from that night. +There are other schools—the school of Arts and Trades in the Rue St. +Martin, and the Special and Gratuitous School of Design in the Rue du +Tourraine, in connection, as I think, with the School of Fine Arts. I +might number the museums and the libraries, and I may make mention also +of the prizes of the Academy of Industry and of the Society for the +Encouragement of National Industry. + +The apprentice when out of his time goes to the prefecture of police. +There he must obtain a livret, which must have on the face of it the seal +of the prefecture, the full name of the admitted workman, his age, his +place of birth, and a description of his person, his trade, and the name +of the master who employs him. The French workman is taboo, until he is +registered by the police and can produce his livret. The book costs him +twopence halfpenny. Its first entry is a record of the completion of his +apprenticeship. Afterwards every fresh engagement must be set down in +it, with the dates of its beginning and its end, each stamped by the +prefecture. The employer of a workman holds his livret as a pledge. +When he receives money in advance, the sum is written in his book, and it +is a debt there chargeable as a deduction of not more than one fifth upon +all future employment, until it is paid. The workman when travelling +must have his livret _viséd_; for, without that, says the law, “he is a +vagabond, and can be arrested and punished as such.” + +The workman registered and livreted, how does he live, work, and sleep? +He is not a great traveller; for, unless forced into exile, the utmost +notion of travel that a French workman has, is the removal—if he be a +provincial—from his native province to Paris. We pass over the workman’s +chance of falling victim to the conscription, if he has no friends rich +enough to buy for him a substitute, or if he cannot subscribe for the +same object to a Conscription Mutual Assurance Company. When Louis Blanc +had his own way in France the workmen did but ten hours’ labour in the +day. Now, however, as before, twelve or thirteen hours are regarded as a +fair day’s work. I and Friponnet, who are diamond jewellers, work ten +hours only. My friend Cornichon, who is a goldsmith, works as long as a +painter or a smith. Sunday labour used to be very general in France, but +extended seldom beyond the half day; which was paid for at a higher rate. +In Paris seven in eight of us used to earn money on the Sunday morning. +That necessity could not be pleaded for the act, is proved by the fact, +that often we did no work on Monday, but on that day spent the Sunday’s +earnings. As for wages, calculated on an average of several years, they +are about as follows:—The average pay for a day’s labour is three +shillings and twopence. The lowest day’s pay known is five pence, and +the highest thirty shillings. About thirty thousand of us receive +half-a-crown a day; five or six times as many (the majority) receive some +sum between half-a-crown and four and twopence. About ten thousand +receive higher wages. The best wages are earned by men whose work is +connected with print, paper, and engraving. The workers in jewels and +gold are the next best provided for; next to them workers in metal and in +fancy ware. Workers on spun and woven fabrics get low wages; the lowest +is earned, as in London, by slop-workers and all workers with the needle. +The average receipts of Paris needlewomen have not, however, fallen below +fourteenpence a day; those of them who work with fashionable dressmakers +earn about one and eightpence. While speaking of the ill-paid class of +women, I must mention that the most sentimental of our occupations earns +the least bread. Those who make crowns of _immortelles_ to hang upon the +tombs, only earn about sevenpence-halfpenny a day. That trade is, in +very truth, funereal. To come back to ourselves, it should be said that +our wages, as a whole, have risen rather than declined during the last +quarter of a century. It is a curious fact, however, that the pay for +job-work has decreased very decidedly. + +And how do we live? it is asked. Well enough. All of us eat two meals a +day; but what we eat depends upon our money. We three, who draw up this +account, work in one room. We begin fasting, and maintain our fast until +eleven o’clock. Then we send the apprentice out to fetch our breakfasts. +When he comes back with his stores, he disposes them neatly on a centre +table in little groups. I generally have a pennyworth of ham, which +certainly is tough, but very full of flavour; bread to the same value; a +half share with Friponnet in two-pennyworth of wine, and a +half-pennyworth of fried potatoes; thus spending in all +threepence-halfpenny. Cornichon spends the same sum generally in another +way. He has a pennyworth of cold boiled (unsalted) beef, a pennyworth of +bread, a halfpennyworth of cheese and a pennyworth of currant jam. +Friponnet is more extravagant. A common breakfast bill of fare with him +is two penny sausages, twopennyworth of bread, a pennyworth of wine, a +halfpenny _paquet de couenne_ (which is a little parcel of crisply fried +strips of bacon rind), and a baked pear. All this is sumptuous; for we +are of the aristocracy of workmen. The labourers of Paris do not live so +well. They go to the _gargottes_, where they get threepence +halfpennyworth of bouilli—soup, beef and vegetable—which includes the +title to a liberal supply of bread. Reeking, dingy dens are those +_gargottes_, where all the poorer classes of Parisian workmen save the +beef out of their breakfast bouilli, and carry it away to eat later in +the day at the wine-shop; where it will make a dinner with more bread and +a pennyworth of wine. Of bread they eat a great deal; and, reckoning +that at fourpence and the wine at a penny, we find eightpence to be the +daily cost of living to the great body of Parisian workmen. + +We aristos among workpeople dine famously. My own practice is to dine in +the street du Petit Carré upon dinners for ninepence; or, by taking +dinner-tickets for fourteen days in advance, I get one dinner a fortnight +given me gratuitously. I dine upon soup, a choice of three plates of +meat, about half-a-pint of wine, a dessert and bread at discretion. Our +dinner hour is four o’clock, and we are not likely to eat anything more +before bedtime; although one of us may win a cup of coffee or a dram of +brandy at billiards or dominoes in the evening. Cornichon and Friponnet +dine in the street Chabannais; have soup at a penny a portion, small +plates of meat at twopence each, dessert at a penny, and halfpenny slips +of bread. Each of us when he has dined rolls up a cigarette, and lounges +perhaps round the Palais Royal for half an hour. + +As for our lodging the poorest of us live by tens in one room, and sleep +by fours and fives upon one mattress; paying from twopence to tenpence a +night. The ordinary cost of such lodging as the workman in Paris +occupies is, for a whole room for one person, nine or ten shillings a +month; for more than one, six or seven shillings each; and for half a +bed, four shillings. Cornichon lives in room number thirty-six on the +third floor of a furnished lodging house in the street du Petit Lion. +You must ring for the porter if you would go in to Cornichon; and the +porter must, by a jerk at a string, unlatch the street door if Cornichon +wishes to come out to you. In a little court at the back are two flights +of dirty stairs of red tile edged with wood. They lead to distinct +portions of the house. Cornichon’s room is paved with red tiles, +polished now and then with beeswax. It is furnished with the bed and a +few inches of bedside carpet, forming a small island on the floor, with +two chairs, a commode with a black marble top, a washing-basin and a +water-bottle. Cornichon has also a cupboard there in which he stores his +wood for winter, paying twenty-pence per hundred pounds for logs; and as +the room contains no grate, he rents a German stove from his landlord, +paying four-and-two-pence for his use of it during the season. + +Friponnet rents two unfurnished rooms up four pair of stairs, at the back +of a house in the street d’Argenteuil. He pays ten shillings a month. +They are furnished in mahogany and black marble bought of a broker, and I +think not paid for yet. Fidette visits him there. She is a gold and +silver polisher, his _bonne amie_. She has her own lodging; but she and +Friponnet divide their earnings. They belong to one another: although no +priest has blessed their voluntary contract. It is so, I am pained to +say, with very many of us. + +I have a half-bed in a little street, with a man who is a good fellow, +considering he is a square-head—a German. The red tiles of my staircase +are very clean, and slippery with beeswax. My landlord rents a portion +of the third floor of the house, and under-lets it fearfully. One +apartment has been penned off into four, and mine is the fourth section +at the end. To reach me one must pass through the first pen, which is +occupied by Monsieur and Madame. There they work, eat, and sleep; as for +Madame, she never leaves it. Monsieur only goes away to wait upon the +_griffe_, his master, when he wants more work; his _griffe_ is a slop +tailor. Monsieur and Madame sleep in a recess, which looks like a +sarcophagus. A little Italian tailor also sleeps in the same pen; but +whereabouts I know not—his bed is a mystery. The next pen is occupied by +two carpenters, seldom at home. When they come home, all of us know it; +for they are extremely musical. In the third pen live three more +tailors, through whose territory I must pass to my own cabinet. But how +snug that is! Although only eight feet by ten, it has two corner +windows; and, if there is little furniture and but a scanty bed, there is +a looking-glass fit for a baron, and some remains of violet-coloured +hangings and long muslin curtains; either white or brown, I am not sure. +I and the German pay for this apartment fifteen shillings monthly. + +There is a kind of lodgers worth especial mention. The men working in +the yards of masons, carpenters, and others—masons especially—frequently +come from the provinces. They are not part of the fixed population; but +are men who have left their wives and families to come up to the town and +earn a sum of money. For this they work most energetically; living in +the most abstemious manner, in order that they may not break into their +hoard. They occupy furnished lodgings, flocking very much together. +Thus the masons from the departments of la Creuse and la Haute Vienne +occupy houses let out in furnished rooms exclusively to themselves, in +the quarters of the Hotel de Ville, the Arsenal, Saint Marcel, and in +other parts of Paris. The rigid parsimony of these men is disappointed +terribly when any crisis happens. They are forced to eat their savings, +to turn their clothing and their tools into food, and, by the revolution +of eighteen hundred and forty-eight, were reduced to such great +destitution, that in some of the houses occupied by them one dress was +all that remained to all the lodgers. They wore it in turn, one going +out in it to seek for work while all the rest remained at home in bed. +The poor fellows thanked the want of exercise for helping them to want of +appetite—the only kind of want that poverty desires. + +These men, however, working in the great yards, eating their meals near +them in an irregular and restless way, form clubs and associations which +lead not seldom to strikes—blunders which we call placing ourselves _en +Grève_. They take the name _en Grève_ from the place in which one class +of builders’ workmen assemble when waiting to be hired. Various places +are chosen by sundry workmen and workwomen for this practice of waiting +to be hired. Laundresses, for example, are to be found near the church +of our Lady of Lorette, where they endure, and too often enjoy, coarse +words from passers-by. + +Except in the case of the masons and labourers from the departments, it +is to be regarded as no good sign when a workman makes a residence of +furnished lodgings. The orderly workman marries, and acquires the +property of furniture. The mason from the departments lives cheaply, and +saves, to go home with money to his family, and acquire in his own +village the property of land. The workman bound to Paris, who dwells +only in furnished lodgings, and has bought no furniture, has rarely +saved, and has rarely made an honest marriage. In most cases he is a +lover of pleasure, frequents the theatre and the wine shop. From wine he +runs on to the stronger stimulus of brandy; but these leave to him some +gleams of his national vivacity. The most degraded does not get so +lumpish as the English workman, whose brains have become sodden in the +public-houses by long trains of pots of beer. By far the largest portion +of the Paris workmen possess furniture: only twenty-one in a hundred—and +that includes, of course, the mobile population, the masons, etc.—live in +furnished lodgings. + +For clothing we spend, according to our means, from four to fourteen +pounds a year. Half of us have no coat in addition to the blouse. +Before the crisis of eighteen hundred and forty-eight, one sixth of us +had money in savings’ banks, and one man in every two was a member of +some benefit society. The benefit societies were numerous, each +generally containing some two or three hundred members; but even our +singing clubs are now suppressed, and we must not meet even to transact +the business of a benefit society without giving notice of our design to +the police, and receiving into our party at least two of its agents as +lookers-on. The result has been the decay of all such societies, and the +extinction of most of them. Where they remain, the average monthly +subscription is fifteen-pence, which insures the payment of twenty-pence +a day during sickness, with gratuitous advice and medicine from the +doctor. The funds of such societies are lodged either in savings’ banks, +or in the _Mont de Pieté_; which, though properly a pawnbroking +establishment, has also its uses as a bank. The imperial fist presses +everywhere down upon us. It has forced us out of sick clubs, because we +sometimes talked in them about the state of the nation: it would build us +huge barracks to live in, so that we may be had continually under watch +and ward; and it has lately thrust in upon us a president of its own at +the head of our _Conseil de Prud’hommes_, the only tribunal we possess +for the adjustment of our internal trade disputes. + +Of our pleasures on a Sunday afternoon the world has heard. We devote +that to our families, if we have any; Monday, too often, to our friends. +There are on Sundays our feats of gymnastics at open-air balls beyond the +barriers, and our dancing saloons in the city; such as the Prado, the Bal +Montesquieu, and the Dogs’ Ball. There are our pleasant country rambles, +and our pleasant little dinners in the fields. There are our games at +poule, and dominoes, and piquet; and our pipes with dexterously blackened +bowls. There are our theatres, the Funambule and the Porte St. Martin. +Gamblers among us play at bowls in the Elysian fields, or they stay at +home losing and winning more than they can properly afford to risk at +_écarté_. + +Then there are our holidays. The best used to be “the three days of +July,” but they were lost in the last scramble. Yet we still have no +lack of holiday amusement; our puppets to admire, and greasy poles to +climb for prizes by men who have been prudently required first to declare +and register their ambition at the Bureau of Police. Government so gets +something like a list of the men who aspire; who wish to mount. It must +be very useful. There are our water tournaments at St. Cloud and at +Boulogne-sur-Seine; where they who have informed the police of their +combative propensities, may thrust at each other with long-padded poles +from boats which are being rowed forcibly into collision. We are not +much of water-birds, but when we do undertake boating, we engage in the +work like Algerine pirates. We must have a red sash round the waist or +not a man of us will pull a stroke. + +To go back to our homes and to our wives. When we do marry, we prefer a +wife who can support herself by her own labour. If we have children, it +is in our power to apply—and very many of us do apply—to the Bureau of +Nurses; and, soon after an infant’s birth, it can be sent down into the +country at the monthly cost of about ten shillings and two pounds of lump +sugar. That prevents the child from hindering our work or pleasure; and, +as it is the interest of the nurse to protect the child for which she +receives payment, why should we disturb our consciences with qualm or +fear? + +In Paris there are few factories; some that have existed were removed +into the provinces for the sole purpose of avoiding the dictation of the +workmen in the town. The Parisian fancy work employs a large number of +people who can work at their own homes. In this, and in the whole +industry of Paris, the division of labour is very great; but the fancy +work offers a good deal of scope for originality and taste, and the +workman of Paris is glad to furnish both. He will delight himself by +working night and day to execute a sudden order, to be equal to some +great occasion; but he cannot so well be depended upon when the work +falls again into its even, humdrum pace. On the whole, however, they who +receive good wages, and are trusted—as the men working for jewellers are +trusted—become raised by the responsibility of their position, shun the +wine-shop, live contented with the pleasures of their homes, dress with +neatness, and would die rather than betray the confidence reposed in +them. With all his faults and oddities, the workman of Paris is +essentially a thoroughly good fellow. The solitary work of tailors and +of shoemakers causes them of course to brood and think, and to turn out +of their body a great number of men who take a foremost place in all +political discussions. But the French workman always is a loser by +political disturbance. The crisis of eighteen hundred and forty-eight—a +workman’s triumph—reduced the value of industry in Paris from sixty to +twenty-eight millions of pounds. Fifty-four men in every hundred were at +the same time thrown out of employ, or nearly two hundred thousand people +in all. + +But there are some callings, indeed, wholly untouched by a crisis. The +manufacture of street gas goes on, for example, without any change. +There are others that are even benefited by a revolution. After the last +revolution, while other trades were turning away men to whom there was no +longer work to give, the trades concerned in providing military equipment +were taking on fresh hands. To that class in Paris, and to that only, +there was an increase of business in eighteen hundred and forty-eight to +the extent of twenty-nine per cent. The decrease of business among the +printers, although few books were printed, did not amount to more than +twenty-seven per cent., in consequence of the increased demand for +proclamations, handbills, and manifestoes. + +Without any extra crisis, men working in all trades have trouble enough +to get over the mere natural checks upon industry, which come to most +tradesmen twice a year in the shape of the dead seasons. Every month is +a dead season to some trade; but the dead seasons which prevail over the +largest number of workmen in Paris are the two months, July and August, +in summer, and the two months, January and February, in winter. The dead +season of summer is the more decided of the two. The periods of greatest +activity, on the other hand, are the two months, April and May, and next +to those the months, October and November. Printers are busiest in +winter, builders are busiest in summer—so there are exceptions to the +rule; but, except those who provide certain requisites for eating and +drinking which are in continual demand, there are few workmen in Paris or +elsewhere in France, who have not every year quite enough slack time to +perplex them. They can ill afford the interference of any small crisis +in the shape of a strike, or large crisis in the shape of a national +tumult. + +Finally, let me say that the French workman, take him all in all, is +certainly a clever fellow. He is fond of Saint Monday, “solidarity,” and +shows; but is quickwitted at his work, and furiously energetic when there +is any strong call made upon his industry. In the most debased form he +has much more vigour and vivacity than the most debased of English +operatives. He may be more immoral; but he is less brutish. If we are a +little vain, and very fond of gaiety; and if we are improvident, we are +not idle; and, with all our street fighting, we are not a discontented +race. Except an Arab, who can be so happy as we know how to make +ourselves, upon the smallest possible resources? + + + + +CHAPTER XXV. + + +LICENSED TO JUGGLE. + +Some years ago a short iron-built man used to balance a scaffold pole +upon his chin; to whizz a slop-basin round upon the end of it; and to +imitate fire-works with golden balls and gleaming knives, in the public +streets of London. I am afraid his genius was not rewarded in his own +country; for not long ago I saw him starring it in Paris. As I stood by +to watch his evolutions, in the Champs Elysées, I felt a patriotic glow +when they were rewarded with the enthusiastic applause of a very wide and +thick ring of French spectators. + +There was one peculiarity in his performance which distinguished him from +French open-air artistes—he never spoke. Possibly he was diffident of +his French accent. He simply uttered a grunt when he wished to call +attention to any extraordinary perfection in his performance; in +imitation, perhaps, of the “La!—la!” of the prince of French acrobats, +Auriol. Whatever he attempted he did well; that is to say, in a solid, +deliberate, thorough manner. His style of chin-balancing, +knife-catching, ball-throwing, and ground and lofty tumbling, was not so +agile or flippant as that of his French competitors, but he never failed. +On the circulation of his hat, the French halfpence were dropped in with +great liberality. + +As the fall of the curtain denotes the close of a play, so the raising of +the square of carpet signifies the end of a juggler’s performance; and, +when my old acquaintance had rolled up his little bit of tapestry, and +had pocketed his sous, I accosted him—“You are,” I said, “an Englishman?” + +“That’s right!” he observed, familiarly. + +“What say you to a glass of something, and a chat?” + +“Say?” he repeated, with a very broad grin, “why, yes, to be sure!” + +The tumbler, with his tools done up in a carpet-bag closed at the mouth +with a bit of rope, and your humble servant were speedily seated in a +neighbouring wine-shop. + +“What do you prefer to drink?” I inquired. + +“Cure-a-sore,” he modestly answered. + +The epicure! Quality and not quantity was evidently his taste; a sign +of, at least, a sober fellow. + +“You find yourself tolerably well off in Paris?” + +“I should think I did,” he answered, smacking his lips, “for I wos a +wagabon in London; but here I am an artiste!” + +“A distinction only in name, I suspect.” + +“P’raps it is; but there’s a good deal of difference, mind you. In +England (I have been a’most all over it) a feller in my line is a +wagabon. He don’t take no standing in society. He may be quiet, never +get into no trouble, and never give nobody else none; but that don’t help +him. ‘He gits his livin’ in the streets,’ they say, and that’s enough. +Well, ’spose he does? he ’as to work tremenjus hard for it.” + +“His certainly cannot be an idle life.” + +“It just ain’t, if they’d only let us alone; but they won’t—them blessed +Peelers I mean. How would you like it?” he continued, appealing to me +with as hard a look in the face as if I had been his most implacable +enemy, “how would you like it, if you had looked up a jolly good pitch, +and a reg’lar good comp’ny was a looking on—at the west end, in a slap up +street, where there ain’t no thoroughfare—and jist as you’re a doin’ the +basin, and the browns is a droppin’ into the ’at, up comes a Peeler. +Then it’s ‘Move on!’ You must go;” he stared harder than ever, and +thumped his hand on the table; “I say you _must_ go, and lose p’raps a +pick up as ’u’d keep you for a week. How would you like that?” + +“I should expostulate.” + +“Spostallate!—would you?” a slight curl of the lip, expressive of +contempt at my ignorance of the general behaviour of policemen. “Ah! if +you say ’bo!’ to a Peeler he pulls you, and what’s the consequence? Why, +a month at the Steel!”—which hard name I understood to be given to the +House of Correction. + +“But the police are not unreasonable,” I suggested. + +“Well, p’raps some of ’em ain’t,” he remarked, “but you can’t pick out +your policemen, that’s where it is.” + +“Do the police never interfere with you here?” I asked. + +“They used to it; and I’ve had to beg back my traps more than once from +the borough of the Police Correctionell, as they call it; but then that +was ’cause I was hignorant of the law. When they see that I could git a +’onest living, an old cove in a cocked hat ses he to me, ses he, ‘You’re +a saltimbanc, you are. Wery good. You go to the borough of police for +public morals, and the minister (not a parson, mind you, but the ’ed +hinspector), if he’s satisfied with your character he’ll give you a +ticket.” + +“And did he?” + +“Course he did; and I’m now one of the reg’lar perfession. I aint to be +hinterfered with; leastways, without I’m donkey enough to go on the cross +and be took up. _That’s_ the ticket,” he exclaimed triumphantly, pulling +out a bronze badge, “I’m number thirty-five, I am.” + +“And can you perform anywhere?” + +“No; the police picked out thirteen good places—‘pitches,’ we calls +’em—where we can play. Ther’s the list—thirteen on ’em all of a +row—beginning on the Boulevards at the Place de la Colonne de Juilliet, +and ending in the Champs Elysées.” He unfolded a neatly written document +that plainly defined the limits of Paris within which he, in common with +his co-professors, was allowed to display his abilities. + +With a small gratuity for the new light thrown upon the subject of street +performances, I parted from my enterprising countryman, wishing him every +success. + +I have sometimes wondered whether—considering that we have all sorts of +licensed people about us; people who are licensed to cram us upon +steam-boats; to crowd us into omnibuses; to jolt us in ramshackle cabs; +to supply us with bad brandy and other adulterated drinks; licentiates +for practising physic; licentiates for carrying parcels; licentiates for +taking money at their own doors for the diversions of singing and +dancing; licentiates for killing game with gunpowder, which other people +have been licensed to make—whether, I say, it would not be wise to +license in England out-of-door as well as in-door amusements. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI. + + +PÈRE PANPAN. + +“Monsieur Panpan lives in the Place Valois,” said my friend, newly +arrived from London on a visit to Paris, “and as I am under a promise to +his brother Victor to deliver a message on his behalf, I must keep my +word even if I go alone, and execute my mission in pantomime. Will you +be my interpreter?” + +The Place Valois is a dreamy little square formed by tall houses: graced +by an elegant fountain in its centre; guarded by a red-legged sentinel; +and is chiefly remarkable in Parisian annals as the scene of the +assassination of the Duc de Berri. There is a quiet, melancholy air +about the place which accords well with its traditions; and even the +little children who make it their playground on account of the absence of +both vehicles and equestrians, pursue their sports in a subdued, tranquil +way, hanging about the fountain’s edge, and dabbling in the water with +their little fingers. Monsieur Panpan’s residence was not difficult to +find. We entered by a handsome porte-cochère into a paved court-yard, +and, having duly accounted for our presence to the watchful concierge who +sat sedulously peering out of a green sentry-box, commenced our ascent to +the upper regions. Seeing that Monsieur lived on the fourth floor, and +that the steps of the spacious staircase were of that shallow description +which disappoint the tread by falling short of its expectations, it was +no wonder that we were rather out of breath when we reached the necessary +elevation; and that we paused a moment to collect our thoughts, and calm +our respiration, before knocking at the little backroom door, which we +knew to be that of Monsieur Panpan. + +Madame Panpan received us most graciously, setting chairs for us, and +apologising for her husband, who, poor man, was sitting up in his bed, +with a wan countenance, and hollow glistening eyes. We were in the close +heavy air of a sick chamber. The room was very small, and the bedstead +occupied a large portion of its space. It was lighted by one little +window only, and that looked down a sort of square shaft which served as +a ventilator to the house. A pale child, with large wandering eyes, +watched us intently from behind the end of the little French bedstead, +while the few toys he had been playing with lay scattered upon the floor. +The room was very neat, although its furniture was poor and scanty; and +by the brown saucepan perched upon the top of the diminutive German +stove, which had strayed, as it were, from its chimney corner into the +middle of the room, we knew that the pot-au-feu was in preparation. +Madame, before whom was a small table covered with the unfinished +portions of a corset, was very agreeable—rather coquettish, indeed, we +should have said in England. Her eyes were bright and cheerful, and her +hair drawn back from her forehead à la Chinoise. In a graceful, but +decided way, she apologised for continuing her labours, which were +evidently works of necessity rather than of choice. + +“And Victor, that good boy,” she exclaimed, when we had further explained +the object of our visit, “was quite well! I am charmed! And he had +found work, and succeeding so well in his affairs? I am enchanted! It +is so amiable of him to send me this little cadeau!” + +Monsieur Panpan, with his strange lustrous eyes, if not enchanted, rubbed +his thin bony hands together as he sat up in the bed, and chuckled in an +unearthly way at the good news. Having executed our commission, we felt +it would be intrusive to prolong our stay, and therefore rose to depart, +but received so pressing an invitation to repeat the visit, that, on the +part of myself and friend, who was to leave Paris in a few days, I could +not refuse to comply with a wish so cordially expressed, and evidently +sincere. And thus commenced my acquaintance with the Panpans. + +I cannot trace the course of our acquaintance, or tell how, from an +occasional call, my visits became those of a bosom friend; but certain it +is, that soon each returning Sunday saw me a guest at the table of +Monsieur Panpan, where my couvert and serviette became sacred to my use; +and, after the meal, were carefully cleaned and laid apart for the next +occasion. This, I afterwards learned, was a customary mark of +consideration towards an esteemed friend among the poorer class of +Parisians. I soon learned their history. Their every-day existence was +a simple, easily read story, and not the less simple and touching because +it is the every-day story of thousands of poor French families. Madame +was a stay-maker; and the whole care and responsibility of providing for +the wants and comforts of a sick husband; for her little Victor, her +eldest born; and the monthly stipend of her infant Henri, out at nurse +some hundred leagues from Paris, hung upon the unaided exertions of her +single hands, and the scrupulous and wonderful economy of her management. + +One day I found Madame in tears. Panpan himself lay with rigid features, +and his wiry hands spread out upon the counterpane. Madame was at first +inconsolable and inexplicable, but at length, amid sobs, half suppressed, +related the nature of their new misfortune. Would Monsieur believe that +those miserable nurse-people, insulting as they were, had sent from the +country to say, that unless the three months nursing of little Henri, +together with the six pounds of lump sugar, which formed part of the +original bargain, were immediately paid, cette pauvre bête (Henri that +was), would be instantly dispatched to Paris, and proceedings taken for +the recovery of the debt? Ces miserables! + +Here poor Madame Panpan could not contain herself, but gave way to her +affliction in a violent outburst of tears. And yet the poor child, the +cause of all this sorrow, was almost as great stranger to his mother as +he was to me, who had never seen him in my life. With scarcely a week’s +existence to boast of, he had been swaddled up in strange clothes; +intrusted to strange hands; and hurried away some hundred leagues from +the capital, to scramble about the clay floor of an unwholesome cottage, +in company perhaps with some half-dozen atomies like himself, as strange +to each other as they were to their own parents, to pass those famous +mois de nourrice which form so important and momentous a period in the +lives of most French people. Madame Panpan was however in no way +responsible for this state of things; the system was there, not only +recognised, but encouraged; become indeed a part of the social habits of +the people, and it was no wonder if her poverty should have driven her to +so popular and ready a means of meeting a great difficulty. How she +extricated herself from this dilemma, it is not necessary to state; +suffice it to say, that a few weeks saw cette petite bête Henri, happily +domiciled in the Place Valois; and, if not overburdened with apparel, at +least released from the terrible debt of six and thirty francs, and six +pounds of lump-sugar. + +It naturally happened, that on the pleasant Sunday afternoons, when we +had disposed of our small, but often sumptuous dinner; perhaps a gigot de +mouton with a clove of garlic in the knuckle; a fricassée de lapins with +onions, or a fricandeau, Panpan himself would tell me part of his +history; and in the course of our salad; of our little dessert of fresh +fruit, or currant jelly; or perhaps, stimulated by the tiniest glass of +brandy, would grow warm in the recital of his early experiences, and the +unhappy chance which had brought him into his present condition. + +“Ah, Monsieur!” he said one day, “little would you think, to see me +cribbed up in this miserable bed, that I had been a soldier, or that the +happiest days of my life had been passed in the woods of Fontainebleau, +following the chase in the retinue of King Charles the Tenth of France. +I was a wild young fellow in my boyhood; and, when at the age of eighteen +I drew for the conscription and found it was my fate to serve, I believe +I never was so happy in my life. I entered the cavalry; and, in spite of +the heavy duties and strict discipline, it was a glorious time. It makes +me mad, Monsieur, when I think of the happy days I have spent on the +road, in barracks, and in snug country quarters, where there was cider or +wine for the asking; to find myself in a solitary corner of great, +thoughtless Paris, sick and helpless. It would be something to die out +in the open fields like a worn-out horse, or to be shot like a wounded +one. But this is terrible!—and I am but thirty-eight.” + +We comforted him in the best way we could with sage axioms of antique +date, or more lively stories of passing events; but I saw a solitary tear +creeping down the cheek of Madame Panpan, even in the midst of a quaint +sally; and, under pretence of arranging his pillow, she bent over his +head and kissed him gently on the forehead. + +Père Panpan—I had come by degrees to call him “Père,” although he was +still young; for it sounded natural and kindly—continued his narrative in +his rambling, gossiping way. He had been chosen, he said, to serve in +the Garde Royale, of whom fifteen thousand sabres were stationed in and +about the capital at this period; and in the royal forest of +Fontainebleau, in the enjoyment of a sort of indolent activity, he passed +his happiest days; now employed in the chase, now in the palace +immediately about the person of the king, in a succession of active +pleasures, or easy, varied duties. Panpan was no republican. Indeed, I +question whether any very deep political principles governed his +sentiments; which naturally allied themselves with those things that +yielded the greatest amount of pleasure. + +The misfortunes of Père Panpan dated from the revolution of eighteen +hundred and thirty. Then the glittering pageantry in the palace of +Fontainebleau vanished like a dream. The wild clatter of military +preparation; the rattling of steel and the trampling of horses; and away +swept troop after troop, with sword-belt braced and carabine in hand, to +plunge into the mad uproar of the streets of Paris, risen, stones and +all, in revolution. The Garde Royale did their duty in those three +terrible days, and if their gallant charges through the encumbered +streets, or their patient endurance amid the merciless showers of +indescribable missiles, were all in vain, it was because their foe was +animated by an enthusiasm of which they knew nothing, save in the +endurance of its effects. Panpan’s individual fate, amid all this +turmoil, was lamentable enough. + +A few hours amid the dust; the sweltering heat; the yellings of the +excited populace; the roaring of cannon and the pattering of musketry; +saw the troop in which he served, broken and scattered, and Panpan +himself rolling in the dust, with a thousand lights flashing in his eyes, +and a brass button lodged in his side! + +“Those villains of Parisians!” he exclaimed, “not content with showering +their whole garde meuble upon our heads, fired upon us a diabolical +collection of missiles, such as no mortal ever thought of before:—bits of +broken brass; little plates of tin and iron rolled into sugar-loaves; +crushed brace-buckles; crooked nails and wads of metal wire;—anything, +indeed, that in their extremity they could lay their hands on, and ram +into the muzzle of a gun! These things inflicted fearful gashes, and, in +many cases, a mere flesh-wound turned out a death-stroke. Few that got +hurt in our own troop lived to tell the tale.” + +A few more days and the whole royal cavalcade was scattered like chaff +before the wind, and Charles the Tenth a fugitive on his way to England; +a few more days and the wily Louis Philippe was taking the oath to a new +constitution, and our friend, Panpan, lay carefully packed, brass button +and all, in the Hôtel-Dieu. The brass button was difficult to find, and +when found the ugly fissure it had made grew gangrened, and would not +heal; and thus it happened that many a bed became vacant, and got filled, +and was vacant again, as their occupants either walked out, or were borne +out, of the hospital gates, before Panpan was declared convalescent, and +finally dismissed from the Hôtel-Dieu as “cured.” + +The proud trooper was, however, an altered man; his health and spirits +were gone; the whole corps of which he had so often boasted was broken up +and dispersed; his means of livelihood were at an end, and, what was +worse, he knew of no other in the exercise of which he could gain his +daily bread. There were very many such helpless, tradeless men pacing +the streets of Paris, when the fever of the revolution was cooled down, +and ordinary business ways began to take their course. Nor was it those +alone who were uninstructed in any useful occupation, but there were also +the turbulent, dissatisfied spirits; builders of barricades, and leaders +of club-sections, whom the late excitement, and their temporary elevation +above their fellow workmen, had left restless and ambitious, and whose +awakened energies, if not directed to some useful and congenial +employment, would infallibly lead to mischief. + +Panpan chuckled over the fate which awaited some of these ardent youths: +“Ces gaillards là!” he said, “had become too proud and troublesome to be +left long in the streets of Paris; they would have fomented another +revolution; so Louis Philippe, under pretence of rewarding his brave +‘soldats laboureurs,’ whom he was ready to shake by the hand in the +public streets in the first flush of success, enrolled them in the army, +and sent them to the commanding officers with medals of honour round +their necks, and special recommendations to promotion in their hands. +They hoped to become Marshals of France in no time. Pauvres diables! +they were soon glad to hide their decorations, and cease bragging about +street-fighting and barricades, for the regulars relished neither their +swaggering stories nor the notion of being set aside by such parvenus; +and they got so quizzed, snubbed, and tormented, that they were happy at +last to slide into their places as simple soldats, and trust to the +ordinary course for promotion.” + + * * * * * + +As for Panpan, his street wanderings terminated in his finding employment +in a lace manufactory, and it soon became evident that his natural talent +here found a congenial occupation. He came by degrees to be happy in his +new position of a workman. Then occurred the serious love passage of his +life—his meeting with Louise, now Madame Panpan. It was the simplest +matter in the world: Panpan, to whom life was nothing without the Sunday +quadrille at the barrière, having resolved to figure on the next occasion +in a pair of bottes vernis, waited upon his bootmaker—every Parisian has +his bootmaker—to issue his mandates concerning their length, shape, and +general construction. He entered the boutique of Mons. Cuire, when, lo! +he beheld in the little back parlour, the most delicate little foot that +ever graced a shoe, or tripped to measure on the grass. He would say +nothing of the owner of this miracle; of her face—which was full of +intelligence; of her figure—which was gentille toute à fait—but for that +dear, chaste, ravishing model of a foot! so modestly posé upon the +cushion. Heaven!—and Panpan unconsciously heaved a long sigh, and +brought with it from the very bottom of his heart a vow to become its +possessor. There was no necessity for anything very rash or very +desperate in the case, as it happened, for the evident admiration of +Panpan had inspired Louise with an impromptu interest in his favour, and +he being besides gentil garçon, their chance rencontre was but the +commencement of a friendship which ripened into love,—and so the old +story over again, with marriage at the end of it. + +Well! said M. Panpan, time rolled on, and little Louis was born. This +might have been a blessing, but while family cares and expenses were +growing upon them, Panpan’s strength and energies were withering away. +He suffered little pain, but what there was seemed to spring from the old +wound; and there were whole days when he lay a mere wreck, without the +power or will to move; and when his feeble breath seemed passing away for +ever. Happily, these relapses occurred only at intervals, but by slow +degrees they became more frequent and more overwhelming. Madame Panpan’s +skill and untiring perseverance grew to be, as other resources failed, +the main, and for many, many months, the whole support of the family. +Then came a time when the winter had passed away, and the spring was +already in its full, and still Panpan lay helpless in bed with shrunken +limbs and hollow, pallid cheeks,—and then little Henri was born. + +Père Panpan having arrived at this crisis in his history, drew a long +breath, and stretched himself back in his bed. I knew the rest. It was +soon after the event last named that I made his acquaintance, and the +remainder of his simple story, therefore, devolves upon me. + +The debility of the once dashing soldier increased daily, and as it could +be traced to no definite cause, he gradually became a physiological +enigma; and thence naturally a pet of the medical profession. Not that +he was a profitable patient, for the necessities of the family were too +great to allow of so expensive a luxury as a doctor’s bill; but urged, +partly by commiseration, and partly by professional curiosity, both +ardent students and methodical practitioners would crowd round his simple +bed, probing him with instruments, poking him with their fingers, and +punching him with their fists; each with a new theory to propound and +establish; and the more they were baffled and contradicted in their +preconceived notions, the more obstinate they became in their +enforcement. Panpan’s own thoughts upon the subject always reverted to +the brass button, although he found few to listen to or encourage him in +his idea. His medical patrons were a constant source of suffering to +him, but he bore with them patiently; sometimes reviving from his +prostration as if inspired, then lapsing as suddenly into his old state +of semi-pain and total feebleness. As a last hope, he was removed from +his fourth floor in the Place Valois, to become an inmate of the Bicêtre, +and a domiciled subject of contention and experiment to its medical +staff. + +The Bicêtre is a large, melancholy-looking building, half hospital half +madhouse, situated a few leagues from Paris. I took a distaste to it on +my very first visit. It always struck me as a sort of menagerie, I +suppose from the circumstance of there having been pointed out to me, +immediately on my entrance, a railed and fenced portion of the building, +where the fiercer sort of inhabitants were imprisoned. Moreover, I met +with such strange looks and grimaces; such bewildering side-glances or +moping stares, as I traversed the open court-yards, with their open +corridors, or the long arched passages of the interior, that the whole of +the inmates came before me as creatures in human shape indeed, but as +possessed by the cunning or the ferocity of the mere animal. Yet it was +a public hospital, and in the performance of its duties there was an +infinite deal of kindly attention, consummate skill, and unwearying +labour. Its associations were certainly unhappy, and had, I am sure, a +depressing effect upon at least the physically disordered patients. It +may be that as the Bicêtre is a sort of forlorn hope of hospitals, where +the more desperate or inexplicable cases only are admitted, it naturally +acquires a sombre and ominous character; but in no establishment of a +similar kind (and I have seen many) did I meet with such depressing +influences. + +Panpan was at first in high spirits at the change. He was to be restored +to health in a brief period, and he really did in the first few weeks +make rapid progress towards convalescence. Already a sort of gymnasium +had been arranged over his bed, so that he might, by simple muscular +exercises, regain his lost strength; and more than once I have guided his +tottering steps along the arched corridors, as, clad in the gray uniform +of the hospital, and supported by a stick, he took a brief mid-day +promenade. + +We made him cheering Sunday visits, Madame Panpan, Louis, the little +Henri, and I, and infringed many a rule of the hospital in regard to his +regimen. There was a charcutier living close to the outer walks, and +when nothing else could be had, we purchased some of his curiously +prepared delicacies, and smuggled them in under various guises. To him +they were delicious morsels amid the uniform soup and bouillon of the +hospital, and I dare say did him neither good nor harm. + +Poor Madame Panpan! apart from the unceasing exertions which her +difficult position demanded of her; apart from the harassing days, the +sleepless nights, and pecuniary deficiencies which somehow never were +made up; apart from the shadow of death which hovered ever near her; and +the unvarying labours which pulled at her fingers, and strained at her +eyes, so that her efforts seemed still devoted to one ever unfinished +corset,—there arose another trouble where it was least expected; and +alas! I was the unconscious cause of a new embarrassment. I was accused +of being her lover. Numberless accusations rose up against us. Had I +not played at pat-ball with Madame in the Bois de Boulogne? Yes, pardi! +while Panpan lay stretched upon the grass a laughing spectator of the +game; and which was brought to an untimely conclusion by my breaking my +head against the branch of a tree. But had I not accompanied Madame +alone to the Champs Elysées to witness the jeu-de-feu on the last fête of +July? My good woman, did I not carry Louis pick-a-back the whole way? +and was not the crowd so dense and fearful, that our progress to the +Champs Elysées was barred at its very mouth by the fierce tornado of the +multitude, and the trampling to death of three unhappy mortals, whose +shrieks and groans still echo in my ear? and was it not at the risk of +life or limb that I fought my way along the Rue de la Madeleine, with +little Louis clinging round my neck, and Madame hanging on to my +coat-tail? Amid the swaying and eddying of the crowd, the mounted Garde +Municipale came dashing into the thickest of the press, to snatch little +children, and even women, from impending death, and bear them to a place +of safety. And if we did take a bottle of Strassburger beer on the +Boulevards, when at length we found a freer place to breathe in, faint +and reeling as we were, pray where was the harm, and who would not have +done as much? Ah, Madame! if you had seen, as I did, that when we +reached home the first thing poor Madame Panpan came to do, was to fall +upon her husband’s neck, and in a voice broken with sobs, and as though +her heart would break, to thank that merciful God who had spared her in +her trouble, that she might still work for him and his children! you +would not be so ready with your blame. + +But there was a heavier accusation still. Did you not, sir, entertain +Madame to supper in the Rue de Roule? with the utmost extravagance too, +not to mention the omelette soufflée with which you must needs tickle +your appetites, and expressly order for the occasion? And more than +that: did you not then take coffee in the Rue St. Honoré, and play at +dominoes with Madame in the salon? Alas, yes! all this is true, and the +cause still more true and more sad; for it was under the terrible +impression that Madame Panpan and her two children—for they were both +with us, you will remember, even little Henri—had not eaten of one +tolerable meal throughout a whole week, that these unpardonable acts were +committed on the Sunday. An omelette soufflée, you know, must he +ordered; but as for the dominoes, I admit that that was an indiscretion. + +Père Panpan drooped and drooped. The cord of his gymnasium swung +uselessly above his head; he tottered no more along the corridors of the +hospital. He had ceased to be the pet of the medical profession. His +malady was obstinate and impertinent; it could neither be explained nor +driven away; and as all the deep theories propounded respecting it, or +carried into practical operation for its removal, proved to be mere +elaborate fancies, or useless experiments, the medical profession—happily +for Panpan—retired from the field in disgust. + +“I do believe it was the button!” exclaimed Panpan, one Sunday afternoon, +with a strange light gleaming in his eyes. Madame replied only with a +sob. “You have seen many of them?” he abruptly demanded of me. + +“Of what?” + +“Buttons.” + +“There are a great many of them made in England,” I replied. Where were +we wandering? + +Panpan took my hand in his, and, with a gentle pressure that went to my +very heart, exclaimed: “I do believe it was the brass button after all. +I hope to God it was not an English button!” + +I can’t say whether it was or not. But, as to poor Père Panpan, we +buried him at Bicêtre. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII. + + +SOME GERMAN SUNDAYS. + +Of how Sunday is really spent by the labouring classes in some towns in +Germany, I claim, as an English workman who has worked and played on +German ground, some right to speak. It is possible that I may relate +matters which some do not suspect, and concerning which others have +already made up their minds; but, as I shall tell nothing but truths, I +trust I may not very much disconcert the former, nor put the latter +completely out of patience; nor offend anybody. + +To begin with Hamburg. I spent seven months in this free, commercial +port. I came into Hamburg on a Sunday morning; and, although everything +was new and strange to me, and a number of things passed before my eyes +which could never be seen in decorous London, yet there were unmistakable +signs of Sunday in them all—only it was not the Sunday to which I had +been born and bred. The shops were closed, and there was stillness in +the houses, if not in the streets. I passed by the fore-courted entrance +to a theatre, and its doors were shut; but one could easily guess by the +bills at the door-posts that it offered histrionic entertainment for the +evening. Wandering through some beautifully-wooded walks which encircle +the city, I met many promenaders, trim, well-dressed, and chatty; and +when I turned back into the city, was once or twice absorbed in the +streams of people which flowed from the church doors. One thing was +certain; the people were not at work. It struck me at once; for I met +them at every turn in their clean faces and spruce clothes—the veritable +mechanic may be known in every country—and there was the happy look and +the lounging gait in all, which told that they had laid down their +implements of trade for that day, and were thoroughly at leisure. When I +came to be domiciled and fairly at work, I learned to discriminate more +clearly between many apparently irreconcilable things; and will here +roughly set down what we did, or did not, on Sundays, in the emporium and +outlet of Northern Germany; which, it will be well to remember, is +thoroughly Lutheran-Protestant in its faith. + +There was a church not far from our workshop—I think the +Jacobi-Kirche—which had the sweetest set of Dutch bells that ever rung to +measure, and these played at six o’clock in the morning on every day in +the week; but, to our minds, they never played so beautiful a melody as +when they woke us on the Sunday morning, to the delightful consciousness +of being able to listen to them awhile, through the drowsy medium of our +upper feather bed. Once fairly roused, properly attired, and breakfasted +with the Herr, what did we next? Sometimes we worked till mid-day, but +that was a rarity; for our ordinary day’s labour was thirteen hours, with +scarcely a blink of rest at meal-times, and often we had not stirred from +the house during the whole week, but had worn out the monotonous hours +between bed and workboard. When, however, orders pressed, we did work; +but this again was no new thing to me, for I had done the same thing in +London; had toiled deep into the Saturday night, and had been up again to +work on the Sunday morning, because some gentleman or lady who was +engaged, I dare say, in their morning devotions, could not bide the +ordinary time for their trinkets. If we did work, which as I have said +was a rarity, our ordinary pay of two schillinge, scarcely twopence per +hour, was increased to three. + +Sometimes we went to church; and we always found a goodly congregation +there. The service was in good honest German; and the preacher—quaintly +conspicuous to an English eye by his velvet skull-cap, and a wonderfully +plaited frill which bristled round his neck—was always earnest and +impressive, and often eloquent. Among other religious services, I well +remember that of the Busse and Bet-Tag (day of Repentance and Prayer); +the anniversary of the battle of Leipsic; and a remarkable sermon +preached on St. Michael’s Day, and of which I bought a copy after the +service of a poor widow who stood at the church door. If the weather +were fine, we strolled along the banks of the beautiful Alster, or made +short excursions into the country; and here again all was repose, for I +recollect having once had pointed out to me as a matter of wonder a woman +who was toiling in the field. Or, if the weather were stormy and wet, we +stayed in the workshop and read, or made drawings, or worked in the +manufacture of some favourite tool. Often, again, we had especial duties +to perform on that day in the shape of visiting some sick craftsman in +the hospital, to pay him his weekly allowance, or convey him a book, or +some little creature comforts. The Sunday morning was an authorised +visiting time, and the hospital was usually crowded—too crowded with +patients, as we thought—and each had his cluster of cheering friends. Or +we paid friendly visits to fellow workmen; smoked quiet pipes, and told +travellers’ stories; or listened to the uncertain essays of our brethren +of the Männergesangverein as they practised their part music. There was +one piece of business transacted on the Sunday morning which may have +been sinful, although we did not view it in that light. We paid our +tailors’ bills on the Sunday morning if we had the money, or ordered new +garments if we had credit; and I believe it is a practice more generally +prevalent even in England than gentlefolks are apt to imagine. + +We dined with the Herr at noon, and at one o’clock were at liberty for +the day. I have seen a Danish harvest-home on a Sunday afternoon in the +pretty village of Altona; watching its merry mummers as they passed by +the old church-yard wall, where Klopstock lies buried. I have attended a +funeral as a real mourner, followed by the mourning professionals in the +theatrical trappings with which the custom of Hamburg usually adorns +them. If we bent our steps, as we sometimes did, through the Altona gate +to Hamburger Berg, we came upon a scene of hubbub and animation which was +something between Clare Market on Saturday night, and High Street, +Greenwich, at fair time. Stalls, booths, and baskets lined the way; +flowers, fruit, and pastry disputed possession of the side-paths with +sugar-plums, sticks and tobacco-pipes; and, although Franconi’s Circus +was not open yet, it gave every promise of being so; and the air already +rang with voices of showmen, and the clangour of instruments. In the +Summer there were gay boats on the Alster, and nautical holiday-makers +were busy with oar and sail; while, in the Winter months, if the ice held +well, there was no end of skating and sledging; and then we had a +pleasant winter-garden near the Tivoli, with orange-trees in tubs, the +mould so covered over as to form extemporary tables, and the green leaves +and pale fruit shining above our heads. At the upper end was a +conservatory of choice plants, which was more particularly appropriated +to the ladies and children. The café pavilions on the Alster steamed +odoriferously; punch and hot coffee were in the ascendant; and there were +more cigars smoked in an afternoon on the Jungfern Stieg (the Maiden’s +Walk) than would have stored the cases of a London suburban tobacconist. + +These may, perhaps, be reckoned mere idlings, but there were occasionally +official doings on the Sunday, which might have been national, if Hamburg +had been a nation, and which no doubt were eminently popular. Two such, +I remember; one a grand review of the Bürger Militär; the other the +public confirmation of the apprentices and others, and the conscription +of the youth of the city. The former was a trying affair. Some twelve +thousand citizen-soldiers had to turn out, fully rigged and equipped, by +early dawn, ready for any amount of drill and evolution. Many were the +stories—more witty than generous—of the whereabout of their uniforms and +accoutrements; as to their being deposited in Lombardian hands, or wholly +used up since the last grand field-day some three years before. Such +furbishing as there was of brass ornaments and metal-buttons; such an +oiling and sand-papering of brown muskets, and such a rearrangement of +blue tunics which, after all, did not match in colour, length, nor +appointments! Fortunately our warriors did not burn powder; and there +was enough of military ardour among them to carry them through the +fatigue of the day. It required a great deal; for, like other military +bodies of a late day, the commissariat department totally broke down, and +citizens were kept hungering and thirsting upon the blank, dusty plain, +within half-a-mile of stored-up abundance. The confirmation of the +apprentices and the conscription of the young men was a more serious +matter. It took place in the great square, where a stage and pavilion +were erected; all the authority of the senate, and the services of the +church were united to render it solemn and impressive. It was a source +of deep interest to many of my own acquaintances, more especially to the +young cooper who worked underground at our house, and who, just released +from his apprenticeship, had the good or ill fortune to be drawn for the +next year’s levy. + +There was one institution, not precisely of Hamburg, but at the very +doors of it, which exercised considerable influence upon its habits and +morals, and that of no beneficial kind. This was the Danish State +Lottery, the office of which was at Altona, where the prizes were +periodically drawn upon Sunday. The Hamburgers were supposed to receive +certain pecuniary advantages from this lottery in the shape of benefits +bestowed upon the Waisenkinder of the town, who, like our own blue-coat +boys of the old time, were the drawers of the numbers; but the advantages +were very questionable, seeing that the bulk of speculators were the +Hamburgers themselves, and the great prizes of the undertaking went to +swell the Danish Royal Treasury. Portions of shares could be purchased +for as low a sum as fourpence, and the Hamburg Senate, in self-defence, +and with a great show of propriety, prohibited the traffic of them among +servants and apprentices: which prohibition passed, of course, for next +to nothing, seeing that the temptation was very strong, and the +injunction very weak. It was a curious sight to witness the crowd upon +the occasion of a public drawing in the quaint old square of Altona; a +pebble-dotted space with a dark box in the centre, not unlike the +basement of a gallows. On this stood the wheel, bright in colours and +gold, and by its side two orphan boys in school-costume, who officiated +at the ceremony. One boy turned the wheel, the other drew the numbers, +and called them aloud as he held them before the spectators; while the +blast of a trumpet heralded the announcement. What feverish anxiety, +what restless cupidity might be fostering among that crowd no man could +calculate, and certainly, to my mind, there was no worse thing done on +the Sunday in all Hamburg than this exhibition of legalised gambling. + +Of course the theatres were open, and we of the working people were not +unfrequent visitors there. But let us thoroughly understand the nature +of a German theatrical entertainment. There is rarely more than one +piece, and the whole performance is usually included in the period of two +hours—from seven till nine. The parterre, or pit, is a mere promenade or +standing place, in which the few seats are let at a higher price than the +rest of the space. The whole of the arrangements are conducted with the +utmost decorum: so much so, that they would probably disappoint some +people who look upon the shouting, drovers’ whistling, and “hooroar” and +hissing of some of our theatres as part of the legitimate drama. On the +Christmas day, when I had the option of getting gloriously fuddled with a +select party of English friends, or of entertaining myself in some less +orthodox way, I preferred to witness the opera of “Norma” at the Stadt +Theatre, and think I was the better for the choice. “Hamlet” was the +source of another Sunday evening’s gratification (an anniversary play of +the Hamburgers, and intensely popular with the Danes), although with +unpardonable barbarity the German censors entirely blotted out the +gravediggers, and never buried the hapless, “sweet Ophelia.” In the +gallery of the Imperial Opera House at Vienna, liveried servants hand +sweetmeats, ices, and coffee about between the acts; and although the +Hamburger theatricals have not yet reached this stage of refinement, +there is much in the shape of social convenience in their arrangement, +which even we might copy. + +Sometimes, we workmen spent a pleasant hour or two in the concert-rooms, +of which there were several admirably conducted; or pored hours long over +the papers, chiefly literary, in the Alster Halle; sipping our coffee, +and listening in the pauses of our reading to the band of choice +musicians, who played occasionally through the evening. Sometimes we +dived into snug cellars, where they sold good beer, or mixed odoriferous +punch; and here again music would come, though in a more questionable +shape, her attendant priestesses being the wandering harp-players, who +sang sentimental ditties to the twanging of their instruments. Other +places there were, some in the city, and some outside the walls, where an +abominable medley of waltz, smoke, wine, and lotto made up the evening’s +entertainment. The larger of these establishments had some pretensions +to gentility, seeing that they did not allow gentlemen to dance with +their hats on; but whatever other claims they set up to the respect of +the community may be briefly set down as worth very little. It will not +unnaturally follow that where there is much liberty there will be some +licence, and with respect to Hamburg, it is in her dance-houses that this +excess is to be found. But where is the wonder? The Hamburger +authorities in this, and some other cases, set up a sort of excise +officer, and grant permits for this frivolity, and that vice, at a +regular scale of charges. + +In spite of these half-incentives and whole encouragements to laxity of +behaviour, what is the general character of the Hamburger population? I +venture to call them provident, temperate, and industrious. Let it be +remembered that we speak of a mercantile port, in some parts a little +like Wapping, and into and out of which there is a perpetual ebb and flow +of seamen of all nations, full of boisterous humour, of strong life, and +wilful in their recent escape from ship restraint. The worst of the +dance-houses are situated near the water’s edge, and are almost wholly +frequented by sailors; while the other resorts which are open to the +charge of licentiousness, have also a strong proportion of maritime +frequenters, and the rest is mostly made up of the wandering workmen of +Germany, to many of whom Hamburg is a culminating point, and who are, as +it were, out on leave. But, after all, these cancer spots are few +indeed, when compared with the great proportion of the means of amusement +thrown open, or, rather never closed to the people. Wander on the Sunday +when and where you will; in theatre, concert-room, or coffee-house; in +public garden or beer-cellar; you will find them joyous indeed, sometimes +loud in song or conversation, and taking generally a sort of pride in a +dash of rudeness, calling it independence, but you will never find them +sottish; nowhere cumbering the footway with their prostrate carcases; +nowhere reeling zigzag, blear-eyed and stupid, to a miserable home. + +On tramp towards the South, we rested on the Sunday in Schwerin, the +capital of Mecklenburg; but there was public mourning in the city for a +death in the ducal family, and the usual Sunday festivities were +forbidden. On attending church in the evening I found a large +congregation, and the service similar to that of Hamburg. In the +afternoon, as there was no military parade or music, over the absence of +which the chambermaids of Der Gross-Herzog moaned dolorously, we rambled +through the ducal garden, admiring the quaintly-shaped basin in its +centre, its numerous statues, and fresh grass. The town was dull and +methodical enough, but would have been rejoicing, if it had not been +respectfully mournful. + +Our next resting-place was Berlin, where we stayed two months; and here, +according to our experience, the Sunday afternoon recreations differed +only in tone from those of Hamburg, being less boisterous in their gaiety +than in the former seaman’s paradise. We never worked on Sunday in +Berlin, nor did any of our artizan friends, although there were very +pressing orders in the shape of those unvarying German court douceurs, +diamond-circled snuff boxes, and insignia of the Red and Black Eagle. +Once, we accompanied our principal, by special invitation, to the +Hasenheide, to witness the rifle practice, civil and military, among its +heather and sandy hollows. Officers and rank and file alike were there; +the officer practising with the private’s heavy gewehr, and the private +in his turn with the light weapon of his superior in grade. There were +some capital shots among them. Thence, on the same day, we waded through +the sand to Tegel, to visit the residence and private grounds of Baron +Humboldt; and from a mound in his garden beheld the beautifully +picturesque view of Lake Tegel, and the distant towers of Spandau. I +have been present on the Sunday at a review of the Royal Guard in their +striking uniform of black and dazzling white. + +Once, we made a river voyage in a huge tub of a boat along the weedy +banks of the Spree, under the command of a female captain—a jolly matron, +weighing I am afraid to guess how many stone. I am told it was a very +plebeian piece of business, but we were very happy notwithstanding. We +had a Tafel-lieder party on board, with a due proportion of guitars, and +they played and sang all the way to Treptow and back again. Once arrived +at our destination, we sat upon the grass, and watched the merry groups +around, or sauntered along the margin of the stream, sipping occasionally +very inconsiderable quantities of feeble cordials; and when the evening +drew near, we re-embarked, and, under the safe conduct of our female +commodore—who was skilled in the difficult navigation of the shallow +river—returned soberly home. The environs of Berlin are of no great +beauty, the city being built on a sandy plain, with the single eminence +of the Kreutzberg, from which it can be viewed with advantage; but in and +about the city there are beautiful gardens, private and of royal +foundation, and these are invariably open to the public. One happy +Sunday afternoon we spent in Charlottenburg, the pleasure-palace of the +king; and one other in the noble botanical gardens in the city; while on +a fine day the avenue of lime trees, Unter-den-Linden, in its crowd of +promenaders, and social groups at the refreshment tables, presented an +animated, and, to my mind, a recreative and humanising spectacle. Music +was everywhere; and in the theatres, in the display of pyrotechnic +eccentricities, or perhaps in ballooning—but that was English—the evening +was variously spent. There may be dance-houses and other abominations in +Berlin, as in Hamburg, but I never heard of them, and if they existed, +more was the pity. For my own part, I was happy in enjoying the moderate +pleasures of life in company with the majority of my fellow-workmen, who, +I must again say, and insist upon, were not at work, but at rest, on the +Sunday. It is true that here, as elsewhere, tailors and boot-makers +(master-men) were content to take measures, and receive orders from the +workmen, for very little other opportunity presented itself for such +necessary service. + +A few hours’ whirl on the railway on a Sunday saw us in Leipsic. This +was at the Easter festival; and we stayed two months in this Saxon market +of the world, embracing in their course the most important of the three +great markets in the year. If ever there was a fair opportunity of +judging the question of Sunday labour and Sunday rest, it was in Leipsic, +at this period. If Sunday work be a necessary consequence of Sunday +recreation—an absurd paradox, surely—it would have been exhibited in a +commercial town, at a period when all the elements of frivolity, as +gathered together at a fair; and all the wants of commerce compressed +into a few brief weeks, were brought into co-existence. Yet in no town +in Germany did I witness so complete a cessation from labour on the +Sunday. There was no question of working. Early in the morning there +was, it is true, a domestic market in the great square, highly +interesting to a stranger from the number of curious costumes collected +together; the ringletted Polish Jew, old Germans from Altenburg, seeming +masqueraders from the mining districts of the Erzgeberge, and country +folks from every neighbouring village, who flocked to Leipsic with their +wares and edibles. But all this was at an end long before the church +service commenced. I have been in the Nicolai-Kirche (remarkable for its +lofty roof, upheld by columns in the form of palm trees), and the +congregation thronged the whole edifice. And at a smaller church, I was +completely wedged in by the standing crowd of unmistakable working +people, whose congregational singing was particularly effective. The +German Protestant church service is not so long as our own. There are +only a few pews in the body of the building; and the major part of the +audience stand during the service. I was not so well pleased with one +sermon I heard in the English church, for it happened to be the effort of +a German preacher; a student in our tongue, whose discourse was indeed +intrinsically good, and would have been solemn, if the pauses and +emphases had only been in the right places. + +I never worked on Sunday in Leipsic, nor was I acquainted with any one +who did. The warehouses were strictly closed; and a few booths, with +trifling gewgaws, were alone to be seen. The city was at rest. Leipsic +has but one theatre, and to this the prices of admission are doubled in +fair-time, which placed it out of our reach. Thus we were forced to be +content with humbler sources of amusement, and to find recreation, which +we readily did, in the beautiful promenades round the city, laid out by +Dr. Müller; in country rambles to Breitenfeld, and other old +battle-fields; in tracing the winding paths of a thin wood, near the +town, wonderful to us from the flakes of wool (baumwolle) which whitened +the ground. Or again, among the bands of music and happy crowds which +dotted the Rosenthal—a title, by the bye, more fanciful than just, seeing +that the vale in question is only a grassy undulating plain. Here we +sometimes met the “Herr,” with wife on arm, and exchanged due +salutations. + +The fair, such as we understand by the name, commenced in the afternoon, +and was a scene of much noise and some drollery. The whole town teemed +with itinerant musicians, whose violent strains would sometimes burst +from the very ground under your feet, as it appeared, issuing as they did +from the open mouths of beer and wine-cellars. Quiet coffee-houses there +were, in which grave citizens smoked and read; and admirable concerts in +saloons, and in the open air. To one of these latter I was seduced by +the mendacious announcement of a certain Wagner of Berlin, that a whole +troop of real Moors would perform fantastic tricks before high heaven; +and on paying the price of admission, I had to run the gauntlet through a +score of black-headed Teutons, who salaamed and grinned as they ushered +me into the blank space beyond, containing nothing more interesting than +a few tables and chairs, a dumb brass band, and a swarm of hungry +waiters. I saw no dance-houses, such as there were in Hamburg; and by +nine o’clock the festivities of the day were at an end. The Easter fair +lasted some five or six weeks, and at its termination its merriment +disappeared. The wandering minstrels wailed their last notes as they +departed, and the quiet city was left to its students and the pigeons. + +So much for my experiences of Protestant Germany as regards Sunday +occupation. I have, however, said nothing of museums or picture +galleries. I should be sorry to misrepresent the kindred commercial +cities of Hamburg and Leipsic; but I think they may shake hands on this +question, seeing that, at the period of my visit, they possessed neither +the one nor the other. I do not say that there were no stored-up +curiosities, dignified with the title of museums. But, as far as the +public instruction was concerned, they were nearly useless, being little +known and less visited, and certainly not accessible on the Sunday. +Schwerin, in Mecklenburg, possesses a noble ducal museum of arts and +sciences, but this also was closed on the weekly holiday; and in Berlin, +where the museum, par excellence, may vie with any in Europe, and which +city is otherwise rich in natural and art collections, the doors of all +such places were, on the Sunday, strictly closed against the people. Of +the good taste which authorises the display of stage scenery and +decorations (and that not of the best), and yet forbids the inspection of +the masterpieces of painting; of the judgment which patronises beer and +tobacco, yet virtually condemns as unholy the sight of the best evidences +of nature’s grandeur, and the beautiful results of human efforts in art, +it is not necessary to treat here. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII. + + +MORE SUNDAYS ABROAD. + +Still on tramp toward the south, we came to Dresden, and there rested +five days; but as they were week-days their experiences gave us no +insight into the Sunday usages of the place, and I only allude to them +because it would seem unbecoming to pass the capital of Saxony without a +word; and because I feel morally convinced that of all the art-wonders +collected in the Zwinger, Das Grüne Gewölbe, and in the picture gallery, +all of which we visited, not any of them are visible to the public on +Sunday. {173} On a sultry day in August we struggled, dusty and athirst, +into Vienna. It is said that the first impressions of a traveller are +the most faithful, and I therefore transcribe from a diary of that time +some of my recollections of the first Sunday spent in the capital of +Austria. It is not flattering. + +“Yesterday (Sunday), we rambled through a part of the city known as +Lerchenfeld, in the suburb of St. Joseph, where the low life of Vienna is +exhibited. It was a kind of fair. The way was lined with petty booths +and stalls, furnished with fruit, pipes, and common pastry. Here were +sold live rabbits and birds; there, paper clock-faces, engravings, songs, +and figures of saints. In one part was a succession of places of public +resort, like our tea-gardens in appearance, but devoted to the sale of +other beverages; tea being here almost unknown, except as a medicine. +From each of them there streamed the mingled sounds of obstreperous music +and human voices, while in several there appeared to be a sort of +conjuring exhibition in course of performance. Further on, there came +from the opposite side of the way the screaming of a flageolet, heard far +above its accompaniment of a violin and a couple of horns, to all of +which the shuffling and scraping of many feet formed a sort of dull bass, +as the dancers whirled round in their interminable waltz. Looking into +the window of the building thus outrageously conspicuous, we saw a motley +crowd of persons of both sexes, and in such a variety of costumes as +scarcely any other city but Vienna could furnish; some of them careering +round in the excitement of the dance; others impatiently awaiting their +turn, or quizzing the dancers; while a third party sat gravely at the +side-tables, smoking their pipes, playing at cards, and sipping their +wine and beer. Passing onward, we came upon a diminutive merryman, +screaming from the platform of his mountebank theatre, the nature of the +entertainment and the lowness of the price of admission—‘Only four +kreutzers for the first place!’ + +“Continuing our course, we were attracted into a side-street by a crowd, +among whom stood conspicuous a brass musical band, and an old man in a +semi-religious costume of black and white, bearing a large wooden +crucifix in his hand. In anticipation of some religious ceremony, we +waited awhile to watch its development. It was a funeral, and the whole +procession soon formed itself in the following order:—First came the +large crucifix, then a boy bearing a banner on which was painted the +figure of the Virgin; then came six other boys, followed by the same +number of girls, all neatly and cleanly dressed; and then the coffin, +hung with scarlet drapery, adorned with flowers, and having a small +silver crucifix at its head. We were told it was the funeral of a girl +of thirteen. Close upon the coffin came the minister, or priest, clad in +a black, loosish gown, and wearing a curiously crown-shaped cap, also +black. Every head was uncovered as he and the coffin passed. Then came, +as we imagined, the real mourners of the dead, followed by six +exceedingly old women, mourners by profession, and immediately behind +them the brass band which had first attracted our attention. The latter, +as soon as the procession was fairly in motion, burst forth into a noisy, +and by no means melancholy strain, and continued to play for some time; +they suddenly ceased, and there was heard from some one at the head of +the procession a Latin prayer, which was immediately echoed by the old +women in the rear, in the same drowsy, monotonous tone in which the +church responses are usually made. The scene was altogether curious and +striking; the progress of the procession was everywhere marked by +uncovered heads and signs of sympathy and respect; but in spite of its +attempted solemnity, there was a holiday appearance about it which jarred +sadly with its real character of grief and death.” + +I have given this description a front place because it is the worst thing +I can say of Vienna, and in no other part of the city did I ever see its +like. During a stay of twelve months, I lost no opportunity of enjoying +all that the Viennese enjoyed, or of witnessing whatever was part of the +national customs in festival, holiday, or religious ceremonial. In +addition to the Sundays, which were all, to a certain extent, days of +rejoicing—there were nine distinct festivals in the year enjoined by the +church, and on which, if they fell on week-days, the working people +rested from their labours. Of course each of these days had its special +religious reference and obligations, and these were in general faithfully +observed; but, apart from this, they were essentially holidays, and, as +no deduction of wages was made by the employers on their account, they +did not fall as a burden upon the working classes. These days were: New +Year’s Day, the Annunciation, Good Friday, Easter and Whit Sunday, Corpus +Christi Day, All Saints’ Day, the Birth of the Virgin, Christmas Day, and +the festival of St. Leopold, the patron saint of Vienna. On the strictly +church festivals, with the exception of All Saints’ Day, theatrical +performances, and public amusements generally, were interdicted, but rest +and quiet recreation, in addition to the religious observances, were +their great characteristics. Easter and Whit Monday were among the Volks +Feste (people’s feasts), as well as one known as that of the Brigittenau, +from the place in which it is held; and another on the first of May, when +the laüfer (running footmen) have their races in the Prater, and the +emperor permits himself to be mobbed—at least the Emperor Francis did—as +he strolls for a half-hour or so among his people in their own park. +Then the Bohemians have a special religious festival, when one is +astonished to see, in out-of-the-way niches and corners, a perhaps +hitherto-unobserved figure of an amiable-looking priest, with a star on +his forehead, now hung about and conspicuous with wreaths and festoons of +flowers, and bright with the glittering of tiny lamps. This is the Holy +St. John of Nepomuk. I have, however, nothing to do with the religious +ceremonies of the Catholic Church. It is sufficient for my purpose to +know that I watched the solemn and splendid procession of mingled +royalty, priest, and people, on Corpus Christi Day, from the open door of +a coffee and wine-house in the Kohl-market; and that, at the Easter +festival, after ascending and descending the Mount Calvary, near Vienna, +or rather having been borne up and down its semicircular flight of steps, +and past the modelled groups of painted figures to represent the life of +Christ, from the birth to the crowning act of the crucifixion on the +summit, I then sauntered away with my landlord (a cabinet-maker) and his +family to Weinhaus, to drink of the new wine called heueriger. It is +enough that, on All Saints’ Day, after wandering awhile about a swampy +churchyard in the suburb of Maria Hilf, to see the melancholy spot of +light which glimmered at each grave-head, I went to the Burg Theatre, and +witnessed Shakespeare’s play of “King Lear” (and the best actor in Vienna +played the Fool); and further, that I spent the evening of Christmas Day +in Daum’s coffee-house in reading _Galignani’s Messenger_, in order to +bring myself, in imagination at least, as near home as possible. + +The jewellers in Vienna are not such elderly apprentices as they are in +Hamburg, Leipsic, and the majority of small towns in Germany. They dine +at gast haüse, and sleep in the independence of a separate lodging. They +have, therefore, more liberty; but there are many trades in Vienna among +whom the old usages still exist, by which they become a kind of vassals, +living and sleeping under the patriarchal roof. All worked twelve hours +a-day alike, from six till seven, including one hour for dinner. Various +licences were, however, allowed; quarter-of-day or half-hour deductions +were scarcely known; and I have myself spent the morning at a public +execution, without suffering any loss in wages. This brings me to the +Sunday work; and I say, unhesitatingly that, as a system, it does not +exist. I never worked on the Sunday myself during my whole twelve +months’ stay. I do not know that there was any law against it; but rest +was felt to be a necessity after a week of seventy-two hours’ labour. It +is not unusual, both in Germany and France, to engage new hands on the +Sunday morning, because it is a leisure time, convenient to both master +and workman; and I have sought for work at this time, and found the Herr +in a silk dressing-gown, and white satin slippers with pink bows. I +recollect visiting a working cabinet-maker’s on one Sunday morning, whose +men slept on the premises, and found the workshop a perfect model of +cleanliness and order: every tool in its place, and the whole swept and +polished up; and was once invited, under the impression that, as an +Englishman, I ought to know something of newspaper presses, to inspect +those of the Imperial Printing Office, with the last number of the Wiener +Zeitung in type; and this was on a Sunday morning—a time especially +chosen on account of the absence of the workmen. My landlord, a +master-man, would sometimes work in the Sunday morning when hard pressed; +but, if he did, he took his revenge in the week. + +As we did not work, at what did we play? Perhaps there was a sick +comrade to visit in the great hospital; and we paced the long corridors, +and stepped lightly through the lofty wards to his bedside. Or, if he +were convalescent, we sought him out, among many others, in the open +square, with its broad grass-plots and young trees, where, in his grey +loose gown, he smoked a morning pipe. Or we went to church, I, with +others, to the Evangelical Chapel near the Augustine Platz. There, among +a closely-pressed throng, we heard admirable discourses (and not too +long, the whole service being concluded in an hour), and heard much +beautiful music; but, to my mind, there were too many tawdry ornaments in +this place of worship—too many lamps about the altar; and the altar-piece +itself—a gigantic figure of the Saviour on the Cross, said to be by +Albert Dürer—seemed to be out of place. + +It was lawful in Vienna to bathe on Sunday; and this we did, with great +delight, in the public baths upon the Danube. Or we strolled about the +Glacis; attended the miniature review in the Hof-Burg; wandered out as +far as Am-Spitz, by the long wooden bridge over the broad and melancholy +river; or, what was better, sauntered in some one of the beautiful +gardens of the Austrian nobility,—those of Schwargenberg, Lichtenstein, +or in the Belvidere—thrown open to the public, not only on Sunday, but on +every day in the week. + +As the day waned, music burst forth in many strains at once. There was a +knot of artisans in our back room, who were learning the entire “Czar and +Zimmerman,” and who were very vigorous about this hour. At seven, the +theatres opened their doors, with something of our own rush and press, +although there was a guard-house, and a whole company of grenadiers in +the ante-room; but, once in the interior, all was order and decorum. +There was, of course, a difference in tone and character between the city +and the suburban theatres, inasmuch as the ices and coffee of the court +playhouses found their parallel in the beer and hot sausages of the +Joseph Stadt and An-der-Wieden; but the performances of all rarely +occupied more than two, and never exceeded three hours; and there was an +amount of quiet and propriety manifested during the entertainment, which +said something for the authorities, but more for the people. + +As the night deepened, the ball-rooms and dancing-booths of Vienna,—the +Sperl’s, Das Tanz Salon beim Schaf, and so downward to the dens of +Lerchenfeld—grew furious in music, and hysterical in waltz. It was +something fearful. It made your eyes twinkle, and your head dizzy, to +see that eternal whirling of so many human teetotums. They seemed to see +nothing, to feel nothing, to know nothing; there was no animation in +their looks; no speculation in their eyes; nothing but a dead stare, as +if the dancers were under a spell, only to be released when the music was +at an end. Generally speaking, I think the ball-rooms of continental +cities are the curses and abominations of the Sunday. My landlord, who +was no moralist, but played faro, draughts, and billiards on the Sunday +evening, would not hear of his daughter attending a public ballroom. +There is a curious anomaly in connection with places of public +entertainment which strikes a stranger at once, and which is equally true +of Berlin as of Vienna; it is this: that, while private houses are closed +at nine and ten o’clock, according to the season of the year, +coffee-houses, taverns, dancing and concert-rooms, are open till +midnight. Up to the former hours you may gain admission to your own +house by feeing the porter to the extent of twopence; but, later than +this, it is dangerous to try the experiment. + +To return to out-of-door amusements. A visit to Schœnbrun was business +for a whole afternoon; for we must perforce each time unravel the +windings to the pure spring in the maze, with vague and mysterious ideas +of some time or other falling upon the grave of the Duc de Reichstadt, +there secretly buried, according to popular tradition. On rare occasions +we spent the whole of Sunday in some more distant palatial domain, or +suburban retreat. In Klosterneuburgh, with its good wine: in the Brühl, +with its rugged steeps, its military memorials, and ruined castles; at +the village of Bertholdsdorf, with its Turkish traditions; among the viny +slopes of the Leopoldiberg, or the more distant and wilder tract of +mingled rock and forest which encircle the Vale of Helen. Above all, +there was Laxenberg,—an imperial pleasure-palace and garden, and a whole +fairy-land in itself, peopled by the spirits of ancient knights and +courtly dames. Some one of the Hapsburgs had built, many years ago, a +knightly castle on a lake, and in it were stored dim suits of armour of +Maximilian; a cabinet of Wallenstein; grim portraits of kings and +warriors; swords, halbards, jewelled daggers, and antique curiosities +innumerable; only rather prosaically completed by the exhibition of the +every-day suit of the last Emperor of Austria, which, however affecting a +spectacle for a simple-hearted Viennese—and they are mere babies in +matters of royalty—irresistibly reminded one of Holywell Street, London, +and cast-off regimentals. Laxenberg is distant less than a shilling +ride, and about two hours’ walk from Vienna; and, like our Hampton Court +Palace, is thrown unreservedly open to the public. There were no end to +its wonders: fishing-grounds, and boats upon the lake; waterfalls, and +rustic bridges were there; and one little elegant pavilion, perched on +the water, dedicated to the beauties of Windsor, illustrating its scenery +in transparent porcelain. There was a list for knightly riders; a dais +for the Queen of Beauty; and places for belted nobles, saintly abbots, +and Wambas in motley; an Ashby-de-la-Zouch in miniature, which a little +imagination could people. Then, for the plebeians, there were +leaping-bars and turning-posts, skittle-alleys, and the quintain; and, +for all alike, clusters of noble trees, broad grassy meads, and flowers +unnumbered. There was even a farm-house, homely and substantial, with a +dairy and poultry-yard, sheep in the paddocks, and cattle in the stalls. + +We started from Vienna on a Sunday morning on board the steamboat Karl +for Linz; and trudging thence on foot came on the following Saturday +night into Salzburg, the queen of the Salzack. We rested here one happy +Sunday: not so much in the town, which had its abundant curiosities, as +in the pleasure gardens of the old Archbishops of Salzburg, at an easy +stroll from it. This garden is pleasant enough in itself, but there are +besides a number of water eccentricities in it such as I should think +were in their peculiar fashion unequalled. Here blooms a cluster of +beautiful flowers, covered as it were by a glass shade, but which turns +out to be only water. There a miniature palace is in course of erection, +with crowds of workmen in its different storeys, each man at his +avocation with hammer and chisel, pulley and wheel, and the grave +architect himself directing their labour. All this is set in motion by +water, and is not a mere doll’s house, but a symmetrical model. Then we +enter a subterranean grotto, with a roof of pendant stalactites, where +the pleasant sound of falling waters and the melodious piping of birds +fill all the air. There is a sly drollery too in some of the water +performances, invented years ago by the grave Archbishops of Salzburg; +for suddenly the stalactites are set dripping like a modern shower bath: +and the gigantic stags at its entrance spout water from the very tips of +their horns. The garden is not a Versailles, for there is nothing grand +in any of its hydraulic arrangements; but in the beauty with which are +clothed such trifles, the artistic spirit which has suggested its +objects, and the humour which spirts up tiny jets of water by seats where +lovers sit, and in unsuspected places where the public congregate, even +in the middle of a walk, it is a wonderful and delightful exhibition. +This garden was thronged by the holiday folks of Salzburg. There was an +official to explain the curious display, and nothing but innocent gaiety +was to be seen. + +The Sunday we spent in Munich was passed in the Kirche Unserer Lieben +Frauen, with its self-supporting roof; in the English Garden; and at a +lovely spot on a hill-side, in the environs of the city. During the week +we were escorted by a friend to a sort of tea-gardens of some notoriety, +but found it silent and deserted. Our friend apologised for its dulness, +but exclaimed, in part explanation, “You should see it on Sunday!” It +was evident that Sunday was a day of rest and enjoyment, and not a +working day in Munich. My own impression of the Munichers was, that they +drank too much beer every day in the week. + +Still tramping towards France, we passed one Sunday in Heidelberg, among +all its romantic wonders; but as everybody knows, or ought to know, all +about Heidelberg, I will not allow my enthusiasm to lead me into a +description which would not be novel, and might probably be tedious. +This was the last Sunday we spent on German ground. So far as Germany is +concerned, you may look upon everything but museums, picture galleries, +and the like, on Sunday; you may, as Luther says you ought, “dance on it, +ride on it, play on it,—do anything”—but see that which is most likely to +instruct you. You may visit tawdry shows, and inspect badly painted +scenery; you may let off fireworks; gamble to your ruin; smoke the eyes +out of your head, and dance the head off your shoulders; but you shall +not, with few exceptions, look upon works of art, or the results of +science in museums and picture galleries. Let it be said, however, that +the general opportunities for acquiring correct and elevated taste are, +on the whole, greater in Germany than in England; and that in many cities +there is a profusion of exterior ornament, more especially in Munich, in +the shape of the fresco paintings of the Palace Garden, on Isar Thor, and +in the Basilica and churches generally, so that the eye is better +educated in artistic combinations; and the same necessity does not exist +for special art instruction with them as with us. Then, let us never +forget that their public and other gardens are as free to them as the air +they breathe, and that music is almost as universal. + +The remembrances I have of Paris Sundays decidedly possess a character of +rest and recreation; of waking in the morning to a grateful sense of +repose; of clean shirts and trimmed beards; and of delicious breakfasts +at our Café aux Quatres Mendiants, of coffee and white bread, instead of +the bouillon and confiture of the atelier. Did we not work, then? +Assuredly we did sometimes, when hard pressed; but the recollection of +those few occasions is drowned in that of a flood of happy, tranquil +Sundays. When we did work it was from eight till twelve, which made half +a day, and this was the rate at which all overtime was reckoned. One +hard taskmaster I remember, who, instead of paying us our dues, as is the +custom on Saturday night, at the end of quinze jours, cajoled us to come +and work under the promise of their payment on the Sunday morning. He +failed us like a rogue; and we drudged on for another quinzaine, Sunday +mornings included, in hopeful anticipation of the receipt of our wages. +When we found that he slunk out of the way, without paying us a sou, we +rebelled, sang the Marseillaise, demanded our wages, and never worked +another Sunday. + +I am lost in my endeavours to define the mingled recollections of Sunday +tranquillity, enjoyment, and frivolity during a stay of eighteen months +in Paris. My thoughts run from the Madelaine to Minu-montant; from +Versailles to the Funambule; from Diogenes’ lantern at St. Cloud to the +blind man’s concert in the Palais Royal. Sometimes I wander over the +plains of Auteuil and Passy; then suddenly find myself examining a +paper-making machine in the Museum of Arts and Trades. Or I look over +the vine fields from the heights of Montmorency at one moment, and the +next am pacing the long galleries of the Louvre, or the classic chambers +of the Palais des Beaux Arts. I have passed a Whitsunday morning at +Versailles among the paintings; the afternoon at Sèvres among glass and +porcelain; have won a game at dominoes after dinner in Paris; and have +heard the last polka at the Salle Vivienne in the evening. Paris is a +city of extremes; the young Théophile who works by my side, and is an +ingenious fellow and a clever workman, you will meet next Sunday in the +Louvre discoursing energetically on the comparative merits of the French +and Italian schools of painting; yet this same Théophile shall be the +Titi of the gallery of the Porte St. Martin in the evening, who yells +slang at his friend on the opposite side; and the Pierrot or Débardeur of +the next opera masquerade. + +With the vivid impressions of many Sundays abroad upon my mind, I have +been wondering whether, after all, the practices of the continental +Sunday have anything to do with the opening of a museum or +picture-gallery in London; and, after profound study, in the laborious +course of which I have several times fallen asleep, I have come to the +deliberate conclusion that there is no connection between the two things. +In the first case, as regards Germany, seeing that they there almost +sedulously close all that relates to art or science, and give full +licence only to beer and tobacco, to music and dancing on the +Sunday—where is the parallel? In the second, as regards France or Paris, +although it must be admitted that there is unfortunately no comparison +between the Louvre and the National Gallery, it can at least be claimed +that there is no resemblance between the British Museum and the Bal des +Chiens in the Rue St. Honoré. I take it that to preserve the English +Sunday as a day of greater rest than French or German Sundays ever were, +and to add to it such rational and instructive recreation, as a Museum or +a Picture-Gallery, or a place of innocent recreation could supply, might +be a good thing in the eyes of religious men; and I have not yet heard of +any society or association in any part of the United Kingdom, which +proposes to open a Sunday evening ball at the Pig and Tinderbox, or to +grant licences to the theatrical performances at the Penny Gaff in the +New Cut. + + + + +NOTE. + + +{173} This is incorrect; the Picture Gallery is open during the mid-day +hours on Sunday. + + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A TRAMP'S WALLET*** + + +******* This file should be named 28320-0.txt or 28320-0.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/8/3/2/28320 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: A Tramp's Wallet + stored by an English goldsmith during his wanderings in Germany and France + + +Author: William Duthie + + + +Release Date: March 13, 2009 [eBook #28320] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A TRAMP'S WALLET*** +</pre> +<p>This ebook was transcribed by Les Bowler.</p> +<h1><span class="smcap">a</span><br /> +TRAMP’S WALLET;</h1> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">stored +by</span><br /> +AN ENGLISH GOLDSMITH<br /> +<span class="smcap">during his</span><br /> +Wanderings in Germany and France.</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">by</span><br /> +WILLIAM DUTHIE.</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span +class="smcap">dedicated</span>, <span class="smcap">by +permission</span>, <span class="smcap">to charles dickens</span>, +<span class="smcap">esq.</span></p> +<div class="gapspace"> </div> +<p style="text-align: center">LONDON:<br /> +DARTON AND CO., 58, HOLBORN HILL.<br /> +<span class="smcap">mdccclviii</span>.</p> +<div class="gapspace"> </div> +<p style="text-align: center">[<i>The right of Translation is +reserved by the Author</i>.]</p> +<div class="gapspace"> </div> +<p style="text-align: center">TO</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><br /> +CHARLES DICKENS, ESQ.,<br /> +This Volume<br /> +<span class="smcap">is respectfully dedicated</span>,<br /> +<span class="smcap">in grateful acknowledgment of his sympathy +and</span><br /> +<span class="smcap">encouragement during</span><br /> +<span class="smcap">the publication of the greater portion of its +contents</span>;<br /> +<span class="smcap">and as a slight tribute of +admiration</span><br /> +<span class="smcap">for his unwearying labours as a public +writer</span>,<br /> +<span class="smcap">to the advancement of the whole +people</span>,<br /> +<span class="smcap">by his sincere admirer</span>,</p> +<p style="text-align: right">THE AUTHOR.</p> +<h2>PREFACE.</h2> +<p>During a stay of three years and a half in Germany and France, +sometimes at work, sometimes tramping through the country, the +Author collected a number of facts and stray notes, which he has +endeavoured in these pages to present to the public in a readable +shape.</p> +<p>Of the twenty-eight chapters contained in the volume, sixteen +originally appeared in “Household Words.” They +are entitled <span class="smcap">The German Workman</span>; <span +class="smcap">Hamburg to Lübeck</span>; <span +class="smcap">Lübeck to Berlin</span>; <span +class="smcap">Fair-time at Leipsic</span>; <span +class="smcap">Down in a Silver Mine</span>; <span class="smcap">A +Lift in a Cart</span>; <span class="smcap">The Turks’ +Cellar</span>; <span class="smcap">A Taste of Austrian +Jails</span>; <span class="smcap">What my Landlord +Believed</span>; <span class="smcap">A Walk through a +Mountain</span>; <span class="smcap">Cause and Effect</span>; +<span class="smcap">The French Workman</span>; <span +class="smcap">Licensed to Juggle</span>; <span +class="smcap">Père Panpan</span>; <span class="smcap">Some +German Sundays</span>; and <span class="smcap">More Sundays +Abroad</span>. Several other chapters were published in a +weekly newspaper; and the remainder, together with the +Introductory Narrative, appear in print for the first time. +For the careful and valuable revision of that portion of his book +which has appeared in “Household Words,” the Author +here begs to express his sincere thanks; and to acknowledge, in +particular, his obligation to some unknown collaborator, who, to +the paper called “The French Workman,” has added some +valuable information.</p> +<p>The desire of the Author in writing the Introductory Narrative +was to present to his readers a brief outline of his whole +journey, and a summary of its results; and to connect, so far as +it was possible, the somewhat fragmentary contents of the body of +the work. It was also hoped and believed that the +statistical information there given, although of so humble a +character, would be valuable as illustrative of the social +condition of workmen in the countries to which they refer, and of +a character hitherto rarely attempted.</p> +<p>Written, as these chapters were, at intervals of time, and +separately published, each paper must be taken as complete in +itself; and, as they are separate incidents of one narrative, +occasional repetitions occur, which could scarcely have been +erased, now that they are collected together, without injuring +the sense of the passage. For that portion of the book +which has appeared in print no apology will be expected; and, +with regard to the remainder, the Author has rather endeavoured +to avoid censure than hoped to propitiate it.</p> +<p>In conclusion, the Author must add, in order that he may not +stand self-accused of misleading his readers with regard to his +personal position, that good fortune has so far favoured his own +exertions, that, although still of the craft, he can no longer +lay claim to the title of a Journeyman Goldsmith. It was +while in that capacity that the greater part of the following +pages were written: he cannot but believe that they may be of +some practical utility; and if, added to this, their perusal +should afford to his readers some portion of that pleasure which +their composition yielded to him, his purpose will have been +fully answered.</p> +<h2>CONTENTS.</h2> +<table> +<tr> +<td colspan="3"><p style="text-align: center">INTRODUCTORY +NARRATIVE</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="2"><p> </p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><i>Page</i></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="2"><p><span +class="smcap">hamburg</span>.—<span class="smcap">on tramp +to berlin</span></p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#pagei">i</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="2"><p><span class="smcap">berlin and +leipsic</span>.—<span class="smcap">on tramp to +vienna</span></p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#pagevii">vii</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="2"><p><span class="smcap">vienna</span></p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#pagexv">xv</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="2"><p><span class="smcap">on tramp to +paris</span></p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#pagexxiii">xxiii</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="2"><p><span class="smcap">paris</span></p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#pagexxix">xxix</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><i>Chapter</i></p> +</td> +<td><p> </p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"> </p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p style="text-align: right">I.</p> +</td> +<td><p><span class="smcap">hamburg</span></p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page1">1</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p style="text-align: right">II.</p> +</td> +<td><p><span class="smcap">altona</span>.—<span +class="smcap">a poet’s grave</span>.—<span +class="smcap">a danish harvest-home</span></p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page6">6</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p style="text-align: right">III.</p> +</td> +<td><p>“<span +class="smcap">magnificence</span>.”—<span +class="smcap">at church</span>.—<span class="smcap">the +last headsman</span></p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page9">9</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p style="text-align: right">IV.</p> +</td> +<td><p><span class="smcap">workmen in hamburg</span></p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page15">15</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p style="text-align: right">V.</p> +</td> +<td><p><span class="smcap">plays and +piccadilloes</span>.—“<span +class="smcap">hamlet</span>” <span class="smcap">in +german</span></p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page19">19</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p style="text-align: right">VI.</p> +</td> +<td><p><span class="smcap">the german workman</span></p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page24">24</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p style="text-align: right">VII.</p> +</td> +<td><p><span class="smcap">hamburg to lübeck</span></p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page36">36</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p style="text-align: right">VIII.</p> +</td> +<td><p><span class="smcap">lübeck to berlin</span></p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page41">41</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p style="text-align: right">IX.</p> +</td> +<td><p><span class="smcap">berlin</span>.—<span +class="smcap">our herberge</span></p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page51">51</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p style="text-align: right">X.</p> +</td> +<td><p><span class="smcap">a street in berlin</span></p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page56">56</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p style="text-align: right">XI.</p> +</td> +<td><p><span class="smcap">police and people</span></p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page62">62</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p style="text-align: right">XII.</p> +</td> +<td><p><span class="smcap">the kreutzberg</span>.—<span +class="smcap">a prussian supper and carouse</span></p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page65">65</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p style="text-align: right">XIII.</p> +</td> +<td><p><span class="smcap">fair-time at leipsic</span></p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page70">70</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p style="text-align: right">XIV.</p> +</td> +<td><p><span class="smcap">down in a silver mine</span></p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page76">76</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p style="text-align: right">XV.</p> +</td> +<td><p><span class="smcap">a lift in a cart</span></p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page85">85</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p style="text-align: right">XVI.</p> +</td> +<td><p><span class="smcap">the turks’ cellar</span></p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page94">94</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p style="text-align: right">XVII.</p> +</td> +<td><p><span class="smcap">a taste of austrian jails</span></p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page99">99</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p style="text-align: right">XVIII.</p> +</td> +<td><p><span class="smcap">what my landlord believed</span></p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page108">108</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p style="text-align: right">XIX.</p> +</td> +<td><p><span class="smcap">an execution in vienna</span></p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page113">113</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p style="text-align: right">XX.</p> +</td> +<td><p><span class="smcap">a jail episode</span></p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page116">116</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p style="text-align: right">XXI.</p> +</td> +<td><p><span class="smcap">a walk through a mountain</span></p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page121">121</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p style="text-align: right">XXII.</p> +</td> +<td><p><span class="smcap">cause and effect</span></p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page130">130</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p style="text-align: right">XXIII.</p> +</td> +<td><p><span class="smcap">greece and her deliverer</span></p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page137">137</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p style="text-align: right">XXIV.</p> +</td> +<td><p><span class="smcap">the french workman</span></p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page139">139</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p style="text-align: right">XXV.</p> +</td> +<td><p><span class="smcap">licensed to juggle</span></p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page149">149</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p style="text-align: right">XXVI.</p> +</td> +<td><p><span class="smcap">père panpan</span></p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page152">152</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p style="text-align: right">XXVII.</p> +</td> +<td><p><span class="smcap">some german sundays</span></p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page162">162</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p style="text-align: right">XXVIII.</p> +</td> +<td><p><span class="smcap">more sundays abroad</span></p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page173">173</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +</table> +<h2><!-- page i--><a name="pagei"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +i</span>INTRODUCTORY NARRATIVE.</h2> +<h3>HAMBURG.—ON TRAMP TO BERLIN.</h3> +<p>There have appeared from time to time, in public print, +sorrowful recitals of journeys attempted by English workmen in +foreign countries, with no better result than the utter failure +of the resources of the adventurous traveller, and his return +homeward by the aid of private charity or the good offices of his +consul. It is precisely because the travels about to be +here narrated were financially a success, being prosecuted +throughout by means of the wages earned during their progress, +that it is thought they may be worthy of publication; not that it +is imagined many such examples may not be found, but because +success in such an undertaking has not hitherto appeared so often +before the public as failure. This narrative is necessarily +a personal one; and as it is my especial object in this place to +present these foreign rambles in a pecuniary point of view, I +trust I shall not be misunderstood in stating minute items of +receipt and expenditure, as such details, however trivial they +may appear, are of vital importance in estimating the comparative +position of the foreign and the English workman.</p> +<p>There was more than one cause which prompted me to seek my +fortune abroad; but it is sufficient here to state, that I had +worked in the company of Germans, and had thus become interested +in their country, and, as great depression prevailed at the time +among the goldsmiths in London, I provided myself with a letter +of introduction to a working jeweller in Hamburg, and prepared to +start for this outpost of the great German continent. My +whole <!-- page ii--><a name="pageii"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. ii</span>capital amounted to five pounds +sterling; and, armed with a passport from the Hanseatic consul, +and provided with an extra suit of clothes, a few books, and some +creature comforts, I embarked for my destination on board the +“Glory,” a trading schooner, then lying in Shadwell +basin.</p> +<p>I paid thirty shillings for my passage, including provisions, +and could have slept in the cabin, and fared with the captain, +for two pounds, but in the weak state of my finances, considered +it only prudent to content myself with sailor’s beef and +biscuit, and a hard bulk and coil of ropes for my bed. +After, to me, a rough sea and river passage of eight days, marked +by no greater incidents than belonged to the vicissitudes of the +weather, we crossed the sand-bar at the mouth of the Elbe, and +were soon safe at our moorings in the outer harbour of +Hamburg. It was Sunday morning; paddled on shore in the +ship’s boat, I found myself in a town utterly strange to +me, armed only with a letter addressed to a person with whom I +could not converse, and written in a language I did not +understand. My chief comforts were three sovereigns, +carefully wrapped in a piece of cotton print, and deposited in my +fob.</p> +<p>In the course of a ramble through the town, I discovered an +English hotel, and was there happy in making the acquaintance of +a needle-maker of Redditch, Worcestershire, who at once offered +to be my interpreter and guide in search of employment. We +began our peregrinations on the morrow, and I was first +introduced to the only English cabinet-maker established in +Hamburg, who, however, did not receive our visit +cheerfully. He drew a rueful picture of trade generally, +but more especially of his own. The hours of labour were +long, he said; the work was hard, and the wages +contemptible. He concluded by assuring me that I had been +very ill advised to come there, and that the best course I could +pursue was to take the first ship home again. As I was not +yet inclined to follow this doleful piece of advice, we continued +our enquiries. In a short time I was shaking hands with the +jeweller to whom my letter of introduction was addressed; and +before another hour had elapsed, acting under his instructions, I +had the gratification of knowing that I was “in +work,” and, best of all, under an employer who spoke the +English, French, and German languages with equal facility. +Thus, in ten days from leaving England, eight of which were spent +on the passage, I had found both friends and employment in a +foreign city, and now that my greatest source of anxiety <!-- +page iii--><a name="pageiii"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +iii</span>for the future was removed, felt thoroughly independent +and at my ease.</p> +<p>My companions in the workshop were a quiet Dane who spoke +German, and a young Frenchman, whom I will call Alcibiade, who +had been in London, and acquired a smattering of English. +We worked twelve hours a day, commencing at six o’clock in +the morning—the whole city was up and busy at that +hour—and kept on till seven in the evening. Thirteen +hours were thus spent in the workshop, one of which was given to +meals. The practice of boarding the workmen is universal in +Hamburg, and we therefore fared at the table of our +“principal,” and were amply and well provided +for. During the first week of my stay in Hamburg, I lodged +at an humble English hotel, where I paid at the rate of ten marks +a week for bed and board, a sum equal to eleven shillings and +eightpence. Reasonable as this may appear, it was beyond my +resources, and would indeed have been a positive extravagance +under the circumstances. Moreover, the arrangements of the +workshop forbade it. My next lodging was at a German hotel, +where I slept in a little cupboard which hung over a black, +sluggish canal, and was without stove or fire-place. The +cost of this chamber was five marks a month, or scarcely one +shilling and sixpence a week. These expenses will appear +paltry and insignificant, till compared with the amount of wages +received, when it will be apparent that boarding and lodging in +an English hotel at eleven shillings and odd pence a week, was a +monstrous extravagance; and that even an apartment in a German +gasthaus, at five marks a month, was more than the slender +pittance received would reasonably bear. Alcibiade, who, +besides being an expert workman, was an excellent modeller and +draughtsman, received seven marks a week, with board and lodging, +or eight shillings weekly in positive cash. Peterkin the +Dane, who was yet a novice, was in the receipt of four marks a +week, and paid for his own lodging—weekly pay, four +shillings and eightpence. My own wages were seven marks a +week and board, while I paid for my own lodging; and when, upon +the departure of Alcibiade for Berlin, I took possession of his +bedroom—a mere box without a window—a deduction of +one mark was made as an equivalent. I thus received in +wages six marks; lodging may be reckoned at one, and board at +five marks a week—total, twelve marks; which will yield in +English money the magnificent sum of fourteen shillings.</p> +<p><!-- page iv--><a name="pageiv"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +iv</span>In order to contrast these figures more fully with the +pay of our English artisans, it will be necessary to mention some +further expenses to which the workman in England is not liable, +or in which the commercial pre-eminence of his country gives him +a marked advantage. With respect to the former, as the +employer in many cases furnishes only the ruder and less portable +machinery of the workshop, the workman has, to a certain extent, +to provide his own tools; and in regard to the latter, clothing +in general, and more especially cotton, woollen, and worsted +articles of apparel, are nearly as costly as in London.</p> +<p>Of the social position of the workmen, and the rules of the +trade Guilds, I have endeavoured to treat under the head of +“<span class="smcap">The German Workman</span>;” but +there are some matters there omitted which may be worthy of +mention. I was forcibly struck, as well in Hamburg as in +other towns and cities of Germany, by the almost total want of +that cheap serial literature which is so marked a feature of +popular education in England. There was, indeed, a penny +magazine published in Leipsic, after the type of the original +periodical of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge; +but it found no purchasers among any of my acquaintances, and was +only to be seen, with a few other literary magazines, at the +better sort of eating and coffee-houses. The workmen were +gay, and fond of amusement, but not recklessly so. They +were passionately fond of music, and formed little clubs among +themselves for the practice of choral singing. There was +shown no want of respect for the Church and its institutions, +quite the reverse; and I well remember that we were gratified +with a holiday on a day set apart by the authorities for the +public confirmation of the youths about to be apprenticed, and +the whole ceremonial of which wore an imposing and solemn +character. The conscription was, I believe, made also on +that day. With respect to the relation between employers +and employed, there existed a degree of amiability and +consideration for which we look too often in vain in England, +while it must also be confessed that every mark of respect was +rigorously exacted by the master, and that his affability towards +the workmen sometimes assumed the character of an affectionate +condescension towards a favoured menial. I did not +personally know any one married journeyman in Hamburg; but there +was one jeweller who had entered into the silken bonds of +wedlock, and who was pointed out to me with a shrug of the +shoulder and a shake of the head, as a doomed mortal.</p> +<p><!-- page v--><a name="pagev"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +v</span>It might be imagined that as the city of Hamburg claims +the title of “free,” such assumed liberty might +extend to its social institutions; as well as to its port and +navigation. Indeed, the worthy citizens are under some such +delusion themselves, and boast of immunities, and liberalities of +government, such as would place them at the head of the German +nation. It would be hard to know in what they +consist. The passport system is enforced with all its +rigours and impertinences; an annual conscription is taken of its +inhabitants, and the more solvent of them perform military +service (this may perhaps be considered a liberty), as a national +guard, with the additional luxury of providing their own weapons +and equipments. Moreover, they were, at the time I write +of, called upon to render certain services in case of an outbreak +of fire: one contributing a bucket, another a rope, and a third a +ladder; none of which articles, as might easily be imagined, were +forthcoming when most wanted. The city tolls were heavy, +and stringently levied, and, what more nearly concerned the +exercise of public liberty and private convenience, the city +gates were nominally closed at a certain hour in the evening, +varied according to the season of the year, and were only to be +passed after the appointed period by the payment of a toll. +It was curious to see the people hurrying towards the Jacob Thor +on a Sunday evening as the hour of closing approached, jostling +and mobbing each other in their endeavours to escape the human +poll tax.</p> +<p>But men are free, or in fetters, only by comparison; and +although the rule of the senate of Hamburg, when contrasted with +British government, can scarcely be called a liberal one, there +is little doubt that identical laws are in Hamburg less +stringently carried out than in other and most parts of the great +German continent.</p> +<p>Seven months’ stay in Hamburg found me eager to commence +the march into Germany, which I had long meditated. Five +months had already elapsed since Alcibiade, my French +fellow-workman, had departed for Berlin (paying eight dollars for +the journey by post), and he had never written to inform me of +his fortunes. I was resolved to follow him, and, if +possible, to seek him out, for we were already sworn friends; but +my finances would only allow of a journey on foot. During +twenty-eight weeks of employment in Hamburg, I had received two +hundred and three marks banco in wages, which would yield, in +round numbers, twelve pounds sterling, or exactly an average +receipt of five shillings per week. Against this sum were +to be placed: expenses for tools, five shillings and <!-- page +vi--><a name="pagevi"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +vi</span>sixpence; trade society and police, five shillings and +tenpence; clothing and washing, three pounds, one shilling and +twopence; and rent and extra board, one pound seven shillings. +Seventeen visits to theatres at prices ranging from two shillings +to sevenpence amounted to sixteen shillings and sixpence, making +a total of five pounds sixteen shillings. The surplus of six +pounds four shillings had been further reduced, by outlay in +necessities or indulgences, as the reader may assume according to +his fancy, to thirty marks banco. With this sum of +thirty-five shillings in English money, and consisting of two +Dutch ducats and five Prussian dollars, I started to tramp the +two hundred miles between Hamburg and Berlin. As a matter +of explanation it may be stated that, during a residence of seven +months in Hamburg, I had acquired enough of the German language +to trust myself alone in the country.</p> +<p>Under the impression that I might be required to set to work +in any town on my route, like any travelling tinker, I had packed +in my knapsack my best scoopers and an upright drillstock; and +these tools, while they added to its weight, presented so many +obdurate points of resistance to my back. Stowed within the +knapsack were an extra suit, two changes of linen, a few books, a +flute, and a pair of boots. It weighed twenty-eight +pounds. My remaining personal property was safely packed in +a trunk, and left in the hands of a friend, to be forwarded by +waggon as soon as my resting place should be determined.</p> +<p>I have only to deal in this place with the statistics of my +first tramp. The distance was lessened sixty miles by +taking the <i>eilwagen</i> from Wusterhausen to Berlin, and nine +days in all were spent upon the road. My total expenses, +including the dollar (three shillings) for coach fare, amounted +to eighteen shillings, or an average of two shillings +a-day. Of this sum I may particularise the cost of the +straw-litter and early cup of coffee at the outset of the +journey, twopence; at Lübeck, where I lodged respectably for +one night, the bill was two shillings; at Schönefeld, +twopence halfpenny; a lodging, and board for two nights and a day +at Schwerin in a “grand hotel,” but faring with the +servants, cost one shilling and ninepence; at Ludwigslust, a +comfortable bed after a grand supper with the carpenters at their +house of call, was charged one shilling and sevenpence; and at +Perleberg, where I lodged superbly, the cost was sixteen silver +groschens, or a fraction over one shilling and sixpence.</p> +<p>Against this I have to place the trade gift of two shillings +at <!-- page vii--><a name="pagevii"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +vii</span>Lübeck, being the whole contents of their cash +box, and which was kindly forced upon me. At +Schönefeld I was urged by the masons to demand the usual +“geschenk” from the only jeweller in the +village. “Why,” exclaimed the landlord, +enthusiastically, “if you only get a penny, it will buy you +a glass of beer!” I overcame the temptation.</p> +<h3>BERLIN AND LEIPSIC.—ON TRAMP TO VIENNA.</h3> +<p>I was less fortunate in the search for work in Berlin than I +had been in Hamburg. Having started on my travels too early +in the year, I paid the penalty of my rashness. My guide +into Berlin was a glovemaker, whose acquaintance I had made upon +the road, and through whom, curiously enough, I succeeded in +discovering my Parisian friend Alcibiade, the first object of my +search. Alcibiade, eccentric, but frank and generous, +received me like a brother. There was no employment to be +obtained in Berlin, or assuredly he would have ferreted it out; +more especially as in the search he had the assistance of one of +those philological curiosities met with in Germany more often +than in any other country, a school-teacher, who seemed to have +any number of foreign languages glibly at the end of his +tongue. I stayed a week in Berlin, sleeping at the Herberge +in the Schuster Gasse, described in the body of this work; and +when forced at length to depart, Alcibiade pressed four dollars +upon me as a loan, to help me on my further wanderings. It +must be remembered that my stock was reduced to seventeen +shillings on my arrival at Berlin, and as my expenses in this +capital, during a week’s vain search for employment, +amounted to nine shillings, I was but indifferently +provided. Under these circumstances I asserted my claim to +the trade geschenk, and, having fulfilled all the conditions of a +tramp unable to find work, received from the Guild twenty silver +groschens, or two shillings.</p> +<p>Leipsic was my natural destination, and thither I proceeded by +railway, paying two dollars eight groschens for the transit in an +open carriage. This would give seven shillings in English +money. The journey occupied about twelve hours, and +although the average speed through the Prussian territory was +slow, no sooner did we come upon Saxon ground at the frontier +town of Köthen, than we spun along over the sandy waste with +a rapidity which reminded one of <!-- page viii--><a +name="pageviii"></a><span class="pagenum">p. viii</span>a trip on +an English railway. It was already dark when the train +reached Leipsic, and in the drizzling rain I wandered round the +city ditch and rampart, unknowing where to find a lodging. +At length, directed by a stranger to a trade herberge in the +Kleine Kirche Hof, after some demur on account of my not +belonging to the proper craft, I was admitted to a sort of +out-house, paved with red bricks, and allowed a bed for the +night. On the morrow I presented a letter of +recommendation, from my good genius Alcibiade, to one of the +principal jewellers in the city, and felt inexpressibly happy on +being at once taken into employment. I spent two delightful +months in Leipsic. My fortnight’s ramble, with its +discomforts and anxieties, had given me a desire for rest, and in +the bustling town, (it was the Easter fair time), skirted by its +fringe of garden, and among its pleasant, good-natured +inhabitants, the time sped happily on.</p> +<p>The pay was better than in Hamburg, but the living +worse. My wages were four dollars—twelve shillings +per week—and board and lodging. I slept in the same +room with my one fellow workman and an apprentice. It was +light, and scrupulously clean, but had the single disadvantage of +being so low in the ceiling, that one could not stand upright in +it. Saxony has the unenviable distinction of being the +country the worst fed in Germany. I had no prejudice +against Saxon fare upon my arrival in Leipsic, but found, after a +fortnight’s trial, that I could not possibly endure its +unvarying boiled fresh beef, excessively insipid, with no other +accompaniment than various kinds of beans stewed into a sort of +porridge. Potato dumplings were a luxury with us.</p> +<p>I am afraid I seriously offended my worthy +“principal,” on pleading my inability to persist in +this kind of training. But he acquiesced in the desire to +board myself, and generously made the additional payment of one +dollar sixteen groschens, or five shillings per week, for the +purpose. I found no difficulty in tracing out a +“restauration,” the proprietor of which readily +undertook to furnish one principal meal per diem for seventeen +silver groschens, that is, one shilling and eightpence halfpenny +per week, paid in advance. Each dinner cost, therefore, a +fraction less than threepence. With the remainder of the +allowance it was easy to purchase a simple supper, and even some +small luxuries now and then. The dinners, although +certainly not sumptuous, were wholesome, and infinitely more +relishing than the fresh beef and beans of the <!-- page ix--><a +name="pageix"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +ix</span>“principal’s” table; while there was a +relief in quitting the workshop for a while, to descend the steep +wooden staircase leading from the street into the cellar, which +formed the dining-room of the eating-house.</p> +<p>The great Easter fair had just commenced as I reached Leipsic, +and with its termination came my stay in the city also to an +end. The work was exhausted. I had luxuriated in a +few brilliants and the old Polish rose-diamonds, and had +descended to mounting a monstrous meerschaum pipe in +silver. But now there was nothing left but the turquoises +and Bohemian garnets, set in millegriffes, and the Herr shook his +head, and decided that they would not pay; so I received notice +to leave in a fortnight. During this period of six weeks, +my receipts in wages were six-and-twenty Prussian dollars, or +three pounds eighteen shillings, which would allow an average of +eleven shillings per week with board and lodging. Of +expenses incurred there were: for Guild and police, eightpence; +and clothing and washing, fourteen shillings. The +Leipsicers have an ugly trick of doubling the prices of the +theatre during the fair time, so that my expenditure on that head +was <i>nil</i>. My trunk, forwarded from Hamburg in +fourteen days, and weighing seventy pounds, cost three shillings +in the transit, including sixpence for city toll.</p> +<p>After a vain search for further employment in Leipsic, and a +disappointment of obtaining a situation in Altenburg, there +appeared nothing before me but a toilsome march through Dresden +to Vienna, with little hope of finding occupation by the way, and +scarcely more than twenty shillings in my pocket. At this +crisis there came a welcome letter from Alcibiade, with the +tidings that certain employment, for at least two months, awaited +me in Berlin. This was pleasant news indeed; and the Herr +entered so fully into the necessity of seizing this golden +opportunity, that he kindly released me from a day’s labor, +that I might have full time to make my preparations. One +would naturally suppose that a few hours would suffice to pack my +little stores and to depart; but there were the Guild regulations +to fulfil, the railway officials to be waited on, and the police +to satisfy. The last-named gentlemen would not consent to +<i>vise</i> my passport till I should produce my railway ticket, +as a proof of my intention to go; while the railway officials +doubted the propriety of issuing a ticket till I had received the +authority of the police for my departure. Here was a case +of daggers—a dead lock; but the railway was obliged to cede +the ground, and I departed in <!-- page x--><a +name="pagex"></a><span class="pagenum">p. x</span>peace. As +I was to start at six in the morning, the Herr rose earlier than +was his wont, prepared for me with his own hands a cup of hot +coffee, kissed me on both cheeks, and wished me God speed.</p> +<p>My stay in Berlin was limited to six weeks. It would +have been longer, but that Alcibiade had set his heart upon +tramping to Vienna at the end of that period; and I was pledged +to accompany him. We worked together at one of the court +jewellers. Alcibiade stood in high favour, and received in +wages thirty dollars per calendar month, or an average rate of +twenty-two shillings and sixpence a week. My own wages were +fixed at twenty-four dollars a month to begin with, or eighteen +shillings a week; but I received ten dollars for the last ten +days of my engagement, which brought me on a level with my +Parisian friend. These were, I believe, high wages. +We worked twelve hours a day. The city of Berlin had +outgrown the feudal usages of Hamburg and Leipsic, and we were no +longer lodged under the same roof with the Herr, nor humbly ate +at his table. Alcibiade had an apartment in a rambling +house with a princely staircase, but the central court of which +happened, unfortunately, to be a stable. An extra bed and +double rent enabled us to domicile together, and we paid for this +chamber, roomy and commodious (always overlooking the stable), +per month, together with morning coffee and a bullet of white +bread, two dollars eighteen groschens each. This would +give, in English money, seven shillings and tenpence, being less +than two shillings a week. Our average expenses for living +were five shillings each per week; and thus, while our whole +weekly necessities were met by the sum of seven shillings, we +were in the receipt of eighteen shillings and twenty-two +shillings and sixpence respectively. Reckoning, however, +the average wages in Berlin at sixteen shillings a week, it will +be seen that the artisan, whose necessary outlay for food and +lodging need certainly not exceed seven shillings, is at least in +as good a position as his self-vaunted brother of London upon +thirty shillings. It naturally results that the mechanics +of Berlin, unlike those of the smaller towns of Germany, +“are married and given in marriage,” although the +practice is regarded even there as indiscreet and +improvident. It is doubtless a creditable feeling which +demands of the workman that he shall have past out of his state +of servitude, and have gained the position of an employer of +labor, before he dare assume still higher responsibilities; but +the system has also great evils.</p> +<p><!-- page xi--><a name="pagexi"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +xi</span>During my employment of one calendar month and ten days +in Berlin, I received thirty-four dollars in wages, or five +pounds two shillings. Of expenses, to the trade Guild, were +paid tenpence; for a silk hat, four shillings and twopence; a +visit to Potsdam cost three shillings and tenpence, including +railway fare; and the fee for viewing the King’s Palace in +Berlin was tenpence. One shilling and twopence were lost in +<i>agio</i>, in exchanging my small remaining stock of Prussian +dollars into Austrian gold. I may mention, that the binding +of an 18mo. volume in boards, covered in paper, cost one +groschen, eight pfennige, or, as nearly as it can be calculated, +twopence in English money.</p> +<p>As we were upon the point of departure, there arrived in +Berlin an old friend whom we had known in Hamburg, a silversmith +of Vienna, accompanied by two other silversmiths, natives of +Lübeck, all bound to the same goal. We made common +cause at once. We started by rail for Leipsic; Alcibiade +provided with a purse of no less than eighty dollars, or twelve +pounds sterling, his savings in Berlin, while my own stock, with +all my sparing and scraping, scarcely amounted to two pounds.</p> +<p>The length of the railway between Berlin and Leipsic is +between eighty and a hundred miles. From Leipsic, where we +stayed only one night, sleeping at the herberge, and supping off +roasted pigeons, we had, in round numbers, about four hundred +miles before us.</p> +<p>Having narrated the chief incidents of this journey under +other heads, I will only mention isolated points there omitted, +and sum up its general results. Leipsic was our real +starting-point for the tramp, and our first haven the Saxon +capital Dresden. We took the road through Altenburg, thus +diverging considerably from the common route, in order to visit +the silver mines of Freiberg, and ramble through the romantic +scenery of the Plaunischen Grund. We passed through Saxon +Altenburg, Zwickau, Lichtenstein, Chemnitz, Oderan, Freiberg, +Tharant, and Wildsruf, and arrived in the evening of the fifth +day at Dresden. We had in reality no business near Zwickau, +but were seduced out of our direct route by the offer of a cheap +ride in an open waggon, and were thus led to a secluded village, +where our couch of rest was among the beer puddles on the table +of the village tap. On the morrow we found we were a +day’s march out of our road. Finding that my stock of +cash was already reduced to the half of its original bulk, that I +had indeed expended one pound, I seriously endeavoured to find +employment in Dresden; but utterly failing in that hope, I +claimed the <!-- page xii--><a name="pagexii"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. xii</span>“viaticum” of the Guild, +which was ten silver groschens, or one shilling. We lodged +at the herberge during our stay, and were cleanly and comfortably +housed, and at a reasonable cost. It is a fact highly +honourable to the Saxons, that the only trade herberges in +Germany which are in any way decent, are those of Leipsic and +Dresden. We rested in the Saxon capital during three days, +visiting its principal attractions, and then prepared once more +for the road.</p> +<p>There were many official regulations to observe before we +could quit the city. Alcibiade and I, who had passports, +were not called upon to show the condition of our finances, but +our three companions, possessing only wander-books, an inferior +kind of pass which marks the holder as a simple workman wholly +dependent on his labor, were called upon to exhibit a sum equal +to at least ten shillings each. Now, the collective +resources of our three companions were certainly not equal to one +pound ten shillings; but, as may be easily imagined, a little +sleight-of-hand would make any one of them appear to be possessed +of the stock of the whole. And this was done; and thus the +police were daily and hourly deceived. In addition to the +usual official routine—the testimony of the father of the +herberge to our having paid our score, the authority of the +vorsteher that we were not indebted to the Guild, and the usual +police <i>visa</i>—we had each to obtain the signature of +his own consul; that of the Saxon minister, as a testimony of his +willingness to allow us to go; and of the Austrian consul, as a +sign that the Imperial Government was not disinclined to receive +us. This done, we departed under strict injunctions to +proceed through Pirna, a town which, as it was completely out of +our route, we never took any pains to reach. How we escaped +punishment for this infraction of police directions I scarcely +know, but we heard no more of the matter. When we had +already passed through the most romantic portion of Saxon +Switzerland, and were slowly descending to the plain, we met a +poor, footsore wanderer, with a woe-begone visage, who proved to +be the dejected object of official vengeance. Four days +before, he had started from Dresden full of life and hope, but on +arriving at the frontier town of Peterswald, it was discovered +that he had neglected to obtain the signature of one of the +numerous gentlemen of whose existence he was scarcely even +cognizant, and so was driven back to Dresden to seek the required +attestation, with loss of time, loss of money, and almost +broken-hearted.</p> +<p>When we reached the Saxon frontier our little party, by the +addition of other tramps, had increased to the number of ten; and +<!-- page xiii--><a name="pagexiii"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +xiii</span>we leaped the boundary line at word of command, and +stood on Austrian territory. We had been warned of a +rigorous search for letters and tobacco at Peterswald, and as we +had made due arrangements for the visitation, we felt somewhat +slighted at our knapsacks being passed over with little better +than contempt. We had slept upon hay the previous night, +but upon our arrival at Töplitz, which we entered in a +cabriolet, three of us inside with five knapsacks, and other two +companions hanging on behind, we boldly took up our abode at one +of the first hotels, and were, the whole five of us, crammed into +a little room on the top floor, and charged a zwanziger +(eightpence) a head for the accommodation. We looked upon +this charge as little short of a robbery. On the following +day we approached Prague, and I got a lift in a waggon, of about +ten miles, and then laid down by the city gates till my four +friends should come up. Upon presenting ourselves at the +wicket, we were challenged by the sentinel, our passes taken from +us by the military guard, and a sort of receipt given for +them. Our three companions having only wander-books, were +imperiously directed to their herberge for accommodation, while +we were permitted to consult our own tastes upon the +matter. Of course we accompanied our friends. The +herberge gained, we descended by a stone step to the common room, +a vaulted chamber half under ground, very ill lighted, and +provided only with a few rude tables and benches. We called +for beer, being weary and thirsty, (the Praguer beer is +especially good) and requested a private room for our +party. The hostess, a fat, vulgar woman, being called by +the astonished servant maid, sneered at our presumption, and said +we must content ourselves with common tramps’ +lodging. We submitted; but the Viennese, who had a visit of +some importance to pay in the city, and wished to remove some of +the stains of travel, and make himself generally presentable, +having requested some simple means of making his toilet, was, +after considerable delay, presented with water in a pint mug, and +a soiled neckcloth as a towel. This was too much for the +Austrian’s proud stomach; a storm of abuse in the richest +Viennese dialect was poured forth upon the landlady, her maid, +and the whole establishment, which being liberally responded to, +there resulted an uproar of foul language, such as was seldom +heard, even in those regions. The hostess threatened us +with the vengeance of the police, should we attempt to leave our +authorised herberge, to which we replied by tossing the beer into +the kennel, <!-- page xiv--><a name="pagexiv"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. xiv</span>buckling on our knapsacks, and +stalking into the street. We soon found a decent hotel, +with the accommodation of a large room containing five beds, and +at so reasonable a price that my whole expenses of entertainment +during the two days and three nights of our stay in Prague, +amounted only to one florin and forty kreutzers (schein), or one +shilling and sixpence. We heard no more of our Bohemian +herberge and its landlady. I may mention as a further proof +of the different treatment which awaits the holder of the +workman’s wander-book, as compared with the bearer of a +passport, that on attending at the police office, Alcibiade and +myself were at once called into the bureau, and our duly +<i>viséd</i> passports handed to us with great politeness, +while our companions were left to cool their heels in a stone +paved hall, till the officials could find time to attend to +them. We soon left Prague, and were assisted on our journey +towards Brünn by a lift in a country cart, which brought us +fifty English miles forward on our road. We did not sleep +in a bed during four consecutive nights; not, indeed, till we +reached the village of Goldentraum, on the Moravian +frontier. This was not the result of any wish of our own, +but from an apparent deficiency of beds in that part of the +country. On one occasion a heap of hay was delicately +covered with a clean white cloth, lest the stubbly ends should +trouble our slumbers—a woman’s attention you may be +sure—while on another, we slept on the bare boards, with no +other pillows than our knapsacks, in a room, the air of which was +at fever heat from recent bread-baking, and where the fierce +flies made circular sweeps at our ears, and droned about our +nostrils. But we did sleep in spite of that, for we had +tramped more than thirty miles during the day.</p> +<p>From Goldentraum there were still twenty English miles to +Brünn, the capital of Moravia, and thence thirty-eight +German stunden, or about eighty English miles, to Vienna. +My funds were now reduced to about four shillings, and we had +still one hundred miles before us. One of our Lübecker +silversmiths, who had been ailing throughout the whole journey, +was unable to proceed further on foot, and we left him at +Goldenstraun to take a place in the eilwagen later in the +day. We had, however, scarcely made half our journey, when +Alcibiade and the Viennese also gave in—their feet were +fearfully blistered—and seated themselves by the road-side +to await the expected conveyance. The remaining +Lübecker, whom we had called Hannibal, and myself tramped on +to Brünn. On the morrow <!-- page xv--><a +name="pagexv"></a><span class="pagenum">p. xv</span>we traced out +our three friends, but found them still so lame that they were +resolved to take the railway to Vienna at an expense of three +guldens (müntz), about six shillings each. As my own +resources were reduced to less than half that sum, and those of +Hannibal were in much the same condition, there remained to us +two only a choice of evils: either to borrow the requisite +amount, or to tramp the remaining distance on our diminished +finances. We chose the latter course. We walked the +eighty miles between Brünn and Vienna in two days and a +half, subsisting chiefly on bread and fruit—pears and +plums, which were very plentiful—and long pulls at the +pumps. We were once induced to indulge in a half seidle +(pint) of wine, which was offered at a temptingly low price, but +found it of such a muddy and sour quality, that we bitterly +repented of our bargain.</p> +<p>When within a few miles of Vienna, having been on the march +since five in the morning, we laid down on the road-side to +sleep. It was with something like grief that I felt myself +forced to abandon one pair of boots, a few miles before +Vienna. I had brought them from London, and they had done +me good service; but now, with split and ragged fronts, and +scarcely a sole, they were only a torture to my feet, and a long +way past repair. I perched them on a little hillock with +their toes pointing towards Vienna, and turned round more than +once as we advanced, to give another farewell look to such +faithful and long companions.</p> +<p>After a refreshing sleep on the road-side, we entered Vienna +early in the afternoon. Hannibal was no richer than I was, +and my whole stock consisted of six groschens, a sum equal to +threepence.</p> +<h3>VIENNA.</h3> +<p>My first notes in Vienna must undoubtedly be devoted to the +police. As Hannibal and I arrived at the guard-house of the +Tabor Linie, or barrier, we were ordered by the sentinel to halt +and hand over our papers; and, upon doing so, received a slip of +very little better than sugar paper in return, with printed +directions in German, French, and Italian, commanding our +attendance at the chief police office within twenty-four +hours. We knew better than <!-- page xvi--><a +name="pagexvi"></a><span class="pagenum">p. xvi</span>to +disobey. On the following morning we presented ourselves +and handed in our tickets, when mine was returned to me with the +words: “Three days’ residence,” written on the +back.</p> +<p>“And should I not obtain employment in three +days?” I inquired. “Then you must leave +Vienna.”</p> +<p>Hannibal was permitted greater licence, being a native of one +of the states of the Bund; but both he and his fellow-townsmen of +Lübeck were taken into fictitious employment, in order to +obtain the necessary residence-card. Alcibiade, as a +Frenchman, and, moreover, as being still possessed of a certain +amount of hard cash, was also more leniently dealt with. +Not having found work on the fourth day I waited again upon the +police, and was at first peremptorily ordered to depart; but, +upon explaining that I had friends in the city, a further stay of +fourteen days was promised, on the production of a written +recommendation. On the following day, through the +friendship of our Viennese companion of the road, I found work at +a small shop-keeper’s in the suburb of Maria-hilf. +Mark the routine. From my new employer I received a written +attestation of my engagement; with this I waited upon the police +commissioner of the district for his signature, and thence to the +magistrate of the suburb to obtain the authority of his name to +the act. This done, I was in a position to face the head +police authorities in the city, and they, to my astonishment, +doled out a six weeks’ permission of residence only, and +charged me a gulden, two shillings, for the document. I +pleaded my position as a workman, but was answered that my +passport was that of a merchant. This was disproved by +every entry on its broad sheet, more especially by a written +description by the magistrate of Perleberg, Prussia. All +remonstrances were, however, in vain: while unemployed they had +dealt with me as a workman without resources; now that I was +under engagement, they taxed me like a proprietor. +Alcibiade at once furnished the means of meeting this new +difficulty, as, indeed, of every other connected with our +finances at this period, and we consoled ourselves with the +assurance that one of us at least was in employment. Our +disgust was only equalled by our despondency when, upon reaching +home, we were met with the news that my new Herr refused to +complete his engagement, having met with an old workman whom he +preferred to a stranger. By law he was bound to furnish me +with a fortnight’s work, and I threatened him with an +enforcement of my claim; but I knew I <!-- page xvii--><a +name="pagexvii"></a><span class="pagenum">p. xvii</span>should +come off the worse in the struggle, and submitted to the +injustice.</p> +<p>In the meantime two of our silversmiths were under fictitious +engagements—a common occurrence, and almost excusable under +the circumstances—and were dining upon credit. The +times were bad. I did not really commence work till the +fourth week, and Alcibiade a week later. But, these first +difficulties overcome, our condition improved daily; and for +myself I can say with gratitude, that nowhere in Germany was I +more happy than in Vienna. Our position was this: Alcibiade +was engaged as a diamond jeweller at a weekly sum of six guldens, +or twelve shillings, a little more than half the sum he had +earned in Berlin; but no doubt, had he remained longer in the +Austrian capital, he would have increased his rate of pay. +Unfortunately, after three months’ stay there came word +from Paris requiring his presence by a certain day at the +military court of the department of Seine et Oise, to which, +being a native of Argenteuil, he belonged, to draw for the +conscription. Alcibiade was too good a Frenchman to +hesitate about obeying this summons, or even to murmur at the +sacrifice it demanded of him. He left Vienna with regret, +but with the utmost alacrity; and thus I lost for a time my best +companion and sincerest friend. My first essay as a workman +in Vienna was discouraging, for I undertook, in my extremity, to +execute work to which I was unaccustomed, and made such +indifferent progress at the outset, that the Herr, a Russian from +St. Petersburg, would only pay me five guldens, or ten shillings +a week. We worked twelve hours a day, commencing at six +o’clock in the morning in summer time; but there were a +number of fête and saint days in the year, which were paid +for—I think eight in all—including St. Leopold, the +patron saint of Vienna; the birth of the Virgin; <i>Corpus +Christi Die</i>, and other church holidays. As I improved +in the practice of my new branch of business, I gained additions +to my wages, till I received nine gulden, eighteen shillings, a +week; a sum certainly much above the average pay.</p> +<p>Alcibiade and I lodged in a narrow slip of a room, the last of +a suite of three, on the first floor of a house, or rather +conglomerate of houses, in the Neudegger Gasse, +Josephstadt. Our landlord was a worthy Bohemian +cabinet-maker; his wife, a Viennese, who kept everything in the +neatest order. I do not know how many families lived in +this house; but it was a huge parallelogram with a paved +courtyard, in the centre of which stood a wooden pump. +There was <!-- page xviii--><a name="pagexviii"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. xviii</span>a common stair in each corner, all +of stone, and a common closet at the bottom of each staircase, +equally of stone, seat and all, and very common indeed. +Each lodging consisted of three continuous rooms, with only one +entrance from the common stair: first was the kitchen, with +cooking apparatus, and the oven, which warmed the whole suite; +then a larger room with two windows, at once workshop, +dining-room, and bed-room; and beyond this the narrow closet with +one window, which was our dormitory. Thus we had to pass +through our landlord’s bed-room to get to our own. +The other portions of the building were arranged much in the same +manner, and the house must have had, in all, at least a hundred +inhabitants. There are much larger houses in the suburbs of +Vienna, but they are all built upon the same principle, with +trifling modifications. Here are two cards of address, +which are models of exactness in their way, and will illustrate +the nature of these barracks in the best possible manner:</p> +<blockquote><p style="text-align: center">“<span +class="smcap">Joseph Uberlachner</span>,<br /> +Master Tailor,</p> +<p>Lives in the Wieden, in the Lumpertsgasse, next to the +Suspension bridge, No. 831, the left hand staircase on the second +floor, door No. 31.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center">“<span class="smcap">Martin +Spies</span>,<br /> +Men’s Tailor,</p> +<p>Lives in Neubau, Stückgosse, No 149, in the courtyard, +the right hand staircase, on the second floor, door on the left +hand.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>The entrance to our house from the street was small and +unimportant, and, as may naturally be supposed, always +open. The law was, however, strict upon this subject, and +permitted the house to be open in summer from five in the morning +till ten o’clock at night only; in winter from seven till +nine. There was a little room opening from the passage, +where dwelt the porter of the mansion. It was his duty to +close the door at the appointed hours; a duty which he +scrupulously fulfilled, seeing that the law empowered him to levy +a fine of six kreutzers for his own especial benefit, upon every +inhabitant or stranger seeking egress or ingress after the +authorised hour of closing. The Viennese insist upon it +that this impost is recoverable by law; but, as the +porter’s whole existence depends upon the employment of his +labour in and about the house, and therefore upon the good-will +of its inhabitants, he takes care in general not to be too +pressing for his toll.</p> +<p><!-- page xix--><a name="pagexix"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +xix</span>Our dormitory, diminutive as it appeared, still managed +to contain two single bedsteads (French), a wash-hand-stand, +wardrobe, used in common by landlord and lodgers, a table, and +two chairs. We paid in rent twelve florins a month, or +barely ten shillings between us; add to this, for washing, +candles, and morning coffee (a tiny cup at six in the morning, +before starting to work), another four florins, and our united +expenses for these necessaries did not exceed thirteen shillings +per month. As in Berlin, we dined at a +“restauration,” or at the “Fress +Madam’s” (Mrs. Gobble’s), a jocose term for a +private eating-house, well known to the jewellers. The +mid-day meal of the Viennese workman is remarkable for strength +and solidity, but also for its sameness. It always takes +the shape of fresh boiled beef and vegetables, the latter +arranged in a thick porridge of meal and fat. It commences, +of course, with soup; is followed by the “rind-fleisch and +gemuse,” as above; and, if you can afford it, is concluded +by some such sweet dish as flour puddings stewed with prunes, a +common sort of cake called zwieback, omelette, macaroni, or a +lighter kind of cake, baked and eaten with jam. All solid, +wholesome, and of the best. There is a choice of other more +relishing dishes, and of these we usually partook, with an +occasional descent into the regions of beef and greens. +Vienna prides itself upon its baked chickens and Danube carps, +but these were beyond our reach on ordinary occasions; and our +usual delectation was upon Augsburger sausages; bacon and sour +kraut; breaded veal cutlets; ditto lamb’s head; and roasted +liver and onions. When we drank the ordinary white wine, we +did so much diluted. To sup at the +“restauration” would have entailed too great an +expense; we therefore contented ourselves with bread and a taste +of butter at home, moistened by a glass of a liquor resembling +gin, seeing that it was made of the juniper berry, which our +landlord obtained for us at about tenpence a quart. It was +supposed to be smuggled from Hungary, and Vater Böhm +coloured and sweetened it with molasses, and called it +Schlipowitzer.</p> +<p>Our weekly outlay for food during the first month of residence +in Vienna, especially while unemployed, did not exceed five +florins, <i>i.e.</i> four shillings each. We ate bread and +fruit in large quantities; indeed, during one day my +“rations” consisted of: breakfast at eight, half of a +coarse loaf and thirty plums; at twelve, one dozen pears and the +other half of the loaf; at seven a whole loaf, and forty more +plums. Cost of the whole, nine kreutzers (schein), or <!-- +page xx--><a name="pagexx"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +xx</span>scarcely three halfpence in English money. It was +not surprising that I should fall ill upon this diet, and this I +accordingly did. When, however, we were in constant work, +we lived as I have already described, and at an average expense +of seven florins—five shillings and tenpence each +weekly—and thus the individual outlay for lodging, food, +and other necessaries, was, in round numbers, seven shillings and +sixpence a week. A dinner on New Year’s Day, of baked +pork and fried potatoes, with bread, wine, and apple puffs, cost +ninepence.</p> +<p>To return to the police. When my six weeks’ +permission of residence was expired, I attended again at the +chief office in the Stadt, with the certificate of my employer, +signed and countersigned by police-commissioner and magistrate, +and was granted thereon a further term of three months at the +same fee, two shillings; to me at that time a day’s +wages. Subsequently, however, the “Herr,” by +means of a further attestation, with vouchers from the landlord +of the house, and the usual official signatures, obtained for me +a card of residence for six months, gratis, and I experienced no +more trouble on that head. This, and the various other +certificates, were upon stamped paper of the value of six +kreutzers, or one penny. While upon this subject I may +observe, that domestic servants must make known to the police +every change of service. They are hired by the month. +Change of residence is also a matter of official interference: a +printed sheet is handed to the new lodger, with spaces for name, +age, country, religion, condition, married or single, where last +resided, and probable length of stay in new apartments. All +these particulars must be stated and signed, witnessed by your +own particular landlord, and attested by the landlord of the +house. The document is then deposited in the archives of +the district police.</p> +<p>At the termination of my first year’s stay in Germany, I +found that my receipts in wages, during the twelve months, +amounted to twenty-one pounds six shillings and fourpence, an +average of eight shillings and twopence-halfpenny per week; but +it must be remembered that, during nine months of that period, +board and lodging formed part of my remuneration. I stayed +a full year in Vienna, and received in wages, in all, three +hundred and sixty-two guldens, thirty kreutzers, or thirty-six +pounds five shillings. This would give, in round numbers, +fourteen shillings per week throughout the year. Of this +sum, as I have said, seven shillings and sixpence were on an +average spent weekly in lodging and necessary <!-- page xxi--><a +name="pagexxi"></a><span class="pagenum">p. xxi</span>food; there +therefore remained six shillings and sixpence for clothes, +amusements, and savings.</p> +<p>When the period arrived at which I had determined upon +starting on foot for Paris, my savings amounted to seven pounds +sterling, and with that sum I thought myself amply provided for +the journey. In order that it may not be supposed that I +had suffered undue privations, or enforced, in financial +arrangements, anything beyond a reasonable economy, I must state, +that in addition to paying to the Guild and police, during the +year, eight florins twelve kreutzers, or six shillings and +tenpence, I had witnessed twenty-three theatrical +representations, at prices varying from fourpence to a shilling, +at a total cost of eleven shillings and fourpence; been present +at eighteen concerts, at an outlay of seven shillings and +eightpence; and had visited the Brühl, Wöslau, +Mödlin, Laxenburg, Helena-Thal, Klosterneuburg, Grinzing, +and Weinhaus; the Treasure Chamber, and picture-galleries +innumerable; which latter, although supposed to be open to public +inspection free of expense, were not conveniently accessible +without a fee. Twenty-five kreutzers, or fourpence, was the +price of a seat in the gallery of the suburban theatres of the +Leopold, Joseph, and Wiener vorstädte; while tenpence and a +shilling procured a similar place in the imperial opera and +play-house. Hot sausages and beer were the luxuries vended +in the former; while ices, coffee, and delicate pastry, were the +<i>bonnes bouches</i> prepared for the latter.</p> +<p>I found the workmen in Vienna industrious and submissive; gay, +thoughtless, and kind-hearted. In some trades it was still +the practice for the workmen, if not numerous, to sleep in the +workshop. I knew a cabinet-maker who did so, and he was +very cleanly and well lodged. I knew one or two married +journeymen, and there were no doubt very many in so large a +capital as Vienna, but marriage among artisans was generally +condemned. The wages were on the average much less than I +have stated; I knew silversmiths who were earning only three and +four florins a week—six shillings and eight shillings; and +I have no doubt that tailors, shoemakers, carpenters, and others, +were paid even less. I visited one family circle in the +Leopoldstadt which consisted of the man, his wife and child, and +three single men lodgers, who all lived and slept in one +room. I found the lodgers airing themselves in the +court-yard, while the beds were made and the room set in +order. But I saw very little of squalor or filth even in +the poorest quarters. <!-- page xxii--><a +name="pagexxii"></a><span class="pagenum">p. xxii</span>As a +check upon the assumed thoughtlessness of the Viennese artisans, +the pawnbrokers are by civil ordinance closed a week before and +after every great holiday, such as Easter, Whitsuntide, etc.</p> +<p>There were very many small masters, known in England as +master-men, who worked at home, and by their skill and quickness +earned superior wages. My own landlord was one of them, and +called himself a “Gallanterie Tischler.” He was +chiefly employed in ornamental woodwork for the silversmiths, +and, being tasty and expert, earned a very respectable +living. He used to buy English knives for certain parts of +his work, on account of the superiority of the steel, but he +complained bitterly of their clumsy and awkward fashion. He +was extremely industrious during the week, and many a pleasant +Sunday visit have we paid to Weinhaus and other suburban +villages, when the “heueriger”—the young, +half-made wine—was to be tasted. Heueriger was sold +at a few pence a quart, and is a whitish liquid of an acid but +not unpleasant flavour. It is a treacherous drink, like +most white wines, and from its apparently innocent character +tempts many into unexpected inebriation. The Viennese +delight in an Italian sausage called “Salami,” said +to be made of asses’ flesh, and a pale, but highly scented +cheese, as the proper accompaniments to the heueriger.</p> +<p>Domestic servants in Vienna have one very laborious duty to +perform, and that is the fetching of water from the +springs. These springs are simply pumps in appearance, and +were so formerly, but the flow of water is now continuous, and to +be obtained without effort. It is painful to see the poor +girls bending under the weight of their water troughs, which are +carried on the back, and shaped something like a pannier with a +flat side. They are made of wood, hooped like a barrel, and +have a close-fitting lid. The Bohemian women perform duties +even more unsuitable. They are bricklayers labourers; and +sift sand, mix mortar, and carry slates on their heads to the +highest houses. In these labours they are sometimes +assisted, or set aside, by the soldiery, the more well-behaved of +whom are allowed to hire themselves as labourers and +porters. In one case, as I know, a soldier was “put +in possession,” as his Imperial Majesty’s +representative, and provided daily with a sum of money as an +equivalent for food.</p> +<p>There is another class of labourers who make themselves +particularly conspicuous in the streets of Vienna, and that is +the “holzhacker,” or wood-chopper. Wood is the +universal fuel, and <!-- page xxiii--><a +name="pagexxiii"></a><span class="pagenum">p. xxiii</span>is sold +in klafters, or stacks of six cubic feet. A klafter +consists of logs, each about three feet long, and apparently the +split quarters of young trees of a uniform size. This wood, +when delivered to the purchaser, is shot upon the footpath in +front of the house, or in the court-yard, if there be a porte +cochêre, which is not usual. The business of the +holzhacker is to chop the logs into small pieces for the +convenience of burning, and this he does in an incredibly short +space of time, but to the great inconvenience and sometimes +personal risk of the passers by. He is, however, very +independent in his way, and is treated with astonishing +forbearance by the police. He is, moreover, the street wit +of Vienna.</p> +<p>The Viennese workmen are not merely uninformed of, but in +general, perfectly indifferent to political matters. This +ignorance may in a great measure result from the unthinking and +pleasure-seeking character of the Viennese public—which +levity is encouraged by the Government, as taverns and concert +rooms are open long after private houses are closed—but is +also to be traced to the uneasy position which the citizens hold +with respect to the police. It is not alone that the +restrictions and impediments of official routine render his +social existence a matter of public legislation, but there is an +unpleasant consciousness that his landlord, his neighbour on the +same flat, his barber, or his fellow workman, may be a +“vertrauter,” a spy in the pay of the police, and his +simplest actions, through their means, perverted into +misdemeanours. A worthy cooper, with whom I occasionally +dined, on reading a skeleton report of a public meeting in +England, where working men had made speeches and moved +resolutions, exclaimed, as he threw down the paper: “But, +seriously, don’t you think this very ridiculous?”</p> +<h3>ON TRAMP TO PARIS.</h3> +<p>We were three in number, a jeweller from Copenhagen, a +Viennese silversmith, and myself, who started from Vienna to walk +to Paris. We were all in tolerable feather as to +funds. I was possessed of about seventy guldens (seven +pounds), and a little packet of fifty dozens of piercing-saws, a +trading speculation, which I hoped to smuggle over the French +frontier in my boots. I was better provided <!-- page +xxiv--><a name="pagexxiv"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +xxiv</span>in all respects than on any of my former +journeys. We had forwarded our boxes to Strassburg, our +knapsacks were light, and we wore stout walking shoes with +scarcely any heels, and had prepared some well-boiled linen +wrappers, intended, when smeared with tallow, to serve the +purpose of socks. They effectually prevent blisters, and +can be readily washed in any running stream. Our first +stage was by steam on the Danube to Linz, the capital of Upper +Austria; and we took our departure from Nussdorf amid the +valedictions and kisses of some thirty male friends, each of whom +saluted us thrice—on each cheek, and on the lips, for this +is the true German fashion, and may not be slighted or +avoided.</p> +<p>A voyage on the water may seem a curious commencement of a +foot journey; but the fact is, that no one knows better than the +tramp that a railway or a steamboat is always cheaper than +shoe-leather and time; and no doubt as these new means of +progress increase in number they will entirely change the +character of German trade-wanderings. From Vienna to Linz +is, in round numbers, a distance of one hundred and fifty English +miles, and this one vessel, the “Karl,” got over in +two days and a night. The wind was against us, and it must +be remembered that it is all up stream. The Danube is upon +the whole a melancholy river, of a sullen encroaching character, +for its whole course is marked by over-floodings and their +consequent desolation. The passage cost ten florins, +twenty-five kreutzers, or eight shillings and fourpence, and we +slept on the table below, on deck, or not at all, as we best +could.</p> +<p>Our real starting-point on tramp was Linz, whence we pursued +our way through Wells, Gmunden, Ebensee, and Ishl to Salzburg, in +which beautiful city we rested for a day and half. We +steamed across lake Traun from Gmunden, and paid a fare of +twenty-five kreutzers, or fourpence. From Salzburg we +pushed on to Hallein, to visit the salt mines there, and thence +diverged still further from the beaten route for the sake of +seeing the water-fall of Golling—the stern terrors of the +Œfen—and dream away an hour upon the beautiful and +romantic waters of Königsee, the King’s Lake. We +had crossed the frontier of Bavaria near Hallein, and, having +loitered so long among the delightful scenery of its +neighbourhood, we now hurried on towards Munich, through +Reichenhall, Fraunstein, Weisham, Rosenheim, Aibling, and +Peiss. Thirsty and weary, we overtook a timber waggon when +within eight miles of the capital, and made a bargain with the +driver to carry us forward to our <!-- page xxv--><a +name="pagexxv"></a><span class="pagenum">p. xxv</span>destination +for six kreutzers, about one penny, each; and upon the unhewn +timber of the springless log-waggon we rode into Munich. We +had been already fourteen days upon the road, ten of which had +been spent on tramp, advancing at an average rate of twenty-five +miles a day. From Linz to Munich, by the circuitous route +we had taken, I reckon in round numbers at two hundred and fifty +miles. My share of the expenses amounted to thirty-six +florins, forty kreutzers, say one pound nine shillings in English +money, or an average outlay of two shillings a day. It may +be added, that many of our expenses were those of ordinary +foot-tourists, rather than of tramping workmen; that we had lived +well although frugally; and that, save in a goatherd’s hut +on the Schaf-berg, we had never slept out of bed.</p> +<p>We spent five happy days in Munich: wandering among +picture-galleries and museums; visiting the royal palace in the +capital, and the pleasure retreat at Nymphenburg; and the +churches, with their painted windows, beautiful architecture, and +radiant frescoes. We visited two theatres, and roamed in +the English garden, and among the wilder scenery of hills in the +environs. Munich is the real capital of modern art, and +contains more magnificent public buildings than any city of the +same extent in the world. Vulgar figures again: my expenses +in Munich amounted to eight guldens, forty kreutzers, Bavarian or +Reich’s money, which will yield, as nearly as the +intricacies of German coinage will allow of the calculation, +fifteen shillings and fourpence. The fare by railway from +Munich to Augsburg, our next station, was one gulden, twenty-four +kreutzers,—two shillings and fourpence,—and from the +latter fine old city we proceeded entirely on foot to +Strassburg. We took the road through Ulm, Stutgard, +Heilbron, Heidelberg, Manheim, Carlsruhe, Baden-Baden, and Keil; +wandering a little from the beaten path near Kissengan to see the +beautiful waterworks and garden there. These cities have +all been described by innumerable travellers, and I doubt whether +I could add anything to the knowledge already possessed of +them.</p> +<p>We had passed fifteen days upon the road, and traversed a +distance, roughly estimated, of two hundred and fifty +miles. We rested in all four days in the towns of Augsburg, +Ulm, Heidelberg, (of glorious recollection), and Carlsruhe; and +thus, during the ten days of actual tramp, we had advanced at an +average rate of twenty-five miles a day. Since leaving +Vienna, we had walked five hundred miles. <!-- page +xxvi--><a name="pagexxvi"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +xxvi</span>On one occasion only did we march more than thirty +miles in the day. This was between Stutgard and +Heilbron. As we limped wearily through the latter city, we +came upon a tavern at the sign of the Eagle, and inquiring, like +cautious travellers, the price of a bed, we found it was twelve +kreutzers Reich’s money, fourpence. This was beyond +our mark, so we tottered onward to the Stag, where we were very +indifferently lodged for half the money. At Heidelberg we +paid twelve kreutzers for our bed, and were well accommodated; +but this was more by four kreutzers than we considered ourselves +in a position to pay. Our average expenses per day, while +on tramp at this period, were twenty-four kreutzers, or +eightpence. My total outlay from Munich to Strassburg was +twenty-one florins, ten kreutzers, or one pound five shillings; +being at the rate of one shilling and sixpence a day.</p> +<p>It may be right to mention, that a German mile is divided into +two stunden, or hours, and the natural inference would be, that +it would occupy two hours to walk a mile. This is not the +case, for a stunden can generally be traversed in three quarters +of an hour; but the German miles are not uniform, and I well +remember one terribly long one between Brünn and Vienna, +which was more than two hours walk. As three English miles +an hour is an average walking pace, a German mile, occupying on +the average an hour and a half in the traverse, should be equal +to four and a half English miles, and this is the rate at which I +have estimated it, although I have seen it variously stated at +less than four, and even at five English miles.</p> +<p>While on tramp, we rose at five in the morning, and walked +till eight fasting, when we took breakfast—a simple affair +of milk, or of coffee and plain bread, with occasionally a little +meat as a luxury—we then proceeded on our march till +twelve, always supposing that a town or village was at such a +distance as to render the arrangement possible, when we +dined. This meal consisted invariably of soup—milk +soup, if possible, peppered and salted like broth—and +sometimes meat, but not always, as it was dear, and supposed to +be heavy for walking. As by this time the sun was in its +zenith, and our advance in the great heat would be most +fatiguing, and even dangerous, we laid ourselves down to rest +till three, in the open air if possible, and weather permitting; +out on the fields among the corn; stretched upon the hay in some +shady nook; or, as in Bavaria and Wurtemberg during a great part +of the route, under the apple <!-- page xxvii--><a +name="pagexxvii"></a><span class="pagenum">p. xxvii</span>and +plum trees which lined the public way, eating of the fruit +unquestioned and without restraint. After this welcome +repose we pursued our march with renewed animation till eight +o’clock, when we sought out a place of rest; and for our +evening meal usually indulged in something more substantial than +at any other time of the day. Our beds were not always +clean, and the lavatorial necessaries either deficient or wholly +wanting, in which latter case the pump was our only +substitute.</p> +<p>Our brief stays in towns or cities were by no means the least +fatiguing part of our journey; for it naturally happened that in +our anxiety to see whatever was remarkable or beautiful, in +museum, picture-gallery, or public building, that our time was +tasked even more severely than on the road; always remembering +also, that the police required a great deal of attention. +My passport has fourteen distinct <i>visas</i> during this +journey. We found the police in Bavaria the least civil +among a very exacting class of people. Here, for the first +time, I heard a mode of address which is, I think, peculiar to +Germany. It is customary to address strangers in the third +person plural, <i>Se</i>; or, when on very familiar or +affectionate terms, in the second person singular, <i>Du</i>; but +of all modes of speech the third person singular, <i>Er</i>, when +applied to the person addressed, is the most opprobrious. A +police official thus interrogates a wandering workman:—</p> +<p>“What is he?” “A currier.”</p> +<p>“Where from?” “Siegesdorf.”</p> +<p>“Where to?” “Ulm.”</p> +<p>“Has he got the itch?” “No.”</p> +<p>“Then let him sign this book.”</p> +<p>At Augsburg the police were in a dilemma with respect to +us. We had come by rail from Munich, and, to our surprise, +were suffered to pass through the gate unchallenged by the +sentinel, who paced leisurely before the guard-house. The +following morning, on presenting our papers at the police-bureau, +we were met with the accusation of having smuggled ourselves into +the city; and, as the usual official routine had been departed +from, we were ordered to proceed at once to the gates, and humbly +deliver up our passports to the sentinel in due form, that the +requirements of the law might be fulfilled. This sage +proposition was, however, overruled in consideration of our being +jewellers: the respectability of the craft being thus +acknowledged. It was in Augsburg also that I narrowly <!-- +page xxviii--><a name="pagexxviii"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +xxviii</span>escaped being entered in the books of the Guild as +“Mr. Great Britain, native of London;” the slim +apprentice whose duty it was to make the entry, having mistaken +the name of the country for that of the individual in my English +passport.</p> +<p>I may not omit to mention, although I do it with a feeling of +humiliation, that during our journey we availed ourselves of +whatever assistance was granted by the Guild to “wandering +boys” unable to obtain employment. We had a perfect +right to this aid, and had, while in work, always contributed to +the fund (in which we had, indeed, no option); but I must confess +that there was something exceedingly like asking for alms in the +whole process of obtaining it. Our slender resources must +plead as an excuse. The following were our individual +receipts: in Linz, twenty-four kreutzers; in Munich, thirty-six; +Augsburg, eighteen; Ulm, fifteen; Stutgard, thirty; Heilbron, +twenty-four; Heidelberg, nine, (begged from shop to shop, there +being no general cash-box); and Carlsruhe, twenty-four; making a +total of one hundred and eighty kreutzers, or the munificent sum +of two shillings and sixpence in English money. What must +be the fate of those whose dependence was upon such a +pittance!</p> +<p>I had passed two whole years and a few days in Germany, and +during a period of eighty-eight weeks, had been fully at +work. I had received fifty-six pounds thirteen shillings in +wages, or an average, throughout the whole term, of eleven +shillings per week. I felt grateful for this result in a +strange country, and left Germany with a lingering step.</p> +<p>As we crossed over the bridge of Kiel on our way to +Strassburg, the French soldiery were quietly fishing on their +side of the Rhine, and the sentinel, from whom we had expected a +harsh summons to the guard-house, and a rigorous search into our +knapsacks, eyed us with a look of half pity, half contempt, and +allowed us to pass unchallenged. We were, to him, only so +many miserable “square-heads” (Germans) on our way to +Paris. The curiosities of Strassburg need not detain me: +the cathedral, and the wonderful clock; the theatre, which we +visited; the fortifications, which we overlooked from the lofty +spire; those things are set down in every traveller’s +guidebook, and the recollection of them is probably much more +agreeable to me than their description would be to the +reader. We had resolved not to tramp through France, and we +therefore sought places in the diligence; and by the time I had +paid forty-three <!-- page xxix--><a name="pagexxix"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. xxix</span>francs for my seat in that +respectable vehicle, and ten francs for the carriage of my box +from Vienna to Strassburg, together with two francs for a +passeport provisoire; and by the time also that I had paid some +two francs more for extra luggage, including two loaves and a +string of six Strassburger sausages, which were all included in +the weight, I found that I should arrive in Paris with less than +five francs in my pocket. And this I accordingly did, after +a very uncomfortable ride of fifty-two hours, and within a day of +six weeks from our departure from Vienna.</p> +<h3>PARIS.</h3> +<p>We thought ourselves very ill-used on our first night in +Paris, when, having been wiled into a grand hotel near the +Bourse, we were stowed away on the fifth floor, three in a room, +and charged six francs for our beds, one more for a candle, and +one for service. Our parsimonious Dane was so highly +irritated, that he took possession of the candle and carried it +off in his pocket. But Alcibiade was soon by our side, to +give us help and advice with his old kindness; and under his +guidance we removed immediately to more suitable lodgings, and +were set in the proper course to obtain employment. +Although scarcely possessed of a single franc in actual cash, I +had fifty dozens of fine piercing-saws, my contraband +speculation, and for which I ultimately obtained about twenty +francs. What was of more importance, in less than a week +from our arrival in Paris I commenced work at the modest +remuneration of four francs and a half, three shillings and +ninepence, a day. My two companions were scarcely so +fortunate, but lingered on for a week or two without +employment.</p> +<p>I found myself in a motley company; at one time our +atélier contained three Russians, two Germans, two +Englishmen, an Italian, and a Frenchman; and sometimes a simple +inquiry would have to pass through four languages before it +received its answer. I did not remain long amid this babel, +although long enough to be offered six francs a day to +remain. I never afterwards worked for a less rate of +remuneration than six francs a day, but never succeeded in +obtaining a sous more. I had many “Patrons” in +Paris. In one establishment there were three workmen +continually employed <!-- page xxx--><a name="pagexxx"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. xxx</span>in making crosses of honour, in gold +and silver, to reward the merit, or to purchase the affection and +support, of the French people. I was variously employed: in +gold work; in setting small rose-diamonds; and upon the most +costly brilliant ornaments. Sometimes idling upon three +days a week, or totally unemployed; at other times slaving night +and day, Sunday and all, to complete some urgent order. I +have worked nineteen days in a fortnight.</p> +<p>I have endeavoured to give some details with regard to the +manner of living, working, and lodging, among the labouring +population of Paris, under the head of “<span +class="smcap">The French Workman</span>;” and which details +were in most part personal, or such as I had learned from actual +experience. My business here is with results, and I will +condense them into as few words as possible. I stayed in +all one year and five months in Paris, during the whole of which +period I was never out of a situation, although at various times +but scantily provided with employment. I received in wages +a total of two thousand three hundred and one francs, thirteen +sous, or ninety-two pounds two shillings and +twopence-halfpenny. This would give an average receipt, +upon the seventy-one weeks of my stay, of one pound three +shillings and three-halfpence a week. I have said that +during the greater part of this time I earned at the rate of six +francs, or five shillings a day; if I now give the current +expenses per week, a comparison may from these data be drawn as +to the comparative position of the English and French +workman. The usual outlay for food per week amounted to +twelve francs, or ten shillings, of course with fluctuations; for +I have lived a whole week upon five francs when unemployed, and +have luxuriated upon twenty when in full work. Upon +striking a balance among my various lodgings,—I lodged in +company and slept double during the whole period of my stay in +Paris—I find the result to be, that we paid twelve francs +each per month, or two shillings and sixpence per week. +This did not include extras: a German stove hired at five francs +a month for the winter season; wood at four francs the hundred +pounds weight; candles at thirteen sous the pound, and soap at a +fraction less. Nor does it include the half franc to the +concierge, an obligatory payment upon presenting yourself at the +street-door after midnight. Summing up these items, we +arrive at this result: for food, ten shillings; rent, two +shillings and sixpence; and miscellaneous necessaries, including +twelve sous for washing, of another two <!-- page xxxi--><a +name="pagexxxi"></a><span class="pagenum">p. xxxi</span>shillings +and sixpence; or a total of fifteen shillings of expenditure +against, in my case, of one pound three shillings and odd pence +of income. The cost of pleasure in the French capital must +not be omitted; and I feel bound to state that twenty-seven +visits to the theatres, from the pit of the Italian Opera House +at four francs, to the same place at the Vaudeville for eighteen +sous; and thirteen public balls and concerts, from the grand +masked ball to that of the “Grande Chaumière,” +were met by an outlay of sixty-eight francs thirteen sous, or +three pounds seven shillings and tenpence-halfpenny.</p> +<p>After an absence of nearly three years and a half, I turned my +steps towards home. From the time that I had crossed the +French frontier, and, upon delivering my papers, had received a +passeport provisoire at Strassburg, I had never sustained cheque +or molestation from the police; but now that I was about to +depart, and made the usual application for my original passport, +it was discovered that, as a workman, I should have had a +“livret” upon my first entering Paris, and a number +of certificates and attestations were required, in order to +reinstate me in a legitimate position in the eyes of the +law. Escaped from this dilemma, and officially recognised +as <i>ouvrier</i>, it was with some surprise that I found myself +dubbed gentleman at the Bureau des Affaires Etrangéres, +and charged a fee of ten franca for the signature of the foreign +minister. Too old a traveller to be entrapped into the +payment of so heavy a fine upon my vanity, I strongly repudiated +any more pretentious title than that of simple workman; and after +a tough struggle succeeded in carrying off the necessary visa at +an outlay of two francs. The journey, by diligence, from +Paris to Boulogne, cost twenty-seven francs; I lost a clear six +francs in changing my French savings into English +gold—twelve sovereigns—and, after a rough passage by +the Boulogne boat to London, at an expense of twelve francs, +found myself once more in my native city.</p> +<p>Let those who would estimate the value of such an enterprise +as mine, consider its cost and its result. I had passed +several years in foreign travel; I had undeniably profited in the +acquisition of new experiences in my trade; new modes of working, +and additional manual skill. I had rubbed off some of the +most valued, and therefore most absurd, prejudices against +foreigners; and made some progress in the acquisition of two +languages—a gain which must ever be a source of mental +profit and gratification. To conclude: I had <!-- page +xxxii--><a name="pagexxxii"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +xxxii</span>started on my journey but indifferently clad, and +with scarcely five pounds in my pocket, of which sum two pounds +had been remitted home; and I had been able not merely to subsist +by the labor of my hands, but to enjoy much that was costly, and +an infinite deal more that was pleasurable and advantageous; and +to return home, having liquidated every debt, save that of +gratitude, well provided with apparel, and with ten pounds +sterling in my purse.</p> +<p>I would not venture to urge upon any man to follow in my +footsteps. I should scarcely retrace them myself under the +same conditions; but I believe I have shown the practicability of +such an undertaking, and its probability of success, with no more +unusual qualifications than a ready hand, a patient will, and +some perseverance.</p> +<h2><!-- page 1--><a name="page1"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +1</span>CHAPTER I.</h2> +<p class="gutsumm"><span class="smcap">hamburg</span>.</p> +<p>Hamburg at last!—after eight days’ sail from +London, three of them spent in knocking about the North Sea, +where the wind always blows in your teeth. Never mind! we +are now safely moored to these substantial timbers; huge piles, +driven in a line, which form the outer harbour of Hamburg. +The city lies before us, but there is nothing very imposing in +it; the houses, with gable roofs and whitened walls, look rather +lath-and-plastery, in fact; but we must not express our opinions +too rashly, for first impressions are not always the most +faithful after all.</p> +<p>“Now, Tom, is the boat ready?”</p> +<p>“Ay, ay, sir!”</p> +<p>We scramble down the sides of the British schooner, the +“Glory,” and seat ourselves along with Tom. +What a confusion of boats, long-pointed barges, and small sailing +vessels!</p> +<p>“Mind how you go, Tom.”</p> +<p>“Ay, ay, sir!” replies Tom, contemptuously +shifting his quid.</p> +<p>These small sailing vessels we see are from the Hanoverian and +Danish coasts. Their cargoes consist principally of wood, +and whole stacks of vegetables, the latter ridiculously +small. Those long-pointed barges are for canal navigation, +and are admirably adapted to Hamburg, threaded as it is by canals +in every direction.</p> +<p>Steady! Do you see that curious, turret-looking +building, old and time-worn, guarded by a sentinel?—it is +the fort to protect the water-gate through which we are now +passing. It is also <!-- page 2--><a name="page2"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 2</span>occasionally used as a prison. +On the opposite side is a poor, dilapidated, wooden building, +erected on a barge, where permits are obtained for spirits and +tobacco—a diminutive custom-house indeed. There being +no one to question or molest us, we pass on, and in a few moments +are at our landing-place, a short flight of stone steps leading +to the Vorsetzen or quay.</p> +<p>Tom moors his boat with a grave celerity, leads the way up the +stone steps on to the quay, and as speedily disappears down a +sort of trap which gapes in the open street, in the immediate +vicinity of the landing-place. Let him alone; Tom knows the +way. We follow him down an almost perpendicular flight of +stairs into a spirit kellar, and gratify Tom’s little +propensity for ardent liquors.</p> +<p>Tom has disappeared, and is now paddling his way back to the +“Glory,” and we stand upon the humble water-terrace, +the Vorsetzen, looking out upon the shipping. It is a +still, bright, Sunday afternoon in September. There is no +broiling sun to weary us; the sky is clear, and the air soft and +cheering, like the breath of a spring morning. We will turn +our backs upon the river and proceed up Neuerweg.</p> +<p>We cannot walk upon the narrow strip of footpath, for, besides +that there is very little of it, our course would become a sort +of serpentine as we wound about the fresh young trees which skirt +the edge of it at regular intervals. But are they not +pleasant to look upon, those leafy sentinels, standing by the +stone steps of the houses, shaking their green tops in happy +contrast to the whitened walls? So we will walk in the +road, and being good-tempered today, will not indulge in violent +invectives upon the round-topped little pebbles which form the +pavement; but, should we by chance step into a puddle which has +no manner of means of running out of our way, we will look with +complacency at our dirtied boots, and trip smilingly on. +Yes, trip is the word, for I defy the solemnest pedestrian in +Christendom to keep a measured pace upon these upright, pointed, +shining-faced pebbles.</p> +<p>There! we are in the Schaar-markt. Now look around, and +say, would you not fancy yourself in some quaint old English +village? What a curious complication of cross-beams is +presented in the fronts of the houses!—a barring and +binding of huge timbers, with their angles filled in with red +bricks. How simple and neat is everything!—the clean +stone steps leading up to the principal entrance of each house, +and the humbler flight which conducts you to the <i>kellar</i> +<!-- page 3--><a name="page3"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +3</span>and kitchen. You would imagine you had seen the +place before, or dreamt of it, or read of it in some glorious old +book when your memory was fresh and young.</p> +<p>See that young damsel with bare arms, no bonnet, no cap, but +her hair cleanly and neatly parted in the middle of her head, and +disclosing her round, rosy, honest German face. She is not +pretty, but how innocent and good-tempered she looks; and see how +lightly and easily she springs over those, to us, ruthless +pebbles, her short petticoats showing her clean white stockings +and bright shoes to advantage.</p> +<p>And here comes a male native of the place; a shortish, +square-built, and somewhat portly man, clad in a comfortable, +old-fashioned way, with nothing dashing or expensive about +him. He is not very brisk, to be sure; and when you first +look at his round face an idea of his simplicity comes over you; +but it is only for an instant, and then you read the solid, +sterling qualities quietly shining in his clear eyes. There +is not a great amount of intellectuality, that is to say nervous +intellectuality, in his contented countenance, but a vast +quantity of unstudied common sense.</p> +<p>We will pass on, leaving the guard-house on our left; and +winding up Hohleweg, many simple and not a few pretty faces with +roguish eyes do we see at the open windows.</p> +<p>We halt only for a moment to look at the noble Michaelis +Kirche which lies to our right, and turn off on the left hand, +crossing an open space of some extent called Zeughaus Platz, and +behold us before the Altonaer Thor, or Altona-gate.</p> +<p>Ah, these are pleasant banks and noble trees! How green +the grass upon those slopes—how fresh the flowers! +And what a splendid walk is this, looking to the right down the +double avenue of sturdy stems waving their spreading tops across +the path! You did not think that quaint old town below +could boast of such a border as this; but take a tour about the +environs, and you will find them cheerful, fresh, and beautiful, +from Neuer Kaye to Deich Thor.</p> +<p>We will pass through the simple Altona-gate, and make towards +Hamburger-Berg. Do not be alarmed. Perhaps you have +heard of the “Berg” before, and virtuous people have +told you that it is a godless place. Well, so it is; but we +will steer clear of its godlessness; we will avoid the +dancing-houses. Before us lies a broad open road, neither +dignified by buildings nor ornamented by trees, <!-- page 4--><a +name="page4"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 4</span>but there are +plenty of people, and they are worth our notice. There is a +neat figure in a close boddice and a hauben, or hood-like +headdress; she has taken to winter attire early. She +carries no trailing skirts, nor has she ill-shapen ankles to +hide. Look at her healthy face, though the cheek-bones are +rather too high; but the mouth is ever breaking into a +smile. Her hair is drawn back tightly from her face, tied +in a knot at the back, and covered with a velvet skull-cap, +richly worked with gold and silver wire and braid. The +effect is not bad.</p> +<p>There is a country girl from Bardewick—Bardewick, you +know, though now a mere village, is traditionally said to have +been once a large and flourishing city. She has flowers to +sell, and stands by the wayside. She has neither shoes nor +stockings, nor is her dark dress and white apron of the +longest. Her tightly fitting boddice is of blue cloth, with +bullet buttons, and has but a short waist, while a coral confines +her apron and dress. Her head-dress is only a striped +coloured handkerchief, tied under the chin, but in such a way +that it presents a sort of straight festoon just above her +sparkling eyes, and completely hides her hair.</p> +<p>But here comes a curiosity of the male species. Surely +this is Rip van Winkle from the States. He has no +sugar-loaf hat, but he wears the trunkhose, stockings, and large +buckled shoes of the old Dutchman, and even his ample jacket, +with an enormous sort of frill at the bottom. No, my +friend, let me give you to understand that this is a +<i>Vierländer</i>, and a farmer of some means. Do you +not see that he has a double row of bullet buttons on his jacket, +down the front of his ample hose, and even along the edges of his +enormous pockets? They are solid silver, every button of +them, nor are the massive buckles on his shoes of any more gross +material. Here come more velvet skull-caps, with gold and +silver worked into them. How jauntily the wearers trip +along! It is a fact, the abominable pavement of Hamburg +sets the inhabitants eternally on their toes.</p> +<p>Here is a Tyroler, and a tall fellow he is; straight as an +arrow, and nimble as a chamois; but yet with a steady, earnest +look about him, although a secret smile is playing round his +handsome, mustachioed mouth, that tells you of a strong and +persevering character. He is shaped like an Adonis, and his +short jacket, breeches, pale striped stockings, and tightly laced +boots; the broad leathern embroidered band about his waist, and +the steeple-crowned hat with the little coquettish feather, all +help to make up a figure that you <!-- page 5--><a +name="page5"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 5</span>would like to +see among his native mountains. And yet he is but a +dignified sort of pedlar, and would be very happy to sell you a +dozen or so of table napkins, Alpine handkerchiefs, or a few +pieces of tape.</p> +<p>Well! he is gone, and before us comes a female figure, who +forms a fit companion to the silver-buttoned +<i>Vierländer</i> we have just past. Notice her dress; +she is a <i>Vierländerin</i>. Her petticoats are +shamefully short, you will say, stiff and plaited too as they +are, but what a gallant pair of red stockings she wears, and what +a neat, bright pair of buckled shoes! Her dress consists of +a close boddice with long sleeves, all of dark purple stuff, and +her neat black apron does not make a bad contrast to it. +But her head-gear!—her hair is drawn from her face under a +closely fitting caul, while an exaggerated black bow, or rather a +pair of triangular wings, project some distance from the back of +the head, and beneath them two enormous tails of hair trail down +her back, each terminating in a huge red bow.</p> +<p>This country girl appears to have sold all her fruit, and has +placed her basket upside down upon her head. No such thing; +that is her peculiar head-dress; look again, and you will see +that it is a small plaited straw basket, about a foot and a half +in diameter, with a very deep straight edge. It is fastened +on her head by a caul sewn into the inside. Well! at any +rate this is a Quakeress we see coming at such a stately pace +along the gravelled road? Wrong again, my friend; this is a +young lady from Heligoland, the little island we passed at the +mouth of the Elbe, and a very prim and neat young lady she is, +though where she got her bonnet shape from I cannot say.</p> +<p>The way is lined with hawkers of every description: fruit, +songs and sausages; toys, sticks and cigars; pipes, sweetmeats +and tape; every imaginable article that was ever sold at a fair +is to be found here, and every vender in a different dress, +illustrating at one view the peasant costumes of every village in +the vicinity. As for tobacco, the air is like a gust from +some gigantic pipe. Here is the entrance to +Franconi’s Circus, though not yet open for public +entertainment. Blasts of obstreperous music rush upon you +from every door; the shrill squealing of a flageolet being heard +above everything else.</p> +<p>Knife-swallowers, mesmerisers, and the eternal +Punch—here called Caspar—ballad-singers, tumblers, +quacks, and incredible <!-- page 6--><a name="page6"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 6</span>animals, are here for +inspection. You would fancy it was some old English fair; +for in spite of yourself there is a quaint feeling steals over +you, that you had suddenly tumbled back into the middle of the +last century.</p> +<p>And who pays for all this? for whose especial amusement is all +this got up? For our old friend “Jack.” +Here are English sailors, and French sailors; sailors in green +velveteen jackets; sailors with their beards and whiskers curled +into little shining ringlets. We meet our salt-water friend +everywhere, and, by the intense delight depicted on his features, +“Jack” is evidently in a high state of enjoyment.</p> +<p>Let us go on; we have promised not to visit the dancehouses +to-day, and we will quit this clamorous crowd.</p> +<h2>CHAPTER II.<br /> +ALTONA.</h2> +<p class="gutsumm"><span class="smcap">the poet’s +grave</span>.—<span class="smcap">a danish harvest +home</span>.</p> +<p>We tread upon elevated ground, and far away to our left, down +in a hollow, flows the broad Elbe; placid indeed from this +distance, for not a ripple can we see upon its surface. A +few ships are lazily moving on its waters. Stand aside, and +make way for this reverend gentleman; he is a <i>prediger</i>, a +preacher of the gospel; he is habited in a black gown, black silk +stockings and shoes, a small black velvet skull-cap on his head, +while round his neck bristles a double plaited frill, white as a +curd, and stiff as block tin. You would take him for the +Dutch nobleman in an old panel painting. It may appear +rather grotesque to your unaccustomed eyes, but remember there +are many things very ridiculous at home.</p> +<p>A blackened gate, a confused mass of houses, an open square, +and the pebbles again, and we are in Holstein, Denmark, in the +public square and market place of Altona. Here it is that +the Danish state lotteries are drawn, and we might moralise upon +that subject, but that we prefer to press onwards to the real +village of Altona.</p> +<p><!-- page 7--><a name="page7"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +7</span>Here through this beautiful avenue of trees; here where +the sunshine is broken into patches by the waving foliage; far +away from the din of trumpets, huxterers and showmen; here can +the sweet air whisper its low song of peace and lull our fervid +imaginations into tranquillity. This is no solitude, though +all is quiet and in repose. Under the trees and in the road +are throngs of loiterers, but there is no rude laughter, no +coarse jests; a moving crowd is there, but a quiet and happy +one. And now we come upon the venerable church with its low +steeple, its time-eaten stone walls, and its humble, grassy, +flower-spangled graves. We see a passer-by calling the +attention of his friend to a stone tablet, green and worn with +age, and surrounded by a slight railing. Can it be that +there is a spirit hovering over that grave whose influence is +peace and love? May not some mighty man lie buried there, +the once frail tenement of a great mind whose noble thoughts have +years ago wakened a besotted world to truths and aspirations +hitherto unknown? There is veneration and respect in every +countenance that gazes upon that simple stone; a solemn tread in +every foot that trenches on its limits. This is the grave +of a great poet. A man whose works, though little read in +modern times, were once the wonder of his country; and whose very +name comes upon the German people in a gush of melody, and a halo +of bright thoughts. It is like an old legend breathed +through the chords of a harp. This is the grave of +Klopstock, the Milton of Germany. We will enter the +churchyard, and look for a moment on the unimposing tablet. +The inscription is scarcely legible, but the poet’s mother +lies also buried here, and some others of his family. Could +there be anything more humble, more unobtrusive? No; but +there is something about the grave of a great poet that serves to +dignify the simplest monument, and shed a lustre round the lowest +mound.</p> +<p>We will cross the churchyard to yonder low brick wall which +confines it. There are clusters of rosy, happy children, +clambering about its crumbling top; little knots of men too in +the road beyond—evidently expecting something. Even +this is in keeping with the poet’s grave, which should not +be sombre and melancholy, like other graves; and what could +better embellish and enliven its aspect than young, blushing life +clustering around it? We linger awhile among the boisterous +children playing on the churchyard wall, and then we hear a +confused sound of voices and music in the distance.</p> +<p><!-- page 8--><a name="page8"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +8</span>“What is this we hear, my friend?” we +inquire.</p> +<p>“It is the harvest-home; if you wait you will see the +procession.”</p> +<p>We turn out upon the high road, and soon come upon the first +signs of this Danish festival. An open gravelled space of +some extent stretches out before an imposing mansion of modern +appearance; a plantation of trees on each side shapes the space +into a rude semicircle. This mansion is the manor house, +and in front, in the midst of a confused crowd, some dozen young +men in gay sylvan costumes are standing in a circle, armed with +flails, and vigorously threshing the ground. Jolly, hearty +young fellows they are, and a merry chant they raise. One +eager thresher in his zeal breaks his flail at the bend, and a +shout from the bystanders greets the exploit.</p> +<p>Now they thresh their way from the great house to a hostelry +where the remaining portion of the pageant is awaiting their +arrival. Let us stand a little on one side and view the +procession. The threshers lead the way, singing and plying +their flails as they advance, thus effectually clearing the road +for the rest. A merry group of other threshers, each with +his lass upon his arm, and his flail swung across his shoulder, +come tripping after, singing the harvest song and dancing to +their own music. Now a rude wooden car comes lumbering on, +and within sits a grave man in old German costume, who from a +large sack before him takes handsful of grain, and liberally +casts it about him. This is the sower, but the grain is in +this instance only chaff. Now follow heavy instruments of +husbandry—ploughs and harrows—while rakes, scythes, +and reaping-hooks form a picturesque trophy behind them. A +shout of laughter greets the next figure in the procession, for +it is no other than the jolly god Bacchus. And a hearty, +rubicund, big-bellied god he is, and very decent, too, being +decorously clad in a brown suit turned up with red, and cut in +the fashion of the time of Maximilian I., or thereabouts. A +perpetual smile mantles over his broad face, and complacently he +pats his huge rotundity of stomach as he rolls from side to side +on the barrel astride which he is seated. Is he drunk, or +does he only feign? If it be a piece of acting it is +decidedly the most natural we ever saw.</p> +<p>Next comes the miller; a lank rascal, with a white frock, a +tall, white tasselled nightcap, and a cadaverous, +flour-besprinkled face; and he is the reaper, too, it would seem +by the scythe he bears in his hand: other threshers close the +procession. A happy train it is. God speed them +all! A merry time, and many a bounteous harvest!</p> +<p><!-- page 9--><a name="page9"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +9</span>Let us turn now upon our steps. Once more before +the antique church, the reverenced grave; and with a soothed and +grateful mind, we will bend our way back to Hamburg, and diving +into one of the odorous cellars on the Jungfern Stieg, will +delectate ourselves with beefsteaks and fried potatoes, our glass +of Baierisches Bier, and perhaps a tiny schnapschen to settle our +repast.</p> +<h2>CHAPTER III.</h2> +<p class="gutsumm"><span +class="smcap">magnificence</span>.—<span class="smcap">at +church</span>.—<span class="smcap">the last +headsman</span>.</p> +<p>“Herrlichkeit!” Magnificence! What a +name! Ye Paradise-rows, ye Mount-pleasants, what is your +pride of appellation to this? In all Belgravia there is not +a terrace, place, or square that can match it. Fancy the +question, “Where do you reside?”</p> +<p>“In Magnificence—number forty.”</p> +<p>Yet it is a fact, Magnificence is a street in Hamburg. I +have lived in Magnificence.</p> +<p>The Herrlichkeit, like many other places of imposing title, +loses considerably upon a close acquaintance. You approach +it from the waterside through a rugged way, blessed with the +euphonious appellation of Stuben Huck; and having climbed over +two pebbly bridges—looking down as you do so at the busy +scene in the docks below, where crowds of canal craft lie packed +and jumbled together—you turn a little to the left hand and +behold—Magnificence!</p> +<p>Magnificence has no footpath, but it is not singular in that +respect. It is of rather less than the average width of the +streets in Hamburg—and they are all narrow—and the +houses are lofty. It is paved with small pebbles, and has a +gutter running down the centre; and as a short flight of stone +steps forms the approach to the chief entrance of each house, the +available roadway is small indeed. But they are grand +houses in Magnificence, at least they have been, and still bear +visible signs of their former character.</p> +<p>Let us enter one house; it will serve as a type of many houses +in Hamburg. Having mounted the stone steps, we stand before +a half-glazed folding-door, and seeing a small brass lever before +us, <!-- page 10--><a name="page10"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +10</span>we test its power, and find the door yield to the +pressure. But we have set a clamorous bell ringing, like +that of a suburban huxter, for this is the Hamburger’s +substitute for a knocker. We enter a large stone-paved +hall, lighted from the back, where a glazed balcony overlooks the +teeming canal. You wish to wipe your shoes. Well! do +you see this pattern of a small area-railing cut in wood? +That is our scraper and door-mat—all in one.</p> +<p>To our right is a massive oaken staircase. We ascend in +gloom, for the staircase being built in the middle of the house, +only a few straggling rays of light can reach it, and whence they +proceed is a mystery. Every few steps we mount we are upon +the point of stumbling into the door of some cupboard or +apartment; they are in all sorts of places. At length we +reach a broad landing paved with stone. What a complication +of doors and passages, which the vague light tends to make more +obscure! Here are huge presses, lumbering oaken cabinets, +jammed into corners. We ascend a second flight and arrive +at another extensive landing. Here are two suites of +apartments, besides odd little cribs in the corners which are not +occupied by other presses. There are still two floors +above, but as they are both contained in the huge gable roof of +the house, they are more useful as store-rooms than as habitable +apartments. The quantity of wood we see about us is +frightful when associated with the idea of fire.</p> +<p>We will enter the suite on the right hand; the apartments are +light and agreeable, and overlook the canal, and, when the tide +is up, and the canal full, and the grassy bleaching ground on the +opposite bank is dotted with white linen, it is a pleasant scene +indeed; but when the tide is out—ugh! the River Thames at +low water is a paradise to it. The tidal changes are +carefully watched, and it is not an unusual occurrence to hear +the solemn gun booming through the air as a warning to the +inhabitants to block and barricade their cellars and kitchens +against the rush of waters.</p> +<div class="gapshortline"> </div> +<p>It is Sunday morning, and the most beautiful melody of bells I +ever heard is toning through the air. They are the bells of +S. Michael’s church, and I am told that the musician plays +them by a set of pedal keys, and works himself into a mighty heat +and flurry in the operation. But we cannot think of the +wild manner and mad motions of the player in connection with +those beautiful sounds, so clear and melodious; that half +plaintive music so sweetly measured. <!-- page 11--><a +name="page11"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 11</span>They ring +thus every morning, commencing at a quarter to six, and play till +the hour strikes.</p> +<p>We descend, and make our way through irregular streets and +dingy canals till we reach the church of St. Jacobi. It +stands in an open space, is neither railed in, nor has it a +graveyard attached to it. It is of stone, and has an +immense gable roof, slated, and studded with eaved windows. +A shortish square basement is at one end, from which springs a +tall octangular steeple. Within all is quiet and +decorous. The church is paved with stone, and there is a +double row of pews down the centre. But is this a +Protestant Church? Most assuredly; Lutheran. You are +astonished at the crosses, the images, the altar? True! +there is something Romish in the whole arrangement, but it is +Protestant for all that. You cannot help feeling vexed at +the pertinacity with which the Germans whitewash everything, nor +do the pale lavender-coloured curtains of the pulpit appear in +keeping with the edifice. Everything is scrupulously +clean.</p> +<p>We are too late to hear the congregational singing, the +devotional union of voices, for as we enter the minister ascends +into the pulpit in his black velvet skull-cap, and bristling +white frill. Unless you are a good German scholar you will +fail to understand the discourse so earnestly, so emphatically +delivered. The echo of the building, and the high character +of the composition, will baffle and mislead you; while, at the +same time, the incessant tingling of the little silver bells +suspended from the corners of scarlet velvet bags, which are +handed along the pews (at the end of a stick), during the whole +of the sermon, will distract and irritate you. It is thus +they collect alms for the poor. Yet even to one ignorant of +the language, there is a fullness and vigour in the style and +manner of delivery that would almost persuade you that you had +understood, and felt convinced of the truth of what you had +heard. As we quit the church we purchase at the door a +printed copy of the sermon from a poor widow woman, who is there +to sell them at a penny each.</p> +<p>We will loiter home to dinner. The streets are thronged +with people, with cheerful, contented faces, and in holiday +attire. Who are these grave gentlemen? This little +troop in sable trappings; buskins, cloaks, silken hose, hats and +feathers, and shoes with large rosettes—all black and +sombre, like so many middle aged Hamlets? Can they be +masqueraders on the Sabbath? Possibly some of the senators +in their official costume? No! Oh, human +vanity! A <!-- page 12--><a name="page12"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 12</span>passer-by informs us that they are +only undertakers’ men—paid mourners. They are +to swell the funeral procession, and are the mere mimics of +woe. The undertakers of Hamburg vie with each other in the +dressing of their men, and indeed, one indispensable part of +their “stock-in-trade” are some half-dozen +dress-suits of black, it matters not of what age or country, the +stranger the better, so that the “effect” be +good.</p> +<div class="gapshortline"> </div> +<p>We will take a stroll about the beautiful Alster this Sunday +afternoon. It is late autumn, and the early budding trees +have already shed their leaves. But rich, floating masses +of foliage are still there—the deepening hues of autumn, +and here and there broad patches of bright summer green. +There are two Alsters, the “inner” and +“outer,” each of them a broad expanse of water; they +are connected by flood-gates, surrounded by verdure, and studded +with pleasure-boats; while on the city side several elegant +pavilions hang on the water’s edge, where coffee and +beverages of every kind can be obtained, and the seldom omitted +and never-to-be-forgotten music of the Germans may be heard +thrilling in the evening air.</p> +<p>It is already growing dusk; let us enter the <i>Alster +Halle</i>. This is the most important of these +pavilions. It is not large; there is but the +ground-floor. It has much the appearance of a French +<i>café</i>, the whole space being filled with small, +round, white marble tables, and innumerable chairs. Here +all the lighter articles of refreshment are to be obtained; tea, +coffee, wines, spirits and pastry in numberless shapes. +There is an inner room where the more quietly disposed can read +his newspaper in comparative silence; here are German, Danish, +French, and English journals, and a little sprinkling of literary +periodicals. Another room is set apart for billiards, where +silent, absorbed individuals may be seen playing eternally at +poule. In the evening a little band of skilled musicians, +in the pay of the proprietor, perform choice morsels of beautiful +music, and all this can be enjoyed for the price of a cup of +coffee—twopence!</p> +<h3>THE LAST HEADSMAN.</h3> +<p>Ten years ago the ancient city of Hamburg was awakened into +terror by the commission of a fearful murder. The cry of +“Fire!” arose in the night; the +<i>nachtwächter</i> (watchman) gave the alarm; <!-- page +13--><a name="page13"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 13</span>and +the few means at command were resorted to with an energy and +goodwill that sufficed soon to extinguish the flames. It +was, however, discovered that the fire had not done the work it +had been kindled for; it would not hide murder. Among the +smouldering embers in the <i>kellar</i> or underground kitchen, +where the fire had originated, was discovered the charred body of +a poor old woman, whose recent wounds were too certain evidences +of a violent death. It was also ascertained that a petty +robbery of some few dollars had been committed, and the utmost +vigilance was called into exercise to discover the +perpetrator.</p> +<p>All surmises were in vain, till suspicion fell upon the +watchman who had first given the alarm; and the first evidence of +the track of guilt being thus fallen upon, it was not difficult +to trace it to its source. Numerous little scraps of +evidence came out, one upon another, till the whole diabolical +plot was stripped of its mystery, and the guilt of the +<i>wächter</i> clearly proved. He was convicted of the +crime imputed to him, and condemned to death by the Senate. +But on receiving sentence, the condemned man assumed a tone +totally unexpected of him, for he boldly asserted that the +punishment of death had fallen into disuse; that it was no longer +the law of Hamburg; and concluded by defying the Senators to +carry the sentence pronounced into execution.</p> +<p>It was indeed true that the ponderous weapon of the headsman +had lain for two-and-twenty years rusting in its scabbard; nor +without reason. At that period a criminal stood convicted +and condemned to death. The law gave little mercy in those +days, and there was no hesitation in carrying the sentence into +effect. But an unexpected difficulty arose; the old +headsman was but lately dead, and his son, a fine stalwart young +man, was, from inexperience, considered unequal to the +task. A crowd of eager competitors proffered their services +in this emergency, but the ancient city of Hamburg, like some +other ancient cities, was hampered with antiquated usages. +Its profits and other advantages were tied up into little knots +of monopoly, in various shapes of privileges and hereditary +rights. The young headsman claimed his office on the latter +ground; to the surprise of all, his mother, the wife of the old +headsman, not merely supported him in his claim, but persisted, +with a spirit that might have become a Roman matron but certainly +no one else, that if her son were incapable, she herself was +responsible for the performance of her husband’s duty, and +would <!-- page 14--><a name="page14"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 14</span>execute it. The Senate was in +consternation, for this assertion of hereditary right was +unanswerable; and while they courteously declined the offer of +the chivalrous mother, they felt constrained to accept the +services of her son.</p> +<p>The fatal morning came; the scaffold stood erected; and +pressing closely around the wooden barriers, stood the anxious +crowd awaiting the execution. The culprit knelt with head +erect, his neck and shoulders bared for the stroke, while the +young headsman stood by his side armed with the double-handed +sword, the weapon of his office. At a sign given, he swung +the tremendous blade in the air, and aimed a fearful blow at the +neck of the condemned; but his skilless hand sloped the broad +blade as it fell, and it struck deeply into the victim’s +breast. Amid a cry of terror he raised his sword again; +again it whirled through the air, and again it failed to do its +deadly work. The miserable wretch still lived; and a third +stroke was necessary to complete the task so dreadfully +began. Who can wonder that that fearful weapon had for +years long rested from its service?</p> +<p>Influenced by this terrible scene, and, let us hope, as well +by motives of humanity as by the conviction of the utter +uselessness of such a spectacle as a moral lesson, the Senate of +Hamburg had commuted the punishment of death into that of a life +imprisonment. Yet now they were taunted with their +unreadiness to shed blood, and dared to carry the law, as it +still stood upon the statute-book, into effect. For a while +it seemed that anger would govern the acts of the Senate, for +every preparation was made for the execution. The headsman, +whose blundering essay has been above related, was still living, +but he had long filled the humble office of a messenger, and made +no claim to repeat his effort. Among the many competitors +who offered their services, a Dane was finally selected, and the +inhabitants of Hamburg, excited to the utmost degree by the +anticipation of the forthcoming spectacle, awaited the event with +a morbid and gloating curiosity. They were, however, +disappointed; humanity prevailed, and the guilty +<i>wächter</i> was conducted to a life prison.</p> +<p>The Senate of Hamburg has not formally abolished the +punishment of death; but the last <i>hereditary</i> headsman is +now growing an old man, and the first and only stroke of his +weapon was dealt thirty-two years ago.</p> +<h2><!-- page 15--><a name="page15"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +15</span>CHAPTER IV.</h2> +<p class="gutsumm"><span class="smcap">workmen in +hamburg</span>.</p> +<p>Here amid the implements of labor, in the dingy +<i>werkstube</i> in Johannis Strasse; lighted by the single +flicker of an oil lamp, with the workboard for a writing-desk, +let me endeavour to collect some few scattered details about the +German workmen in Hamburg.</p> +<p>German workmen! do not the very words recall to your memory +old amber-coloured engravings of sturdy men, with waving locks, +grasping the arm of the printing-press, by the side of Faust, +Schœffer, and Gottenberg? Or, perhaps, the words of +Schiller’s “Song of the Bell” may not be +unknown to you, and hum in your ears:</p> +<p class="poetry">Frisch, gesellen, seyd zur hand!<br /> + Von der stirne heiss,<br /> + Rinnen muss der schweiss.</p> +<p class="poetry">Briskly, comrades to your work!<br /> + From the flushing brow<br /> + Must the sweatdrops flow.</p> +<p>But your modern German workman is somewhat of a different +stamp; he points his moustaches with black wax, trims his locks +<i>à la Française</i>, and wears wide +pantaloons. He tapers his waist with a leathern strap, and +wears a blouse while at his labors. He discards old forms +and regulations as far as he can or dare, and thus the old word +“Meister” has fallen into disrepute, and the titles +“Herr” and “Principal” occupy its +place. Schiller, like a true poet, calls his workmen +“gesellen,” which is the old German word meaning +companion or comrade, but modern politeness has changed it into +“gehülfe,” assistant; and +“mitglied,” member. In some places, however, +the words “knecht” and “knappe,” servant +or attendant, are still in use to signify journeyman; as +“schusterknecht,” shoemaker; +“schlächterknecht,” butcher’s man; +“muhlknappe,” miller; “bergknappe,” +miner; <!-- page 16--><a name="page16"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 16</span>but these terms are employed more +from habit than from any invidious distinction.</p> +<p>Well! we live and work on the fourth floor of a narrow slip of +a house in Johannis Strasse. Herr Sorgenpfennig, our +“principal,” occupies the suite of four rooms, and +devotes a central one (to which no light can possibly come save +at second hand through the door), to his +“gesellen.” We are three; a quiet Dane, full of +sage precepts, and practical illustrations of economy; a +roystering Bavarian from Nuremberg, who never fails to grieve +over the thin beer of Hamburg, and who, as member of a choral +union near Das Johanneum, delights in vigorous and unexpected +bursts of song; and myself.</p> +<p>Workmen in Hamburg are still in a state of villanage; beneath +the roof of the “Herr” do they find at once a +workshop, a dormitory, and a home. We endeavour so far to +conform to the rules of propriety as to escape the imprisonment +and other penalties that await the “unruly +journeyman.” The table of Herr Sorgenpfennig is our +own, and a very liberal one it is esteemed to be. Let me +sketch you a few of its items: delicious coffee, “white +bread and brown,” or rather black, and unlimited butter, +make up our breakfast. Dinner always commences with a soup, +usually made from meat, sometimes from herbs, lemon, sweet fruit, +or other ingredients utterly indescribable. Meat, to be fit +for a German table, must be carefully pared of every vestige of +fat; if boiled it is underdone, unless expressly devoted to the +soup, when the juiceless shreds that remain are served up with +plums or prepared vegetables; if it be baked (roasting is almost +unknown) it is dry and tasteless. Bacon and sausages, with +their inevitable accompaniment, sourkraut, is a favourite dish; +but not so unvaryingly so as some choose to imagine. Acids +generally are much admired in German cookery. In nothing, +perhaps, are the Hamburgers more to be envied, in a gastronomic +view, than in their vegetables. Singularly small as are +these products of the kitchen garden, they are sweeter and more +delicately flavoured than any I ever tasted elsewhere. As +<i>entremets</i>, and as accompaniments to meat, they are largely +consumed. The Hamburgers laugh at the English cooks who +boil green peas and potatoes in plain water, for here boiled +potatoes are scarcely known—that nutritious vegetable being +cut into slices and fried; while green peas are slowly stewed in +butter or cream, and sweetened with fine sugar. But we +“gesellen” have plebeian appetites, and whatever dish +may <!-- page 17--><a name="page17"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +17</span>be set before us, as surely vanishes to its latest +shred. The little patches of puff-paste, smeared with +preserve, sent to us as Sunday treat, or the curious production +in imitation of our English pie, and filled with maccaroni, are +immolated at once without misgiving or remorse. If we sup +at all, it is upon pasty, German cheese, full of holes, as if it +had been made in water, or a hot liver sausage, as an +extraordinary indulgence.</p> +<p>And our “Licht Braten?” Herr Sorgenpfennig +rubs his short, fat hands, and his round eyes twinkle again, as +he tells his little cluster of “Herren Gesellen” that +there will be a feast, a sumptuous <i>abendbrod</i>, to +inaugurate the commencement of candle-light. The +“Licht Braten,” as this entertainment is called, is +one of the old customs of Hamburg now falling into disuse. +It would be doing Herr Sorgenpfennig an eternal injustice did we +pass over it in silence, more especially as he boasts of it as +real “North German fare.” Here we have it: raw +herrings to begin with. Bah! I confess this does not sound +well upon the first blush; but, then, a raw dried herring is +somewhat different to one salted in a barrel. To cook it +would be a sacrilege, say the Germans. And then the +accompaniments! We have two dishes of wonderful little +potatoes, baked in an oven, freshly peeled and shining; and in +the centre of the table is a bowl of melted butter and mustard +well mixed together. You dip your potato in the butter, and +while you thus soften the deep-sea saltness of your herring, the +rough flavour of the latter relishes and overcomes the unctuous +dressing of your potato. I swear to you it is +delicious!</p> +<p>But where is our “braten,” the +“roast,” in fact? Oh, thou unhappy Peter! +I see thee still, reeking over the glowing forge fire, cooking +savoury sausages thou art forbidden to taste! I see thee +still, struggling in vain to “bolt” the blazing +morsel, rashly plucked (in the momentary absence of +Sorgenpfennig), from the bubbling, hissing fat, and thrust into +thy jaws. Those burning tears! those mad distortions of +limb and feature! God pity thee, Peter, but it was not to +be! Those savoury sausages are our “braten,” +and they smack wonderfully after the herrings. If there is +one item in our repast to be deplored, it is the Hamburger beer, +which, however, is as good as it can be, I suppose, for the +money—something under an English penny a bottle. But +here is wine; good, sound wine, not indeed from the Rhine, nor +the Moselle, but red, sparkling, French <i>vin ordinaire</i>, at +a mark—fourteen-pence the bottle.</p> +<p><!-- page 18--><a name="page18"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +18</span>Truly, Hamburg, thou art a painstaking, industrious, +money-making city, with more available wealth among thy pitch and +slime than other towns can boast of in their trimness and finery, +but spendthrift, and debauched, and dissolute withal art +thou!</p> +<p class="poetry"><i>Punch, du edler trank der Britten</i>!<br /> +Punch, thou noble drink of Britons—</p> +<p>the outburst of some exhilarated poet—should be +inscribed upon thy double-turreted gate, good Hamburg! The +odorous steam of rum and lemon contends in thine open streets +with the fumes of tobacco; the union of these two perfumes make +up thine atmosphere; while thy public walks are strewn with the +unsmoked ends of cigars, thick as the shrivelled leaves in +autumn.</p> +<p>Seriously, the Hamburger toils earnestly, and takes his +pleasure with a proportionate amount of zeal. His +enjoyments, like his labours, are of a strong and solid +description. The workmen trundle <i>kegle</i> balls in +long, wooden-built alleys; and down in deep beer cellars, snug +and warm, do they cluster, fondling their pipes like favoured +children; taking long gulps of well-made punch, or deeper +draughts of Bairisches beer. If they talk, they do so +vehemently, but they love better to sit and listen to some little +troop of <i>harfenisten</i>—street harp-players—as +they tone the waltzes of Lanner, or sing some chivalrous +romance. Sometimes they form themselves into bands of +choristers, and sing with open windows into the street, or play +at billiards as if it were for life, or congregate in the +dance-houses, and waltz by the hour without a pause. In all +they are hearty, somewhat boisterous, but never wanting in good +temper.</p> +<p>As marriage is out of the question with the workman in +Hamburg, whether stranger or native—unless indeed the +latter may have passed through the probationary course of travel +and conscription, and be already on the verge of +mastership—so also is honourable courtship. His low +wages and dependent position form an impassable barrier to +wedlock, and a married journeyman is almost unknown. By the +law of his native city he must travel for two or three years, +independently of the chances of conscription, and thus for a +period at least he becomes a restless wanderer, without tie or +home. No prudent maiden can listen to his addresses, and +thus it is that Hamburg swarms with unfortunates; and this it is +which gives them rights and immunities unknown in any other +city.</p> +<h2><!-- page 19--><a name="page19"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +19</span>CHAPTER V.</h2> +<p class="gutsumm"><span class="smcap">plays and +piccadilloes</span>.—“<span +class="smcap">hamlet</span>” <span class="smcap">in +german</span>.</p> +<p>It is Sunday again. Soberly and sedately do we pass our +morning hours. We waken with the sweet music of bells in +our ears; bells that whisper to us of devotion; bells that thrill +us with a calm delight, and raise up in us thoughts of gentleness +and charity.</p> +<p>There is no lack of churches; we see their tapering steeples +and deep gable roofs rising above the general level in many +places, and there is a Little Bethel down by the water’s +side on the Vorsetzen, for the sailors. There are two or +three Little Pandemoniums in its immediate vicinity, or at least +by that classical title are they designated by the Bethlemites +over the way; but salt-water Jack and fresh-river Jack give them +much simpler names, and like them a great deal better, +more’s the pity. We have heard the little jangling +bells in the church pews, and they will not ring in tune, +although they tell the deeds of charity; we have marched staidly +home, and joined in Herr Sorgenpfennig’s blessing over the +midday meal;—Herr Sorgenpfennig delivers it with the +presence and intonation of an Eastern patriarch, standing among +his tribe;—and the delicacies of German cookery having +fulfilled their purpose and disappeared, with a whispered grace +and a bow of humbleness, we sidle out of the room, and leave the +“Herr Meister” to his meditations and his +punch. And so ends the service of the day.</p> +<p>The blond-headed Bavarian begins to hum the last +<i>Tafelliêd</i>, and our quiet Dane smiles +reservedly. “Whither, friends, shall we bend our +steps?” No! by the eternal spirit of modesty, we will +not visit the dance-houses to-day! Those vile shambles by +the water-side, growing out of the slime and filth of the river, +and creeping like a noxious, unwholesome weed, up the shaded +hill, and by narrow ruts and gullies into the open country. +No! Those half-draped, yet gaping doors, have no +attractions for us; those whining notes of soulless music find no +echo in our ears or hearts. There, in their hideous +blandishments, the shameless sit, miserable in their <!-- page +20--><a name="page20"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +20</span>tawdriness, their painted cheeks peeling in the hot sun, +which they cannot shut out if they would. Throughout the +long day the wearied minstrels pant over their greasy tubes of +brass, or scrape their grimy instruments with horny fingers, +praying for the deep night; and there, through the long day, does +the echoing floor rebound with the beating of vigorous feet; for +salt-water Jack is there, and fresh-river Jack is there, and +while there is a copper <i>pfennig</i> in their pockets, or a +flicker of morality in their hearts, doomed are they equally; for +what can escape spoliation or wreck among such a crowd?</p> +<p>Yet from such commodities as these does the merchant spirit of +the Senate of Hamburg draw huge profits; indeed, it is said that +the whole expense of police and city, and what is worse, yet +better, the tending of the sick, the feeding of the poor, and the +succouring of the helpless and desolate, are alike defrayed from +the produce of the city’s vice; and let us add, the +Senate’s fostering care of it.</p> +<p>And if we wandered out beyond the walls to the right or to the +left, what do we find? On the one hand, “Peter +Hund’s;” on the other “Unkraut’s +Pavilion;” mere dance-houses, after all, though for +“the better sort.” “Peter” has a +tawdry hall, smeared with the escutcheons of all nations, where +music and waltzing whirl through the dense air, hour after hour; +and what is at least of equal consequence to him, Peter holds a +tavern in the next room, where spirits, beer, or coffee are +equally at the command of the drouthy or the luxuriant. And +so also if we followed the road which passes through Stein Thor, +away across the leafy fringing of trees and shrubs which ornament +the city’s outline; and still on through the shady avenues +of youthful stems, when we come upon a great house with deep +overhanging eaves, square-topped chimneys, and altogether with a +Swiss air about it. There are idlers hanging about the +door, for this is “Unkraut’s,” and the brisk +air of musical instruments streams out of the open portal. +Within all is motion and uproar. A large <i>salle de +danse</i> occupies the greater part of the ground floor, the +central portion of which is appropriated to the waltzers, while a +broad slip on each side, beneath an overhanging gallery, running +round the whole of the apartment, remains for those who drink, or +take a temporary repose. Sometimes, however, the flood of +waltzers pours in upon the side-tables, amid the clatter of +chairs, the ringing of glass and china, and the laughter of the +spectators. Gentlemen are not allowed to dance with their +hats on; (where else, in Heaven’s name, can they place +them?) and must lay their heavy pipes and cigars aside, as <!-- +page 21--><a name="page21"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +21</span>smoking is permitted only in the gallery above. +The company is of the “better sort” in the +<i>salle</i> below; that is to say, that vice, shameless and +unveiled, is not allowed to flaunt without a check; but there is +taint and gangrene among all; feeble wills and failing hearts to +bear up against the intoxicating stream of music, and giddy heads +for thought or reason amid the whirl and swimming of the +dance.</p> +<p>“Unkraut’s” has, however, attractions apart +from the ball-room. By a quiet stair at the end of the +gallery, through muffled doors that close upon you as you enter, +and shut out like walls the hum and hubbub below, we come upon an +ill-shapen apartment, where hushed, absorbed men are seated at +desks, as at a school, each with a huge frame dotted with numbers +before him. A strange contrast to the scene without. +There is a heavy quiet in the place, disturbed only by an +occasional cough, a shuffling of feet, and the silvery ringing of +little plates of glass. A monstrous game of Lotto is +this. A mere child’s play of gambling, requiring +neither tact, wit, nor reasoning; a simple lottery, in fact, +dependent for success upon the accidental marking (each player +upon his own board or table) of the first five numbers that may +be drawn. Now we hear a strange rattling of wooden pieces, +shaken in a bag, and as each piece is drawn, a bustling man with +an obstreperous voice, calls out the number; not in full, +sonorous German, but in broad, uncouth Platt Deutsche (low +German), and eager tongues respond from distant corners claiming +the prize. A dull-headed game is this, fitted only for the +most inveterate gamblers; but it yields money to the Stadt, and +that is its recommendation.</p> +<p>As the day wears on, its attractions increase. The Elb +Pavilion offers a rare treat; exquisite music, executed with +vigour, delicacy, and precision. Moreover, its frequenters +are decidedly of a respectable class. But we will not be +moved; we have set our hearts upon witnessing a play of +Shakespeare’s, announced for this night at the Stadt +Theatre, and that no less a one than “Hamlet, Prince of +Denmark.”</p> +<p>The Stadt Theatre in Hamburg enjoys a strange monopoly; for by +the Senate’s will it is declared that no other theatre +shall exist within the city walls. Yet, curiously enough, a +wonderful old woman, by some unaccountable freak, has the +privilege, or hereditary right, of licensing or directing a +theatrical establishment within the boundaries, and thus a second +theatre contends for the favours of the public; and in order to +define its position and state of existence, it <!-- page 22--><a +name="page22"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 22</span>is entitled +simply Das Zweite Theatre (The Second Theatre). It is an +especially favourite place of amusement with the Hamburgers, +although they play an incomprehensible jumble of unconnected +scenes, called “possen,” adapted solely to display +the peculiar talents of certain actors. One odd fellow +there reaps showers of applause for no other exhibition of +ability than that of looking intensely stupid, for he seldom +utters a word; but assumes an appearance of unfathomable vacuity +that is inimitable. There are still two theatres outside +the city walls: the one, the Tivoli, devoted to farces and +vaudevilles; the other consecrated to the portrayal of the deeply +sentimental, and the fearfully tragic—with poison, +dagger-blades, convulsions and heavy-stamping ever at +command.</p> +<p>But our play! Here we are in the gallery of a splendid +edifice, equal in extent to our Covent Garden Theatre at home, +having come to this part of the house in anticipation of a feeble +audience in preference to the parterre or pit. Note also, +that here we pay eight <i>schillinge</i> only, while a place +below would cost us twenty. But the house is crammed, for +Shakespeare draws as well in Germany as in England, perhaps for +the simple reason that in no other country are his works so well +translated. We find ourselves in the midst of a dense +cluster of earnest Danes, who say the most impressive things in +the quietest way in the world. They are strongly interested +in the coming performance, for “Hamlet the Dane” has +taken deep hold upon the Danish affections; and in Elsinore, so +great is the consideration entertained for this all but fabulous +prince, that they will point you out the garden wherein his royal +father suffered murder</p> +<blockquote><p>—most foul, strange, and unnatural,</p> +</blockquote> +<p>and the grave where the “gentle prince” himself +lies buried. The play begins; with the deepest earnestness +the audience listen, and, crowded as they are, preserve the +utmost quiet. The glorious drama scene by scene unfolds +itself, and passage by passage we recognise the beauties of our +great poet. Herr Carr, starring it from Vienna, is no +unworthy representative of the noble-hearted Dane, although +unequal, we think, to the finer traits, and more delicate +emotions of the character. The dresses are admirable, +sometimes gorgeous, and the groupings most effective. The +scenery alone is unsatisfactory; indecisive and colourless as it +is, without <!-- page 23--><a name="page23"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 23</span>depth or tone, it strikes you as the +first effort in perspective of a feeble-handed amateur. As +the play proceeds, the action grows upon us, and the rapt +spectators resent with anger the least outcry or +disturbance. The first scene with the players is omitted, +but the concluding portion is a triumph; for as <i>Hamlet</i>, +arriving at the climax of his sarcasm, and bursting for a moment +into rage, flings the flute away, with the exclamation: +“S’blood, do you think I am easier to be played on +than a pipe?” the whole theatre rings with the +applause.</p> +<p>Presently, however, we are aware of a gap, a huge hiatus in +the performance; a grave, and yet no grave, for the whole +churchyard scene, with its quaint and exquisite philosophy, the +rude wit of the gravediggers, and the pointed moralising of the +prince, are all wanting—all swept away by the ruthless hand +of the critic; skulls and bones, picks and mattocks, wit and +drollery, diggers, waistcoats and all! Not even +<i>Yorick</i>, with his “gibes” and “flashes of +merriment”—not even he is spared. On the other +hand, a portion of a scene is represented which, until lately, +was always omitted on the English stage. It is that in +which the guilty king, overcome by remorse, thus +soliloquises:—</p> +<blockquote><p>O, my offence is rank, it smells to heaven!</p> +</blockquote> +<p><i>Hamlet</i>, coming upon his murderous uncle in his prayers, +exclaims:—</p> +<blockquote><p>Now might I do it, pat, while he is praying;<br /> +And now I’ll do ’t—and so he goes to heaven:<br +/> +And so am I revenged?</p> +</blockquote> +<p>The omission or retention of this scene might well be a matter +of dispute, for while it represents the guilty Claudius miserable +and contrite, even in the height of his success, it also portrays +the anticipated revenge of <i>Hamlet</i> in so fearful a light, +that he stands there, not the human instrument of divine +retribution, but with all the diabolical cravings of Satan +himself. I leave this question to abler critics, and, in +the meantime, our play is finished, amid shouts of delight and +calls before the curtain. It is but half-past nine, yet +this is a late hour for a German theatre, where they rarely +perform more than one piece, and that seldom exceeding two hours +in duration. Descending to the street, wrapped in the +recollections of the gorgeous poem whose beauties still echo in +our ears, we are vulgar enough to relish hot sausages and +Bavarian beer.</p> +<p><!-- page 24--><a name="page24"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +24</span>An hour later we pace our half-lighted Johannis Strasse, +seeking the portal of our house amid the gloom. Suddenly we +are startled by the tramp of a heavy foot, and the clang and +rattle of a steel weapon as it strikes upon the ground. A +burly voice assails us: “Whither are you going?”</p> +<p>Is this Bernardo, wandered from the ramparts in search of the +ghost of Hamlet’s father?</p> +<p>Not so: it is but one of the night-watch, armed with an +enormous halbert which might have done good service in the thirty +years’ war. The faithful <i>nachtwächter</i> +strikes it upon the ground with the butt-end at regular +intervals, so that sinful depredators may have timely notice of +his approach. As it has a large hook at the back it is said +to be admirably adapted for catching thieves by the leg, if its +opportune clattering does not keep them out of its reach.</p> +<p>We render a good account of ourselves, and are duly escorted +to our home.</p> +<h2>CHAPTER VI.</h2> +<p class="gutsumm"><span class="smcap">the german +workman</span>.</p> +<p>That workmen in England may have some clear knowledge of the +ways and customs of a large number of their brethren on the +Continent, I here intend to put down for their use a part of my +own knowledge and experience.</p> +<p>The majority of trades in Germany are formed into guilds, or +companies. At the head of each guild stands an officer +chosen by the government, whatever it may be—for you may +find a government of any sort in Germany, between an emperor and +a senate—this officer being always a master, and a member +of the guild. His title differs in almost every German +state, but he is generally called Trade-master, or Deputy. +Associated with him are two or three of the oldest employers; or, +in some cases, workmen in the trade, under the titles of +Eldermen, or Masters’ Representatives. These three or +four men govern the guild, and have under them, for the proper +transaction of business, a secretary and a messenger. Such +<!-- page 25--><a name="page25"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +25</span>officers, however, do not represent their trade in the +whole state or kingdom, but are chosen, in every large town, to +conduct the multifarious business that may require attention +within its limits.</p> +<p>Although all these guilds are, in their original constitution, +formed on the same model, they differ materially in their +internal arrangements. Much depends upon the ruling +government of the state in which they are situated; for, while in +despotic Prussia, what is there called Freedom of Trade is +declared for all, in the “free” town of Hamburg +everything is bound and locked up in small monopolies.</p> +<p>In some parts of Germany there are “close trades,” +which means to say that the number of masters in each is +definitely fixed. This is so in Hamburg. For +instance, among the goldsmiths, the number of new masters +annually to be elected is three, being about sufficient to fill +up the deficiencies occurring from death and other causes. +I have heard of as many as five being elected in one year, and I +have also heard it asserted that this was to be accounted for on +the supposition that the aldermen had been “smeared in the +hand,” that is to say, bribed.</p> +<p>There are other trades locked up in a different way. +There exist several of this kind in Nuremberg and thereabouts; +as, the awl and punch-makers, lead-pencil makers, hand-bell +makers, gold and silver wire-drawers, and others. They +occupy a particular town or district, and they say, “Here +we are. We possess these trades, and we mean to keep them +to ourselves. We will teach no strangers our craft; we will +confine it among our relatives and townsmen; and in order to +prevent the knowledge of it from spreading any farther, we will +allow our workmen to travel only within the limits of our town or +land;” and so they keep their secrets close.</p> +<p>In other trades, the workmen are allowed to engage themselves +only to a privileged employer. That is to say, they dare +not execute a private order, but can receive employment from a +master of the craft only. In Prussia, and some few other +lands, each workman can work on his own account, and can offer +his goods for sale in the public market unhindered, so long as +they are the production of his own hands alone; but should he +employ a journeyman, then he pays a tax to Government of about +ten shillings annually, the tax increasing in proportion to the +number of men he may employ.</p> +<p>There are also “endowed” and +“unendowed” trades. An endowed guild is one the +members of which pay a certain small sum monthly <!-- page +26--><a name="page26"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 26</span>while +in work, and thus form a fund for the relief of the sick and the +assistance of the travelling members of the trade. There +are few trades of the unendowed kind, for the workmen of such +trades have to depend upon the generosity of their companions in +the craft in the hour of need; and it is generally found more +economical to pay a regular sum than to be called on at uncertain +intervals for a donation; moreover, the respectability of the +craft is better maintained.</p> +<p>While we talk of respectability, we may add that it was +formerly the especial care of the heads of each guild, to see +that no disreputable persons became members of the trade; and +illegitimate children, and even the lawful offspring of +shepherds, bailiffs, and town servants were carefully +excluded. This practice exists no longer, except in some +few insignificant places; but the law is still very general which +says that no workman can become a master who has not fulfilled +every regulation imposed by his guild; that is to say, he must +have been apprenticed at the proper age to a properly-constituted +master; must have regularly completed his period of +apprenticeship, and have passed the appointed time in +travel. The worst part of all these regulations is, that, +as they vary in almost every state, the unfortunate wanderer has +to conform to a new set of laws in every new land he enters.</p> +<p>One other regulation is almost universal. Each guild +must have a place of meeting; not a sumptuous hall, but mere +accommodation in a public-house. It is called the +“Herberge,” and answers, in many respects, to our +“House of Call.” This is the weary +traveller’s place of rest—he can claim a shelter +here; indeed, in most cases, he dares sleep nowhere else. +Here also the guild holds its quarterly meetings. By way of +illustration, let us take the Goldsmith’s Herberge in +Hamburg; the “Stadt Bremen” is the sign of the +house. In it, the goldsmiths use a large, rectangular +apartment, furnished with a few rough tables and chairs, and a +wooden bench running round its four walls. On the tables +are arranged long clay pipes, and in the centre of each table is +a small dish of what the uninitiated might take to be dried tea +leaves. This is uncut tobacco, which the host, the father +of the House of Call, is bound to provide. The secretary +and messenger of the guild of goldsmiths are there, together with +one or two of the “Altgesellen” (elder journeymen), +who perform the active part of the duties of the guild. The +minutes of the last meeting, and the incidents of <!-- page +27--><a name="page27"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 27</span>the +quarter—possibly, also, an abstract of the +rules—having been read, and new officers, to supersede +those who retire, having been balloted for, the business of the +evening closes. Then commences a confusion of tongues; for +here are congregated Russians, Hungarians, Danes, Hamburgers, +Prussians, Austrians; possibly there may be found here a member +of every state in the German Union. None are silent, and +the dialect of each is distinct. Assiduously, in the pauses +of his private conversation, every man smokes his long pipe, and +drinks his beer or punch. Presently two female harp-players +enter—sources of refreshment quite as popular in Hamburg as +the punch. They strike up an infatuating waltz. The +effect is wonderful. Two or three couples (men waltzing +with men, of course) are immediately on their feet, scrambling, +kicking, and scraping round the room; hugging each other in the +most awkward manner. Chairs and tables are huddled into +corners; for the mania has seized upon two-thirds of the +company. The rest cannot forsake their beer, but congregate +in the corners, and yell, and scream toasts and +“Lebe-hoch!” till they are hoarse.</p> +<p>Two girls enter, with trifling articles of male attire for +sale; stocks, pomatum, brushes, and beard-wax; but the said +damsels are immediately pounced upon for partners. In the +intervals of the music a grand tournament takes place; the +weapons being clay-pipes, which are speedily shattered into a +thousand pieces, and strewn about the room to facilitate +dancing. Such a scene of shuffling, whirling, shouting, and +pipe-crunching could scarcely be seen elsewhere.</p> +<p>We will take a German youth destined to become an artisan, and +endeavour to follow him through the complication of conflicting +usages of which he stands the ordeal. Hans is fourteen +years of age, and has just left school with a decent +education. Hans has his trade and master chosen for him; is +taken before the heads of the guild, and his indenture duly +signed and sealed in their presence, they themselves witnessing +the document. His term of apprenticeship is probably four +years, perhaps six; a premium is seldom given, and when it is, it +shortens the period of apprenticeship. The indenture, +together with a certificate of baptism, in some cases that of +confirmation (which ceremony serves as an important epoch in +Germany), and even a documentary proof of vaccination, are +deposited in the coffers of the guild, and kept at the Herberge +for future reference.</p> +<p><!-- page 28--><a name="page28"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +28</span>Obedience to elders and superiors is the one great duty +inculcated in the minds of all Germans, and Hans is taught to +look upon his master as a second father; to consider short +commons as a regulation for his especial good, and to bear +cuffing—if he should fall in the way of +it—patiently. If he be an apprentice in Vienna, he +may possibly breakfast upon a hunch of brown bread, and an +unlimited supply of water; dine upon a thin soup and a block of +tasteless, fresh-boiled beef; and sup upon a cold crust. He +may fare better or worse; but, as a general rule, he will sleep +in a vile hole, will look upon coffee and butter as undeniable +luxuries, and know the weight of his master’s hand.</p> +<p>Hans has one great source of pleasure. There is a state +school, which he attends on Sundays, and where he is instructed +in drawing and modelling. In his future travels he will +find the advantage he has acquired over less educated mechanics +in this necessary knowledge; and should he come to England, he +will discover that his skill as a draughtsman will place him at +once in a position superior to that of the chance-taught workmen +about him. He completes his apprenticeship without +attempting to run away. That is practically impossible; but +he yearns, with all the ardour of a young heart, for the happy +day when he may tramp out of his native town with his knapsack on +his back, and the wide world before him.</p> +<p>We will suppose Hans out of his time, and declared a free +journeyman by the guild. The law of his country now has it +that he must travel—generally for three years, perhaps four +or six—before he can take up the position of a +master. He may work for a short period in his native town +as a journeyman, but forth he must; nor is he in any way +loth. One only contingency there is, which may serve to +arrest him in his course,—he may be drawn as a +conscript—and, possibly, forget in the next two or three +years, as a soldier, all he has previously learned in four as a +mechanic. But we suppose Hans to have escaped this peril, +and to be on the eve of his departure.</p> +<p>When an English gentleman, or mechanic, or beggar, in these +isles, has resolved upon making a journey, he has but to pack up +his traps, whether it be in his portmanteau, his deal-box, or his +pocket-handkerchief; to purchase his ticket at the railway or +steam-packet station; and without asking or consulting with +anybody about the matter, to take his seat in the vehicle, and +off he goes. <!-- page 29--><a name="page29"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 29</span>Not so Hans. He gives his +master fourteen days’ notice of his intention to wander; +applies to the aldermen of his guild for copies of the various +documents concerning himself in their possession; and obtains +from his employer a written attestation of his past +services. This document is called a +“Kundschaft;” is written in set form, acknowledges +his probity and industry, and is countersigned by the two +aldermen. He is now in a condition to wait upon the +“Herberges-Vater” (the landlord of the House of +Call), and request his signature also. The Vater, seeing +that Hans owes nothing to him or to any other townsman—and +all creditors know that they have only to report their claims at +the Herberge to obtain for them a strict attention—signs +his paper, “all quit.” Surely he may start +forth now! Not so; the most important document is still +wanting. He has, as yet, no passport or wander-book.</p> +<p>Hans goes to the police-bureau, and, as he is poor, has to +wait a long while. If Hans were rich, or an artist, or a +master’s son, it is highly probable that ho would be able +to obtain a passport—and the possession of a passport +guarantees many advantages—but as Hans is simply a workman, +a “wander-book” only is granted to him. This +does indeed cost him less money, but it thrusts him into an +unwelcome position, from which it is not easy to escape. He +is placed under stricter rule, and, among other things, is +forced, during his wandering, to sleep at his trade Herberge, +which, from the very monopoly it thus enjoys, is about the worst +place he could go to for a lodging.</p> +<p>The good magistrate of Perleberg—the frontier town of +Prussia, as you enter from Mecklenburg—had the kindness to +affix to my passport a document entitled, “Ordinance +concerning the Wandering of Working-men.” I will +briefly translate its contents. The +“Verordnung” commences with a preamble, to the effect +that, notwithstanding the various things that have been done and +undone with respect to the aforesaid journeymen, it still happens +that numbers of them wander purposeless about the land, to the +great burden of their particular trades and the public in +general, and to the imminent danger of the common safety. +Therefore, be it enacted, that “passports,” that is +to say, “passes,” in which the distinct purpose of +the journey is stated, such as a search for employment; or +“wander-books,” in which occupation by manual labour +is the especial object, are to be granted to those natives of +Prussia only who pursue a trade or art for the perfection of +which <!-- page 30--><a name="page30"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 30</span>travelling may be considered useful +or necessary. To those only who are irreproachable in +character, and perfectly healthy in body; this latter to be +attested by a medical certificate. To those only who have +not passed their thirtieth year, nor have travelled for the five +previous years without intermission. To those only who +possess a proper amount of clothing, including linen, as well as +a sum of money not less than five dollars (about sixteen +shillings) for travelling expenses. So much for +natives. Foreigners must possess all the above-named +requisites; must be provided with proper credentials from their +home authorities, and may not have been more than four weeks +without employment on their arrival at the frontier. Again, +every wanderer must distinctly state in what particular town or +city he intends to seek employment, and by what route he purposes +to get there; and any deviation from the chosen road (which will +be marked in the wander-book) will be visited by the punishment +of expulsion from the country. A fixed number of days will +be allotted to the wanderer in which to reach his destination, +but should he overstep that period, a similar punishment awaits +him; expulsion from the country always meaning that the offender +shall retrace his steps, and quit the land by the way he had +entered it. This is the substance of the +“ordinance.”</p> +<p>Hans is ready for the road. He has only now to take his +farewell. A farewell among workmen is simply a +drinking-bout, a parting glass taken overnight. Hans has +many friends; these appoint a place of assemblage, and invite him +thither. It is a point of honour among them that the +“wandering boy” shall pay nothing. Imagine a +large, half-lighted room; a crowded board of bearded faces. +On the table steams a huge bowl of punch, which the chosen head +of the party, perhaps Johann’s late master, ladles into the +tiny glasses. He proclaims the toast, “The Health of +the Wanderer!” The little crowd are on their feet, +and amid a pretty tinkling of glasses, an irregular shout arises, +a small hurricane of voices, wishing him good speed.</p> +<p>What songs are sung, what healths are drunk, what heartfelt +wishes are expressed! The German workmen are good friends +to one another—men who are already away from friends and +home, and whose tenderest recollections are awakened in the +farewell expressed to a departing companion. Many tears are +shed, many hearty presses of the hand are given, and not a few +kisses impressed upon the cheek. Little tokens of affection +are interchanged, and <!-- page 31--><a name="page31"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 31</span>promises to write are made, but +seldom kept. With this mingling and outpouring of full +hearts, the stream of punch still flows through tiny glasses: +but, since “Many a little makes a mickle,” the +farewell thus taken ends sometimes as a debauch.</p> +<p>Hans, in the morning, is perhaps a little the worse for last +night’s punch. He is attired in a clean white blouse, +strapped round the waist; a neat travelling-cap; low, stout +shoes; and, possibly, linen wrappers, instead of socks. The +knapsack, strapped to his back, contains a sufficient change of +linen, a coat artistically packed, which is to be worn in cities, +and a few necessary tools; the whole stock weighing, perhaps, +twenty or thirty pounds. On the sides of the knapsack are +little pouches, containing brushes, blacking, and soap; and in +his breast-pocket is stowed away a little flask of +brandy-schnaps, to revive his drooping spirits on the road. +A stout stick completes his equipment. A last adieu from +the one friend of his heart, who will walk a few miles with him +on the way—and so he is launched fairly on his journey.</p> +<p>Hans finds the road much harder, and his knapsack heavier than +he had expected. Now he is drenched with rain, and can get +no shelter; and, when he does, he will find straw an inconvenient +substitute for a bed. At last he arrives at Berlin. +He has picked up a companion on the road; and, as it frequently +happens that several trades hold their meetings in the same +house, they both are bound to the same Herberge. Through +strange, half-lighted streets, along narrow edges of pavement, +they proceed till they enter a court, or wynd, with no footpath +at all, and they are in the Schuster Gasse, before the door of +the Herberge. The comrade of Hans announces them as they +pass the bar, and the next moment they are in the +travellers’ room, amid as motley a group as ever met within +four walls.</p> +<p>Tumult and hubbub. An indescribable odour of tobacco, +cummin (carraway), and potato-salad. A variety of hustled +blouses. Sunburnt and haggard faces. Ragged beards +and unkempt locks. A strong pipe hanging from every lip; +beer, or kümmil (a spirit prepared with cummin) at every +hand. Wild snatches of song, and hurried bursts of +dialogue. Some are all violence and uproar; some are half +dead with sleep and fatigue, their arms sprawling about the +tables. Such is the inside of a German trade +traveller’s room.</p> +<p>Hans and his companion hand over their papers to the +“father” as a security, and their knapsacks to a +sluttish-looking girl, who <!-- page 32--><a +name="page32"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 32</span>deposits them +in a cupboard in the corner of the room, and locks the door upon +them. Our travellers order a measure of Berliner Weiss +Bier, to be in keeping with the rest, and long for the hour of +sleep. At length, a stout young man enters, carrying a +lighted lantern, and in a loud voice of authority summonses all +to bed. And there is a scrambling and hustling among some +of the travellers, a hasty guzzling of beer and spirits, and a +few low murmurs at being disturbed, but none dare disobey.</p> +<p>A shambling troop of sixteen or eighteen, they quit the room, +and enter a small paved yard, preceded by the young man with the +lantern. There is a rough building resembling a stable, at +the other end of the yard; and, in one corner, a steep ladder, +with a handrail, which leads to a chamber above. They +ascend, and enter a long, low loft, so completely crowded with +rough bedsteads that there remains but a narrow alley between +them, just sufficient to allow a single person to pass. +Eight double beds, and the ceiling so low that the companion of +Hans can scarcely stand upright with his hat on.</p> +<p>“New-comers this way,” shouts the conductor.</p> +<p>“What’s the matter, now?” inquires Hans of +his comrade.</p> +<p>“Take off your coat,” is the answer in a whisper; +“undo the wristbands, and throw open the collar of your +shirt.”</p> +<p>“What for?”</p> +<p>“To be examined.”</p> +<p>So they are examined; and, being pronounced sound, are allowed +to sleep with the rest of the flock. In this loft, each bed +with at least two occupants, and the door locked—without +consideration for fire, accident, or sudden +indisposition,—Hans passes the first night in Berlin.</p> +<p>But there is no work in Berlin, and Hans must pursue his +journey. He waits for hours at the police-office, as +play-goers wait at the door of a London theatre. By and by, +he gets into the small bureau with a desperate rush. That +business is settled, and he is off again. Time runs on; +and, after a further tramp of good two hundred miles, Hans gets +settled at last in the free city of Hamburg.</p> +<p>With the exception of a few factories, such as the silk-works +at Chemnitz, in Saxony, and the colony of goldsmiths at +Pfortzheim, in Wurtemburg, there are few extensive manufactories +in Germany. Trade is split up into little masterships of +from one to five or six men. <!-- page 33--><a +name="page33"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 33</span>This +circumstance materially affects the relation between the employer +and employed.</p> +<p>The master under whom Hans serves at Hamburg is a pleasant, +affable gentleman; his apprentice Peter may be of a different +opinion, but that is of no consequence. The master has +spent the best years of his life in England and France; has +learned to speak the languages of both countries with perfect +facility, and is one of the lucky monopolists of his trade. +He employs three workmen; one of them, who is possessed of that +peculiar cast of countenance generally attributed to the children +of Israel, has been demurred to by the Guild,—and +why? Because a Jew is legally incapable of working in +Hamburg. He is, however, allowed the usual privileges on +attesting that he is not an Israelite.</p> +<p>Our master accommodates under his own roof one workman and his +apprentice Peter. The others, whom he cannot lodge, are +allowed each one mark-banco (fourteen pence) per week, to enable +them to find a bed-chamber elsewhere. They suffer a +pecuniary loss by the arrangement. Hans sleeps in a narrow +box, built on the landing, into which no ray of heaven’s +light had ever penetrated. His bedding is a very simple +affair. He is troubled with neither blankets nor +sheets. An “under” and an “over” +bed, the latter rather lighter than the former, and both supposed +to be of feathers, form his bed and bedding. Hans is as +well off as others, so he does not complain. As for the +apprentice, Peter, it was known that he disappeared at a certain +hour every evening; and from his appearance when he turned out in +the morning, Hans was under the impression that he wildly shot +himself into some deep and narrow hole, and slept the night +through on his head.</p> +<p>And how does Hans fare under his master’s roof? +Considering the reminiscences of his apprenticeship, he relishes +his cup of coffee in the morning; his tiny round roll of white +bread; the heavy black rye-loaf, into which he is allowed to hew +his way unchecked; and the beautiful Holstein butter. Not +being accustomed to better food, it is possible that he enjoys +the tasteless, fresh boiled beef, and the sodden baked meat, with +no atom of fat, which form the staple food at dinner. +Whether he can comprehend the soups which are sometimes placed +before him,—now made of shredded lemons, now of strained +apples, and occasionally of plain water, with a sprinkling of +rice, is another matter; but the sourkraut and bacon, the boiled +beef and raisins, <!-- page 34--><a name="page34"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 34</span>and the baked veal and prunes, are +certain to be looked upon by him as unusual luxuries.</p> +<p>The master presides at the table, and blesses the meat with +the air of a father of his people. Although workmen in +Germany are little better than old apprentices, this daily and +familiar intercourse has the effect of breaking down the formal +barriers which in England effectually divide the capitalist and +the labourer. It creates a respectful familiarity, which +raises the workman without lowering the master. The manners +of both are thereby decidedly improved.</p> +<p>Hans gradually learns other trade customs. His comrade +falls sick, and is taken to the free hospital, a little way out +of the city. This hospital is clean and well kept, but +fearfully crowded. The elder journeymen of the Guild are +there too, and they comfort the sick man, and hand him the weekly +stipend, half-a-crown, allowed out of the sick-fund. Hans +contributes to this sick-fund two marks—two shillings and +fourpence—a quarter. He does it willingly, but the +master has power to deduct it from his wages in the name of the +Guild. His poor sick friend dies; away from home and +friends—a desolate being among strangers. But he is +not, therefore, to be neglected. Every workman in the trade +is called upon to contribute his share—about +sevenpence—towards the expenses of the funeral; and the two +senior, assisted by four other journeymen, in full evening dress, +attend his funeral. His effects are then carefully packed +up, and sent—a melancholy memorial of the dead—to his +relations.</p> +<p>From the same fund which relieves the sick, are the +“wandering boys” also assisted. But the +“Geschenk” (gift), as it is called, is a mere trifle; +sometimes but a few pence, and in a large city like Berlin it +amounts to but twenty silver groschen—little more than two +shillings. It is not considered disgraceful to accept this +donation; as all, when in work, contribute towards the fund from +which it is supplied.</p> +<p>And what is the amount of wages that German workmen +receive? In Hamburg wages vary from five to eight marks per +week, that is, from seven shillings to ten and sixpence, paid +monthly. In Leipsic they are paid fortnightly, and average +about ten shillings per week. In Berlin wages are paid by +the calendar month, and average twenty-four dollars (a dollar is +rather more than three shillings), for that period; so that a +workman may be said to earn about eighteen shillings a week, but +is dependent on his own resources for food and lodging. In +Vienna the same regulation exists, and wages range <!-- page +35--><a name="page35"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 35</span>from +five to eight guldens—ten to sixteen shillings per +week—paid weekly, as in England. But a workman in +Vienna may be respectably lodged, lighted, and washed for at the +rate of half-a-crown a week. In Berlin and Vienna married +journeymen are to be met with, but not in great numbers, and in +smaller towns they may almost be said to be unknown. Dr. +Korth, in his address to his young friends, the “travelling +boys,” on this subject, emphatically +says—“Avoid, in God’s name, all attachments to +womankind, more especially to those of whom your hearts would +say, ‘These could I love.’” And then the +quaint old gentleman proceeds to say a number of ungallant +things, which are not worth translating.</p> +<p>No! the German workman is taught to hold himself free, that he +may carry out the law of his land to the letter; that he may +return from his travels at the appointed time “a wiser and +a better man;” that he may show proofs of his acquired +skill in his trade, and thereupon claim the master’s right +and position. He is then free to marry, and is looked upon +as an “eligible party.” But how seldom does all +this come to pass, may the thousands who swarm in London and +Paris; may the German colonies which dot the American States, +sufficiently tell. Many linger in large cities till they +feel that to return to the little native village, and its old, +poor, plodding ways, would be little better than burial alive; +and some return, wasted with foreign vice and purchased +adversity, premature old men, to die upon the threshold of their +early homes.</p> +<p>One more question—what are their amusements? It +would be a long story to tell, but certainly home-reading is not +a prominent enjoyment among them. German governments, as a +rule, take care that the people’s amusements shall not be +interfered with. The workmen throng in dance-houses, +beer-cellars, cafés, and theatres, which are all liveliest +and most attractive on a Sunday; and, as they are tolerably +cheap, they are generally a successful lure from deep thinking or +study. Besides, the German workman has no home. If he +stay there at all in holiday hours, it is to draw, or model, or +sing romances to the strumming of his guitar.</p> +<h2><!-- page 36--><a name="page36"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +36</span>CHAPTER VII.</h2> +<p class="gutsumm"><span class="smcap">hamburg to +lübeck</span>.</p> +<p>The bleak, icy winter of North Germany is past. We have +trodden its accumulated snows as they lay in crisp heaps in the +streets of Hamburg; and have watched the muffled crowd upon the +frozen Alster, darting and reeling, skating, sliding, and +sleighing upon its opaque and motionless surface. We have +alternately loved and execrated the massive German oven, which +warmed us indeed, but never showed us a cheerful face. We +have sipped our coffee or our punch in the beautiful winter +garden of Tivoli, under the shade of lemon-trees, with fragrant +flowers and shrubs around us; and finally, have looked upon the +ice-bound Elbe with its black vessels, slippery masts, and rigid +cordage, and seen the Hanoverian milk lasses skimming its dun +expanse laden with their precious burdens. We have got over +the slop and drizzle, and half-thawed slush, too; and the +boisterous March wind dashes among the houses; and what is better +than all, the fresh mornings are growing brighter and longer with +every returning sun.</p> +<p>Away, then, out of the old city, alone on the flat, sandy road +that lies between Hamburg and Berlin. Here we are, with +hope before us, resolution spurring us on, and a twenty-eight +pound knapsack on our backs. Tighten the straps, my friend, +and you will walk easier with your load.</p> +<p>My journey as a workman on the tramp from Hamburg to Berlin I +propose to tell, as simply as I can. I have no great +adventures to describe, but I desire to illustrate some part of +what has already been said about the workmen in Germany, and I +can do this best by relating, just as it was, a small part of my +own road experience, neither more nor less wonderful than the +experience which is every day common to thousands of Germans.</p> +<p>I was very poor when I set out from Hamburg in the month of +March, with my knapsack strapped to my back, my stick in my hand, +and my bottle of strong comfort slung about my neck after <!-- +page 37--><a name="page37"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +37</span>the manner of a locket. I was not poor in my own +conceit, for I had in my fob—the safest pocket for so large +a sum of money—two gold ducats and some Prussian dollars: +English money, thirty-five shillings. I thought I was a +proper fellow with that quantity of ready cash upon my person, +and a six weeks’ beard on my chin.</p> +<p>Many adieus had been spoken in Hamburg at our last +night’s revel, but a Danish friend was up betimes to see me +out of town. At length he also bade the wanderer farewell, +and for the comfort of us both my locket having passed from hand +to hand, he left me to tramp on alone, over the dull, flat, sandy +road. There was scarcely a tree to be seen, and the sky +looked like a heavy sheet of lead, but I stepped out boldly and +made steady progress. The road got to be worse; I came +among deep ruts and treacherous sloughs, and the fields on each +side of the road were flooded. In some parts the road was a +sand swamp, and the walk became converted into a gymnastic +exercise; a leaping about towards what seemed the hard and knobby +places that appeared among the mud. This exercise soon made +me conscious of the knapsack, to which I was then not thoroughly +accustomed. It was not so much the weight that I felt, but +the tightness of the belt across the chest, which caused pain and +impediment of breathing. Custom, however, caused the +knapsack to become even an aid to me in walking.</p> +<p>A sturdy young fellow who did not object to mud was pushing +his way recklessly behind me. I was soon overtaken, we +exchanged kind greetings, and jogged on together, shoulder to +shoulder. He had been upon his travels; had been in Denmark +for two years, and had left Copenhagen to return to his native +village, that lay then only eight or ten miles before us. +What was his reason for returning? He was required to +perform military service, and for the next two years at +least—or for a longer time, should war break out—was +doomed to be a soldier. He did not think the doom +particularly hard, and we jogged on together in a cheerful mood +until his knowledge of the ground became distressingly familiar, +and he illustrated portions of the scenery with tales of robbery +and murder. The scenery of the road became at every turn +more picturesque. Instead of passing between swampy fields, +it ran along a hollow, and the ground was on each side broken +into deep holes with rugged edges; black leafless bushes stood +out from the grey and yellow sand, while farther away in the +background, against the leaden sky, there was a sombre fringe of +thickly planted fir-trees. <!-- page 38--><a +name="page38"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 38</span>The daylight, +dim at noon, had become dimmer as evening drew near; the grey sky +darkened, and the tales of robbery and murder made my thoughts +anything but cheerful. As the hills grew higher on each +side of us, it occurred to us both that here was a fine place for +a murder, and I let my companion go before, handling my stick at +the same time as one ready to strike instantly if any injury were +offered. I was just demonstrative enough to frighten my +companion. We were a mere couple of rabbits. Each of +us in his innocence feared that the other might be a guilty +monster, and so we were both glad enough to get out of the narrow +pass. On the other side of the glen the road widened, and +my companion paused at the head of a little path that led down to +a deeper corner of the hollow, and across the fields. That +was his way home. He had but a mile to go, and was already +anticipating all the kisses of his household. He wished me +a prosperous journey; I wished him a happy welcome in his +village; and we shook hands like two young men who owed amends to +one another.</p> +<p>He had told me before we parted that there were two houses of +entertainment not far in advance. Already I saw the +red-tiled roof of one, that looked like a respectable +farm-house. From the door of that house, however, I was +turned away; and as the darkness of the evening was changing into +night, I ran as fast as I was able to the next place of +shelter. By the pump, the horse-trough, and the dirty pool +I knew that there was entertainment there for man and +horse. I therefore raised the wooden latch, and in a modest +tone made my request for a bed. A vixenish landlady from +the midst of a group of screaming children cried to me, +“You can’t have a bed, you can have +straw.” That would do quite as well, I said.</p> +<p>I sat down at a table in a corner of the large room, called +for a glass of beer, produced some bread and sausage that I had +brought with me from Hamburg, and made a comfortable +supper. There was a large wood fire blazing on the ample +hearth, but the landlord and his family engrossed its whole +vicinity. The house contained no other sitting-room and no +other sleeping accommodation than the one family bedroom and the +barn.</p> +<p>While I was at supper there came in other wandering boys like +myself. I had escaped the rain, but they had not; they came +in dripping: a stout man, and a tall, lank stripling. The +youth wore a white blouse and hat covered with oil-skin; his +trousers were tucked halfway up his legs, and he had mud up to +his ankles. We <!-- page 39--><a name="page39"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 39</span>soon exchanged our scraps of +information about one another. The stout man was a baker +from Lübeck on the way to Hamburg; the stripling, probably +not yet out of his teens, was part brazier, part coppersmith, +part tinman; had been three weeks on his travels, and had come, +like myself, from Hamburg since morning. He was very +poor. He did not tell us that; but he ordered nothing to +eat or drink, and except the draught of comfort that he got out +of my bottle, the poor fellow went supperless to bed. Not +altogether supperless though, for he had some smoke. We +made a snug little party in the corner, and talked, smoked, and +comforted ourselves, after the children had been put to bed, and +while the landlord, landlady, and an old grandfather told stories +to each other in Low German by the fire. At nine +o’clock the landlord lighted his lantern, and told us +bluffly that we might go to bed. We therefore, having +handed him our papers—passports and wander-books—for +his security and for our own, followed into the barn. That +was a place large enough to hold straw for a regiment of +soldiers. It was a continuation of the dwelling-house, +sheltered under the same roof. We mounted three rude +ladders, and so got from floor to floor into the loft. +Having guided us safely thither, he quitted us at once with a +“good night;” taking his lantern with him, and +leaving us to make our beds in the thick darkness as we +could. The straw was not straw: it was short-cut hay, old +enough to have lost all scent of hay, and to have acquired some +other scents less pleasing to the nose; hay, trodden, pressed, +and matted down, without a vestige in it of its ancient +elasticity. There was nothing in it to remind us of a +summer tumble on the hay-cock. The barn roof was open, and +the March night wind whistled over us. I took off my boots +to ease my swollen feet; took my coat off that I might spread it +over my chest as a counterpane; and struggled in vain to work a +hole for my feet into the hard knotted bank of hay. So I +spent the night, just so much not asleep that I was always +conscious, dimly, of the snoring of the baker, and awoke +sometimes to wonder what the landlord’s cock had supped +upon, for it was continually crowing in its sleep, on the +barn-floor below. When morning broke we rose and had a +brisk wash at the pump, scraped the mud from our boots, and +breakfasted. The baker and I had plain dry bread and hot +coffee. The tinman breakfasted on milk. He said it +was better—poor fellow! he knew it was cheaper. By +<!-- page 40--><a name="page40"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +40</span>seven o’clock we were all afoot again, the baker +journeying to Hamburg, the tinman and I road-companions to +Lübeck.</p> +<p>At noon, after a five hours’ walk, a pleasant roadside +inn with a deep gable roof and snug curtains behind its lattice +windows, tempted me to rest and dine. “We shall get a +good dinner here,” I said; “let us go +in.” The tinman would hear of no such thing. +“We must get on to Lübeck,” he replied. +“Two more hours of steady walking and we shall be +there.” Poor youth! At Lübeck he could +demand a dinner at his herberge, and he had no chance of any +other. So we trudged on till the tall turrets and steeples +of Lübeck rose on the horizon. The tinman desired to +know what my intentions were. Was I going straight on to +Berlin without working? Should I seek work at +Lübeck? If not, of course I would take the +<i>viaticum</i>. “I thought not,” I told +him. “Ah, then,” he said, “you have some +money.” The viaticum is the tramp-money that may be +claimed from his guild by the travelling workman. Germans, +like other people, like to take pills gilded, and so they cloak +the awkward incident of poverty under a Latin name.</p> +<p>Lübeck being in sight we sat down upon a grassy bank to +make our toilet. A tramp’s knapsack always has little +pouches at the side for soap, brushes, and blacking. We +were not so near to the tall steeples as we thought, and it took +us a good hour and a half before we reached the city gates. +The approaches are through pretty avenues of young trees and +ornamental flower-plots. The town entrance at which we +arrived was simply a double iron gate, like a park gate in +England. As we were about to pass in, the sentinel beckoned +and pointed us towards a little whitened watchbox, at which we +stopped to hand our papers through a pigeon-hole. In a few +minutes the police officer came out, handed to me my passport +with great politeness, and in a sharp voice bade the tinman +follow him. Such is the difference between a passport and a +wander-book. I, owner of a passport, might go whither I +would: tinman, carrying a wander-book, was marched off by the +police to his appointed house of call. I took full +advantage of my liberty, and, as became a weary young man with +two gold ducats in his fob, went to recruit my strength with the +best dinner I could get. Having taken off my knapsack and +my blouse, I soon, therefore, was indulging in a lounge upon the +sofa of one of the best hotels in the sleepy and old-fashioned +free city of Lübeck.</p> +<h2><!-- page 41--><a name="page41"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +41</span>CHAPTER VIII.</h2> +<p class="gutsumm"><span class="smcap">lübeck to +berlin</span>.</p> +<p>By right of churches full of relics, antique buildings, and +places curiously named, Lübeck is, no doubt, a jewel of a +town to antiquarians. Its streets are badly paved, but +infinitely cleaner than the streets of Hamburg. I did not +much wonder at that, for I saw no people out of doors to make +them dirty, when I exposed myself to notice from within doors as +a solitary pedestrian, upon my way to take a letter to a +goldsmith in the market place. The market place is a kind +of exchange; a square building with an open court in the centre, +around which there is a covered way roofed quaintly with carved +timbers. In this building the mechanical trades of +Lübeck are collected, each trade occupying a space +exclusively its own under the colonnade. Here, all the +tradesmen are compelled to work, but are not permitted to +reside. Each master has his tiny shop-front with a trifling +show of goods exposed in it, and his small workshop behind, in +which, at most, two or three men can be employed. In some +odd little nooks the doors of these boxes are so arranged, that +two masters cannot go out of adjoining premises at the same time +without collision.</p> +<p>Though my friend in Lübeck was a stranger, as a brother +jeweller he gave me friendly welcome. Having inquired into +my resources, he said, “You must take the +<i>viaticum</i>.”—“It is like begging,” I +answered.—“Nonsense,” he replied; “you +pay for it when you are in work, and have a right to it when +travelling.”—“But I might find employment, on +inquiry.”—“Do not be alarmed, my friend; there +is not a job to be done in the whole city.” I was +forced, therefore, by my friend’s good-natured earnestness, +to make the usual demand throughout the little group of +goldsmiths, and having thus satisfied the form, I was conducted +to our Guild alderman and treasurer. A little quiet +conversation passed between them, and the cash-box was then +emptied out into my hand; <!-- page 42--><a +name="page42"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 42</span>it contained +twenty-eight Hamburg shillings, equal to two shillings in English +money.</p> +<p>I returned to my hotel and slept in a good bed that +night. The morning broke heavily, and promised a +day’s rain. Through the lowering weather and the +dismal streets I went to the police office to get my passport +<i>viséd</i> for Schwerin in Mecklenburg. Most +dismal streets! The Lübeckers were complaining of loss +of trade, and yearned for a railway from Lübeck to +Hamburg. But the line would run through a corner of +Holstein, and no such thing would be tolerated by the Duke. +The Lübeckers wanted the Russian traffic to come through +their town and on to Hamburg by rail. The Duke of Holstein +wished to bring it through his little port of Kiel upon the +Baltic.</p> +<p>Too poor to loiter on the road, having got my passport +<i>viséd</i>, I again strapped the knapsack to my back, +and set out through the long avenues of trees over the long, wet +road, through bitter wind and driving rain. Soaked with +rain, and shivering with cold, I entered the village of +Schöneberg at two o’clock, just after the rain had +ceased, as deplorable a figure as a man commonly presents when +all the vigour has been washed out of his face, and his clothes +hang limp and damp about his body. Wearied to death, I +halted at the door of an inn, but was told +inhospitably—miserable tramp as I seemed, and +was—that “I could go to the next house.” +At the next house they again refused me, already humbled, and +advised me to go to The Tall Grenadier. That is a house of +call for masons. I went to it, and was received there +hospitably. My knapsack being waterproof, I could put on +dry clothes, and hang my wet garments round the stove, while the +uproarious masons—terrible men for beer and +music—comforted me with unending joviality. They got +into their hands a book of German songs that dropped out of my +knapsack, and having appointed a reader, set him upon the table +to declaim them. Presently, another jolly mason cried out +over a drinking song—declaimed among the others in a loud +monotonous bawl—“I know that song;” and having +hemmed and tuned his voice a little, broke out into music with +tremendous power. The example warmed the others; they began +to look out songs with choruses, and so continued singing to the +praise of wine and beauty out of my book, until they were warned +home by the host. I climbed a ladder to <!-- page 43--><a +name="page43"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 43</span>my bedroom, +and slept well. The Grenadier was not an expensive hotel, +for in the morning when I paid my bill for bed and breakfast, I +found that the accommodation cost me fourpence-halfpenny.</p> +<p>Since it is my desire not to fatigue the reader of this +uneventful narrative, but simply to illustrate by a few notes +drawn from my own experience the life of a German workman on the +tramp, I shall now pass over a portion of the road between +Hamburg and Berlin in silence. My way lay through Schwerin; +from Schöneberg to Schwerin is twenty-six English miles, and +we find it a long way. In reckoning distances, the Germans +count by “stunden”—<i>i.e.</i> hours—and +two “stunden” make one German mile. From +experience, I should say that five miles English were about equal +to one mile German; but they vary considerably. Having +spent a night in the exceedingly neat city of Schwerin beside its +pleasant waters, and under the protection of the cannon in the +antiquated castle overhead, I set out for a walk of twenty miles +onward to Ludwigslust. The road was a pleasant one, firm +and dry, with trim grass edgings and sylvan seats on either +side. The country itself was flat and dull, enlivened only +now and then by a fir plantation or a pretty village. +Brother tramps passed me from time to time with a cheerful +salutation, and at three o’clock I passed within the new +brick walls of Ludwigslust; a town dignified as a pleasure seat +with a military garrison, a ducal palace, and an English +park.</p> +<p>The inn to which I went in Ludwigslust, was the house of call +for carpenters. The carpenters were there assembled in +great force, laughing, smoking, and enjoying their red wine, +which may have come from France, for Mecklenburg is no wine +country. It was the quarter-day and pay-day of the +carpenters, who were about to celebrate the date as usual with a +supper. I went to sit down in the small travellers’ +room, and was assailed instantly by the whole army of joiners, +some with bleared eyes; with flushed faces under caps of every +shape and colour; and a flexible pipe hanging from every +mouth—Who was I?—What was I?—Whence did I +come?—Where was I born? and whither was I going? etc., +etc. When they had found out all about me and confirmed +their knowledge by examination of my passport, which one dull dog +persisted in regarding as a book of ballads, out of which he +sang, I began to ask concerning food. “Nothing warm +in the house,” said the housefather, a carpenter +himself. “There will be a grand supper at six <!-- +page 44--><a name="page44"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +44</span>o’clock, and everything and everybody is wanted in +the preparation of it. Make yourself easy for the present +with brown bread and dripping, and a glass of beer, and then you +can make your dinner with us when we sup.” That +suited me well enough.</p> +<p>The carpenters flowed out into the street, to take a stroll +and get their appetites, leaving behind them one besotted man, +who propped himself against the oven, and there gave himself a +lecture on the blessings of equanimity under all circumstances of +distress.</p> +<p>“Do you sleep here to-night?” inquired the +host. Certainly, I desired to do so. “Then you +must go to the police bureau for a +permission.”—“But you have my passport; is not +that sufficient?”—“Not in Ludwigslust; your +passport must be held by the police, and they will give you in +exchange for it a ticket, which I must hold, or else I dare not +let you have a lodging.” I went to the police office +at once; through the ill-paved street into the middle of the +town. I went by a large gravelled square, which serves as a +riding ground for the cavalry in the adjoining barracks; and a +long broad street of no great beauty, ending in a flight of +steps, led me then to the police office, and would have led me +also, had that been my destination, to the ducal palace. +The palace fronts to a paved square; it is a massive, noble +edifice of stone, having before it a fine cascade with a treble +fall. To the left, across a green meadow, I observed the +church—the only church—a simple whitewashed building +with a colonnaded front. At the foot of the low flight of +steps was the police office, in which I found one man, who +civilly copied my passport into a book, put it aside, and gave me +a ticket of permission to remain one night in Ludwigslust. +I was desired to call for my passport before leaving in the +morning.</p> +<p>At seven o’clock there was no sign of supper. At +eight o’clock the cloth was spread in a long, low +lumber-room at the back of the inn, and the assembled carpenters +took their seats before the board, or rather boards supported +upon tressels. I took my place and waited hungrily. +Very soon there was a great steam over the whole table sent up +from huge tureens of boiled potatoes; smaller dishes of preserved +prunes, boiled also, occupied the intervals. A bottle of +red wine was placed for every two men. We then began our +meal with soup; thin, sorry stuff. Then came the chief +dishes, baked veal and baked pig’s head. The prunes +were to be eaten with the veal, which meat, having been first +boiled to make the soup, and then baked in a deep dish in a close +oven to bring out some of the <!-- page 45--><a +name="page45"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 45</span>faded +flavour, was a sodden mass, and the whole meal was removed a very +long way from the roast fillet of veal and pickled pork known to +an Englishman. Our pig’s head was, however, +capital,—no soup had been made out of that. The +carpenters, with assiduous kindness, heaped choice bits upon my +plate, and as I had not dined, I supped with energy. The +drunken man who had fallen asleep by the stove sat by my side +with greedy looks, eating nothing, for he had not paid his share; +he was a man who drank away his gains, and he received no +pity.</p> +<p>Then after supper there came toasts. The president was +on his legs, all glasses were filled; men ready. +“Long live the Guild of carpenters! Vivat +h—o!” The ho! was a howl; the glasses clashed. +“Long live all carpenters! Vivat +ho—o!” At ten o’clock there was a bustle +and confusion at the door, and a long string of lads marched, two +and two, cap in hand, into the room. These were all the +carpenters’ apprentices in Ludwigslust. Every +quarterly night the hospitable carpenters have them in after +supper to be regaled with beer and cordials, and initiated into +the mysteries of jollity that are connected with the existence of +a master carpenter. “Long live all carpenters’ +apprentices! Vivat ho—o—o!” The +apprentices having revelled in as much beer and spirits as could +be got through, shouting included, in a quarter of an hour, +formed double line again, and marched out under a fire of lusty +cheers into the street. Some jolly carpenters still +lingered in the supper room, smoking or singing choruses, or +making partners of each other for mad waltzes round the table to +the music of their tongues.</p> +<p>Longing for bed, I was obliged to wait until the landlord was +at leisure to attend to me. After I rose next morning, I +waited for three hours impatiently enough until the sleepy host +had risen; for until I had received my ticket back from him I was +unable to get my passport and go on. At length, however, I +got out of the brick walls of Ludwigslust, and marched forward +under a clear sky on the way to Perleberg, my next stage, distant +about fifteen English miles.</p> +<p>Having passed through two dirty, ill-paved towns, and being in +some uncertainty about the road, I asked my way of a short, +red-faced man who, being himself bound for the frontier station, +favoured me so far with his company. He was a post-boy +whose vocation was destroyed, but who was nevertheless blessed +with <!-- page 46--><a name="page46"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +46</span>philosophy enough to recognise the merits of the railway +system, and to point out the posts marking the line between +Berlin and Hamburg, with the comment that “the world must +move.” It seemed to be enough for him that he lived +in the recollection of the people on his old road-side, and that +he could stop with me outside a toll-gate, the first I had seen +in Germany, sure of the production of a bottle for a social dram, +in which I cordially joined. Then presently we came to a +small newly-built village, the Prussian military station. A +sentinel standing silent and alone by his sentry box striped with +the Prussian colours, black and white, marked where the road +crossed the Prussian frontier. We passed unchallenged, and +found dinner upon the territory of the Black Eagle, in a very +modest house of entertainment.</p> +<p>Travelling alone onward to Perleberg, I stopped once more for +refreshment at a melancholy, dirty place, having one common room, +of which the chairs and tables contained as much heavy timber as +would build a house. I wanted an hour’s rest, for my +knapsack had become a burden to me, and the handles of the few +tools I was obliged to carry dug themselves relentlessly into my +back. “White or brown beer?” asked the +attendant. Dolt that I was to answer Brown! They +brought me a vile treacley compound that I could not drink; +whereas the Berlin white beer is a famous effervescing liquor; so +good, says a Berliner, that you cannot distinguish it from +champagne if you drink it rapidly with closed eyes, and at the +same time press your nose between your fingers. In the +evening I got to Perleberg, and walking wearily up the old, +irregular High Street, established myself at the Londoner +Schenke—the London Tavern. I found the parlour +pleasant and almost private, the hostess quiet and +lady-like. While she was getting coffee ready for me, I +paid my call of duty upon the police; for though my passport had +been <i>viséd</i> to Berlin in half a dozen places, the +law required that I should not sleep in a new kingdom without +first announcing my arrival.</p> +<p>At the upper end of the market place I found a red brick +building with a gloomy door, opening upon a broad stone +staircase, by which I mounted to the magistrate’s +room. That was a lofty hall, badly lighted by two little +windows, and scantily furnished with a few seats. Behind a +railing sat the magistrate in a velvet skull-cap and black robe; +a short fat man with a satisfied face, but unsatisfied and +restless eyes. Two armed soldiers shared with him the space +beyond the rail. Two townsmen, hat in hand, were patiently +<!-- page 47--><a name="page47"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +47</span>waiting for their passes. Having mentioned my +business, I was told that I might wait; standing, of +course. The heavy quiet of the room was broken presently by +the entrance of two young workmen in clean blouses, bound upon an +errand like my own, who hovered in a tremulous condition near the +doorway.</p> +<p>The magistrate of Perleberg, after awhile, looked at my +passport, and asked “Have you the requisite amount of +travelling money to show?” I had not expected such a +question, but the two gold ducats were still in my fob, and I +produced them with the air of a fine gentleman. One of the +soldiers took them in his hand, examined them and passed them to +his comrade, who passed them to the townspeople. +“They are good,” said the soldier, as he put them +back into my hand.—“Is that enough?” I asked, +as though there had been thousands of such things about other +parts of my person, for I saw that I had made an +impression. “That will do,” said the +magistrate, “you may sit down.” O miserable +homage before wealth! They would not keep me standing.</p> +<p>It had grown dark, and a lighted candle had been placed upon +the desk of the chief magistrate, a most diligent man in his +office, who, seeing no description of my person in the passport, +set to work with the zest of an artist upon the depiction of my +features. Examining each feature minutely with a candle, he +put down the results of his researches, and then finally read off +his work to me with this note at the bottom—“The +little finger of his left hand is crooked.”</p> +<p>The hostess of the London Tavern, when I got back to my +quarters, must have heard about my wealth. That pleasant +little maiden lady told me all about her house, and how it had +been named afresh after the King of Prussia slept there on his +way to London, where he was to act as sponsor to the Prince of +Wales. I, who had been turned away from the doors of the +humblest inns, was flattered and courted by a landlady who had +entertained His Majesty of Prussia. The neatest of +chambermaids conducted me to an elegant +bedchamber—“her own room,” the little old maid +had said as I left her—and there I slept upon the couch +sacred to her maiden meditations, among hangings white as +snow.</p> +<p>The next morning I went out into Perleberg,—a ricketty +old place, full of rats and legends. There is a colossal +figure in the market-place of an armed knight, eighteen or twenty +feet high, gazing eternally into the fruit baskets below. +He has his head uncovered, his hand upon his sword, and is made +of stone; but who he <!-- page 48--><a name="page48"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 48</span>is nobody seemed to know; I was only +told that the statue would turn any one to stone who fixed his +eyes upon it in intense gaze for a sufficiently long time. +I visited the chief jeweller, a wonderful man, who was said to +have visited nearly all parts of the known world except London +and Paris. I found him with one workman, very busy, but not +doing much; and he was very civil, although manifestly labouring +under the fear that I had come to ask for a +“<i>viaticum</i>.” I did not. I went back +to eat a hearty breakfast at the London Tavern, where I found the +mistress gracious, and the handmaid very chatty and +coquettish. From her talk I half concluded that I was +believed to be an Englishman who travelled like a journeyman for +the humour of the thing: the English are so odd, and at the +London Tavern they had not been without experience of English +ways. My display of the gold pieces must have been +communicated to them overnight, by one of the townspeople who +heard me tell the magistrate at what inn I was staying.</p> +<p>From Perleberg to Keritz was eighteen miles. Upon the +road I came up with a poor fellow limping pitiably. He had +a flat wooden box upon his back, being a tramping glazier; and he +made snail’s progress, having his left thigh swollen by +much walking. I loitered with him as long as my time +allowed, and then dashed on to recover the lost ground. +Passing at a great pace a neat road-side inn, singing the while, +a jolly red face blazed out upon me from the lattice +window. “Ei da! You are merry. Whither so +fast?”—“To Berlin.”—“Wait an +instant and I’m with you.” Two odd figures +tumbled almost at the end of the instant out of the house +door. One a burly man with a red face and a large +moustache, the other a chalky young man with a pair of Wellington +boots slung round his neck. They were both native Prussians +on the way from Hamburg to Berlin, having come through Magdeburg, +travelling, they declared, at the rate of about six-and-twenty +English miles a day. These Prussians will talk; but at +whatever rate my friends might have travelled, they were nearly +dead beat. They had sent on their knapsacks by the waggon, +finding them unmercifully heavy. The stout traveller had a +white sack over his shoulders, his trousers tucked up to his +knees, and his Wellington boots cut down into ankle-jacks to ease +his chafed shins, that were already dotted with hectic red spots +from over-exertion. His young friend carried his best +Wellingtons about his neck, and wore a pair of cracked boots, +through which I could see the colour, in some places, <!-- page +49--><a name="page49"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 49</span>of +his dark blue socks, in other places of his dark red flesh. +Both were lamed by the same cause, inflammation of the front of +the leg, in which part I also had begun to feel some +smartings.</p> +<p>We got on merrily, in spite of our legs, and overtook two very +young travellers, whom I recognised as the flutterers before the +presence of the magistrate at Perleberg. One proved to be a +bookbinder, the other a wood-turner. They were fresh upon +their travels, and their clean white blouses, the arrangements of +their knapsacks, and the little neatnesses and comforts here and +there about them, showed that they had not yet travelled many +days’ march from a mother’s care. Then we +toiled on, until our elder friend grew worse and worse about his +feet, laughing and joking himself out of pain as he was +able. Finally, he could go no farther, and we waited until +we could send him forward in a passing cart.</p> +<p>He being dispatched, we travelled on, I and my friend with the +boot-necklace, till we met a little crowd of men in blouses, +little queer caps, knapsacks, and ragged beards, all carrying +sticks. They were travelling boys like ourselves, bound +from Berlin to Hamburg. “Halloo!” they +cried. “Halloo!” we answered, shouting in +unison as we approached each other. When we met, a little +friendly skirmish with our sticks was the first act of +greeting. A storm of questions and replies then +followed. We all knew each other in a few minutes; +carpenters, turners, glovers were there,—not a jeweller +among them but myself. We parted soon, for time was +precious. “Love to Berlin,” cried one of them +back to us. “My compliments to Hamburg,” I +replied; and then we all struck up an amatory chorus of the +“Fare thee well, love” species, that fitted properly +with our position.</p> +<p>Continuing upon our way we found our lame companion smoking a +pipe comfortably outside the village inn at Warnow. His +cart was resting there for bait to man and horse. We baited +also and discussed black bread-and-butter, and Berlin white beer, +till the cart carried away our moustachioed friend, never again, +perhaps, to meet us in this world, and not likely to be +recognised by his moustachios in the other.</p> +<p>My chalky comrade, who was also very lame, lay on the ground +in a desperate condition before the day was over, and it was with +some difficulty that I brought him safe by nightfall into +Wusterhausen. He had become also mysterious, and evidently +inquisitive <!-- page 50--><a name="page50"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 50</span>as to the state of my finances, +exhibiting on his own part hasty glimpses of a brass medal +wrapped up in fine wool, which he wished me to look upon as a +double ducat. When we got to the inn-door, my friend made a +hurried proposition very nervously, which made his purpose +clear. There were sixty English miles of road between us +and Berlin; he was knocked up, and a fast coach, or rumbling +omnibus, accommodating six insides, would start for Berlin in the +morning. He thought he could bargain with the coachman to +take us to Berlin for a dollar—three shillings—a +piece, if I did not mind advancing his fare, because he did not +want to change the double ducat until he got home. I put no +difficulty in his way, for he was a good fellow, and moreover +would be well able to help me in return, by telling me the +addresses of some people I depended upon finding in Berlin. +He proceeded, therefore, into the agonies of bargaining, and was +not disappointed in his expectation. At the price of a +dollar a-piece we were packed next morning in a frowsy vehicle, +tainted with much tobacco-smoke, to which he came with his +swollen feet pressed only half-way down into the legs of his best +Wellingtons. The ride was long and dull, for there was +little prospect to be caught through the small, dirty window; and +the air tasted of German tinder. From a cottage villa on +the roadside, a German student added himself to the three +passengers that started from Wusterhausen. He came to us +with a pipe in his mouth, unwashed, and hurriedly swaddled in a +morning gown, carelessly tied with a cord about the middle. +After a few miles travelling the vehicle was full, and remained +full—until we at last reached Berlin.</p> +<p>There I found no work, and wandered listlessly through the +museums and picture-galleries; for a troubled mind is a poor +critic in works of art. So I squeezed myself into the +Police Court, meaning to leave Berlin, and had the distinction of +being beckoned, before my turn out of the reeking mass of +applicants for passports, because my clothes had a respectable +appearance, and I wore a showy pin in my cravat.</p> +<h2><!-- page 51--><a name="page51"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +51</span>CHAPTER IX.</h2> +<p class="gutsumm"><span class="smcap">berlin</span>.—<span +class="smcap">our herberge</span>.</p> +<p>Fairly in Prussia! We have passed the frontier town of +Perleberg, and press onward in company with a glovemaker of +Berlin, last from Copenhagen, whom we have overtaken on the road +towards Wusterhausen.</p> +<p>“Thou wouldst know, good friend, the nature of my +prospects in Berlin when I arrive there? Have I letters of +recommendation—am I provided in case of the worst? +Brother, not so! I am provided for nothing. I dare +the vicissitudes of fortune. I had a friend in Hamburg, a +Frenchman, who departed thence five months ago for Berlin, under +a promise to write to me at the lapse of a month. He has +never written, and he is my hope. That is all. Let us +go on.”</p> +<p>“I have a cousin,” says the glovemaker, “who +is a jeweller in Berlin. I will recommend you to him. +His name is Kupferkram.”</p> +<p>“Strange! I knew a Kupferkram in Hamburg; a short, +sallow man, with no beard.”</p> +<p>“A Prussian?”</p> +<p>“Yes.”</p> +<p>“It cannot be that my cousin was in Hamburg and I not +know it. I was there twelve months.”</p> +<p>“Why not? A German will be anywhere in the course +of twelve months except where you expect to find him.”</p> +<p>“His name is Gottlob—Gottlob +Kupferkram.”</p> +<p>“The very man! Does he not lisp like a child, and +his father sell sausages in the stadt?”</p> +<p>“Donnerwetter! Ja!”</p> +<p>This may not appear to be of much importance, but to me it is +everything; for upon the discovery of this vender of sausages +depends my meeting with my best and only friend in Berlin, +Alcibiade Tourniquet, of Argenteuil, the Frenchman before +mentioned. It is at least a strange coincidence.</p> +<p><!-- page 52--><a name="page52"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +52</span>We came into the capital of Prussia in the eil-wagen +from Wusterhausen. We had tramped the previous day a +distance of good two-and-thirty English miles, through a flat, +uninteresting country, and being dead beat, had made an anxious +bargain with the driver of the “Fast-coach,” to carry +us to Berlin for a dollar a-head. It was late in the +evening as we rumbled heavily along the dusty road, and through +the long vista of thick plantations which skirt the public way as +you enter the city from Spandau. We dismounted, cramped and +weary, from our vehicle, and my companion, a native of Berlin, +unwilling to disturb his friends at that late hour, and in his +then travel-worn guise; and I myself being unknown and unknowing +in the huge capital, led the way at once to “Our +Herberge.”</p> +<p>The English term “House of Call” is but an +inadequate translation of the German +“Herberge.” It must be remembered that the +German artisan is ruled in everything by the state; for while +English workmen, by their own collective will, raise up their +trade or other societies, in whatever form or to whatever purpose +their intelligence or their caprices may dictate to them, the +German, on the contrary, discovers among his very first +perceptions that his position and treatment in the world is +already fixed and irrevocable. He becomes numbered and +labelled from the hour of his birth, and the gathering items of +his existence are duly recorded—not in the annals of +history—but in the registry of the police. Thus he +finds that the State, in the shape of his Zunft or Guild, is his +Sick Benefit Club and his Burial Society, his Travellers’ +Fund and his Trade Roll-Call; aspires indeed to be everything he +ought to desire, and certainly succeeds in being a great deal +that he does not want.</p> +<p>I have a little paper at my hand presented to me by the police +of Dresden, which may help to elucidate the question of +associations of workmen in Germany. It is an +“Ordinance” by which “We, Frederick Augustus, +by God’s grace King of Saxony, &c., &c., make known +to all working journeymen the penalties to which they are liable +should they take part in any disallowed ‘workmen’s +unions, tribunals, or declarations;’” the said +penalties having been determined on by the various governments of +the German Union. “Independently,” says the +Ordinance, “of the punishment” (not named) +“which may be inflicted for the offence, the delinquent +shall be deprived of his papers, which shall be sealed up and +sent to his home Government. On his release from prison(!) +he shall <!-- page 53--><a name="page53"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 53</span>receive a restricted pass for his +immediate and direct return home; and on his arrival there he +shall be strictly confined within its limits, nor ever be +permitted to travel into the other states of the German Union, +until by a long course of repentance and good behaviour his home +government may think him worthy of such a favour.” It +will easily be understood from this that mechanics’ or +other institutions, independent of the government, are +unknown.</p> +<p>The German Herberge is the home of the travelling +workman. It should be clean and wholesome; there should he +be provided, together with simple and nutritious food, every +necessary information connected with his trade, and such aid and +reasonable solace as his often wearisome pilgrimage +requires. All this is to be rendered at a just and +remunerative price, and it is usually supposed that the +fulfilment of these requisites is guaranteed by the care and +surveillance of the police. But this is a fiction.</p> +<p>Our Herberge is in the Schuster-gasse; and a vile, +ill-conditioned, uncleanly den it is; nor, I am sorry to say, are +its occupants, in appearance at least, unworthy of their +abode. But we must not be uncharitable; it is a hard task +this tramping through the length and breadth of the land; and he +is a smart fellow who can keep his toilet in anything like decent +condition amid the dust, the wind, the pelting rain or the +weltering sunshine that beset and envelope him on the implacable +high road. As there is no help, we take our places among +the little herd of weary mortals without a murmur; among the +ragged beards and uncombed locks; the soiled blouses and +travel-worn shoe-leather; the horny hands and embrowned visages +of our motley companions. We are duly marshalled to bed at +eight o’clock with the rest; huddled into our loft where +nine beds await some sixteen occupants; and having undergone the +customary examination as to our freedom from disease and vermin, +are safely locked in our dormitory, to be released only at the +good will of the “Vater” in the morning.</p> +<p>Your German is truly a patient animal; the laws of his Guild +compel him to wander for a period of years, but the laws of his +country do not provide him with even the decencies of life upon +the road. With his humble pack, and his few hoarded +dollars, he sets forth upon the road of life; he is bullied and +hustled by the police upon every step of his journey; burdened +with vexatious regulations at every halting-place; and while the +law forbids him to seek any other shelter than that of his +Herberge, it leaves it to the <!-- page 54--><a +name="page54"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 54</span>mercy of his +host to yield him the worst fare, spread for him the vilest +litter, and to filch him of his scanty savings in the +bargain. What, in Heaven’s name! are the +accommodations for which we in the Schuster-gasse are called upon +to pay? There is the common room with its rude benches and +tables; a stone-paved court-yard with offices, doubtless at one +period appropriated as stabling, but the ground floor of which is +now penned off for some few choice biped occupants; while the +story above, reached by a railed ladder, and, in fact, no more +than a stable loft, is nightly crammed to the door with +sweltering humanity. For the purpose of cleanliness there +is no other toilette apparatus than the iron pump in the yard; +and for the claims of nature and decency, no better resource than +is afforded by the sheltering arch of the nearest bridge over the +Spree.</p> +<p>The goldsmiths and jewellers in Berlin are too inconsiderable +a body to have a Herberge of their own, and therefore we crowd in +with the turners, the carpenters, and the smiths; the +glove-makers, bookbinders, and others who claim the hospitalities +of the asylum in the Schuster-gasse. Let us take a sketch +or two among them that may serve as a sample of the whole.</p> +<p>We have a sturdy young carpenter from Darmstadt, bound to +Vienna, or wherever else he may find a resting-place, who makes +his morning and almost only meal of <i>Kümmel</i>—corn +spirit prepared with caraways—and brown bread; and whose +great exploit and daily exercise is that of lifting the great +table in the common room with his teeth. An iron-jawed +fellow he is, with every muscle in his well-knit body to +match. Fortunately, though a Goliath in strength, he is as +simple-minded and joyous as a child.</p> +<p>Then comes a restless pigmy of a Hungarian, a jeweller, last +from Dresden, full of life and song, but who complains ruefully +that the potatoes of Berlin are violently anti-dyspeptic. +This suffering wanderer from the banks of the Theiss is also +vehemently expressive in his opinion that the indiscriminate use +of soap is injurious to the skin, and, as a matter of principle, +never uses any.</p> +<p>Near him stands a lank native of Lübeck, a fringe-maker, +whose whole pride and happiness is concentrated in his ponderous +staff of pilgrimage; a patriarchal wand, indeed! rightly +bequeathed as an heirloom from father to son, and in its state +and appearance not unworthy of the reverence with which it is +regarded. It is no flimsy cane to startle flies with, but a +stout stem some six feet long, duly peeled, <!-- page 55--><a +name="page55"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 55</span>scraped and +polished, and mounted with a chased head of massive silver.</p> +<p>Close by his side an effeminate leather-dresser from Carlsruhe +sits stroking his yellow goat’s beard. Instead of +strapping his knapsack to his back like a stalwart youth, after +the manly fashion of his forefathers when on the tramp, he +trundles behind him as he goes, a little iron chaise loaded with +his pack and worldly equipage.</p> +<p>There broods a sombre cordwainer from Bremen, gloating over +his enormous pipe, in form and size like a small barrel, raising +an atmosphere for himself of the fumes of coarse uncut +<i>knaster</i>. He has doffed his white kittel (blouse), +and has wriggled himself into a short-waisted, long-skirted, +German frock-coat, which, having been badly packed in his +knapsack, exhibits every crease and wrinkle it has acquired +during a three weeks’ march. Know, friend, that the +skilful folding of apparel, to be worn on his arrival in every +important town, is one of the necessary acquirements of the +German wanderer.</p> +<p>Add to these a rollicking saddler from Heldesheim, who figures +in a full beard, a rich cluster of crisp, brown curls, his own +especial pride, and the object of deep envy to his less hirsute +companions; and who, far too fond of corn brandy-wine, goes about +singing continually the song of the German tramp, “<i>Ich +Liebe das liederliche Leben</i>!”—This vagabond life +I delight in!—an earnest, quiet student, who, for reasons +of economy, has made the Schuster-gasse his place of refuge; and +a dishevelled button-maker, last from Hamburg, who has just +received his geschenck, or trade-gift, amounting to fifteen +silver groschens, about eighteenpence in English money; and who +ponders drearily over it as it lies in the palm of his hand, +wondering how far this slender sum will carry him on the road to +Breslau, his native place, still some two hundred miles away.</p> +<p>We have among us the wily and the simple, the boisterous and +the patient, the taciturn and the unruly; but though they will +sing songs before they go to sleep, and swagger enormously among +themselves, they become as still and meek as doves at the voice +of the Herberges-Vater (the father of the Herberge), and quake +like timid mice beneath the eye of the police.</p> +<h2><!-- page 56--><a name="page56"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +56</span>CHAPTER X.</h2> +<p class="gutsumm"><span class="smcap">a street in +berlin</span>.</p> +<p>Berlin is a fine city, let the wise Germans of the East say +what they will. It may be deficient in those monumental +records of “the good old times,” the crumbling +church, the thick-walled tower, the halls and dungeons of feudal +barbarism, but it abounds with evidences of the vigour and life +of modern taste and skill; and instead of daily sinking into +rotten significance, like some of its elder brethren, is hourly +growing in beauty and strength. It has all the attributes +of a great city—spacious “places,” handsome +edifices, broad and well-paved streets. Its monuments, +while they are evidences of great cultivation in the arts, tell +of times and events just old enough to be beyond the ken of our +own experiences, yet possess all the truth and vividness of +recent history. “Der Alter Fritz,” Blucher, +Zieten, Seyditz, Winterfeldt, Keith, and “Der Alter +Dessauer”—what names are these in Prussian story!</p> +<p>The entrance into Berlin, on the western side, from Spandau, +by the Brandenburger Gate, is the finest that the capital of +Prussia has to present. A thickly-planted wood skirts the +road for a mile or two before you reach the city. The trees +are dwarfed and twisted, for they cannot grow freely in the +dense, eternal sands of this part of North Germany, but they form +a rough fringing to the white road; while the noble gate itself, +built of massive stone in the Doric order of architecture, and +surmounted by an effective group of a four-horse chariot, within +which stands the figure of Victory raising the Roman eagle above +the almost winged steeds, might grace the entrance to the city of +the Cæsars.</p> +<p>This Brandenburger Thor, as it is called, is a copy of the +Propylæa of the Acropolis of Athens, but built on a much +grander scale. The central gate is of iron, eighteen feet +high; of the fourteen land gates of Berlin it is immeasurably the +finest, and it acquires a still deeper interest when some +enthusiastic Berliner, pointing to the prancing steeds upon the +summit of the arch, tells you how Napoleon in his admiration had +ordered this self-same group to be transported to <!-- page +57--><a name="page57"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 57</span>Paris +in 1807, to ornament a French “<i>arch de +triomphe</i>,” and how “We, the Prussians,” had +torn the spoil from the eagle’s very nest in 1814, to +replant it on its original site. A glow of military ardour +flushes over your heart at the recital, and the echoes of a +hundred battles thunder in your ears.</p> +<p>Through this gate, which is in the Dorotheen Stadt, after +crossing the Square of Paris, we enter upon one of the handsomest +streets in the world, and one bearing the most poetical of +titles: “Unter-den-Linden,”—“Under the +Lime Trees!”—there is something at once charming and +imposing in the very sound. Nor is this appellation an +empty fiction, for there stand the lime trees themselves, in two +double rows with their delicate green leaves rustling in the +breeze, forming a two-fold verdant allée, vigorous and +fragrant, down the centre of the street, and into the very heart +of the city. Unter-den-Linden itself is two thousand seven +hundred and fifty-four feet in length, and one hundred and +seventy-four in width; but it extends, under another title, for a +much greater distance. This is the summer evening’s +ramble of your true Berliner, and not a little proud and pompous +he is as he parades himself and family beneath the leafy canopy; +and here, in the snowy winters, when the city lies half buried in +the snowdrift, the gaily dressed sleighs go skimming under the +leafless branches, filling the bright cold air with the music of +their bells.</p> +<p>As we proceed deeper into the city, we find gay shops and +stately houses. A noble range of buildings appropriated to +the foreign embassies rises upon the left hand, and is succeeded +by the Royal Academy; while some distance beyond stands the +University, an edifice of a rather sombre appearance, although +graced with columns and pilasters of the Corinthian order. +To enter it you traverse a spacious court-yard, and it may be +that the nature of its contents impart a melancholy character to +the building itself; for, on ascending its stone staircase, and +wandering for a brief period among its bottles and cases, its wax +models and human preserves, we find them of so unsightly and +disgusting a character that we are happy to regain the echoing +corridor which had led us into this huge, systematised +charnel-house.</p> +<p>As we cross to the opposite side of the broad street, the +Royal Library faces us; a massive temple of stored knowledge, +polyglot and universal; while to the right of it, in the centre +of a paved space of considerable extent, stands the Catholic +church of St. Hedwig, <!-- page 58--><a name="page58"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 58</span>at once a model of Roman +architecture, and the emblem of the liberty of faith.</p> +<p>Close at hand is the Opera-house, once already purified by +fire, like so many of its companion edifices, and only lately +rebuilt. Some idea may be formed of the extent of its +interior from the fact that it affords accommodation for three +thousand spectators. Our way lies onward still. What +noble figure is this? Simple but commanding in character +and attitude, it fixes your attention at once. Look at the +superscription. Upon a scroll on its pedestal are the words +“Frederick William III. to Field Marshal Prince Blucher of +Wahlstatt, in the year 1826.” Yes! the impetuous +soldier, figured in eternal bronze by the first sculptor of +Prussia, Rauch himself, here claims and receives the admiration +of his countrymen. Bare-headed stands the old warrior, but +is duly crowned with laurels on every returning anniversary of +the well remembered day, the 18th of June.</p> +<p>Leaving the sanctuary of the Christian Deity, the heathen +temple of Terpsichore, and the effigy of the renowned soldier, +thus grouped together, we traverse the fine road, and pause for a +moment to look at a severe but elegant structure, erected, we are +told, in exact imitation of a Roman <i>castrum</i>, or fortress, +and therefore eminently in character with the purpose for which +it is intended. The smart Prussian infantry are grouped +about its pillared entrance, which is graced also by two statues +of military celebrities—for this is the royal +guard-house.</p> +<p>“Der Alter Fritz.” “Old +Fred!” This is the familiar title bestowed upon a +great monarch; and there is something in this nickname a thousand +times more telling to the ear and heart of a Prussian than the +stately appellation of “Frederick the Great.” +The former is for their own hearts and homes, the latter for the +world. And for the world also is the noble equestrian +statue upon which we now gaze. It is a question whether a +work of sterling genius does not speak as effectively to the eye +of the uninitiated as to that of the most inveterate stickler for +antecedents of grace and technicalities of beauty. This +statue of Frederick of Prussia tells upon the sense at once, +because it is true to art as established by ancient critics, but +more so, because it is imitated nature, which art too often only +presumes to be, reckoning too much upon fixed rules and +time-honoured dogmas. It is noble and impressive, because +it <!-- page 59--><a name="page59"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +59</span>is <i>like</i>; no antiquated Roman figure in +<i>toga</i> and <i>calcei</i>, but the representation of the +living man.</p> +<p>Das Zeughaus, or arsenal, which we now approach, is a massive +quadrangular building, and the warlike character of its +architectural decorations strikingly indicate the nature of its +contents. We pass through the open gate into an inner +court, and looking round upon the sombre walls which inclose us, +see the fearful faces of dead and dying men, cut in stone, which +the taste or caprice of the architect has considered their +fittest ornament. There is something strangely original and +attractive in the grotesque hideousness of these heads, agonised +with pain, scowling in anger, or frightful with their upturned +eyes in the rigidity of death, all bleached and shadowed as they +are by the vicissitudes of the weather.</p> +<p>Within the arsenal we find walls of glistening steel, columns +of lances, architectural and other devices worked out in dagger +blades and pistol handles; while battered armour and faded +draperies, in the shape of pennons and standards, storm and +battle-tattered, help to make up trophies, and swing duskily in +every corner.</p> +<p>After a rapid survey, we are about to leave this magazine of +Bellona, when we are struck by the sight of an object which +reminds us so completely of one of those “gorgeous +processions” in Eastern “spectacles” at home, +that we wonder for a moment whether it be “part of the +play,” or tangible, sober reality. Yes! placed upon a +scarlet cushion lies an enormous gilt key (such a one as clown in +the pantomime might open his writing-desk with, or such as hangs +over a locksmith’s door), and above it glistens a golden +legend to the effect that the treasure beneath was presented to +“William of Prussia by his loving cousin, Nicolas, Emperor +of all the Russias,” and is no less a prize than the +identical key of the captured city of Adrianople! Has, +then, the Russian Emperor so many such trophies of Eastern +spoliation that his own museums at Petersburg are insufficient to +contain them?</p> +<p>Up the steep way towards the residence of the Prince of +Prussia, guarded by its zealous sentries, we pursue our course, +and reach the first bridge we have yet seen, being one of the +very many which span the Spree as it meanders through the +city. This river does not present an imposing appearance in +any part of Berlin. The Berliners may shake their heads, +and talk of the “Lange Brücke,” but let them +remember that in no part does the Spree exceed two hundred feet +in width. Moreover, the manner in which it is jammed <!-- +page 60--><a name="page60"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +60</span>up between locks, like a mere canal—one is puzzled +sometimes to know which is canal and which river—does not +improve its appearance, while the use to which some of its +bridges are appropriated does not increase its purity. +Passing onwards we come upon the Schloss Platz, which is itself +half a garden, and find ourselves in the midst of an assemblage +of public wonders—the Museum, the Protestant Cathedral, a +handsome basin and fountain (the pride of the true Berliner), the +Exchange, and the Old Palace.</p> +<p>The Museum stands on the left-hand, gracefully shaded by young +trees. Traversing this miniature grove, which guards its +entrance, and passing by the lofty fountain scattering its spray +upon the leaves, we come upon an elegant vase of gigantic +proportions, sculptured from a solid mass of native +granite. Ascending into the body of the building by a +sombre stone staircase, we reach the Gallery of Antiquities and +the Museum of Paintings. The latter, though no doubt very +valuable, appeals unsatisfactorily to me (not presuming to be a +critic), and is of a peculiarly rigid, ecclesiastical character, +of the early school; certainly one of its chief features is a +crowd of martyred St. Sebastians.</p> +<p>The portion of the Museum appropriated to painting, unlike the +National Gallery of London, and the Pinakothek at Munich, +receives a lateral light. Imagine a long gallery divided +into small cabinets by partitions, which advance only so far from +the outer wall as to leave a commodious passage along its entire +extent; imagine also that each of these cabinets has a lofty +window, and that on its side walls (the partitions) are suspended +the paintings for exhibition,—and you will form something +like a notion of the general arrangement. An effective +<i>ensemble</i> is out of the question; but, on the other hand, +every painting is well lighted, and a better opportunity is +afforded for quiet observation and study.</p> +<p>We descend into the “Platz,” and proceed towards +the palace, a huge rectangular building, striped with columns, +dotted with windows, and blackened as few continental edifices +are.</p> +<p>The palace of the kings of Prussia—few as they have +been—has surely its thrilling historical records. +Doubtless; and through them all the spirit of the <i>one</i> +king, “Der Alter Fritz,” shines, all but +visible. Here did he hold his councils, here sit in private +study; this was his favourite promenade, here did he take his +rest. These details light up the imagination; but when we +have traversed the echoing galleries, admired the gilt mouldings +and the costly <!-- page 61--><a name="page61"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 61</span>hangings, the quaint furniture and +beautiful pictures: when we have, in short, become wrought into +enthusiasm by the clustering memories of a great monarch, by +traits and traditions which fill the very air, what do we see +next? We are ushered into a private chamber, and called +upon to express our especial reverence for a miserable figure, +dressed up in the Great Frederick’s “own +clothes;” seated in his own chair, stuck into his identical +boots; his own redoubtable stick dangling from its splayed +fingers, and the whole contemptible effigy crowned by the very +three-cornered hat and crisp wig he last wore! The spirit +of mountebankism overshadows the spirit of the mighty man, and +his very relics are rendered ridiculous.</p> +<p>We turn from this puppet-show to contemplate with a melancholy +wonder the truly iron records of the almost life-imprisonment of +Baron von Trenck. For here, a silent memorial of at least +one bad act of the Prussian monarch, are iron cups and utensils +engraved with scrolls and legends; the work, not of the skilled +artisan with tempered and well-prepared gravers, but of the +patient hands of a state prisoner with a mere nail sharpened on +the stony walls of his dungeon, and the painful result of long +and weary years. A strange contrast! the waxen image of the +jailer, tricked out in his last garments; the solitary labours of +his captive.</p> +<p>Thinking more of the soldier and less of the king, we quit the +palace and turn on the left hand once more towards the waters of +the Spree. Here is one other monument we must not forget in +our hasty ramble through the main artery of the Prussian +capital. In the centre of the Lange Brücke (the Long +Bridge) stands the bronze figure of the last Elector and Duke of +Brandenburg, Frederick William, the grandfather of Frederick the +Great. It is a well-executed equestrian statue, but to my +mind the four figures clustered round the pediment, on whose +hands still hang the broken chains of slavery, are better works +of art, as well as admirable emblems of the energetic +materials—the oppressed but spirited inhabitants of a few +small states—of which the now powerful kingdom of Prussia +was originally formed.</p> +<p>We might follow the course of the wandering river over whose +waters we now stand, and thus penetrate into the heart of the old +city, but we should find little that was picturesque, and a great +deal that was very unclean. Indeed, in spite of its general +beauty, Berlin is lamentably deficient in the modern and +common-place <!-- page 62--><a name="page62"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 62</span>article, sewerage. But even +this will come; and in the meantime we may well ponder over the +rapid growth of the city, since the brief space of time that has +elapsed since it was the little town of Cologne upon the Spree, +to distinguish it from the then greater one of Cologne upon the +Rhine.</p> +<h2>CHAPTER XI.</h2> +<p class="gutsumm"><span class="smcap">berlin</span>.—<span +class="smcap">police and people</span>.</p> +<p>It may not appear correct to an English reader to couple the +people and the police thus cavalierly together, but in Prussia, +as in the rest of Germany, the police are so completely bound up +in, and their services so entirely devoted to, the every-day +existence, as well as any more prominent acts of the people, that +it is impossible to proceed far with the one without falling into +the company of the other. A few facts may serve to +illustrate this point.</p> +<p>We (Alcibiade and I) are here duly received into the +employment of Herr Stickl, Jeweller to the Court. This may +appear a matter of no importance to any but ourselves; +nevertheless the “Herr” is bound duly to notify the +circumstance to the police, with date and certification, and must +also instruct the Forsteher, or chief of the Guild of goldsmiths +and jewellers, of the matter, that we may be properly registered +by corporation and police. This is item number one. +But I am still unhoused, and here my good friend and +fellow-workman, Alcibiade Tourniquet, native of Argenteuil, +stands me in good stead. Tourniquet claims to be a +Parisian, and has lofty notions about style and +appearances. He lives in Jerusalem Strasse in a grand +house, with a <i>porte cochère</i>, and a wide, scrambling +staircase. He offers me a share in his apartment, which is +light and commodious; and as his landlady generously consents to +provide an additional bed for my accommodation, on condition of +doubling the rent, that matter is satisfactorily arranged. +Alcibiade has experiences to relate, and this is one of them:</p> +<p>“Pense donc!” cries he. “I arrive in +Berlin a perfect stranger. Without work and without +friends, I find living at an hotel too expensive: Bon!—I +look about me for some quiet little chambre <!-- page 63--><a +name="page63"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 63</span>garni, and +finding one to my liking, up a great many stairs, genteelly +furnished, and not too dear, I move myself and my little baggage +into it without further inquiry. Bon! Imagine me on +the first night of residence, snugly coiled up between my two +feather beds in true German fashion, dreaming of la belle France, +and of the grapes at Argenteuil, when rap, rap, rap! comes a +tantamarre at the chamber door, and I start up wide awake all at +once, and hear a shuffling noise outside, and a rough voice which +calls to be admitted. ‘Diable! qu’est que tu +veux, donc?’ I inquire. But before I can make up my +mind whether to admit them or not, crack! goes the door, and half +a dozen Prussian police take my citadel by storm, and surround me +in a moment. I complain indignantly, but it is of no +use. I hurl at them—not my boots—but all the +hard words I know of in their own abominable language, together +with a considerable quantity of good French, but all of no avail; +for they make me dress myself and carry me off bodily with bag +and baggage to the police-bureau. And what was it all +about, pense tu? Just this: they said I had got into a +suspected house, and that it was for my own protection I was made +a prisoner of! Nom de Dieu! that might be all very well, +but there was no necessity to pull me out of bed to take care of +me; and it was not till I had shown that my papers were all <i>en +regle</i>, and threatened an appeal to the French Ambassador, +that they gave me these soft words, and expressed their regret at +my discomfiture. Du reste, what can you expect? they are +only Prussians.” This is item number two.</p> +<p>I too have a little experience of the Prussian Police; let me +relate it. Being regularly domiciled, it was necessary that +I should inform them of my residence. I stand within the +dingy little bureau, and hand over a certificate from my landlord +in proof of my place of habitation. The liveried +functionary casts it back to me, with the curt remark, “It +is imperfect, the year is omitted.” And so it is; and +I trudge back to my landlord to have this rather important +omission rectified. Returning, in haste, I re-present my +document, corrected and revised, for inspection. +“This won’t do,” exclaims the irate registrar +of apartments; “the day of the week should be +mentioned.” Dull-headed landlord! unlucky +lodger!—it should have been written, +“<i>Wednesday</i>, the 19th of,” etc. This +looks something like quibbling, however, and no doubt I express +as much by my countenance as I leave the bureau, and race back to +<!-- page 64--><a name="page64"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +64</span>Jerusalem Strasse once more. For the third time I +offer my credentials. “This will do,” observes +the official, with a ferocious calmness, “but I must have a +duplicate of this, for the convenience of entry and +reference.” Now, by all the gilded buttons on the +best coat of the British Ambassador, this is too bad! and I say +as much. “You have nothing of this sort in England, I +suppose?” sneers the clerk-policeman. “No, +thank Heaven!” I exclaim, as I rush home once more to +obtain the copy of my certificate. This is item the +third. To a Prussian, all this is a mere matter of course, +yet to such a degree does this home interference extend, that the +<i>porte cochère</i> of our grand house, and the door of +every other house in Jerusalem Strasse, is officially closed at +nine o’clock in the evening; and no man can enter his own +residence after that hour without first applying to the +police-watchman, who retains in his keeping, literally and in +fact, the “key of the street.”</p> +<p>While on my way to Berlin, I had been frequently warned by +Germans, natives of other states, of the boastful and deceptive +character of the Prussians. Such was the general opinion +expressed; and although I never found them deceptive, the epithet +of boastful seemed only too truthfully bestowed. A Prussian +is naturally a swaggerer; but then, unfortunately for other +Germans, who are swaggerers too, the Prussian has something to +boast of. He feels and thinks differently to those around +him; for, by the very impetus of his nature, he stands on a +higher position. It is because Prussia has progressed like +a giant, while the rest of Germany has been lagging behind, or +actually losing ground, that every individual in her now large +area seems personally to have aided in the work, and acts and +speaks as if the whole ultimate result depended upon his own +exertions. This naturally leads to exaggeration, both in +words and actions, and your true Berliner figures as a sort of +Ancient Pistol, with more words than he knows properly what to do +with, and more pretensions than he is able to maintain. One +striking characteristic of the people of Berlin is the +Franco-mania, which prevails among all classes. This may be +the result of the decided leaning towards France and its +literature, which was evinced by their almost idolised king, +Frederick the Great; but one would think that the events of the +last war with Napoleon must have effectually obliterated +that. But, no; in their language, their literature, their +places of public amusement, their shops, and promenades, French +words sound in your ears, or meet your eye at every <!-- page +65--><a name="page65"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 65</span>turn; +while the sometimes ridiculous mimicry of French habits forces +itself upon your attention. There would be nothing so very +remarkable in this, if the opinion generally expressed of the +French people were consonant with it; but while the Berliner apes +the Parisian in language and manners, he never fails to express +his derision, and even contempt, for the whole French nation on +every convenient opportunity. I suspect, however, that +these remarks might not inaptly apply to the inhabitants of the +British capital, as well as those of Berlin.</p> +<h2>CHAPTER XII.</h2> +<p class="gutsumm"><span +class="smcap">kreutzberg</span>.—<span class="smcap">a +prussian supper and carouse</span>.</p> +<p>Herr Kupferkram the elder, I have done thee wrong. I +have set thee down as a mere vender of sausages, and lo! thou +holdest tavern and eating-house; dispensing prandial portions of +savoury delicacies in flesh and vegetable, at the charge of six +silver groschens the meal. I beg a thousand pardons; and as +a sincere mark of contrition, will consent to swallow thy dinners +for a while.</p> +<p>“Will the Herrn Tourniquet and Tuci,” said the +Frau Kupferkram one morning, with a duck and a smirk, “do +us the honour of supping with us this evening? There will +be a few friends, for this is the ‘nahmenstag’ of our +dear Gottlob, now in England.”</p> +<p>“Liebe Frau Kupferkram, we shall be +delighted!”</p> +<p>I ought, perhaps, to observe, that in Prussia, although a +Protestant country, the Catholic custom of commemorating the +“saint” rather than the “birth-day,” is +almost universal. The former is called the +“nahmenstag,” or name-day.</p> +<p>But the day is yet “so young,” that nothing short +of the most inveterate gluttony could bend the mind at present +upon the evening’s festivity; and moreover, the Berlin +races have called us from the workshop and the cares of labour, +and our very souls are in the stirrups, eagerly panting for the +sport. My dear reader, how can I describe what I never +saw? Did we not expend two silver groschens in a programme +of the races, and gloat over the spirited <!-- page 66--><a +name="page66"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 66</span>engraving of +a “flying” something, which was its appropriate +heading, and which you would swear was executed somewhere in the +neighbourhood of Holywell Street, Strand? Did we not grow +hotter than even the hot sun could make us, in ploughing through +the sand, and commit some careless uncivilities in struggling +among the crowd that hemmed the course as with a wall? +See? Of course not! Nobody at the Berlin races ever +does see anything but the mounted police and the dust. Yes, +sir, lay out two dollars in a “card” for the grand +stand, and fix it in your hat-band like a turnpike ticket, and +you may saunter through the whole police-military cordon; but be +one of the crowd, and trust to no other aid than is afforded by +your own eyes, and the said cordon will be the extent of your +vision.</p> +<p>A fig for the races! we will go and see the Kreutzberg +instead. Our way lies through the Halle gate—Halle, a +town that belonged to the Saxons before the French invasion, but +lost through their adherence to Napoleon, is now the seat of a +Prussian university—and by the Place of the Belle +Alliance. What “alliance?” The alliance +of sovereigns against destruction, or of people against +tyranny? One and both; but while the union of the former +has triumphed over the common leveller, the latter, by whose aid +it was effected, still drag their unrelenting chains. The +Kreutzberg is consecrated to the same magniloquent union, and +bears upon its head a military monument illustrative of the +triumph of a roused and indignant people against a great +oppression; but alas! it does not record the emancipation of that +same people from intestine slavery. But that is their +business and not ours.</p> +<p>The Kreutzberg stands about a mile and a half from the city +gates, and rears its grey height like a mountain amid the general +level, commanding a prospect of thirty miles around. +Berlin, half garden, half palace, lies at your feet, rising +majestically from the sandy plain, and irregularly divided by the +winding Spree. The surrounding country, by its luxuriance, +gives evidence of the energy of an industrious race struggling +against a naturally barren soil. Turning our eyes upwards +upon the military monument which graces the summit of the hill, +we cannot repress our gratification at its beauty. A +terrace eighty feet in diameter rises from the bare ground, and +in its centre, upon a substructure of stone, towers an iron +temple or shrine in the turreted Gothic style, divided into +twelve chapels or niches. In each recess stands a figure, +life size, <!-- page 67--><a name="page67"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 67</span>emblematical of the principal battles +(defeats included) fought in the campaigns of 1813, 1814, and +1815. A noble cluster of idealised military heroism they +stand; some in the stubborn attitude of resistance, others in the +eager impetuosity of attack, all wonderfully spirited. When +you have warmed your imagination into a glow by the sight of +these effigies of war, read and ponder over this +inscription:—</p> +<p>“The Sovereign to his People, who at his summons +magnanimously poured forth their Blood and Treasure for the +Country. In Memory of the Fallen, in Gratitude to the +Living, as an Incitement to every future Generation.”</p> +<p>One is tempted to add, “and of sacred promises still +unfulfilled.” There is a beautiful garden and saloon +called the Tivoli, close at hand, and from our heroics we soon +slide into the peaceful enjoyment of a “baisser” and +a cup of coffee; lounging luxuriantly among the flowers till the +hour approaches for our departure.</p> +<p>We are a snug little party of a dozen, not including Herr +Kupferkram and the Frau, who will insist upon waiting on +us. There is the smug master-butcher from round the corner, +who has a very becoming sense of his own position in society; two +mild-spoken bookseller’s clerks, who scarcely find their +voices till the evening is far advanced; my friend and +fellow-tramp the glovemaker; a spruce little model of a man, with +the crispest hair, and the fullest and best trimmed moustache in +the world, and who is no doubt a great man somewhere; a +tremendous fellow of a student, who talks of cannon-boots, +rapiers, and Berliner Weiss Bier; and an individual whose only +distinguishing feature is his nose, and that is an insult to +polite society. The rest have no characteristics at +all.</p> +<p>But ah! shall I forget thee, the beautiful Louise!—the +affianced of Gottlob, the blonde, the coquettish, and the +gay! Have you not asked me, in half confidence (Alcibiade +being present), whether the German “<i>geliebte</i>,” +is not changed in English into “<i>süsses +herz</i>,” “sweet-heart,” as Gottlob had told +you in his last letter from London? And you think the +sentiment “so pretty and poetical!” And so it +is; but we dunderheads in England have used the word so often +that we have half forgotten its meaning.</p> +<p>Down we sit to supper; commencing with a delicate gravy soup +and liver fritters; following up with breaded pork-chops and red +saurkraut; continuing upon baked veal and prunes; not forgetting +the <i>entremets</i> of green pease and finely-sliced carrots +stewed in <!-- page 68--><a name="page68"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 68</span>butter together; going on with a +well-made sallad; and winding up with a syllabub and +preserves. Hah! Bread unlimited, and beer without +discretion. How can we sing after all that and yet we do, +and talk unceasingly. The tables are cleared; and, +accompanied by a beautiful tinkling of tiny bell-shaped glasses, +the china punch-bowl, odorous with its steaming orange fluid, is +placed at the head of the table. How the meek +bookseller’s clerks shine out! They are all voice +now. And we drink a “Lebe hoch!” to Gottlob far +away; and to Gottlob’s mother, and to Gottlob’s +father, chinking our glasses merrily every time, and draining +them after each draught on our thumb nails, to show how +faithfully we have honoured the toasts. We shout +“Vivat h-o-o-o;” till the old German oven quakes +again.</p> +<p>“Sing, fair Louise, I prithee sing!” Louise +is troubled with a cold, of course; and, after due persuasion, +lisps and murmurs some incoherent tremblings; exceedingly pretty, +no doubt, if we could only make out what they meant. Then +the student, who, although diminutive, has the voice of a giant, +shouts a university song with the Latin chorus:—</p> +<p class="poetry">“Edite, bebite, collegiales,<br /> +Post multa sæcula procula nulla!”</p> +<p class="poetry">“Eat ye then, drink ye then, social +companions,<br /> +Centuries hence and your cups are no more!”</p> +<p>The mildest of the clerks comes out well with Kotzebue’s +philosophical song:—</p> +<p class="poetry">“Es kann ja nicht immer so bleiben,<br /> +Hier unter den wechselnden Mond;<br /> +Es blüht eine Zeit und verwelket,<br /> +Was mit uns die Erde bewhont.”</p> +<p class="poetry">“It cannot remain thus for ever,<br /> + Here under the changeable moon;<br /> +For earthly things bloom but a season,<br /> + And wither away all too soon.”</p> +<p>The spruce gentleman with the crisp hair throws back his head, +and with closed eyes warbles melodiously:—</p> +<blockquote><p>“Einsich bin ich nicht allein.”</p> +<p>“Alone I’m not in solitude.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p><!-- page 69--><a name="page69"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +69</span>The butcher has forgotten his dignity, and joins +vigorously in every chorus. At this crisis Louise +gracefully retires, leaving us to our replenished bowl.</p> +<p>“My friends!” shouts the student, mounting on a +chair, “listen to me for a moment.” And then he +plunges into an eloquent discourse upon the beauties of +fraternity, and the union of nations, concluding his harangue by +proposing a “Lebe hoch” to Alcibiade and +myself. Alcibiade is decidedly the lion of the evening, and +bears his honours gracefully, like a well-tamed creature. +“Se sollen leben! Vivat ho—o!” it roars +in our ears, and amid its echoes we duly acknowledge the +compliment.</p> +<p>“That’s beautiful!” exclaims the student, +whose name, by the bye, is Pimblebeck. “And now grant +me one other favour. Thou Briton, and thou son of France, +let us drink brotherhood together. What say ye? Let +it be no longer ‘you’ and ‘yours’ between +us, but ‘thou’ and ‘thine.’” +Having reached the affectionate stage of exhilaration, we enter +at once into the spirit of the proposal, and each in his turn, +glass in hand, locking his arm in that of the enthusiastic +Pimblebeck, drinks eternal friendship: to love truly; to defend +valiantly; and to address each other by no other title than that +of “thou” and “thee” for the rest of our +lives.</p> +<p>I confess to a certain obliviousness here; a mental haze, amid +which the mingled airs of “Rule Britannia” and the +“Marsellaise” float indistinctly. But above +all, and through all, with terrible distinctness, tones the voice +of Pimblebeck; his boyish form dilated into the dimensions of a +Goliath, as he pours forth the words of a Prussian revolutionary +song, some few of which stand out in letters of fire in my memory +still, thus:—</p> +<p class="poetry">“Prinzen vom Land hinaus,<br /> +Denn kommt der Bürger Schmaus;<br /> + Aristokraten<br /> + Werden gebraten;<br /> +Fürsten and Pfaffen die werden gehangt!”</p> +<p class="poetry">“Drive out the prince and priest,<br /> +Then comes the burger’s feast;<br /> + Each aristocrat<br /> + Shall broil in his fat,<br /> +And nobles and bigoted bishops be hanged.”</p> +<h2><!-- page 70--><a name="page70"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +70</span>CHAPTER XIII.</h2> +<p class="gutsumm"><span class="smcap">fair time at +leipsic</span>.</p> +<p>From Berlin to Leipsic by rail, in an open carriage, is not +the most interesting journey in the world. Whirr, whizz, +burr! away we hum through the keen Spring air, between pleasant +banks and dark fir-woods, not very rapidly indeed, for we travel +under government regulations, but pleasantly enough if it were +not for the sparks and the dust. There are few objects of +interest on our route, till we perceive the towers of Wittenberg +rising out of the hollow on the left, and we are at once buried +in a dream about the simple monk of Eisleben, who, in his +struggle against the papal authority, grew into the gigantic +proportions of a Luther.</p> +<p>At Köthen we change carriages, for we are on the Saxon +frontier. With a snort and a roar, we start upon our +journey over the dull waste, which can be described in no better +way than by the single word repeated: sand, sand, sand. And +now it comes on to rain, and my thin blouse is but a sorry shred +to withstand the cold, dead drizzle. By degrees the heavy +night clouds wrap themselves round us, fold by fold, till we see +the engine fire reflected on the ground like a flying meteor; and +the forms of lonely trees on the roadside come upon us suddenly, +like spectres out of the darkness.</p> +<p>“Have you a lodging for the night, friend?” +inquires a kind voice near me, speaking to my very thoughts.</p> +<p>“No. I am a stranger in Leipsic.”</p> +<p>“And your herberge?”</p> +<p>“I know nothing of it.”</p> +<p>The inquirer is a little man with a thin face, and a voice +which might be disagreeable, were it not mellowed by good +nature. He tells me, then, that he is a jewel-case maker, +and has no doubt that I shall find a ready shelter in the +herberge of his trade till the morning, if I am willing to accept +of it. It is in the Little Churchyard. In spite of +this ominous direction I shake the good man heartily by the hand, +and, although I lose him in the darkness and confusion of the +railway-station, cling mentally to the Little Churchyard as a +passport <!-- page 71--><a name="page71"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 71</span>to peace and rest. I +don’t know how it is that I escape interrogation by the +police, but once out of the turmoil of the crowd, I find myself +wandering by a deep ditch and the shadowy outline of a high wall, +seeking in vain amid the drizzling mist for one of the gates of +the city. When almost hopeless of success, a welcome voice +inquires my destination; and, under the guidance of a worthy +Saxon, I find myself in Kleine Kirche Hof at last. There is +the herberge in question, but with no light—welcoming +sign!—for it is already ten o’clock, and its guests +are all in bed. Dripping with rain, and with a rueful +aspect, I prefer my request for a lodging. The +“vater” looks dubiously at me out of the corner of +one eye, till, having inspected my passport, he brightens up a +little, and thinks he can find me a bed, but cannot break through +the rules of his house so far as to give me any supper. It +is too late.</p> +<p>Lighting a small lantern he leads the way across a stone-paved +yard, and, opening one leaf of the folding-doors of a stable at +its upper end, inducts me at once into the interior. It +also is paved with stones, is small, and is nearly choked up with +five or six bedsteads. The vater points to one which +happily is as yet untenanted, and says, “Now, make haste, +will you? I can’t stop here all night.” +Before I have time to scramble into bed we are already in +darkness, and no sooner is the door closed than my bed-fellows, +who seemed all fast asleep a moment before, open a rattling fire +of inquiries as to my parentage, birthplace, trade, and general +condition; and having satisfied all this amiable questioning we +fall asleep.</p> +<p>We turn our waking eyes upon a miserable glimmering which +finds its way through the wooden bars of our stable-door; but it +tells us of morning, of life, and of hope, and we rise with a +bound, and are as brisk as bees in our summary toilet. With +a dry crust of bread and a cup of coffee, we are fortified for +our morning’s work. I have a letter of introduction +upon Herr Herzlich of the Brühl, at the sign of the Golden +Horn, between the White Lamb and the Brass Candlestick. +Every house in Leipsic has its sign, and the numbers run +uninterruptedly through the whole city, as in most German towns; +so that the clown’s old joke of “Number One, +London,” if applied to them, would be no joke at all.</p> +<p>I leave the gloomy precincts of Little Churchyard, and +descending a slight incline over a pebbly, irregular pavement, +with scarcely a sign of footpath, arrive at the lower end of the +Brühl. There is a murmur of business about the place, +for this <!-- page 72--><a name="page72"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 72</span>is the first week of the Easter Fair, +but there are none of those common sounds usually associated with +the name to English ears. No braying of trumpets, clashing +of cymbals, or hoarse groaning of gongs; no roaring through +broad-mouthed horns, smacking of canvass, or pattering of +incompetent rifles. All these vulgar noises belonging to a +fair, are banished out of the gates of the city: which is itself +deeply occupied with sober, earnest trading.</p> +<p>Leipsic has the privilege of holding three markets in the +year. The first, because the most important, is called the +Ostermesse, or Easter Fair, and commences on Jubilee Sunday after +Easter. It continues for three weeks, and is the great +cloth market of the year. The second begins on the Sunday +after St. Michael, and is called Michialismesse. It is the +great Book Fair, is also of three weeks’ duration, and +dates, as does the Easter Fair, from the end of the twelfth +century. The New Year’s Fair commences on the First +of January, and was established in fourteen hundred and +fifty-eight. Curiously enough, the real business of the +Fair is negotiated in the week preceding its actual proclamation; +it is then that the great sales between manufacturers and +merchants, and their busy agents from all parts of the continent, +are effected, while the three weeks of the actual Fair are taken +up in minor transactions. No sooner is the freedom of the +Fair proclaimed than the hubbub begins; the booths, already +planted in their allotted spaces—every inch of which must +be paid for—are found to be choked up with stock of every +description, from very distant countries: while every town and +village, within a wide radius, finds itself represented by both +wares and customers.</p> +<p>It is not, however, all freedom even at fair time. The +guild laws of the different trades, exclusive and jealous as they +are, are enforced with the utmost severity. Jews, in +general, and certain trades in particular,—shoemakers, for +example,—are not allowed the same privileges as the rest; +for their liberty to sell is restricted to a shorter period, and +woe to the ambitious or unhappy journeyman who shall manufacture, +or expose for sale, any article of his trade, either on his own +account or for others, if they be not acknowledged as masters by +the Guild. Every such article will be seized by the public +officers, deposited in the Rathhaus, and severe +punishment—in the shape of fines—inflicted on the +offender. The last week of the Fair is called the pay-week; +the Thursday and Friday in this week being severally pay and +assignation days. The traffic at the Easter <!-- page +73--><a name="page73"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 73</span>Fair, +before the establishment of railways, was estimated at forty +millions of dollars, but since, by their means, increased +facilities of transit between Leipsic and the two capitals, +Berlin and Dresden, have been afforded, it has risen to seventy +millions of dollars, or ten millions five hundred thousand pounds +sterling.</p> +<p>In the meantime, here we are in the Brühl, a street +important enough, no doubt, so far as its inhabitants and traffic +are concerned, but neither beautiful nor picturesque. The +houses are high and flat, and, from a peculiarity of build about +their tops, seem to leer at you with one eye. Softly over +the pebbles! and mind you don’t tread on the pigeons. +They are the only creatures in Leipsic that enjoy uncontrolled +freedom. They wriggle about the streets without fear of +molestation; they sit in rows upon the tops of houses; they whirl +in little clouds above our heads; they outnumber, at a moderate +estimate, the whole human population of the city, and are as +sacred as the Apis or the Brahmin bull. As we proceed along +the Brühl, the evidences of the traffic become more +perceptible. Square sheds of a dingy black hue line one +side of the way, and are made in such a manner, that from being +more closed boxes at night, they readily become converted into +shops in the daytime, by a falling flap in front, which in some +cases is adjusted so as to perform the part of a counter. +These booths form the outer depositories of the merchandise of +the fair, and are generally filled with small and inexpensive +articles. The real riches accumulated in Leipsic during +these periods, are stowed in the massive old houses: floor above +floor being filled with them, till they jam up the very roof, and +their plenitude flow out into the street. The booths, where +not private property, are articles of profitable speculation with +the master builders of the city. They are of planed deal +painted, and are neatly enough made. They are easily stowed +away in ordinary times, and, when required, are readily erected, +being simply clammed together with huge hooks and eyes.</p> +<p>We have not proceeded half-way down the Brühl, when we +are accosted by a veritable child of Israel, who in tolerably +good English requests our custom. Will we buy some of those +unexceptionable slippers? In spite of my cap and blouse, it +is evident that I bear some national peculiarity about me, at +once readable to the keen eyes of the Jew; and upon this point, I +remember that my friend Alcibiade, of Argenteuil, jeweller, once +expressed himself to me thus: “You may always distinguish +an Englishman,” said he, <!-- page 74--><a +name="page74"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 74</span>“by two +things: his trousers and his gait. The first never fit him, +and he always walks as if he was an hour behind time.”</p> +<p>We are at the sign of the Golden Horn. Its very door-way +is blocked up for the moment by an enormous bale of goods, puffy, +and covered with cabalistic characters. When we at length +enter the outer gate of the house, we find ourselves in a small +court-yard paved with stone and open to the sky, but now choked +with boxes and packages, piled one upon the other in such +confusion, that they appear to have been rained from above, +rather than brought by vulgar trucks and human hands. Herr +Herzlich, whose house this is, resides on the third floor. +As we ascend the winding stair to his apartments, we perceive +that the building occupies the four sides of the courtyard, and +that on the third floor a wooden gallery is suspended along one +side, and serves as a means of connection between the upper +portions of the house. Queerly-shaped bundles, and even +loose goods, occupy every available corner; and as we look down +from the gallery into a deep window on the opposite side, we +perceive a portly, moustachioed gentleman busily counting and +arranging piles of Prussian bank-notes, while heaps of golden +coin, apparently Dutch ducats, or French louis d’or, are +built up in a golden barricade before him. We pause before +the door of Herr Herzlich, master goldsmith and house-owner, and +prepare to deliver our letter of introduction. They are +trying moments, these first self-presentations; but Herr Herzlich +is a true-hearted old Saxon, who raises his black velvet skullcap +with one hand, as I announce myself, while with the other he +lowers his silver spectacles from his forehead on to his +nose. Then, with all sorts of comforting words, as to my +future prospects in Leipsic, he sends me forth rejoicing.</p> +<p>Once more in the open street, we pass up the crowded way into +the market-place. A succession of wooden booths lines the +road; and many of the houses have an overhanging floor resting on +sturdy posts, which makes the footpath a rude colonnade. +Here are piled rolls and bales of cloth, while the booths are +crammed with a heterogeneous collection of articles of use and +ornament diversified beyond description. A strange knot of +gentlemen arrests our attention for a moment. They are clad +in long gowns of black serge, and wear highly-polished boots +reaching to the knee. Some have low-crowned hats, others a +kind of semi-furred turban, but they all have jet black hair +arranged in innumerable wiry ringlets, even to their <!-- page +75--><a name="page75"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +75</span>beards. They are Polish Jews, and trade chiefly in +pearls, garnets, turquoises, and a peculiar sort of ill-cut and +discoloured rose-diamonds.</p> +<p>The market-place is scarcely passable for the crowd, and the +wooden booths are so thickly studded over its whole space, as to +allow of only a narrow footway between them. Here we see +pipes and walking-sticks, enough not only for the present, but +for generations unborn. Traversing the ground by slow +degrees, we bend towards the Dresden gate, and come upon the +country people, all handkerchief and waistcoat, who line the path +with their little stores of toys, of eggs, butter, and little +pats of goats’-milk cheese. Here is a farmer who has +straggled all the way from Altenburg. He wears a queer +round-crowned hat, with the rim turned up at the back; a jacket +with large pockets outside, a sort of trunk hose, and black boots +reaching to the knee. A little beyond him is a band of +musicians with wind instruments, in the full costume of the +Berg-leute, or mountaineers of Freiberg. With their jackets +of black stuff, trimmed with velvet of the same hue, and edged at +the bottom with little square lappets; their dark leggings and +brimless hats, they look like a party of Grindoff the +miller’s men in mourning.</p> +<p>As we approach the gates, the stalls and wares dwindle into +insignificance, until they disappear altogether; and so we pass +out of the city to the picturesque promenades which surround +it. Afar off we hear the booming and occasional squeal of +the real Fair. It is not without its drollery, and, if not +equal to “Old Bartlemy” in noise and rude humour, has +a word to say for itself on the point of decency. It is, +however, but child’s play after all, and abounds with toys +and games, from a half-penny whistle to an electric +machine. Leipsic is now in its waking hours; but a short +time hence her fitful three weeks’ fever will have passed +away, and, weary with excitement, or as some say, plethoric with +her gorge of profits, she will sink into a soulless +lethargy. Her streets will become deserted, and echo to +solitary footsteps; and whole rows of houses, with their lately +teeming shops, will be black and tenantless, and barred and +locked in grim security. The students will shine among the +quiet citizens; the pigeons will flap their wings in idleness, +and coo in melancholy tones as they totter about the streets; and +the last itinerant player (on the flageolet, of course) will have +sounded his farewell note to the slumbering city.</p> +<h2><!-- page 76--><a name="page76"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +76</span>CHAPTER XIV.</h2> +<p class="gutsumm"><span class="smcap">down in a silver +mine</span>.</p> +<p>The sojourner in Leipsic, while strolling through its quaint +old streets and spacious market-place, will be attracted, among +other peculiarities of national costume, by one which, while +startling and showy, is still attractive and picturesque. +The wearer is most probably a young man of small figure and of +pallid appearance. He is dressed in a short jacket, which +is black, and is enriched with black velvet. The nether +garments are also black. His head is covered with a black +brimless hat, and a small semicircular apron of dark cloth is +tied, not before, but behind. This is one of the +Berg-leute, mountain people; he comes from the Freiberg silver +district, and is attired in the full dress of a miner.</p> +<p>Doubtless, these somewhat theatrically attired mountaineers +hold a superior position to the diggers and blasters of the +earth. The dress is, perhaps, more properly that worn in +the mountains, than that of the miners themselves. Still, +even their habiliments, as I afterwards learned, are but a +working-day copy of this more costly model; and the semicircular +apron tied on behind, is more especially an indispensable portion +of the working dress of the labouring miner.</p> +<p>From Leipsic, the mines are distant about seventy English +miles. We—who are a happy party of foot-wanderers +bound for Vienna—spend three careless days upon the +road. Look at this glorious old castle of Altenburg, +gravely nodding from its towering rock upon the quaint town +below. It is the first station we come to, and is the +capital of the ancient dukedom of Saxon-Altenburg. Look at +the people about us! Does it not strike you as original, +that what is here called modest attire, would elsewhere be +condemned as immoral and ridiculous? Each of the males, +indeed, presents an old German portrait, with short plaited and +wadded jacket, trunk breeches, and low hat, with a rolled +brim. But the women! With petticoats no deeper than a +Highlandman’s kilt, and their legs thus <!-- page 77--><a +name="page77"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 77</span>guiltless of +shoes or stockings, the bust and neck are hideously covered by a +wooden breastplate, which, springing from the waist, rises at an +angle of forty-five degrees as high as the chin; and on the edge +of it is fastened a handkerchief, tied tightly round the +neck. A greater disfigurement of the female form could +scarcely have been devised. Yet, to these good people, it +is doubtless beauty and propriety itself; for it is old, and +national.</p> +<p>Through pretty woods and cultivated lands; beside rugged, +roadside dells, we trudge along. We halt in quiet villages, +snug and neat even in their poverty; or wend our way, in the +midst of sunshine, through endless vistas of fruit-laden woods, +the public road being one rich orchard of red-dotted +cherry-trees: purchasable for a mere fraction, but not to be +feloniously abstracted. Through Altenburg, Zwickau, +Oederon, and Chemnitz; up steep hill paths, and by the side of +unpronounceable villages, until, on the morning of the fourth +day, we straggle into Freiberg.</p> +<p>Freiberg is the walled capital of the Saxon ore mountains, the +Erzgebirge; the centre of the Saxon mining administration. +One of its most spacious buildings is the Mining Academy, which +dates from 1767. Here are rich collections of the wonderful +produce of these mountains; models of mining machines, of +philosophical and chemical apparatus; class and lecture rooms, +and books out of number. Here Werner, the father of +geology, and Humboldt, the systematiser of physical geography, +were pupils. The former has bequeathed an extensive museum +of mineralogy to the Academy, which has been gratefully named +after its founder, the Wernerian Museum.</p> +<p>Freiberg holds up its head very high. The Mining Academy +stands one thousand two hundred and thirty-one feet above the +sea, although this is by no means the greatest altitude in the +long range of mountains, which form a huge boundary line between +the kingdoms of Saxony and Bohemia. The general name for +the whole district is the Erzgebirg-Kreis—the circle of ore +mountains—and truly they form one vast store of silver, +tin, lead, iron, coal, copper, and cobalt ores; besides a host of +chemical compounds and other riches. The indefatigable +Saxons have worked and burrowed in them for more than seven +hundred years.</p> +<p>We proceed to the Royal Saxon Mining Office, and request +permission to descend into the “bowels of the +land.” This is accorded us without difficulty, and we +receive a beautiful specimen of <!-- page 78--><a +name="page78"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 78</span>German text, +in the shape of a lithographed Fahrschein, or permission to +descend into Abraham’s Shaft and Himmelfahrt, and to +inspect all the works and appliances thereunto belonging. +This Fahrschein especially informs us, that no person, unless of +the Minerstand (fraternity of miners), can be permitted to +descend into the Zechen or pits, who is not eighteen years old; +nor can more than two persons be intrusted to the care of one +guide. We cheerfully pay on demand the sum of ten silver +groschens each (about one shilling), for the purpose—as we +are informed in a note at the bottom of the Fahrschein—of +meeting the exigencies of the Miners’ Pension and Relief +Fund.</p> +<p>The mine we are about to inspect, which bears the general +title of Himmelsfurst—Prince of Heaven—is situated +near to the village of Brand. How fond these old miners +were of Biblical designations! and what an earnest spirit of +religion glowed within them! There is another mine in the +vicinity, at Voightberg, called the Old Hope of God; but we must +recollect that Freiberg was one of the strongholds of early +Protestantism, and that the first and sternest of the reformers +clustered about its mountains. They have a cold, desolate +look; and we think of the gardens we have left at their bases, +and of the forests of fir-trees which wave upon some of the +loftier pinnacles of these same Erzgebirge. Nor are the few +men we meet of more promising appearance: not dwarfed nor +stunted, but naturally diminutive, with sallow skins and +oppressed demeanour. How different are the firm, lithe, +sun-tanned mountaineers, who breathe the free air on the summits +of their hills!</p> +<p>We are near the entrance of the mine; and, entering the neat, +wooden office of the Schachtmeister, or mine-controller, we +produce our credentials. Having signed our names in a huge +book (in which we decipher more than one English name), we are +passed to the care of an intelligent-looking guide; who, although +still in early manhood, is of the same small and delicate growth +observable in the miners generally.</p> +<p>Our guide, providing himself with small lanterns and an +ominous-looking bundle, leads the way out of the +Schachtmeister’s office to another portion of the same +building. Here are heaps of dark grey +“macadamised” stones;—silver and lead ores just +raised from the pit; over whose very mouth we are unknowingly +standing. A windlass is in the centre of the chasm; and it +is by means of this windlass that the metalliferous substance is +raised to the surface in <!-- page 79--><a +name="page79"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 79</span>square wooden +boxes. Here the dressing of the ores commences; boys +cluster in all directions, under the wooden shed, and in oilier +sheds beyond that. Here the ores are picked and sorted, +washed and sieved, and, we believe, crushed or pulverised, +according to the amount of metal contained in them, till they are +in a fit state for the smelting furnace. We are not +admitted to a minute inspection of these processes; but, under +the direction of our guide, turn towards the mouth of the pit +which we are to descend. Ere we leave the shed, we pick out +a small block of ore as a memorial of the visit, and are +astonished at its weight; bright yellow, and dull lead-coloured +crystals gleam over its surface; and a portion of the gneiss, +from which it has been broken, still adheres to it.</p> +<p>We follow our guide across a dusty space towards a wooden +building with a conical roof; and, as we approach it, we become +conscious of, rather than hear, the sweet, melancholy sound of a +bell, which, at minute intervals, tones dreamily through the +air. Whence comes that sad sound? In the centre of +the shed is a square box, open at the top; and immediately above +hangs the small bell; thence comes the silvery voice.</p> +<p>“For what purpose is this bell?” we inquire of our +guide.</p> +<p>“It is the bell of safety.”</p> +<p>“Does it sound a warning?”</p> +<p>“No, the reverse; its silence gives the warning. +The bell is tolled by a large water-wheel, immediately below the +surface. By means of this wheel, and others at greater +depths, the whole drainage of this mine is effected. If, by +any means, these waterwheels should cease to act, the bell would +cease to sound, and the miners would hasten to the day, for no +man could tell how soon his working might be flooded.”</p> +<p>“And can it be heard throughout the mine?”</p> +<p>“Through this portion of it. Probably the water +acts as a conductor of the sound; but the miners listen earnestly +for its minute tolling.”</p> +<p>Toll on, thou messenger of comfort! May thy voice ever +tell of safety to the haggard toiler, deep in the earth!</p> +<p>Our guide now directs us to attire ourselves in the garments +disgorged from the portentous-looking bundle. They consist +of a pair of black calico trousers, a dark, lapelled coat, a +leathern semicircular apron, buckled on behind—the strap of +which serves to hook a small lantern on in front—and a +terrible brimless felt hat, which <!-- page 80--><a +name="page80"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 80</span>we feel to be +a curse the moment we put it on, and which we never cease to +anathematise, up to the instant when we take it off. These +habiliments being drawn over our ordinary clothing, do not +facilitate our motions, or help to keep us in so cool a state as +might be desirable.</p> +<p>Over the edge of the square box, and down a stone staircase +cut through the solid granite, we follow our guide. We +pause on the first few steps, and are just able to distinguish +the huge, broad water-wheel, slowly revolving in its stony +chamber: its spokes, like giant arms, sweep through the wet +darkness with scarcely a sound, but a low dripping and gurgling +of water. That terrible staircase! dark and steep and +slimy! Water drips from its roof and oozes from its +walls. It is so low, that instead of bending forward as the +body naturally does when in the act of descent, we are compelled +to throw our heads back at the risk of dislocating our necks, in +order that the detestable hat may not be driven over our eyes by +coming in contact with the roof. Down, down the slippery +steps; feeling our way along slimy walls: through the dense +gloom, and heavy, moist air! The way seems to wave and bend +we scarcely know how; sometimes we traverse level galleries, but +they only lead us again to the steep, clammy steps, cut through +the tough rock, always at the same acute angle. Down, down, +six hundred feet! and our guide whispers to us to be careful how +we go, for we are in a dangerous place: he has brought us to this +portion of the mine to show us how the water accumulates when +undisturbed.</p> +<p>The vein of ore has, in this part, ceased to yield a profit +for the necessary labour, and the works have been +abandoned. We creep breathlessly down until our guide bids +us halt; and, holding out his lantern at arm’s length, but +half reveals, in the pitchy darkness, a low-roofed cavern, +floored by an inky lake of still, dead water; in which we see the +light of the lantern reflected as in a mirror. It is +fearful to look on—so black and motionless: a sluggish +pool, thick and treacherous, which seemingly would engulf us +without so much as a wave or a bubble; and we are within a foot +of its surface! We draw involuntarily back, and creep up +the steep stair to the first level above us.</p> +<p>Along a narrow gallery we proceed for a short space, and then +down again; still down the interminable steps, till our knees +crack with the ever uniform motion, and the hot perspiration +streams from every pore. The air is so thick and heavy, +that we occasionally <!-- page 81--><a name="page81"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 81</span>draw breath with a half gasp; and +still we descend, till we hear the muffled ring of +steel,—tink, tink, tink,—immediately near us, and are +suddenly arrested in our downward course by the level ground.</p> +<p>We are in a narrow gallery, considerably loftier than any we +have yet seen; for we can walk about in it without +stooping. At the further end are two miners, just +distinguishable by the tiny glow of their lanterns. From +these proceed the ring of steel—the muffled tinkling in the +thick air we had heard—and we see that they are preparing +for a “blast.” With a long steel rod, or +chisel, they are driving a way into the hard rock (geologists say +there is little else in the Erzebirge than the primitive gneiss +and granite), and thus prepare a deep, narrow chamber, within +which a charge of gunpowder is placed and exploded. The +hard material is rent into a thousand pieces, bringing with it +the ore so indefatigably sought.</p> +<p>With every limb strained and distorted, the miners pursue +their cramping labours, grovelling on the earth. The +drilling or boring they are engaged in is a slow process, and the +choice of a spot, so that the explosion may loosen as much of the +lode and as little of the rock as possible, is of considerable +importance. They cease their labours as we enter, and turn +to look at us. The curse of wealth-digging is upon +them. They, in their stained and disordered costume, seated +on the ground on their semicircular leather aprons (for that is +the obvious use of this portion of the dress, in these moist +regions); we, in our borrowed garments and brimless beavers, with +flushed features and dripping hair. The miners do not wear +the abominable hats, at least “beneath the day,” that +is, in the mines.</p> +<p>“Is this the bottom of the mine?” we inquire +anxiously.</p> +<p>The guide smiles grimly as he answers, “We are little +more than half-way to the bottom; but we can descend no deeper in +this direction.”</p> +<p>Heaven knows we have no desire!</p> +<p>“This is the first working,” he continues. +“The rest of the mine is much the same as you have already +seen. We have no other means of reaching the workings than +by the stone staircases you have partly descended.”</p> +<p>“What are the miners’ hours of work?”</p> +<p>“Eight hours a day for five days in the week at this +depth,” is the answer. “In the deeper workings +the hours are fewer.”</p> +<p><!-- page 82--><a name="page82"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +82</span>“What is the extent of the mine?” we +demand.</p> +<p>“I cannot tell. There is no miner living who has +traversed them all. The greater portion is out of work, and +spreads for miles under ground.”</p> +<p>“And the depth?”</p> +<p>“About two hundred fathoms—twelve hundred +feet—the sea level. The ‘Old Hope of God’ +is sixty feet below the level of the sea.”</p> +<p>“Are there many mines like this?”</p> +<p>“There are about two hundred mines in all, with five +hundred and forty pits: in all the mines together there are some +four thousand eight hundred hands, men and boys. This mine +occupies nine hundred of them.”</p> +<p>“And your pay?”</p> +<p>“One dollar a week is a good wage with us.”</p> +<p>One dollar is about three shillings of English money! +This seems small pay, even in cheap Saxony.</p> +<p>“But,” we pursue our inquiries, “you have no +short time, and are pensioned?—at least, so says our +Fahrschein.”</p> +<p>“We are paid our wages during sickness, and are never +out of work. When we can no longer use the pick, nor climb +these staircases, we can retire upon our pension of eight silver +groschens a week.”</p> +<p>Tenpence! Magnificent independence! This is +digging for silver with a vengeance.</p> +<p>But we are faint with fatigue; and, bidding adieu to the two +miners, we gladly agree to our guide’s suggestion of +ascending to the happy daylight. Our way is still the same; +although we mount by another shaft, most appropriately named +Himmelfahrt—the path of heaven; but we clamber up the same +steep steps; feel our way along the same slimy walls, and +occasionally drive our hats over our eyes against the same low, +dripping roof. With scarcely a dry thread about us; our +hair matted and dripping; beads of perspiration streaming down +our faces, we reach the top at last; and thank Heaven, that after +two hours’ absence deep down among those terrible +“diggins,” we are permitted once more to feel the +bracing air, and to look upon the glorious light of day.</p> +<p>Our labours, however are not over. Distant rather more +than an English mile from Himmelsfürst are the extensive +amalgamation works, the smelting furnaces and refining +ovens. Painfully fatigued <!-- page 83--><a +name="page83"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 83</span>as we are, we +cannot resist the temptation of paying them a brief visit. +The road is dusty and desolate; nor are the works themselves +either striking or attractive. An irregular mass of sheds, +brick buildings, and tall chimneys, present themselves. As +we approach them we come upon a “sludge +hole”—the bed of a stream running from the dredging +and jigging works; where, by the agency of water, the ore is +relieved of its earthy and other waste matter, and the stream of +water—allowed to run off in separate +channels—deposits, as it flows, the smaller particles +washed away in the first process. These are all carefully +collected, and the veriest atom of silver or lead +extracted. It is only the coarser ores that undergo this +process; the richer deposits being pulverised and smelted with +white or charred wood and fluxes, without the application of +water, and refined by amalgamation with quicksilver. The +two metals are afterwards separated by distilling off the +latter.</p> +<p>Here are heaps of scoria—stacks of piglead, wood, coke, +limestone and waste earth, everything, indeed, but silver; +although we are emphatically in a silver mining district, silver +is by no means the material which presents itself in the greatest +bulk. Having placed ourselves under the direction of one of +the workmen, we are led into some newly built brick buildings, +where force-pumps and other water appliances, erected at great +cost by the Saxon government, are gratefully pointed out to +us. These water-works are equally applicable to the +extinction of fire, as to the preparation of ores.</p> +<p>Into what an incomprehensible maze of words should we be +betrayed, were we to attempt a description of the multifarious +operations for the extraction and refining of metals! Every +description of ore, or metalliferous deposit, requires a +different treatment: each suggested and verified by laborious +experience and vigilant attention. In some cases the pure +silver is separated by mechanical means; in others the ore is +roasted, in order to throw off the sulphur, arsenic, and other +volatile matters, which are separately collected and form no +inconsiderable portion of the valuable produce of the mine. +These roastings again are smelted with a variety of fluxes, and +in different states of purification, until they are ready for +refining.</p> +<p>Here are roasting furnaces, dull and black; huge brick tubes +with swollen ends; others built in, and ready for ignition. +Everywhere, we see pigs of lead, sometimes lying about in +reckless confusion, at others, neatly packed in square +stacks. Now, they bring us to a <!-- page 84--><a +name="page84"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 84</span>huge circular +oven, with at least half-a-dozen firmly closed iron doors, and as +many glowing caves; and a swarthy man, armed with an iron rake, +swinging open one of the iron doors with a ring and a clatter, we +look in upon a small lake of molten silver, fuming, and steaming, +and bubbling. The iron rake is thrust in, and scrapes off +the crumbling crust—the oxide of lead, which has formed +upon its surface. The silver fumes and flashes, and a white +vapour swims in the air. The swarthy man swings the iron +door to with a clang, takes us by the arm, and bids us look +through into a dark cavity, and watch the white drops which fall +at intervals like tiny stars from above. This is the +quicksilver evaporated from the heated silver in the furnace, +which passes through the chimney into a kind of still, and is +restored to its original condition.</p> +<p>And what is the result of all this skill and labour? We +find that the average produce of the Saxon mines is from three to +four ounces of silver to the hundred pounds’ weight of ore; +and that the mines about Freiberg yield annually nearly four +hundred and fifty thousand ounces of silver. We find +further that the total mines of the +Erzgebirge-Kreis—“circle of ore +mountains”—of which those of Freiberg form a portion, +produce a total of seven hundred and twenty thousand ounces of +silver every year; besides from four hundred to five hundred tons +of lead, one hundred and forty tons of tin, about thirty tons of +copper, from three thousand five hundred to four thousand tons of +iron, and six hundred tons of cobalt. They are rich also in +arsenic, brimstone, and vitriol, and contain, in no +inconsiderable quantities, quicksilver, antimony, calamites, +bismuth, and manganese. Even precious stones are not +wanting; garnets, topazes, tourmalines, amethysts, beryls, +jaspers, and chalcedonies having been found.</p> +<p>A shrewd old workman tells us, with a proud satisfaction, that +when Napoleon’s power was crushed, and Saxony had to pay +the penalty of her adhesion to the French conqueror, in the shape +of various parings and loppings of her already narrow +territories—that Prussia gloated with greedy eyes, and half +stretched out an eager hand to grasp the Erzgebirge and their +mineral riches. “<i>Aber</i>,” exclaims he with +a chuckle, “<i>die sind noch Sächische</i>, <i>Gott +sey dank</i>!” “But they are still Saxon, +thanks be to God!”</p> +<p>All things considered (the Australian diggins included), we +came to the conclusion, from our small experience of Saxon mines, +that <!-- page 85--><a name="page85"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +85</span>there are more profitable, and even more agreeable +occupations in the world than mining—pleasanter ways, in +short, of getting a living, than digging for silver in Saxony, or +even for gold in Australia.</p> +<h2>CHAPTER XV.</h2> +<p class="gutsumm"><span class="smcap">a lift in a +cart</span>.</p> +<p>We left Dresden in the middle of July, a motley group of five: +a Frenchman, an Austrian, two natives of Lübeck, and myself; +silversmiths and jewellers together; all of us duly +<i>viséd</i> by our several ambassadors through Saxon +Switzerland, by way of Pirna, on to Peterswald. The latter +is the frontier town of Bohemia, and forms, therefore, the +entrance from Saxony into the Austrian empire.</p> +<p>At dusk we were on the banks of the Elbe, at the ferry station +near Pillnitz, the summer dwelling of the King of Saxony. +Having crossed the broad stream, we leapt joyously up the steep +path that led into a mimic Switzerland; a country of peaks, +valleys, and pine trees, wanting only snow and glaciers. +For three days we wandered among those wild regions; now scaling +the bleak face of a rock; now stretched luxuriously on the purple +moss, or gathering wild raspberries by the road side. From +the abrupt edge of the overhanging Bastei we looked down some six +hundred feet upon the wandering Elbe, threading its way by broad +slopes, rich with the growth of the vine; or by bleached walls of +stone, upon which even the lichens seemed to have been unable to +make good their footing. From the narrow wooden bridge of +Neu Rathen, we looked down upon the waving tops of fir trees, +hundreds of feet beneath us. Then down we ourselves went by +a wild and jagged path into a luxuriant valley called by no unfit +name, Liebethal—the Valley of Love!</p> +<p>Then there was Königstein, seen far away, a square-topped +mountain, greyish white with time and weather, soaring above the +river’s level some fourteen hundred feet. And we +clambered on, never wearying; by mountain fall and sombre cavern, +and round the base of an old rock up to a fortress, till we +reached the iron gates; and, amid the echo of repeated passwords +and the clatter of military arms, entered its gloomy +portal. We entered only to pass through; <!-- page 86--><a +name="page86"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 86</span>and having +admired from the summit a glorious summer prospect, we journeyed +on again into the plains beyond, and so entered the Austrian +territory at Peterswald.</p> +<p>Then there was a great change from fertility to +barrenness. From the moment we entered Bohemia we were +oppressed by a sense of poverty, of sloth, or some worse curse +resulting from Austrian domination, which seemed to have been +enough to cripple even Nature herself as she stood about +us. It was evident that we had got among another race of +people, or else into contact with a quite different state of +things. At the first inn we found upon the road, although +it was a mighty rambling place, with stone staircases and +spacious chambers, there was not bedding enough in the whole +establishment for our party of five, and yet we were the only +guests. We were reduced to the expedient of spreading the +two mattresses at our disposal close together upon the bare +boards, and so sleeping five men in one double bed. A +miserable night we had of it. We fared better at Prague, +which town we entered the next day. That is a fine old +city. From the first glimpse we caught of it from an +adjoining hill, bathing its feet, as it were, in the Moldan, we +were charmed. There was a wonderful cluster of minarets and +conical towers, half Eastern, half German, piled up to the summit +of the castle hill. There was the beautifully barbarous +chapel of Johann von Nepomuk, with its silver tomb. It was +all one mass of picturesque details, beautiful in their outline +and impressive in their very age,—and, I may add, +dirt. A rare picture of middle-age romance is +Prague—a fragment of the past, uninjured and +unchanged. The new suspension bridge across the Moldan +looks ridiculous; it is incongruous; what has old Prague to do +with modern engineering? It is a noble structure, to be +sure, of which the inhabitants are proud; but it was designed and +executed for them by an Englishman.</p> +<p>From Prague we tramped with all the diligence of needy +travellers to Brünn, the capital of Moravia. Our march +was straggling. Foremost strode Alcibiade Tourniquet, +jeweller and native of Argenteuil, the best fellow in the world: +but one who would persist in marching in a pair of Parisian boots +with high, tapering heels, bearing the pain they gave with little +wincing. For him the ground we trod was classical, for we +were in the neighbourhood of Austerlitz. Immediately in his +rear swaggered the Austrian, with swarthy features and black +straggling locks, swaddled and dirty; he was called +“bandit” by general consent. The other three +men <!-- page 87--><a name="page87"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +87</span>of our party tramped abreast under the guidance of a +Lübecker, a smart upright fellow, who, on the strength of +having served two years in an infantry regiment, naturally took +the position of drill-sergeant, and was dignified with the name +of Hannibal on that account.</p> +<p>We halted to rest in the village of Bischowitz, where the few +straggling houses, and the dreary, almost tenantless hostelry, +told their own sorrows. But we got good soup, with an +unlimited supply of bread, which formed a dinner of the best +description; for, besides that the adopted doctrine in Germany is +that soup is the best meat for the legs, we found that it also +agreed well with our pockets. While in the full enjoyment +of our rest, we observed that an earnest conversation had sprung +up between the landlord and a ruddy-featured fellow in a green +half-livery.</p> +<p>“Whither are you going, friends?” inquired the +landlord at length, advancing towards us.</p> +<p>“We were going to Brünn by the high-road,” we +answered.</p> +<p>“This man will carry you beyond Chradim for a +<i>zwanziger</i> a head,” said the landlord, pointing to +the half-liveried fellow, who began gesticulating violently, and +marking us off with his fingers as if we were so many +sheep. This was a tempting offer for foot travellers, each +burthened with a heavy knapsack. Chradim was eleven German +miles on our road—a good fifty miles in English +measurement—and we were all to be transported this distance +for a total of about three shillings and sixpence. We +therefore inspected the <i>furwerk</i>, which did not promise +much; but as it was drawn by a neat sturdy little horse, who +rattled his harness with a sort of brisk independence that spoke +well for a rapid journey, we readily decided upon the acceptance +of the offer made by the Bohemian driver. That worthy shook +his head when we addressed him, and grunted out “<i>Kein +Deutsch</i>,”—“No German.” Indeed +we found that, excepting people in official situations, +innkeepers, and the like, the German language was either unknown +to, or unacknowledged by the natives. In less than half an +hour we had tumbled our knapsacks into the cart—which was a +country dray, of course without either springs or seats—and +disposing ourselves as conveniently as we could on its rough +edges, were rattling and jolting off over the uneven road towards +Collin, our station for the night.</p> +<p>The country through which we passed was uncultivated and +uninteresting; but, like the rest that we had seen, it spoke of a +<!-- page 88--><a name="page88"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +88</span>poverty rather induced than natural. With the +exception of the two villages of Planinam and Böhmishbrod we +scarcely saw a house, and human creatures were extremely +scarce. As we approached Collin we halted for a moment to +look at a column of black marble erected on the roadside to +commemorate the devotion of a handful of Russian troops, who had +at this spot checked the progress of the whole French army for +many hours. A little later, and we were lodged at our inn +in the market-town of Collin, where we supped on bread and cheese +and good Prague beer. A wild chorus of loud voices, and an +overwhelming odour of tobacco and onions, were the accompaniments +of our meal. The morrow being market-day in Collin, the +whole population of the district had flocked to the town, and the +houses of accommodation were all full. Our common room was +quite choked up with sturdy forms in white loose coats; broad +country faces, flushed with good humour, or beer, shone upon us +from all sides. Our driver, who had been very sedate and +reserved during the whole of the day, soon joined a cluster of +congenial spirits in one corner, and was the thirstiest and most +uproarious of mortals. As for ourselves, we seemed to be +made doubly strangers, for there was not a word of German spoken +in our hearing. Hours wore on, and the country folks seemed +to enjoy their town excursion so extremely well, that there were +no signs of breaking up, till mine host made his appearance and +insisted upon the lights being put out, and upon the departure of +his guests to bed. But, beds; where were they? Our +military Lübecker laughed at the idea.</p> +<p>“There are never more than two beds in a Bohemian house +of entertainment,” said he, “and the landlord by law +claims the best of the two for himself. The other is for +the first comer who pays for it. Perhaps we shall get some +straw, perhaps not. At the worst there are the +boards.”</p> +<p>But we did get some straw, after considerable trouble, and the +whole crowd of boozers (with the exception of our driver, who +went to bed with his horses) set about preparing couches for +themselves, with a tact that plainly showed how well they were +accustomed to it. The straw was spread equally over the +whole chamber, and each man turned over his heavy oaken chair, so +that its back became a pillow. Divested of boots and coats, +we were soon stretched upon our litters, thirty in a room.</p> +<p>Our morning duty was to shake the loose straw out of our hair +and ears, and then to clear away every vestige of our night <!-- +page 89--><a name="page89"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +89</span>accommodation, in order that a delicious breakfast of +rich, black, thick coffee, and plain bread, might be spread +before us in the same room. The country folks were all at +market, and, as far as we could see, so was our driver. He +was nowhere to be found. We had vague notions of his having +decamped; but considering that we had only paid him two +zwanzigers out of the five bargained for, the supposition seemed +hardly a reasonable one. After seeking him in vain through +every room in the house, in the crowded market place, and in the +neat little town, full of low, square-built houses and whitened +colonnades, we thought of the stable, and there we found our +friend, stretched on his back among the hoofs of his horse, who, +careful creature, loving him too well to disturb him, never +stirred a limb.</p> +<p>We saw our guide in a new light that day. In spite of +all our urging, it was nine o’clock before we fairly +quitted Collin, and he was then already in an exhilarated state, +having taken several strong draughts to cool his inward +fever. We would have given much to have been able to +converse with him; for, as we were about to start, he grinned and +gesticulated in such a violent way—having, evidently, +something to communicate which he was unable to +express—that we called the host to our assistance.</p> +<p>“You must not be alarmed,” said the landlord in +explanation, “if he should swerve from the high-road, for +he thinks of taking you cross country, and it may be a little +rough.”</p> +<p>We started at last, and the brave little horse rattled along +at a gallant pace. “Hi, hi, hi!” shouted the +Bohemian, and away we went along the well-beaten high-road, +jolted unmercifully; our knapsacks dancing about our feet like +living creatures. We were too much occupied in the task of +keeping our seats, to be able to devote much attention to the +country, until, having passed Czaslau, we turned suddenly out of +the high-road, and came upon a scene of cultivation and +refinement that was very charming. A rapid cooling down of +our driver’s extravagance of manner was the immediate +result of our entering upon the well-kept paths, and between +smooth lawns; we went at a decent trot, following a semicircular +road, by which we were brought immediately in front of a noble +mansion. At the door of an inn, which pressed upon the +pathway, our Bohemian halted and addressed to us a voluble and +enthusiastic harangue in his own language (one that has a soft +and pleasant sound): evidently he meant to impress us with the +beauty of the scene.</p> +<p><!-- page 90--><a name="page90"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +90</span>We soon learned all about it from the landlord of the +inn. Our driver was a liveried servant of the Prince before +whose mansion we had stopped, and he was probably running much +risk of dismissal in letting his grace’s country cart for +hire. He was a sad dog, for, in the course of a quarter of +an hour he ran up a score upon the strength of an alleged promise +on our parts to pay all expenses, and succeeded in wheedling +another zwanziger in advance out of our cashier, the military +Lübecker. This piece of money, however, on being +proffered in payment of a last half-pint of beer, was instantly +confiscated by the landlord for previous arrears.</p> +<p>Amid a hurricane of abuse, exchanged between landlord and +driver, we clattered out of private ground to the main road +again. Our charioteer had risen into a state of exaltation +that defied all curb, and in a short time we were again firmly +planted before the sign-post of a public-house. But here +there was no credit, and our good-natured Lübecker having +doled out a fourth zwanziger on account, was scarcely surprised +to see it pounced upon and totally appropriated by the host in +liquidation of some ancient score. With a shout of rage, or +rather a howl, from our Bohemian whip, we again set +forward. “Hi, hi, hi!” and helter-skelter we +went, through bush and bramble, where indeed there was no trace +or shadow of a beaten track. The Bohemian was lost to +control; he shouted, he sang, he yelled, savagely flogging his +willing beast all the while, until we began to have serious fears +for the safety of our necks. Presently we were skimming +along the edge of the steep bank of a broad and rapid stream, +wondering internally what might possibly come next, when, to our +terror, the Bohemian, pointing with his whip to the opposite +bank, suddenly wheeled the horse and rude vehicle round, and +before we could expostulate with or arrest him in his course, +plunged down a long slope and dashed into the river, with a +hissing and splashing that completely blinded us for a few +seconds, and drenched us to the skin. We held on with the +desperation of fear; but before we could well know whether we +swam or rode we had passed the stream, and our unconquered little +horse was tugging us might and main up the opposite bank. +That once obtained, we saw before us a wide expanse of heath, +rugged and broken, and no trace of any road.</p> +<p>But horse and driver seemed to be alike careless about beaten +tracks. The Bohemian grew wilder at every step, urging on +his horse with mad gestures and unearthly cries. His +driving was <!-- page 91--><a name="page91"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 91</span>miraculous; along narrow strips of +road, scarcely wide enough to contain the wheels, he passed in +safety; sometimes skimming the outer ridge of a steep bank, and +when, seemingly about to plunge into an abyss, suddenly wheeling +both horse and cart round at an acute angle, and darting on with +a reckless speed to new dangers and new escapes. We had +been told that he was an admirable hand at the rein when sober; +but, when drunk, he certainly surpassed himself. As for +ourselves, we were in constant fear of our lives; and, being +utterly unacquainted with the country and the language, and +unable to control the extravagances of our driver, we calmly +awaited, and almost invoked, the “spill” that seemed +inevitable.</p> +<p>But the paroxysm of the Bohemian had reached its height; from +an incarnate devil, in demeanour and language, he rapidly dropped +into childish helplessness, and finally into a deep +uncontrollable slumber. This was a state of things which, +at first, threatened more danger than his open madness; but then +it was the horse’s turn to show <i>his</i> quality. +He saw that a responsibility devolved upon him, and he was quite +equal to the occasion. He seemed to know his way as well +without as with his master. We guessed this; and, taking +the reins from the hands of the quite helpless Bohemian, we left +the gallant animal to take whatever course he thought most +prudent. The good beast brought us well out of the tangled +heath, and once more to a level, open road.</p> +<p>Soon, a neat village was before us, and we came to the +resolution that we would dismount there at all hazards. But +then our sleepy driver suddenly started into life, and, with a +terrible outburst of wrath, gave us, by motions, to understand +that we had gone beyond his destination. We paid very +little heed to him; but, leaping from the cart, felt grateful for +the blessing of whole bones. There remained still one +zwanziger unpaid; but, to our astonishment, the Bohemian relapsed +into his old rage when this was tendered to him, and, by a +complication of finger reckoning, explained to us that he had +never received more than two. In fact, he ignored all that +had passed during his drunken fit. Argument being on each +side useless, we also betook ourselves to abuse, and a terrible +conflict of strong language, in which neither party understood +the other, was the result. We entered the chief inn of the +village, followed by the implacable Bohemian, who, though ejected +several times, never failed to re-appear, repeating his finger +calculations every time, and <!-- page 92--><a +name="page92"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 92</span>concluding +each assault with the mystical words, “<i>Sacramentum +hallaluyah</i>!” The landlord came at length to our +assistance; and, by a few emphatic words in his own language, +exorcised this evil spirit.</p> +<p>We pursued our way by Hohenmauth, and having missed somehow +the larger village of Chradim, lodged for the night in a lonely +hamlet. We walked fully thirty-two miles the next day, +through a wild, neglected country, and hobbled into Loitomischl +as the night was setting in.</p> +<p>We were now upon the borders of Bohemia, and saw glaring on +the wall of a frontier hostelry, “Willkommen zu +Mähren”—“Welcome to Moravia.” +We sealed the welcome by a sumptuous breakfast of sausages and +beer in the frontier town of Zwittau—a pleasant place, with +a spacious colonnaded market-square—and finished our meal +on a green bank on the outskirts of the town, with a heap of +sweet blackberries, of which we had purchased a capful for six +kreutzers shein. It was a quiet, beautiful Sunday morning, +and the country folks were streaming towards the church. +They were all in holiday trim, with a strong tendency to +Orientalism in the fashion of their garments. The +women’s head-dresses were arranged with much taste, +consisting generally of a large handkerchief, or shawl, folded +turban-wise, with hanging ends; but the heads of the men were +surmounted by an atrocious machine, in the shape of a hat, which, +with its broad, rolled brim, its expanded top, and numerous +braidings and pendants, could be nothing less than an heirloom in +a family. We marched some twenty-five miles that day, and +as the even darkened, entered the village of +Goldentraum—Golden dream—happy name! for here, after +four nights of straw-litter, we slept in beds.</p> +<p>Seated in the travellers’ room was a group which at once +arrested our attention. A swarthy man, with scattered, +raven locks, and a handsome countenance, was filling a glass with +red wine from a round-bellied flask. His companion, a +black, shaggy-bearded fellow, ragged and filthy, sat opposite to +him; while close by the wall, squatted on the ground, was a +squalid, olive-skinned woman, with black, matted hair, who was +vainly endeavouring to still the cries of a child, swaddled at +her back. The men wore slouched Spanish hats, and wide +cloaks, which, partly thrown aside, revealed the rags and dirt +beneath. Bohemian gipseys—real Bohemians were +they—filchers and beggars, whose ample cloaks were intended +as much <!-- page 93--><a name="page93"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 93</span>for a convenient means of concealing +stolen property, as articles of dress. Our military +Lübecker thought they would be very useful as a foraging +party. They sat laughing and sipping their wine, now and +then handing a glass of the liquor, in an ungracious way, to the +woman squatted on the ground; and who received it with a real or +assumed humility which was, perhaps, the most curious part of the +picture. Here three of our companions, Alcibiade, the +Viennese silversmith, and one of the Lübeckers, were unable +to proceed further on foot, and took places in the “fast +coach;” while “Hannibal” and myself tramped the +remaining twenty miles which lay between us and Brünn, the +capital of Moravia.</p> +<p>It was again Sunday, our usual rest day, and I stood in the +open square before the huge church at Brünn, watching the +motley, shifting, and clamorous crowd which had converted its +very steps into a market-place. There was something +strikingly Eastern in the character of the women’s attire: +intensely gaudy and highly contrasted; and their head-dresses the +very next thing to a turban with double-frilled ends. There +was also something peculiarly Catholic in the nature of the +articles exposed for sale; beads, crosses, coloured pictures of +saints, and tiny images of suffering Saviours; but more +especially in the manner in which the Sunday had been turned into +a market-day. Above all, and through all, the impressive +tones of the solemn chant, mingled with bursts of inspiring +music, pealed out of the open doorway, round which clustered the +kneeling devotees.</p> +<p>Our lame companions started on the following day by rail for +the Austrian capital, while we took the high road. The +country through which we passed was beautifully undulated; hill +and dale following each other in regular succession, and in a far +different state of order and cultivation to the neglected plains +of Bohemia. We were now in Austria proper, and everything +spoke of prosperity and comfort. Neat, populous villages, +hung upon every hill-side—the southern side +invariably—and there were no shortcomings in the +accommodation for man or horse. But our finances were in a +miserable plight; and our sustenance during the two and a half +days occupied in tramping the more than eighty miles between +Brünn and Vienna, consisted for the most part of fruit, +bread, and water. We crossed the Danube at a place called +“Am Spitz,” where there is an interminable bridge +across the broad flood, and entered Vienna almost penniless.</p> +<h2><!-- page 94--><a name="page94"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +94</span>CHAPTER XVI.</h2> +<p class="gutsumm"><span class="smcap">the turks’ +cellar</span>.</p> +<p>You enter the old town of Vienna from Leopoldstadt by the +Ferdinand Bridge; and, walking for a few minutes parallel with +the river, come into a hollow called the Tiefer Grund; passing +next under a broad arch which itself supports a street spanning +the gulley, you find on the left hand a rising ground which must +be climbed in order to reach a certain open space of a triangular +form, walled in by lofty houses, called “Die +Freiung,”—the Deliverance. In it there is an +old wine-house, the Turks’ Cellar, and there belongs to +this spot one of the legends of Vienna.</p> +<p>In the autumn of the year sixteen hundred and twenty-seven, +when the city was so closely invested by the Turks, that the +people were half famished, there stood in the place now called +“Freiung,” or thereabouts, the military bakery for +that portion of the garrison which had its quarters in the +neighbourhood. The bakery had to supply not only the +soldiers, but bread was made in it to be doled out to destitute +civilians by the municipal authorities; and, as the number of the +destitute was great, the bakers there employed had little +rest. Once in the dead of the night, while some of the +apprentices were getting their dough ready for the early morning +batch, they were alarmed by a hollow ghostly sound as of spirits +knocking in the earth. The blows were regular and quite +distinct, and without cessation until cockcrow. The next +night these awful sounds were again heard, and seemed to become +louder and more urgent as the day drew near; but, with the first +scent of morning air, they suddenly ceased. The apprentices +gave information to the town authorities; a military watch was +set, and the cause of the strange noises in the earth was very +soon discovered. The enemy was under ground; the Turks, +from their camp on the Leopoldiberg, were carrying a mine under +the city; and, not knowing the levels, had approached so nearly +to the surface that there was but a mere crust between them and +the bakehouse floor.</p> +<p><!-- page 95--><a name="page95"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +95</span>What was to be done? The danger was +imminent—the remedy must be prompt and decisive. A +narrow arm of the Danube ran within a hundred yards of the place: +pick and spade were vigorously plied, and in a short time a canal +was cut between the river and the bakery. Little knew the +Turks of the cold water that could then at any time be thrown +upon their undertaking. All was still. The Viennese +say that the hostile troops already filled the mine, armed to the +teeth, and awaiting only a concerted signal to tell them that a +proposed midnight attack on the walls had diverted the attention +of the citizens. Then they were to rush up out of the earth +and surprise the town. But the besieged, forewarned and +forearmed, suddenly threw the flood-gates open and broke a way +for the water through the new canal under the bakehouse floor; +down it went bubbling, hissing, and gurgling into the dark +cavern, where it swept the Mussulmans before it, and destroyed +them to a man.</p> +<p>This was the origin of the Turks’ Cellar; and although +the title is perhaps unjustly appropriated by the winehouse I +have mentioned, yet there is no doubt that the tale is true, and +that the house at any rate is near the spot from which its name +is taken. Grave citizens even believe that the underground +passage still exists, walled and roofed over with stone, and that +it leads directly to the Turks’ camp, at the foot of the +Leopoldiberg. They even know the size of it, namely, that +it is of such dimensions as to admit the marching through it of +six men abreast. Of this I know nothing; but I know from +the testimony of a venerable old lady—who is not the oldest +in Vienna—that the bakers’ apprentices were formerly +allowed special privileges in consideration of the service once +rendered by some of their body to the state. Indeed, the +procession of the bakers, on every returning anniversary of the +swamp-in of the Turks, when they marched horse and foot from the +Freiung, with banners, emblems, and music, through the heart of +the city to the grass-grown camp outside the city walls, was one +of the spectacles that made the deepest impression on this chatty +old lady in her childhood.</p> +<p>The Turks’ Cellar is still famous. It is noted +now, not for its bread or its canal-water, but for its white +wine, its baked veal, and its savoury chickens. Descend +into its depths (for it is truly a cellar and nothing else) late +in the evening, when citizens have time and money at their +disposal, and you find it full of jolly company. As well as +the tobacco-smoke will permit you to see what the place <!-- page +96--><a name="page96"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +96</span>resembles, you would say that it is like nothing so much +as the after cabin of a Gravesend steamer on a summer Sunday +afternoon. There is just such a row of tables on each side; +just such a low roof; just such a thick palpable air, uncertain +light, and noisy steamy crowd of occupants. The place is +intolerable in itself, but fall-to upon the steaming block of +baked veal which is set before you; clear your throat of the +tobacco-smoke by mighty draughts of the pale yellow wine which is +its proper accompaniment; finally, fill a deep-bowled meerschaum +with Three Kings tobacco, creating for yourself your own private +and exclusive atmosphere, and you begin to feel the +situation. The temperature of mine host’s cellar aids +imagination greatly in recalling the idea of the old bakehouse, +and there comes over you, after a while, a sense of stifling that +mixes with the nightmare, usually constituting in this place an +after-supper nap. In the waking lethargy that succeeds, you +feel as if jostled in dark vaults by a mob of frantic Turks, +labouring heavily to get breath, and sucking in foul water for +air.</p> +<p>Possibly when fully awakened you begin to consider that the +Turks’ Cellar is not the most healthful place of recreation +to be in; and, cleaving the dense smoke, you ascend into +sunlight. Perhaps you stroll to some place where the air is +better, but which may still have a story quite as exciting as the +catastrophe of the imperial bakehouse: perhaps to Bertholdsdorf; +a pretty little market-town with a tall-steepled church, and a +half ruined battlement, situated on the hill slope about six +miles to the south of Vienna. It forms a pretty summer +day’s ramble. Its chronicler is the worthy +Markt-richter, or Town-justice, Jacob Trinksgeld; and his +unvarnished story, freely translated, runs thus:—</p> +<p>“When the Turkish army, two hundred thousand strong +without their allies, raised the siege of Raab, the retreating +host of rebels and Tartars were sent to overrun the whole of +Austria below the Enns on this side of the Danube, and to waste +it with fire and sword. This was done. On the ninth +of July, detached troops of Spahis and Tartars appeared before +the walls of Bertholdsdorf, but were beaten back by our armed +citizens. Those attacks were repeated on the tenth and +twelfth, and also repulsed; but as at this time the enemy met +with a determined resistance from the city of Vienna, which they +had invested, they gathered in increased force about our devoted +town, and on the fifteenth of July attacked us with such fury on +every side that, seeing it was no longer possible to hold out +<!-- page 97--><a name="page97"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +97</span>against them, partly from their great numbers, and +partly from our failing of powder; and, moreover, seeing that +they had already set fire to the town in several places, we were +compelled to seek shelter with our goods and chattels in the +church and fortress, neither of which were as yet touched by the +flames.</p> +<p>“On the sixteenth, the town itself being then in ashes, +there came a soldier dressed in the Turkish costume, save that he +wore the leather jerkin of a German horseman, into the high +street, and waving a white cloth, he called out in the Hungarian +language, to those of us who were in the fortress, that if we +would ask for grace, both we and ours should be protected, and a +safe conduct (salva quartier) given to us, that should be our +future defence. Thereupon we held honest counsel together, +citizens and neighbours then present, and in the meantime gave +reply, translated also into Hungarian, that if we should agree +thereto, we would set up a white flag upon the tower as a sign of +our submission. Early on the morning of the nineteenth of +July there came a Pasha from the camp at Vienna, at the head of a +great army, and with him the same Turk who had on the previous +day made the proposal to us. And the Pasha sat himself down +upon a red carpet spread on the bare ground, close by the house +of Herr Streninger, till we should agree to his terms. It +was five o’clock in the morning before we could make up our +minds.</p> +<p>“Then, when we were all willing to surrender, our +enemies demanded, in the first place, that two of our men should +march out of the fortress as hostages, and that two Turks should +take their places with us; and that a maiden, with loose +streaming hair, and a wreath upon her forehead, should bring +forth the key of the town, seeing that this place had never till +then been taken by an enemy. Further, they demanded six +thousand florins ransom from us, which, however, we abated to +four thousand, handing to them two thousand florins at once, upon +three dishes, with the request that the remainder should be +allowed to stand over till the forthcoming day of John the +Baptist. As soon as this money had been paid over to them, +the Pasha called such of our faithful garrison as were in the +church to come out and arrange themselves in the square, that he +might see how many safe-conducts were required; but, as each +armed man came to the door, his musket was torn out of his hand, +and such as resisted were dragged by the hair of the head into +the square by the Turks, and told that they would need no +weapons, seeing that <!-- page 98--><a name="page98"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 98</span>to those who sought for mercy, the +passes would be sufficient protection. And thus were our +arms carried away from us.</p> +<p>“As soon as the whole garrison, thus utterly +defenceless, were collected in the public square, there sprang +fifty Turks from their horses, and with great rudeness began +searching every one of them for money or other valuables; and the +citizens began already to see that they were betrayed into a +surrender, and some of them tried to make their +escape—among others, Herr Streninger, the town-justice; but +he was struck down immediately, and he was the first man +murdered. Upon this, the Pasha stood up, and began to call +out with a loud, clear voice to his troops, and as they heard his +words, they fell upon the unarmed men in the market-place, and +hewed them down with their scimitars without pity or +remorse—sparing none in their eagerness for the butchery, +and which, in spite of their haste, was not ended till between +one and two o’clock in the afternoon. Of all our +citizens, only two escaped the slaughter, and they contrived to +hide themselves in the tower; but those who fled out of the town +were captured by the Tartars, and instantly dispatched. +Then, having committed this cruel barbarism, they seized the +women and children who had been left for safety in the church, +and carried them away into slavery, taking care to burn and +utterly destroy the fortress ere they departed. And when +Vienna was relieved, and the good people there came among the +ruins of Bertholdsdorf, they gathered together the headless and +mangled remains of our murdered citizens to the number of three +thousand five hundred, and buried them all in one +grave.”</p> +<p>In “eternal remembrance” of this catastrophe, the +worthy town-justice, Trinksgeld, in seventeen hundred ordered a +painting to be executed, representing the fearful scene +described. It occupies the whole of one side of the +Town-hall, and in its quaint minuteness of detail, and defiance +of perspective—depicting, not merely the slaughter of the +betrayed Bertholdsdorfers, but the concealment of the two who +were fortunate enough to escape, and who are helplessly apparent +behind some loose timber—would be ludicrous, were it not +for the sacred gravity of the subject.</p> +<p>As it is, we quit the romantic little town with a sigh, and +turning our faces towards Vienna, wonder what the young Turks of +eighteen hundred and fifty-four may possibly think of the Old +Turks of one hundred and thirty years ago.</p> +<h2><!-- page 99--><a name="page99"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +99</span>CHAPTER XVII.</h2> +<p class="gutsumm"><span class="smcap">a taste of austrian +jails</span>.</p> +<p>At the “Fete de Dieu,” in Vienna (the +<i>Frohnleichnamsfest</i>), religious rites are not confined to +the places of worship—the whole city becomes a +church. Altars rise in every street, and high mass is +performed in the open air, amid clouds of incense and showers of +holy water. The Emperor himself and his family swell the +procession.</p> +<p>I had taken a cheering glass of Kronewetter with the worthy +landlord of my lodgings, and sauntered forth to observe the +day’s proceedings. I crossed the Platz of St. Ulrick, +and thence proceeded to the high street of Mariahilf—an +important suburb of Vienna. I passed two stately altars on +my way, and duly raised my hat, in obedience to the custom of the +country. A little crowd was collected round the parish +church of Mariahilf; and, anticipating that a procession would +pass, I took my stand among the rest of the expectant +populace. A few assistant police, in light blue-grey +uniforms with green facings, kept the road.</p> +<p>A bustle about the church-door, and a band of priests, +attendants, and—what pleased me most—a troop of +pretty little girls came, two and two, down the steps, and into +the road. I remember nothing of the procession but those +beautiful and innocent children, adorned with wreaths and ribbons +for the occasion. I was thinking of the rosy faces I had +left at home, when my reflections were interrupted by a +peremptory voice, exclaiming, “Take off your +hat!” I should have obeyed with alacrity at any other +moment; but there was something in the manner and tone of the +“Polizeidiener’s” address which touched my +pride, and made me obstinate. I drew back a little. +The order was repeated; the crowd murmured. I half turned +to go; but, the next moment, my hat was struck off my head by the +police-assistant.</p> +<p>What followed was mere confusion. I struck the +“Polizeidiener;” and, in return, received several +blows on the head from behind with <!-- page 100--><a +name="page100"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 100</span>a heavy +stick. In less than ten minutes I was lodged in the +police-office of the district; my hat broken and my clothes +bespattered with the blood which had dropped, and was still +dropping, from the wounds in my head.</p> +<p>I had full time to reflect upon the obstinate folly which had +produced this result; nor were my reflections enlivened by the +manners of the police-agents attached to the office. They +threatened me with heavy pains and punishments; and the +Polizeidiener whom I had struck, assured me, while stanching his +still-bleeding nose, that I should have at least “three +months for this.”</p> +<p>After several hours’ waiting in the dreary office, I was +abruptly called into the commissioner’s room. The +commissioner was seated at a table with writing materials before +him, and commenced immediately, in a sharp offensive tone, a +species of examination. After my name and country had been +demanded, he asked:</p> +<p>“Of what religion are you?”</p> +<p>“I am a Protestant.”</p> +<p>“So! Leave the room.”</p> +<p>I had made no complaint of my bruises, because I did not think +this the proper place to do so; although the man who dealt them +was present. He had assisted, stick in hand, in taking me +to the police-office. He was in earnest conversation with +the Polizeidiener, but soon left the office. From that +instant I never saw him again; nor, in spite of repeated demands, +could I ever obtain redress for, or even recognition of, the +violence I had suffered.</p> +<p>Another weary hour, and I was consigned to the care of a +police-soldier; who, armed with sabre and stick, conducted me +through the crowded city to prison. It was then two +o’clock.</p> +<p>The prison, situated in the Spengler Gasse, is called the +“Polizei-Haupt-Direction.” We descended a +narrow gut, which had no outlet, except through the prison +gates. They were slowly opened at the summons of my +conductor. I was beckoned into a long gloomy apartment, +lighted from one side only, and having a long counter running +down its centre; chains and handcuffs hung upon the walls.</p> +<p>An official was standing behind the counter. He asked me +abruptly:</p> +<p>“Whence come you?”</p> +<p>“From England,” I answered.</p> +<p>“Where’s that?”</p> +<p><!-- page 101--><a name="page101"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +101</span>“In Great Britain; close to France.”</p> +<p>The questioner behind the counter cast an inquiring look at my +escort:—</p> +<p>“Is it so?” he asked.</p> +<p>The subordinate answered him in a pleasant way, that I had +spoken the truth. Happily an Englishman, it seems, is a +rarity within those prison walls.</p> +<p>I was passed into an adjoining room, which reminded me of the +back parlour of a Holywell Street clothes shop, only that it was +rather lighter. Its sides consisted entirely of sets of +great pigeon-holes, each occupied by the habiliments or effects +of some prisoner.</p> +<p>“Have you any valuables?”</p> +<p>“Few enough.” My purse, watch, and pin were +rendered up, ticketed, and, deposited in one of the +compartments. I was then beckoned into a long paved passage +or corridor down some twenty stone steps, into the densest +gloom. Presently I discerned before me a massive door +studded with bosses, and crossed with bars and bolts. A +police-soldier, armed with a drawn sabre, guarded the entrance to +Punishment Room No. 1. The bolts gave way; and, in a few +moments, I was a prisoner within.</p> +<p>Punishment Room No. 1, is a chamber some fifteen paces long by +six broad, with a tolerably high ceiling and whitened +walls. It has but two windows, and they are placed at each +end of one side of the chamber. They are of good height, +and look out upon an inclosed gravelled space, variegated with a +few patches of verdure. The room is tolerably light. +On each side are shelves, as in barracks, for sleeping. In +one corner, by the window, is a stone sink; in another, a good +supply of water.</p> +<p>Such is the prison; but the prisoners! There were +forty-eight—grey-haired men and puny boys—all ragged, +and stalking with slippered feet from end to end with listless +eyes. Some, all eagerness; some, crushed and motionless; +some, scared and stupid; now singing, now swearing, now rushing +about playing at some mad game; now hushed or whispering, as the +loud voice of the Vater (or father of the ward) is heard above +the uproar, calling out “Ruhe!” +(“Order!”)</p> +<p>On my entrance I was instantly surrounded by a dozen of the +younger jail-birds, amid a shout of “Ein Zuwachs! Ein +Zuwachs!” which I was not long in understanding to be the +name given to the last comer. “Was haben sie?” +(What have you done?) was the next <!-- page 102--><a +name="page102"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 102</span>eager +cry. “Struck a Polizeidiener!” “Ei! +das ist gut!” was the hearty exclamation; and I was a +favourite immediately. One dirty villanous-looking fellow, +with but one eye, and very little light in that, took to handling +my clothes; then inquired if I had any money “up +above?” Upon my answering in the affirmative my +popularity immediately increased. They soon made me +understand that I could “draw” upon the pigeon-hole +bank to indulge in any such luxuries as beer or tobacco.</p> +<p>People breakfast early in Vienna; and, as I had tasted nothing +since that meal, I was very hungry; but I was not to starve; for +soon we heard the groaning of bolts and locks, and the +police-soldier who guarded the door appeared, bearing in his hand +a red earthen pot, surmounted by a round flat loaf of bread +“for the Englishman.” I took my portion with +thanks, and found that the pipkin contained a thick porridge made +of lentils, prepared with meal and fat; in the midst of which was +a piece of fresh boiled beef. The cake was of a darkish +colour; but good wholesome bread. Altogether, the meal was +not unsavoury. Many a greedy eye watched me as I sat on the +end of the hard couch, eating my dinner. One wretched man +seeing that I did not eat all, whispered a proposal to barter his +dirty neckerchief—which he took off in my +presence—for half of my loaf. I satisfied his +desires, but declined the recompense. My half-emptied +pipkin was thankfully taken by another man, under the pretence of +“cleaning it.”</p> +<p>One of my fellow-prisoners approached me.</p> +<p>“It is getting late,” said he; “do you know +what you have got to do?”</p> +<p>“No.”</p> +<p>“You are the Zuwachs (latest accession), and it is your +business to empty and clean out the ‘Kiefel’” +(the sink, etc.)</p> +<p>“The devil!”</p> +<p>“But I dare say,” he added, carelessly, “if +you pay the Vater a ‘mass-bier,’” (something +less than a quart of beer), “he will make some of the boys +do it for you.”</p> +<p>“With all my heart.”</p> +<p>“Have you a rug?”</p> +<p>“No.”</p> +<p>“You must ask the Corporal, at seven o’clock; but +I dare say the Vater will find you one—for a +‘mass-bier’—if you ask him.”</p> +<p><!-- page 103--><a name="page103"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +103</span>I saw that a mass-bier would do a great deal in an +Austrian prison.</p> +<p>The Vater, who was a prisoner like the rest, was appealed +to. He was a tall, burly-looking young man, with a frank +countenance. He had quitted his honest calling of butcher, +and had taken to smuggling tobacco into the city. This is a +heavy crime; for the growth, manufacture, and sale of tobacco is +a strict Imperial monopoly. Accordingly, his punishment had +been proportionately severe—two years’ +imprisonment. The sentence was now approaching completion; +and, on account of good conduct, he had received the appointment +of Vater to Punishment Room No. 1. The benefits were +enumerated to me with open eyes by one of the +prisoners—“Double rations, two rugs, and a mass-bier +a day!”</p> +<p>The result of my application to the Vater was the instant +calling out of several young lads, who crouched all day in the +darkest end of the room—a condemned corner, abounding in +vermin; and I heard no more of the sink and so forth. The +next day a newcomer occupied my position.</p> +<p>At about seven o’clock the bolts were again withdrawn, +the ponderous door opened, and the Corporal—who seemed to +fill the office of ward-inspector—marched into the +chamber. He was provided with a small note-book and a +pencil, and made a general inquiry into the wants and complaints +of the prisoners. Several of them asked for little +indulgences. All these were duly noted down to be complied +with the next day—always supposing that the prisoner +possessed a small capital “up above.” I stepped +forward, and humbly made my request for a rug. +“You!” exclaimed the Corporal, eyeing me +sharply. “Oh! you are the +Englishman?—No!”</p> +<p>I heard some one near me mutter: “So; struck a +policeman! No mercy for him from the other +policemen—any of them.”</p> +<p>The Vater dared not help me; but two of his most intimate +friends made me lie down between them; and, swaddled in their +rugs, I passed the night miserably. The hard boards, and +the vermin, effectually broke my slumbers.</p> +<p>The morning came. The rules of the prison required that +we should all rise at six, roll up the rugs, lay them at the +heads of our beds, and sweep out the room. Weary and sore, +I paced the prison while these things were done. Even the +morning ablution was comfortless and distressing; a +pocket-handkerchief serving but indifferently for a towel.</p> +<p><!-- page 104--><a name="page104"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +104</span>Restless activity now took full possession of the +prisoners. There was not the combined shouting or singing +of the previous day; but there was independent action, which +broke out in various ways. Hunger had roused them; the +prison allowance is one meal a day: and although, by husbanding +the supply, some few might eke it out into several repasts, the +majority had no such control over their appetite. Tall, +gaunt lads, just starting into men, went roaming about with wild +eyes, purposeless, pipkin in hand, although hours must elapse +before the meal would come. Caged beasts pace their narrow +prisons with the same uniform and unvarying motion.</p> +<p>At last eleven o’clock came. The barred door +opened, and swiftly, yet with a terrible restraint—knowing +that the least disorder would cost them a day’s +dinner—the prisoners mounted the stone steps, and passed +slowly, in single file, before two enormous caldrons. A +cook, provided with a long ladle, stood by the side of each; and, +with a dexterous plunge and a twist, a portion of porridge and a +small block of beef were fished up and dashed into the pipkin +extended by each prisoner. Another official stood ready +with the flat loaves. In a very short time, the whole of +the prisoners were served.</p> +<p>Hunger seasoned the mess; and I was sitting on the +bedstead-end enjoying it, when the police-soldier appeared on the +threshold, calling me by name.</p> +<p>“You must leave—instantly.”</p> +<p>“I am ready,” I said, starting up.</p> +<p>“Have you a rug?”</p> +<p>“No.”</p> +<p>I hurried out into the dark passage. I was conducted to +the left; another heavy door was loosened, and I was thrust into +a gloomy cell, bewildered, and almost speechless with +alarm. I was not alone. Some half-dozen melancholy +wretches, crouching in one corner, were disturbed by my entrance; +but half-an-hour had scarcely elapsed, when the police-soldier +again appeared, and I was hurried out. We proceeded through +the passage by which I had first entered. In my way past +the nest of pigeon-holes “up above,” my valuables +were restored to me. Presently a single police-soldier led +me into the open street.</p> +<p>The beautiful air and sunshine! how I enjoyed them as we +passed through the heart of the city. “Bei’m +Magistrat,” at the corner of the Kohlmarkt was our +destination. We entered its porticoed door, ascended the +stone stairs, and went into a small office, where <!-- page +105--><a name="page105"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +105</span>the most repulsive-looking official I have anywhere +seen, noted my arrival in a book. Thence we passed into +another pigeon-holed chamber, where I delivered up my little +property, as before, “for its security.” A few +minutes more, and I was safely locked in a small chamber, having +one window darkened by a wooden blind. My companions were a +few boys, a courier—who, to my surprise, addressed me in +English—and a man with blazing red hair.</p> +<p>In this place I passed four days, occupied by what I suppose I +may designate “my trial.” The first day was +enlivened by a violent attack which the jailer made upon the +red-haired man for looking out of window. He seized the +fiery locks, and beat their owner’s head against the +wall. I had to submit that day to a degrading medical +examination.</p> +<p>On the second day I was called to appear before the +“<i>Rath</i>,” or counsel. The process of +examination is curious. It is considered necessary to the +complete elucidation of a case, that the whole life and parentage +of the accused should be made known; and I was thus exposed to a +series of questions which I had never anticipated:—The +names and countries of both of my parents; their station; the +ages, names, and birthplaces of my brothers and sisters; my own +babyhood, education, subsequent behaviour, and adventures; my own +account, with the minutest details of the offence I had +committed. It was more like a private conference than an +examination. The Rath was alone—with the exception of +his secretary, who diligently recorded my answers. While +being thus perseveringly catechised, the Rath sauntered up and +down; putting his interminable questions in a friendly chatty +way, as though he were taking a kindly interest in my history, +rather than pursuing a judicial investigation. When the +examination was concluded, the secretary read over every word to +me, and I confirmed the report with my signature.</p> +<p>The Rath promised to do what he could for me; and I was then +surprised and pleased by the entrance of my employer. The +Rath recommended him to write to the English Embassy in my +behalf, and allowed him to send me outer clothing better suited +to the interior of a prison than the best clothes I had donned to +spend the holiday in.</p> +<p>I went back to my cell with a lightened heart. I was, +however, a little disconcerted on my return by the courier, who +related an anecdote of a groom, of his acquaintance, who had +persisted in <!-- page 106--><a name="page106"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 106</span>smoking a cigar while passing a +sentinel; and who, in punishment therefor, had been beaten by a +number of soldiers, with willow rods; and whose yells of pain had +been heard far beyond the prison walls. What an +anticipation! Was I to be similarly served? I thought +it rather a suspicious circumstance that my new friend appeared +to be thoroughly conversant with all the details (I suspect from +personal experience) of the police and prison system of +Vienna. He told me (but I had no means of testing the +correctness of his information) that there were twenty +Rathsherrn, or Counsellors; that each had his private chamber, +and was assisted by a confidential secretary; that every offender +underwent a private examination by the Rath appointed to +investigate his case—the Rath having the power to call all +witnesses, and to examine them, singly, or otherwise, as he +thought proper; that on every Thursday the +“Rathsherrn” met in conclave; that each Rath brought +forward the particular cases which he had investigated, explained +all their bearings, attested his report by documentary evidence +prepared by his secretary, and pronounced his opinion as to the +amount of punishment to be inflicted. The question was then +decided by a majority.</p> +<p>On the third day, I was suddenly summoned before the Rath, and +found myself side by side with my accuser. He was in +private clothes.</p> +<p>“Herr Tuci,” exclaimed the Rath, trying to +pronounce my name, but utterly disguising it, “you have +misinformed me. The constable says he did not <i>knock</i> +your hat off—he only <i>pulled</i> it off.”</p> +<p>I adhered to my statement. The Polizeidiener nudged my +elbow, and whispered, “Don’t be alarmed—it will +not go hard with you.”</p> +<p>“Now, constable,” said the Rath; “what harm +have you suffered in this affair?”</p> +<p>“My uniform is stained with blood.”</p> +<p>“From <i>my</i> head!” I exclaimed.</p> +<p>“From <i>my</i> nose,” interposed the +Polizeidiener.</p> +<p>“In any case it will wash out,” said the Rath.</p> +<p>“And you,” he added, turning to +me,—“are you willing to indemnify this man for damage +done?”</p> +<p>I assented; and was then removed.</p> +<p>On the following morning I was again summoned to the +Rath’s chamber. His secretary, who was alone, met me +with smiles and congratulations: he announced to me the +sentence—four days’ <!-- page 107--><a +name="page107"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +107</span>imprisonment. I am afraid I did not evince that +degree of pleasure which was expected from me; but I thanked him, +was removed, and, in another hour, was reconducted to Punishment +Room No. 1.</p> +<p>The four days of sentence formed the lightest part of the +adventure. My mind was at ease: I knew the worst. +Additions to my old companions had arrived in the interval. +We had an artist among us, who was allowed, in consideration of +his talents, to retain a sharp cutting implement fashioned by +himself from a flat piece of steel—knives and books being, +as the most dangerous objects in prison, rigidly abstracted from +us. He manufactured landscapes in straw, gummed upon pieces +of blackened wood. Straw was obtained, in a natural state, +of green, yellow, and brown; and these, when required, were +converted into differently-tinted reds, by a few hours’ +immersion in the Kiefel. He also kneaded bread in the hand, +until it became as plastic as clay. This he modelled into +snuffboxes (with strips of rag for hinges, and a piece of +whalebone for a spring), draughts, chess-men, pipe-bowls, and +other articles. When dry, they became hard and serviceable; +and he sold them among the prisoners and the prison +officials. He obtained thus a number of comforts not +afforded by the prison regulations.</p> +<p>On Sunday, I attended the Catholic chapel attached to the +prison—a damp unwholesome cell. I stood among a knot +of prisoners, enveloped in a nauseous vapour; for there arose +musty, mouldy, effluvia which gradually overpowered my +senses. I felt them leaving me, and tottered towards the +door. I was promptly met by a man who seemed provided for +emergencies of the kind; for he held a vessel of cold water, +poured some of it into my hands, and directed me to bathe my +temples. I partly recovered; and, faint and dispirited, +staggered back to the prison. I had not, however, lain long +upon my bed (polished and slippery from constant use), when the +prison guard came to my side, holding in his hand a smoking basin +of egg soup “for the Englishman.” It was sent +by the mistress of the kitchen. I received the offering of +a kind heart to a foreigner in trouble, with a blessing on the +donor.</p> +<p>On the following Tuesday, after an imprisonment of, in all, +nine days, during which I had never slept without my clothes, I +was discharged from the prison. In remembrance of the +place, I brought <!-- page 108--><a name="page108"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 108</span>away with me a straw landscape and a +bread snuff-box, the works of the prison artist.</p> +<p>On reaching my lodging I looked into my box. It was +empty.</p> +<p>“Where are my books and papers?” I asked my +landlord.</p> +<p>The police had taken them on the day after my arrest.</p> +<p>“And my bank-notes?”</p> +<p>“Here they are!” exclaimed my landlord, +triumphantly. “I expected the police; I knew you had +money somewhere, so I took the liberty of searching until I found +it. The police made particular inquiries about your cash, +and went away disappointed, taking the other things with +them.”</p> +<p>“Would they have appropriated it?”</p> +<p>“Hem! Very likely—under pretence of paying +your expenses.”</p> +<p>On application to the police of the district, I received the +whole of my effects back. One of my books was detained for +about a week; a member of the police having taken it home to +read, and being, as I apprehend, a slow reader.</p> +<p>It was matter of great astonishment, both to my friends and to +the police, that I escaped with so slight a punishment.</p> +<h2>CHAPTER XVIII.</h2> +<p class="gutsumm"><span class="smcap">what my landlord +believed</span>.</p> +<p>My Bohemian landlord in Vienna told me a story of an English +nobleman. It may be worth relating, as showing what my +landlord, quite in good faith and earnest, believed.</p> +<p>You know, Lieber Herr, said Vater Böhm, there is nothing +in the whole Kaiserstadt so astonishing to strangers as our +signboards. Those beautiful paintings that you see—Am +Graben and Hohe Markt,—real works of art, with which the +sign-boards of other countries are no more to be compared, than +your hum-drum English music is to the delicious waltzes of +Lanner, or the magic polkas of Strauss. Imagine an +Englishman, who knows nothing of painting, finding himself all at +once in front of one of those charming +compositions—pictures that they would make a gallery of in +<!-- page 109--><a name="page109"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +109</span>London, but which we can afford to put out of doors; he +is fixed, he is dumb with astonishment and delight—he goes +mad. Well, Lieber Herr, this is exactly what happened to +one of your English nobility. Milor arrived in Vienna; and +as he had made a wager that he would see every notability in the +city and its environs in the course of three days, which was all +the time he could spare, he hired a fiaker at the Tabor-Linie, +and drove as fast as the police would let him from church to +theatre; from museum to wine-cellar; till chance and the fiaker +brought him into the Graben. Milor got out to stretch +himself, and to see the wonderful shops, and after a few turns +came suddenly upon the house at the sign of the Joan of Arc.</p> +<p>“Goddam!” exclaimed Milor, as his eye met the +sign-board.</p> +<p>There he stood, this English nobleman, in his drab coat with +pearl buttons, his red neckcloth, blue pantaloons and white hat, +transfixed for at least five minutes. Then, swearing some +hard oaths—a thing the English always do when they are +particularly pleased—Milor exclaimed, “It is +exquisite! Holy Lord Mayor, it is unbelievable!”</p> +<p>Mein Lieber, you have seen that painting of course, I mean +Joan of Arc, life-size, clad in steel, sword in hand, and with a +wonderful serenity expressed in her countenance, as she leads her +flagging troops once more to the attack upon the walls. It +has all the softness of a Coreggio, and the vigour of a +Rubens. Milor gave three bounds, and was in the middle of +the shop in a moment.</p> +<p>“That picture!” he exclaimed.</p> +<p>“What picture—Eurer Gnaden?” inquired the +shopkeeper, bowing in the most elegant manner.</p> +<p>“It hangs at your door—Joan of Arc, I wish to buy +it.”</p> +<p>“It is not for sale, Eurer Gnaden.”</p> +<p>“Bah!” ejaculated Milor, “I must have +it. I will cover it with guineas.”</p> +<p>“It is impossible.”</p> +<p>“How impossible?” cried Milor, diving into the +capacious pocket of the drab coat with the pearl buttons, and +drawing forth a heavy roll of English bank-notes, +“I’ll bet you anything you like that it is +possible.”</p> +<p>You know, mein Lieber, that the English settle everything by a +wager; indeed, betting and swearing is about all their language +is fit for. For a fact, there were once two English +noblemen, from Manchester or some such ancient place, who +journeyed down the <!-- page 110--><a name="page110"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 110</span>Rhine on the steam-boat. They +looked neither to the right nor to the left; neither at the +vine-fields nor the old castles; but sat at a table, silent and +occupied with nothing before them but two lumps of sugar, and two +heaps of guineas. A little crowd gathered round them +wondering what it might mean. Suddenly one of them cried +out, “Goddam, it’s mine!” “What is +yours?” inquired one who stood by, gaping with +curiosity. “Don’t you see,” replied the +other, “I bet twenty guineas level, that the first fly +would alight upon my lump of sugar, and by God, I’ve won +it!”</p> +<p>To return to Milor. “I’ll bet you anything +you like that it is possible,” said he.</p> +<p>“Your grace,” replied the shopkeeper, “my +Joan of Arc is beyond price to me. It draws all the town to +my shop; not forgetting the foreigners.”</p> +<p>“I will buy your shop,” said the Englishman.</p> +<p>“Milor! Graf Schweinekopf von Pimplestein called +only yesterday to see it, and Le Comte de Barbebiche.”</p> +<p>“A Frenchman!” shouted Milor.</p> +<p>“From Paris, your grace.”</p> +<p>“Will you sell me your Joan of Arc?” was the +furious demand. “I will cover it with pounds sterling +twice over.”</p> +<p>“Le Comte de Barbebiche—”</p> +<p>“You have promised it to him?”</p> +<p>“Yes!” gasped Herr Wechsel, catching at the +idea.</p> +<p>“Enough!” cried the English nobleman; and he +strode into the street. With one impassioned glance at the +figure of La Pucelle, he threw himself into his fiaker, and drove +rapidly out of sight.</p> +<p>On reaching his hotel, he chose two pairs of boxing gloves, a +set of rapiers, and a case of duelling pistols; and, thus loaded, +descended to his fiaker, tossed them in, and started off in the +direction of the nearest hotel. “Le Comte de +Barbebiche”—that was the pass-word; but everywhere it +failed to elicit the desired reply. He passed from street +to street—from gasthaus to gasthaus—everywhere the +same dreary negative; and the day waned, and his search was still +unsuccessful. But he never relaxed; the morning found him +still pursuing his inquiries; and midday saw him at the porte +cochére of the Hotel of the Holy Ghost, in the Rothenthurm +Strasse, with his case of duelling pistols in his hand, his set +of rapiers under his arm, and his two pairs of boxing-gloves +slung round his neck.</p> +<p>“Deliver my card immediately to the Comte,” said +he to the <!-- page 111--><a name="page111"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 111</span>attendant; “and tell him I am +waiting.” He had found him out. Luckily, the +Comte de Barbebiche happened to be in the best possible humour +when this message was conveyed to him, having just succeeded in +dyeing his moustache to his entire satisfaction. He glanced +at the card—smiled at himself complacently in the mirror +before him, and answered in a gracious voice, “Let Milor +Mountpleasant come up.”</p> +<p>Milor was soon heard upon the stairs; and, as he strode into +the room, he flung his set of rapiers with a clatter on the +floor, dashed his case of duelling pistols on the table, and with +a dexterous twist sent one pair of boxing-gloves rolling at the +feet of the Comte, while, pulling on the other, he stood in an +attitude of defence before the astonished Frenchman.</p> +<p>“What is this?” inquired the Comte de +Barbebiche.</p> +<p>“This is the alternative,” cried the +Englishman. “Here are weapons; take your +choice—pistols, rapiers, or the gloves. Fight with +one of them you must and shall, or abandon your claim to Joan of +Arc.”</p> +<p>“Mon Dieu! What Joan of Arc? I do not have +the felicity of knowing the lady.”</p> +<p>“You may see her, Am Graben,” gravely replied +Milor, “outside a shop door, done in oil.”</p> +<p>“Heh!” exclaimed the astonished Comte, “in +oil—an Esquimaux, or a Tartar, pray?”</p> +<p>“Monsieur le Comte, I want no trifling. Do you +persist in the purchase of this picture? I have set my +heart upon it; I love it; I have sworn to possess it. Make +it a matter of money, and I will give you a thousand pounds for +your bargain; make it a matter of dispute, and I will fight you +for it to the death; make it a matter of friendship, and yield up +your right, and I will embrace you as a brother, and be your +debtor for the rest of my life.”</p> +<p>The Comte de Barbebiche—seeing that he had to do with an +Englishman a degree, at least, more crazed than the rest of his +countrymen—entered into the spirit of the matter at once, +and chose the easiest means of extricating himself from a +difficulty.</p> +<p>“Milor,” he exclaimed, advancing towards him, +“I am charmed with your sentiments, your courage, and your +integrity. Take her, Milor—take your Joan of Arc; I +would not attempt to deprive you of her if she were a real flesh +and blood Pucelle, and my own sister.”</p> +<p><!-- page 112--><a name="page112"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +112</span>The Englishman, with a grand oath, seized the +Comte’s hand in both his own, and shook it heartily; then +scrambling up his paraphernalia of war, spoke a hurried farewell, +and disappeared down the stairs.</p> +<p>The grey of the morning saw Milor in full evening costume, +pacing the Graben with hurried steps, watching with anxious eyes +the shop front where his beloved was wont to hang. He saw +her carried out like a shutter from the house, and duly suspended +on the appointed hook. She had lost none of her charms, and +he stood with arms folded upon his breast, entranced for awhile +before the figure of the valiant maiden.</p> +<p>“Herr Wechsel,” said he abruptly, as he entered +the shop; “Le Comte de Barbebiche has ceded his claim to +me. I repeat my offer for your Joan of Arc—decide at +once, for I am in a hurry.”</p> +<p>It certainly does appear surprising that Herr Wechsel did not +close in with the offer at once; perhaps he really had an +affection for his picture; perhaps he thought to improve the +bargain; or, more probably, looking upon his strange customer as +so undoubtedly mad, as to entertain serious fears as to his ever +receiving the money. Certain it is, that he respectfully +declined to sell.</p> +<p>“You refuse!” shouted Milor, striking his clenched +fist upon the counter; “then, by Jove! I’ll—but +never mind!” and he strode into the street.</p> +<p>The dusk of the evening saw Milor in the dress of a porter, +pacing the Graben with a steady step. He halted in front of +his cherished Joan; with the utmost coolness and deliberation +unhooked the painting from its nail, and placing it carefully, +and with the air of a workman, upon his shoulder, stalked away +with his precious burden.</p> +<p>Imagine the consternation of Herr Wechsel upon the discovery +of his loss. His pride, his delight, the chief ornament of +his shop was gone; and, moreover, he had lost his money. +But his sorrow was changed into surprise, and his half-tearful +eyes twinkled with satisfaction as he read the following epistle, +delivered into his hands within an hour after the +occurrence:—</p> +<blockquote><p>“Sir,—You will find placed to your +credit in the Imperial Bank of Vienna the sum of five thousand +pounds, the amount proffered for your Joan of Arc. Your +obstinacy has driven me into the commission of a +misdemeanour. God forgive you. But I have kept my +word.</p> +<p>“I am already beyond your reach, and you will search in +vain for my trace. <!-- page 113--><a +name="page113"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 113</span>In +consideration for your feelings, and to cause you as little +annoyance as possible, I have placed <i>my</i> Joan of Arc into +the hands of a skilful artist; and I trust to forward you as +accurate a copy as can be made.</p> +<p style="text-align: right">“Yours, <span +class="smcap">Mountpleasant</span>.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>And Milor kept his word, mein Lieber, and the copy hangs Am +Graben to this day in the place of the original. The +original shines among the paintings in the splendid collection of +Milor at Mountpleasant Castle.</p> +<p>I will not pretend to say, concluded Vater Böhm, +reloading his pipe, that the English have any taste, but they +certainly have a strange passion for pictures; and, let them once +get an idea into their heads, they are the most obstinate people +in the world in the pursuit of it.</p> +<h2>CHAPTER XIX.</h2> +<p class="gutsumm"><span class="smcap">an execution at +vienna</span>.</p> +<p>Carl Fickte, a native of Vienna, stood condemned for +execution. His crime was murder. He was convicted of +having enveigled his nephew, of eight years old, to the +Mölker bastion of the city fortification, and of having +thrown him over the parapet into the dry ditch below. The +depth of the fall was between thirty and forty feet, and the +shattered body of the boy explained his miserable death. +His nephew’s cloak became loosened in the struggle, and +remained in the hands of Fickte, who sold it, and spent the +produce in a night’s debauch. This cloak led to the +discovery of the murderer, and after a lapse of eight months to +his conviction and execution.</p> +<p>I had resolved to witness the last act of the law, and started +from home at six o’clock on the appointed morning. A +white mist filled the air, and gradually thickened into rain; and +by the time I had reached the spot—a distance of about two +miles—a smart shower was falling. The place of +execution is a field in the outskirts of the city, bounded on one +side by the main road, and close to the “Spinnerinn am +Kreuz,” an ancient stone cross, standing on <!-- page +114--><a name="page114"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +114</span>the edge of the highway. From this spot a +beautiful view of the city is obtained.</p> +<p>The crowd was already gathering, and carts, benches, and +platforms were in course of arrangement by enterprising +speculators, for the accommodation of the people. A low +bank which skirted the field was soon occupied, and every swell +of the ground was taken advantage of. Soon the rain fell in +torrents, and the earth became sodden and yielding; but no +pelting shower, no sinking clay, could drive the anxious crowd +from the attractive spectacle. Still on they came, men and +women together; laughing and joking; their clothes tucked about +them, and umbrella-laden. Over the field; on to the +slippery bank, whence, every now and again, arose a burst of +uproar and laughter, as some part of the mound gave way, and +precipitated a snugly-packed crowd into the swamp below.</p> +<p>Venders of fruit, sausages, bread, and spirits, occupied every +eligible situation, and from the early hour, and the unprepared +state of the spectators, found abundant patronage.</p> +<p>A clatter was heard from the city side, and a body of mounted +police galloped along the high road, halted at the gallows, and +formed themselves into a hollow square around it. The +gibbet was unlike our own, it had no platform, and no steps; but +was a simple frame formed by two strong upright, and one +horizontal beam. There was a little entanglement of pulleys +and ropes, which I learned to understand at a later hour.</p> +<p>Still the rain came pouring down, in one uninterrupted flood, +that nothing but the excitement of a public execution could +withstand. And still the people clustered together in a +dense crowd, under the open air and pelting rain, shifting and +reeling, splashing and staggering, till the field became trodden +into a heavy, clinging paste of a full foot deep. But no +one left the spot; they had come for the sight, and see it they +would. Over the whole field and bank, and rising ground, a +perfect sea of umbrellas waved and swayed with the crowd, as they +vainly sought a firmer resting place among the clogging +clay. An hour went by, but there was no change, except a +continued accession to the crowd. It was wonderful how +patiently they stood under the watery hurricane; helplessly +embedded in a slimy swamp; feverish and anxious; with no thought +but the looming gallows, towards which all eyes were turned, and +the miserable culprit, whose sudden end they were awaiting to +see.</p> +<p>Fagged, at length, and soaked with rain, I left the slough, +and <!-- page 115--><a name="page115"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 115</span>gaining the highroad, pressed +towards the city to meet the cavalcade. A rushing of +people, and a confused cry, told me of its approach. +“There he is!” Yes, there! in that open cart, +surrounded by mounted police, and pressed on all sides by a +hurrying crowd. On either side of him sit the prison +officials; while in front, an energetic priest, with all the +vehemence and gesticulation of the wildest religious fervour, is +evidently urging him to repentance.</p> +<p>It is the law of Austria, that no criminal, however distinctly +his crime may have been proved by circumstantial evidence, can +suffer death, till he has himself confirmed the evidence by +confession. But any artifice can be lawfully employed to +entrap him into an acknowledgment of his guilt; therefore, +although the sentence of the law may often be deferred, it is +rare indeed that its completion is averted. Fickte had of +course confessed. A flush was on his face; but there was no +life or intellectual spirit there.</p> +<p>Another battle with the crowd, and I stood in the rear of the +gibbet. After a weary interval, the +scharfrichter—executioner—mounted, by means of a +ladder, to the cross beam of the gallows. By the action of +a wheel the culprit slowly rose into the air, but still +unhurt. Three broad leathern straps confined his arms; and +perfectly motionless, held in a perpendicular position by cordage +fixed to the ground, and to the beam above, he awaited his +death. No cap covered his face. A looped cord passing +through another pulley, was placed under his chin, the cord +running along the cross-beam, and the end fixed to a wheel at the +side of the gibbet.</p> +<p>The culprit kissed the crucifix; a single turn of the wheel; a +hoarse cry of “Down with the umbrellas!” and his life +had passed away; though no cry, no struggle, announced its +departure. The scharfrichter laid his hand upon the heart +of the criminal, then, assured of his death, descended. And +still, amid the incessant rain, with eager eyes bent upon the +dead, the crowd waited, gloating on the sight. According to +the sentence of the law, the corpse, with nothing to hide its +discoloured and distorted features, remained hanging till the +setting of the sun.</p> +<p>Ashamed, wearied, and horrified, I hurried home; only halting +on my way to purchase the “Todesurtheil,” or +“Death-sentence,” which was being cried about the +streets. This is an official document, and indeed the only +one with which the people of Vienna are gratified on such a +subject. Trials are not public, nor can <!-- page 116--><a +name="page116"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 116</span>they be +reported; and although the whole of the details invariably ooze +out through the police, no authentic account appears before the +public till the sentence is carried out.</p> +<p>The “Todesurtheil” appears, like our “Last +Dying Speech,” at the time of the execution, but contains +no verses; being a simple, and very brief narrative of the life +and crime of the condemned. He is designated by his +initials only, out of delicacy to his relatives, although his +real name is, somehow or other, already well known.</p> +<p>Six months later there occurred another execution, but I had +no curiosity to witness it. The condemned was a soldier, +who, in a fit of jealousy, had fired upon his mistress; but +killed a bystander instead. There was no mystery about the +affair, and he was condemned to death.</p> +<p>On the day previous to his execution, he was allowed to +receive the visits of his friends and the public. Only a +single person was admitted at a time. He awaited his +visitor (in this instance, an acquaintance of my own), with +calmness and resolution; advanced with outstretched hand to meet +him; greeting him with a hearty salutation. The visitor, +totally unprepared for this, trembled with a cold shudder, as he +received the pressure of the murderer’s hand; murmured a +blessing; dropped a few coin into the box for the especial +benefit of his soul, and hurriedly withdrew.</p> +<p>On the following morning the condemned quitted his prison for +the gibbet. But the soldier, unlike the civilian—the +soldier who has forfeited his right to a military +execution—must walk to his death. The civilian rides +in the felon’s cart; the soldier, in undress, must pace the +weary way on foot. Imagine a death-condemned criminal +walking from the Old Bailey to Copenhagen Fields to the gallows, +and you have a parallel case.</p> +<h2>CHAPTER XX.</h2> +<p class="gutsumm"><span class="smcap">a jail episode</span>.</p> +<p>While in the full enjoyment of that luxury, “A Taste of +Austrian Jails,” already related in these pages, I met with +a man whose whole life would seem to signify perversion; a +“dirty, villanous-looking fellow, with but one eye, and +very little light in that.” A first glance at this +fellow would call up the reflection, “Here is the result of +bad <!-- page 117--><a name="page117"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 117</span>education, and bad example, induced +perhaps by natural misfortunes, but the inevitable growth of +filth and wretchedness in a large city.”</p> +<p>With thin, straggling wisps of hair thrown, as it were, on his +head, a dull glimmer only in his one eye, and his whole features +of a crafty, selfish character—such he was; clad in a long, +threadbare, snuff-coloured great-coat, reaching almost to his +heels, and which served to hide the trowsers, the frayed ends of +which explained their condition; on his bare feet he wore a pair +of trodden-down slippers, with upper leathers gaping in front +with open mouths; a despicable rascal to look at, and yet this +was a brother of one of the magistrates of Vienna.</p> +<p>It was soon evident to me that this individual was held in +great respect by the rest of the prisoners; such an influence has +education,—for he was an educated man,—even in such a +place as a common jail.</p> +<p>I was soon informed of the peculiar talent which gave him a +prominent position. He was an inexhaustible teller of +stories; and, added my informant, “he can drink as much +beer as any three men in Vienna.”</p> +<p>This was saying a great deal.</p> +<p>On the second night of my incarceration in Punishment Room No. +1, I had an opportunity of judging of his powers; for, on our +retiring to our boards and rugs, which, according to prison +regulations, we were bound to do at the ringing of the eight +o’clock bell, I heard his peculiar voice announce from the +other side of the room, where he lay, propped up against the wall +by the especial indulgence of his comrades, that he was about to +tell a story. I could not sleep, but lay upon the hard +planks listening, as he recounted with a wonderful power of +language, and no mean amount of elocutionary dignity, some +principal incidents in the life of Napoleon. His companions +lay entranced; they did not sleep, for I could hear their +whispers, and, now and then, their uneasy shiftings on the +relentless wood. And so he went on, and I fell off to sleep +before he had come to a conclusion.</p> +<p>This was repeated each night of my confinement, for which he +received his due payment in beer from his fellow prisoners.</p> +<p>He professed to have a great affection for me; would take my +arm, and walk with me up and down the ward, telling me of his +acquirements, little scraps of his history, and invariably making +a request for a little beer.</p> +<p><!-- page 118--><a name="page118"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +118</span>On one occasion it was suggested by the +“Vater” that he should tell us his own story.</p> +<p>“My story!” chuckled the unashamed rascal. +“Why, all Vienna knows my story. I am the brother of +Rathherr Lech, of the Imperial-royal-city-police-bureau of +Vienna. My brother is a great man; I am a vagabond. +<i>He</i> deserves it, and <i>I</i> deserve it; but he is my +brother for all that, and I put him in mind of it now and +then.</p> +<p>“My brother, by his zeal and talent, has acquired great +learning, and raised himself to a position of honour and +independence. And why have I not done the same? +Because I am lazy, have got weak eyes, and am fond of beer. +I do not care for your wine; good Liesinger beer is the drink for +me.</p> +<p>“My brother wished me to attain a lofty position in the +world. I am the younger. He paid teachers to instruct +me, and I learned a great deal; but it was dry work, and I sought +change, after days of study, in beer-cellars, among a few choice +boosers. And my eyes were weak, and close study made them +worse; and many a day I stole from my lessons on the plea of +failing sight. My brother, who is a good fellow, only that +he does not sufficiently consider my weakness, employed +physicians and oculists out of number; and among them I lost the +sight of one eye. It was of no use; I did not like the +labour of learning, and I made my weak eyes an excuse for doing +less than I could have done.</p> +<p>“At last I gave it up altogether, and my brother got me +into the ‘Institute for the Blind.’ <i>That</i> +would not do for me at all; I was not blind enough for +<i>that</i>. So, one day, when the door was open, and the +weather fine, I strolled home again to my brother. This +vexed him greatly; but he got over it, and then he placed me in +the ‘Imperial Bounty.’ A stylish place, I can +tell you, where few but nobles were allowed.</p> +<p>“But how could I, a lusty young fellow, be happy among +that moping, musty, crampt-up lot of old respectables? Not +I! so, as I could not easily get out in the day-time, I ran away +one night, and went back to my old quarters. At first my +brother would not see me; but that passed over, for he could not +let me starve. He then obtained for me a post in the +‘Refuge for the Aged;’ about the dullest place in all +Vienna. I was too young to be one of the members, so they +gave me a birth, where I did nothing. But what was the use +of that? I could not live among that company of <!-- page +119--><a name="page119"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +119</span>mumbling, bible-backed old people; and if I could, it +was all the same, for they kicked me out at the end of a month +for impropriety.</p> +<p>“It was lucky for me that I tumbled into a legacy about +this time, of eighty gulden münz. I enjoyed myself +while it lasted, and never troubled my brother with my +presence.</p> +<p>“It did not last long; for, what with drinking beer, and +wearing fine clothes, and taking a dashing lodging on the Glacis, +I found my eighty guldens gone, just as I was in a position to +enjoy them most. But I was never very proud; so, seeing +that there was nothing to be done, but to go without beer, or to +humble myself to my brother, the rath, I chose the latter course +as the most reasonable, and made my peace with him at once.</p> +<p>“And what do you suppose he did for me? He said I +had disgraced myself and him at all the other places, so he could +do nothing but send me to the ‘Asylum for the +Indigent.’ But I did not stay there long. There +was no beer there; nothing but thin soup and rind-fleish (fresh +boiled beef) all the year round. And a pretty lot of +ill-bred, miserable ignoramuses they were—the +indigent! Not a spark of life or jollity in the place.</p> +<p>“One day I coolly walked out of the +‘Asylum,’ made off to a house I well knew, and ran up +a credit account in my brother’s name of good eight guldens +for beer and tobacco. A glorious day! for I forgot all +about the ‘asylum,’ and the ‘indigent,’ +and every mortal pain and trouble in this inconvenient world.</p> +<p>“I was awakened from a deep dream by a heavy hand on my +shoulder, and a loud voice in my ear.</p> +<p>“‘Holloa! friend Lech.’</p> +<p>“‘What’s the matter?’ inquired I, +gaping.</p> +<p>“‘Get up, and I’ll tell you.’</p> +<p>“‘Who are you?’</p> +<p>“‘You’ll know that soon enough; I am a +police officer.’</p> +<p>“‘And where am I, in God’s name?’</p> +<p>“‘Why, lying on your back, on the open +Glacis.’</p> +<p>“That was pleasant, was it not? So they took me to +the police-bureau, in the first case, for lying out in the open +air; and when they found that I had used my brother’s name +to incur a debt, without his permission, they gave me two months +for fraudulent intentions.</p> +<p><!-- page 120--><a name="page120"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +120</span>“‘Why did you not stay at the +“Bounty?”’ expostulated my friend, the +police-assistant, as we were talking the matter over.</p> +<p>“‘Because it was too aristocratic and +uncomfortable,’ answered I.</p> +<p>“‘Perhaps the Rathherr, your brother, will be able +to get you into the “Refuge,”’ said he, in a +consoling way.</p> +<p>“‘God bless you! they have kicked me out of there +long ago.’</p> +<p>“‘Then I know of nothing but the +“Indigent” left for you.’</p> +<p>“‘My worthy friend,’ said I, ‘that is +the very last place I came from.’</p> +<p>“But I was determined to be revenged. When my time +was expired, I sallied forth with my mind fully made up as to +what I was to do. I knew the hour when my brother, in +pursuance of his duties, usually entered the magistrate’s +office, and, attired as I was—look at me! just as I am +now—in this old coat, the souvenir of the +‘Indigent,’ and these free-and-easy slippers, I +waited at the great entrance of the Magistracy, to pay my +respects to my brother, the Rath.</p> +<p>“I saw him coming; and, as soon as he reached the foot +of the flight of stone steps, I marched forward, gave him a mock +salute, and exclaimed, in a loud voice,</p> +<p>“‘Good morning, brother!’</p> +<p>“‘What is the meaning of this?’ demanded +he.</p> +<p>“‘Look here, brother!’ said I, ‘look +at this coat, and these shoes.’</p> +<p>“‘Remove this fellow!’ exclaimed he to the +police, who were standing at his heels.</p> +<p>“I knew what would be the result, but had determined to +have the play out. So I drew off my slipper, and, thrusting +my hand right through the hole at the toe, I made a bit of play +with my fingers, and shouted in his ear:</p> +<p>“‘Look at this, brother. Are you not ashamed +to see me? Look here! Look at this kripple-gespiel +(puppet show)! Look!’</p> +<p>“Of course I was laid hold of; and here I am for another +two months, for insulting a city functionary.”</p> +<p>This story was received with a glee only equalled by the gusto +with which it was related. The last expression, +“kripple-gespiel,” was peculiarly his own.</p> +<p>Before leaving Vienna, about a month after my release, I had +<!-- page 121--><a name="page121"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +121</span>determined to see the Brühl, a wild, wooded, and +mountainous district, at a short distance from the city. We +had spent a delightful day among its thick pine woods, and on its +towering heights, and in the evening made our way to the small +town of Mödling, where we intended to take the railway to +Vienna. But there was a grand fête in the pleasure +grounds close to the town, accompanied by a magnificent display +of fireworks. This whiled away the time, and it was already +dark, as we at length bent our steps towards the railway +station.</p> +<p>Suddenly a voice that I knew too well, struck upon my ear.</p> +<p>“Pity the poor blind!” it exclaimed.</p> +<p>I turned, and behold! there was my one-eyed jail acquaintance, +planted against a brick wall, a stout staff, at least six feet +long, in his hand, and his apparently sightless eyes turned up to +the sky.</p> +<p>“Pity the poor blind!”</p> +<p>In the greatest fear lest, even in his present blind +condition, he might recognise, and claim me as an acquaintance, I +hurried from the spot with all the speed of which I was capable, +and, thank Heaven, never set eyes upon him again.</p> +<h2>CHAPTER XXI.</h2> +<p class="gutsumm"><span class="smcap">a walk through a +mountain</span>.</p> +<p>I lately took a walk through the substance of a mountain, +entering at the top, and coming out at the bottom, after a two or +three mile journey underground. Perhaps the story of this +trip is worth narrating. The mountain was part of an +extensive property belonging to the Emperor of Austria, in his +character of salt merchant, and contained the famous salt mine of +Hallein.</p> +<p>The whole salt district of Upper Austria, called the +Salzkammergut, forms part of a range of rocks that extends from +Halle in the Tyrol, passes through Reichenthal in Bavaria, and +continues by way of Hallein in Salzburg, to end at Ausse in +Styria. The Austrian part of the range is now included in +what is called the <!-- page 122--><a name="page122"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 122</span>district of Salzburg, and that +district abounds, as might be expected, in salt springs, hot and +cold, which form in fact the baths of Gastein, Ischl, and some +other places. The names of Salzburg (Saltborough), the +capital, and of the Salzack (Saltbrook), on the left bank of +which that pleasant city stands, indicate clearly enough the +character of the surrounding country. Hallein is a small +town eight miles to the south-east of Salzburg, and it was to the +mine of Hallein, as before said, that I paid my visit.</p> +<p>On the way thither, we, a party of three foot-travellers, +passed through much delightful rock and water scenery. From +Linz, the capital of Upper Austria, we got through Wells and +Laimbach to the river Traun, and trudged afoot beside its winding +waters till we reached the point of its junction with the +Traunsee, or Lake of Traun. At Gmunden, we stopped to look +over the Imperial Salt Warehouses. The Emperor of Austria, +as most people know, is the only dealer in salt and tobacco with +whom his subjects are allowed to trade. His salt +warehouses, therefore, must needs be extensive. They are +situated at Gmunden to the left of the landing-place, from which +a little steamer plies across the lake; and they are so built as +to afford every facility for the unloading of boats that bring +salt barrels from the mine by the highway of the Traun. The +warehouses consisted simply of a large number of sheds piled with +the salt in barrels, a few offices, and a low but spacious hall, +filled, in a confused way, with dusty models. There were +models of river-boats and salt moulds, mining tools, and tram +ways, hydraulic models of all kinds, miniature furnaces, wooden +troughs, and seething pans. We looked through these until +the bell from the adjacent pier warned us, at five o’clock +in the evening, to go on board the steamer that was quite ready +to puff and splash its way across the beautiful green lake. +We went under the shadow of the black and lofty Traunstien, and +among pine-covered rocks, of which the reflections were mingled +in the water with a ruddy glow, that streamed across a low shore +from some fires towards which we were steering.</p> +<p>The glow proceeded from the fires of the Imperial Saltern, +erected at Ebensee. We paid a short visit to the works, +which have been erected at great cost; and display all the most +recent improvements in the art of getting the best marketable +salt from saline water. We found that the water, heavily +impregnated, is conducted <!-- page 123--><a +name="page123"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 123</span>from the +distant mines by wooden troughs into the drying pan. The +pan is a large shallow vessel of metal, supported by small piles +of brick, and a low brick wall about three feet high, extending +round two-thirds of its circumference; leaving one-third, as the +mouth of the furnace, open to the air. Among the brick +columns, and within the wall, the fire flashed and curled under +the seething pan. Ascending next into the house over the +great pan, and looking down upon the surface and its contents +through sliding doors upon the floors, we saw the white salt +crusting like a coat of snow over the boiling water, and being +raked, as it is formed, by workmen stationed at each of the trap +doors. As the water evaporated, the salt was stirred and +turned from rake to rake; and finally, when quite dry, raked into +the neighbourhood of a long-handled spade, with which one workman +was shovelling among the dried salt, and filling a long row of +wooden moulds, placed ready to his hand. These moulds are +sugar-loaf shaped, and perforated at the bottom like a sugar +mould, in order that any remaining moisture may drain out of +them. The moulds will be placed finally in a heated room +before the salt will be considered dry enough for storeage as a +manufactured article.</p> +<p>The brine that pours with an equable flow into the seething +pan at Ebensee, is brought by wooden troughs from the salt mine +at Hallein, a distance of thirty miles in a direct line. It +comes by way of mountains and along a portion of the valley of +the Traun, through which we continued our journey the same +evening from Ebensee, until the darkness compelled us to rest for +the night at a small inn on a hill side. The next day we +went through Ischl and Wolfgang, and spent three hours of +afternoon in climbing up the Scharfberg, which is more than a +thousand feet higher than Snowdon, to see the sunset and the +sunrise. There was sleeping accommodation on the top: so +there is on the top of Snowdon. On the Scharfberg we had a +hay-litter in a wooden shed, and ate goat’s cheese and +bread and butter. We saw neither sunset nor sunrise, but +had a night of wind and rain, and came down in the morning +through white mist within a rugged gully ploughed up by the rain, +to get a wholesome breakfast at St. Gilgen on the lake. +More I need not say about the journey than that, on the fifth day +after leaving Ebensee, having rested a little in the very +beautiful city of Salzburg, we marched into the town of Hallein, +at the foot of the Dürrnberg, the famous salt mountain, +called Tumal by old chroniclers, <!-- page 124--><a +name="page124"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 124</span>and known +for a salt mountain seven hundred and thirty years ago.</p> +<p>After a night’s rest in the town, we were astir by five +o’clock in the morning, and went forward on our visit to +the mines. In the case of the Dürrnberg salt mine, as +I have already said, the miner enters at the top and comes out at +the bottom. Our first business, therefore, was to walk up +the mountain, the approach to which is by a long slope of about +four English miles.</p> +<p>We met few miners by the way, and noticed in them few +peculiarities of manners or costume. The national dress +about these regions is a sort of cross between the Swiss Alpine +costume and a common peasant dress of the lowlands. We saw +indications of the sugar-loafed hat; jackets were worn almost by +all, with knee-breeches and coloured leggings. The clothing +was always neat and sound, and the clothed bodies looked +reasonably healthy, except that they had all remarkably pale +faces. The miners did not seem bodily to suffer from their +occupation.</p> +<p>As we approached the summit of the Dürrnberg, the dry +brownish limestone showed its bare front to the morning +sun. We entered the offices, partly contained in the rock, +and applied for admission into the dominion of the gnomes. +Our arrival was quite in the nick of time, for we had not to be +kept waiting, as we happened to complete the party of twelve, +without which the guides do not start. It was a Tower of +London business; and, as at the Tower, the demand upon our purses +was not very heavy. One gulden-schein—about +tenpence—is the regulated fee. Our full titles having +been duly put down in the register, each of us was furnished with +a miner’s costume, and, so habited, off we set.</p> +<p>We started from a point that is called the +Obersteinberghauptstollen; our guides only having candles, one in +advance, the other in the rear.</p> +<p>We were sensible of a pleasant coldness in the air when we had +gone a little way into the sloping tunnel. The tunnel was +lofty, wide, and dry. Having walked downwards on a gentle +decline for a distance of nearly three thousand feet through the +half gloom and among the echoes, we arrived at the mouth of the +first shaft, named Freudenberg. The method of descent is +called the “Rolle.” It is both simple and +efficacious. Down the steep slope of the shaft, and at an +angle, in this case, of forty-one and a half degrees, runs a +smooth railway consisting of two pieces of timber, each of about +the <!-- page 125--><a name="page125"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 125</span>thickness of a scaffold pole; they +are twelve inches apart, and run together down the shaft like two +sides of a thick ladder without the intervening rounds. +Following the directions and example of the foremost guide, we +sat astride, one behind the other, on this wooden tramway, and +slid very comfortably to the bottom. The shaft itself was +only of the width necessary to allow room for our passage. +In this way we descended to the next chamber in the mountain, at +a depth of a hundred and forty feet (perpendicular) from the top +of the long slide.</p> +<p>We then stood in a low-roofed chamber, small enough to be +lighted throughout by the dusky glare of our two candles. +The walls and roof sparkled with brown and purple colours, +showing the unworked stratum of rock-salt. We stood then at +the head of the Untersteinberghauptstulm, and after a glance back +at the narrow slit in the solid limestone through which we had +just descended, we pursued our way along a narrow gallery of +irregular level for a further distance of six hundred and sixty +feet. A second shaft there opened us a passage into the +deeper regions of the mine. With a boyish pleasure we all +seated ourselves again upon a “Rolle”—this time +upon the Johann-Jacob-berg-rolle, which is laid at an angle of +forty-five and a half degrees—and away we slipped to the +next level, which is at the perpendicular depth of another couple +of hundred feet.</p> +<p>We alighted in another chamber where our candles made the same +half gloom, with their ruddy glare into the darkness, and where +there was the same sombre glittering upon the walls and +ceiling. We pursued our track along a devious cutting, +haunted by confused and giant shadows, suddenly passing black +cavernous sideways that startled us as we came upon them, and I +began to expect mummies, for I thought myself for one minute +within an old Egyptian catacomb. After traversing a further +distance of two thousand seven hundred feet we halted at the top +of the third slide, the Königsrolle. That shot us +fifty-four feet deeper into the heart of the mountain. We +had become quite expert at our exercise, and had left off +considering, amid all these descents and traverses, what might be +our real position in the bowels of the earth. Perhaps we +might get down to Aladdin’s garden and find trees loaded +with emerald and ruby fruits. It was quite possible, for +there was something very cabalistic, very strong of enchantment +in the word Konhauserankehrschachtricht, the name given to the +portion of the <!-- page 126--><a name="page126"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 126</span>mine which we were then +descending. Konhauser-return-shaft is, I think, however, +about the meaning of that compound word.</p> +<p>So far we had felt nothing like real cold, although I had been +promised a wintry atmosphere. Possibly with a miner’s +dress over my ordinary clothing, and with plenty of exercise, +there was enough to counteract the effects of the chill +air. But our eyes began to ache at the uncertain light, and +we all straggled irregularly along the smooth cut shaft level for +another sixty feet, and so reached the Konhauser-rolle, the +fourth slide we had encountered in our progress.</p> +<p>That cheered us up a little, as it shot us down another one +hundred and eight feet perpendicular depth to the +Soolererzeugungswerk-Konhauser—surely a place nearer than +ever to the magic regions of Abracadabra. If not +Aladdin’s garden, something wonderful ought surely by this +time to have been reached. I was alive to any sight or +sound, and was excited by the earnest whispering of my fellow +adventurers, and the careful directions as to our progress given +by the guides and light-bearers.</p> +<p>With eager rapidity we flitted among the black shadows of the +cavern, till we reached a winding flight of giant steps. We +mounted them with desperate excitement, and at the summit halted, +for we felt that there was space before our faces, and had been +told that those stairs led to a mid mountain lake, nine hundred +and sixty feet below the mountain’s top; two hundred and +forty feet above its base. Presently, through the darkness, +we perceived at an apparently interminable distance a few dots of +light, that shed no lustre, and could help us in no way to pierce +the pitchy gloom of the great cavern. The lights were not +interminably distant, for they were upon the other shore, and +this gnome lake is but a mere drop of water in the mountain mass, +its length being three hundred and thirty, and its breadth one +hundred and sixty feet.</p> +<p>Our guides lighted more candles, and we began to see their +rays reflected from the water; we could hear too the dull +splashing of the boat, which we could not see, as old Charon +slowly ferried to our shore. More lights were used; they +flashed and flickered from the opposite ferry station, and we +began to have an indistinct sense of a spangled dome, and of an +undulating surface of thick, black water, through which the +coming boat loomed darkly. More candles were lighted on +both sides of the Konhauser lake, a very Styx, defying all the +illuminating force of candles; dead and dark in its <!-- page +127--><a name="page127"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +127</span>dim cave, even the limits of which all our lights did +not serve to define. The boat reached the place of +embarcation, and we, wandering ghosts, half walked and were half +carried into its broad clumsy hulk, and took each his allotted +seat in ghostly silence. There was something really +terrible in it all; in the slow funereal pace at which we floated +across the subterranean lake; in the dead quiet among us, only +interrupted by the slow plunge of the oar into the sickly +waters. In spite of all the lights that had been kindled we +were still in a thick vapour of darkness, and could form but a +dreamy notion of the beauty and the grandeur of the crystal dome +within which we men from the upper earth were hidden from our +fellows. The lights were flared aloft as we crept +sluggishly across the lake, and now and then were flashed back +from a hanging stalactite, but that was all. The misty +darkness about us brought to the fancy at the same time fearful +images, and none of us were sorry when we reached the other shore +in safety. There a rich glow of light awaited us, and there +we were told a famous tale about the last Arch-ducal visit to +these salt mines, where some thousands of lighted tapers +glittered and flashed about him, and exhibited the vaulted roof +and spangled lake in all their beauty. As we were not +Archdukes, we had our Hades lighted only by a pound of short +sixteens.</p> +<p>We left the lake behind us, and then, traversing a further +distance of seventy feet along the Wehrschachtricht, arrived at +the mouth of the Konhauser Stiege. Another rapid descent of +forty-five feet at an angle of fifty degrees, and we reached +Rupertschachtricht, a long cavern of the extent of five hundred +and sixty feet, through which we toiled with a growing sense of +weariness. We had now come to the top of the last and +longest “slide” in the whole Dürrnberg. It +is called the Wolfdietrichberg-rolle, and is four hundred and +sixty-eight feet long, carrying us two hundred and forty feet +lower down into the mountain. We went down this +“slide” with the alacrity of school-boys, one after +another keeping the pot boiling, and all regulating our movements +with great circumspection, for we knew that we had far to go and +we could never see more than a few yards before us.</p> +<p>Having gained the ground beneath in safety, our attention was +drawn to a fresh water well or spring, sunk in this spot at great +cost by order of the Archduke, and blessed among miners. +Amid all the stone and salt and brine, a gush of pure fresh water +at our feet was very welcome to us all. The well was sunk, +however, to get <!-- page 128--><a name="page128"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 128</span>water that was necessary for the +mining operations. We did not see any of those operations +underground, for they are not exhibited; the show-trip +underground is only among the ventilating shafts and +galleries. Through the dark openings by which we had +passed, we should have found our way (had we been permitted) to +the miners. I have seen them working in the Tyrol, and +their labours are extremely simple. Some of the rock-salt +is quarried in transparent crystals, which undergo only the +process of crushing before they are sent into the market as an +article of commerce. Very little of this grain salt is seen +in England, but on the continent it may be found in some of the +first hotels, and on the table of most families. It is +cheaper than the loaf salt, and is known in Germany under the +title of <i>salzkorn</i>, and in France, as <i>selle de +cuisine</i>. In order to obtain a finer grained and better +salt, it is necessary that the original salt-crystals should be +dissolved, and for this purpose parallel galleries are run into +the rock, and there is dug in each of them a dyke or +cistern. These dykes are then flushed with water, which is +allowed to remain in them undisturbed for the space of from five +to twelve months, according to the richness of the soil; and, +being then thoroughly saturated with the salt that it has taken +up, the brine is drawn off through wooden pipes from Hallein over +hill and dale into the evaporating pans.</p> +<p>We had traversed the last level, and had reached what is +generally called the end of the salt-mine; but we were still a +long way distant from the pure air and the sunshine. We had +travelled through seven galleries of an aggregate length of +nearly two miles; we had floated across an earthy piece of water; +had followed one another down six slides, and had penetrated to +the depth of twelve hundred feet into the substance of the +mountain limestone, gypsum, and marl. Having done all this, +there we were, in the very heart of the Dürrnberg, left by +our guides, and intrusted to the care of two lank lads with +haggard faces. We stood together in a spacious cavern, +poorly lighted by our candles; there was a line of tram-rail +running through the middle of it, and we soon saw the carriage +that was to take us out of the mountain emerging from a dark nook +in the distance. It was a truck with seats upon it, +economically arranged after the fashion of an Irish jaunting +car. The two lads were to be our horses, and our way lay +through a black hollow in one side of the cavern, into which the +tram-rail ran.</p> +<p>We took our seats, instructed to sit perfectly still, and to +restrain <!-- page 129--><a name="page129"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 129</span>our legs and arms from any +straggling. There was no room to spare in the shaft we were +about to traverse. Our car was run on to the tram-line, and +the two lads, with a sickly smile, and a broad hint at their +expected gratuity, began to pull, and promised us a rapid +journey. In another minute we were whirring down an incline +with a rush and a rattle, through the subterranean passage +tunnelled into the solid limestone which runs to the outer edge +of the Dürrnberg. The length of this tunnel is +considerably more than an English mile.</p> +<p>The reverberation and the want of light were nothing, but we +were disagreeably sensible of a cloud of fine stone dust, and +knew well that we should come out not only stone deaf, but as +white as millers. Clinging to our seats with a cowardly +instinct, down we went through a hurricane of sound and +dust. At length we were sensible of a diminution in our +speed, and the confusion of noises so far ceased, that we could +hear the panting of our biped cattle. Then, straight before +us, shining in the centre of the pitchy darkness, there was a +bright blue star suddenly apparent. One of the poor lads in +the whisper of exhaustion, and between his broken pantings for +breath, told us that they always know when they have got half way +by the blue star, for that is the daylight shining in.</p> +<p>A little necessary rest, and we were off again, the blue star +before us growing gradually paler, and expanding and still +growing whiter, till with an uncontrollable dash, and a +concussion, we are thrown within a few feet of the broad +incomparable daylight. With how much contempt of candles +did I look up at the noonday sun! The two lads, streaming +with perspiration, who had dragged us down the long incline, were +made happy by the payment we all gladly offered for their +services. Then, as we passed out of the mouth of the shaft, +by a rude chamber cut out of the rock, we were induced to pause +and purchase from a family of miners who reside there a little +box of salt crystals, as a memento of our visit. Truly we +must have been among the gnomes, for when I had reached the inn I +spread the brilliant crystals I had brought home with me on my +bedroom window sill, and there they sparkled in the sun and +twinkled rainbows, changing and shifting their bright colours as +though there were a living imp at work within. But when I +got up next morning and looked for my crystals, in the place +where each had stood, I found only a little slop of brine. +That fact may, I have <!-- page 130--><a name="page130"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 130</span>no doubt, be accounted for by the +philosophers; but I prefer to think that it was something +wondrous strange, and that I fared marvellously like people of +whom I had read in German tales, how they received gifts from the +good people who live in the bowels of the earth, and what became +of them. I have had my experiences, and I do not choose to +be sure whether those tales are altogether founded upon +fancy.</p> +<h2>CHAPTER XXII.</h2> +<p class="gutsumm"><span class="smcap">cause and +effect</span>.</p> +<p>One September evening we rode into Carlsruhe. We made +our entry in a crazy hackney cab behind a lazy horse that had +been dragging us for a long time with cheerless industry between +a double file of trees, along a road without a bend in it; a +long, lanky, Quaker road, heavily drab-coated with dust; a +tight-rope of a road that comes from Manheim, and is hooked on to +the capital of Baden. Out of that <i>allée</i> we +were dragged into the square-cut capital itself, which had +evidently been planned by the genius of a ruler—not a +prince, but the wooden measure. The horse stopped at the +City of Pfortzheim, and as his decision on the subject of our +halting-place appeared to be irrevocable, we got out.</p> +<p>At the capital of a grand dukedom, except Weimar, it is better +to sleep (it is the only thing to be done there) and pass on; but +it so happened that on that particular evening Carlsruhe was in a +ferment: there was something brewing. I heard talk of a +procession and of certain names, particularly the names +Kugelblitz and Thalermacher. Never having heard those names +before, and caring therefore nothing in the world about them, I +tumbled into bed. To my delight, when I got up in the +morning, I found the little town turned upside down. +Landlord, boots, and chambermaid, overwhelmed me with +exclamations, surmises, and incoherent summaries of the +night’s news. There had been an outbreak. +<i>Lieber Herr</i>, a revolution! One entire house razed to +the ground. “Hep! hep!” that is the old cry, +“Down with the Jews!” All their bones would +<!-- page 131--><a name="page131"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +131</span>be made powder of. Tremendous funeral of +Kugelblitz. Students on their way in a body from +Heidelberg. Thalermacher the rich Jew, soldiers, the entire +court, Meinheer, all in despair; a regular sack. Not only +Kugelblitz, but Demboffsky, the Russian officer, killed. O +hep! hep! a lamentable tragedy. “For they were two +such fine-looking young men,” mourned the chambermaid, +“especially Demboffsky.” “You had +better,” said the landlord, “stay in Carlsruhe till +to-morrow.”</p> +<p>Roused by the incoherent tidings, I hurried to the centre of +the tumult. The house of the firm of Thalermacher and +Company was situated in the High Street; and though, certainly, +it had a doleful look, it was there situated still: it held its +ground. Not a brick was displaced; but—gaunt and +windowless, disfigured with great blotches of ink and dirt, its +little shop rent from the wall and split up into faggots—it +looked like a house out of which all life had been knocked; but +there was the carcase. In the street before the house, +there were by that time a few splinters of furniture remaining; +the rest had been broken up or hidden by kind and cunning +neighbours. The shop had been cobbled together with the +broken shutters; and half-a-dozen soldiers, quite at their ease, +were lounging pleasantly about the broken door.</p> +<p>The outbreak, I was told by the bystanders, was quite +unpremeditated. A few stragglers had halted before the +house at about eight o’clock on the preceding evening, and +had been discussing there the dreadful tale connected with its +owner. One gossip, in a sudden burst of anger, hurled a +bottle of ink—then by chance in his hand—at the +Jew’s house. The idea was taken up with such good +will that a hard rain of stones, bottles, and other missiles was +soon pelting against Thalermacher’s walls. Where all +are unanimous it is not difficult to come to a conclusion. +An hour’s labour, lightened by yells and shouts of +“Hep, hep!” was enough; and, the zeal of the people +burning like a fire, soon left of the house nothing but its +shell.</p> +<p>The authorities in Germany, usually so watchful and so prompt +to interfere, were either taken completely off their guard, or +tacitly permitted the rude work of vengeance; for, although there +was a guard-post in the immediate vicinity, the whole efforts of +the military were confined to conducting Thalermacher and his +family into a place of safety. The protection Thalermacher +received was of a peculiar kind. Under the plea of insuring +him against public <!-- page 132--><a name="page132"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 132</span>attack, he was conducted under +escort, to the fortress of Rastadt, and there held a close +prisoner, until the whole affair could be investigated.</p> +<p>The funeral procession of Lieutenant Kugelblitz was not a +thing to be missed. I went, therefore, to the other end of +the city, whence the procession was to start. The scene was +impressive. Not merely his brothers-in-arms of the +artillery, but the general-staff—all the officers of +distinction in the Baden army, whose duties allowed them to be +present—and even the Russian companions of his antagonist +Demboffsky, acted as mourners.</p> +<p>As the procession came before the house of Thalermacher, I +observed that a strong guard had been posted there for its +protection. The funeral passed by without any demonstration +whatever. Presently we turned up a narrow passage, leading +from the high street towards the cemetery, and our progress +became tediously slow as we moved with the close mass of +people. At the burial-place every mound and stone was +occupied. Flowers were trampled under foot, shrubs broken +or uprooted, and the grass all stamped into the mould. The +whole crowd listened to the impressive tone—only a few +could hear the words—of the funeral harangue, and to the +solemn hymn which followed. The service closed with the +military honour of musketry fired over the soldier’s +grave. That over, I was sucked back by the retreating tide +of citizens into the main street of Carlsruhe.</p> +<p>The crowd instantly dispersed; and, as I wandered through the +side streets, I soon saw that the authorities had come to +life. My attention was first called to an official +announcement freshly posted, which warned all persons from +assembling in the public street in knots or clusters, even of +three or four, on pain of being instantly dispersed by the +military. Another placard fulminated an injunction to +parents, masters, and burghers to restrain and confine all +persons under their charge—such as workmen, servants, and +children—within their respective houses; because, for any +offence committed by them against the public peace, such masters +or parents would be held responsible. I began to fancy +myself in a state of siege. Wandering again into the main +street I was met by a strong division of dusty dragoons, in full +equipment of war, which came sweeping and clashing along from +adjacent parts of the country, evidently under urgent +orders. Another and another followed. Troops of +infantry tramped hastily along the side streets. The very +<!-- page 133--><a name="page133"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +133</span>few civilians I met in the streets seemed to be +hurrying to shelter from a coming storm. Was there really +any social tempest in the wind? Or were all these +precautions but a locking of the stable door after the steed was +stolen?</p> +<p>Having roamed by chance into a sequestered beer-house, I was +surprised to find myself in the midst of a large party of +students; probably from Heidelberg. They were well-grown +youths, with silken blond beards; and in their behaviour, +half-swaggerers, half-gentlemen. These were, perhaps, the +enemies of order against whom the tremendous military +preparations had been made.</p> +<p>As the day wore on it became evident that the authorities were +ready to brave the most overwhelming revolution that ever burst +forth. Troop after troop of cavalry galloped in; every +soldier, indeed, of whatever arm stationed within an available +distance of Carlsruhe, was brought within its walls. By +eight o’clock in the evening the military preparations were +completed: a picket of infantry was stationed at every street +corner; and, from that hour to the break of day, parties of +dragoons swept the main thoroughfares, clashing and clattering +over the paved road with a din that kept me awake all +night. Intercourse between one street and another, except +on urgent business, was interdicted; and the humblest pedestrian +found abroad without an urgent errand was conducted home with +drums beating, colours flying, and all the honours of war. +The display of force answered its purpose in preventing a second +attack of Christians on Jews. The pale ghost of +insubordination was laid and dared not walk +abroad—especially at night.</p> +<p>I must say I felt a little relieved when it was ascertained +for certain that the city was safe. I am no friend to +despotism nor to political thraldom of any kind; but really it is +impossible not to feel for the solemn aristocracies of German +Grand-Duchies (who, if they be despots, are extremely amiable) +when, poor people, they are in the least put out of their way: +they are so dreadfully fussy, so fearfully piteous, so +distraught, so inconsolable. I was glad therefore that, the +revolution being put down, they could retire in peace to their +coffee, their picquet, and their metaphysics. Doubtless +Thalermacher (some Hebrew millionaire, perhaps) and Kugelblitz (a +fire-eater, for certain) had headed a frightful band of +anarchists; who, but for the indomitable energy of the +authorities, would peradventure have changed the destiny of the +entire Duchy, of Germany, of Europe itself! Nothing but so +illimitable an <!-- page 134--><a name="page134"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 134</span>apprehension could have been the +cause of such a siege-like effect. What else could have +occasioned the entire blockade of Carlsruhe?</p> +<p>I had, however, exaggerated the cause as well as the danger; +and I will now relate the real circumstances which had led to all +these awful results; for the facts were afterwards made known in +the Carlsruhe and Baden-Baden public journals of the day.</p> +<p>Early in the month of August, eighteen hundred and +forty-three, the inhabitants of Baden-Baden gave a ball in honour +of the Grand-Princess Helene of Baden, and the Duchess of +Nassau. Among the names on the subscription-list stood that +of Herr Heller von Thalermacher. Some unexplained animosity +existed between this gentleman and Lieutenant Kugelblitz, who was +also one of the subscribers.</p> +<p>Baron Donner von Kugelblitz, chief lieutenant of the Baden +artillery, although only in his twenty-ninth year, had already +spent fourteen years in military service, and was highly esteemed +for his soldierly qualities and straightforward bearing. He +was tall, remarkably handsome, of an impetuous temperament, and +his natural strength had been well developed by constant practice +in manly and athletic exercises. Herr Heller von +Thalermacher, or rather the firm of which he was the prominent +member, was distinguished for qualities far different, but +equally deserving of goodwill. The banking-house of +Thalermacher was one of the most responsible in South Germany; +and, at great expense and sacrifice, had introduced into the +grand, but by no means affluent, duchy of Baden several branches +of industry, which had enriched the ducal treasury, and furnished +employment for thousands of industrious subjects. It had +revived the almost extinguished mining interest; had introduced +extensive spinning machinery; and had established a factory for +the manufacture of beetroot sugar.</p> +<p>Lieutenant Kugelblitz, to whose opinion deference was due, +expressed himself in such offensive terms with respect to Herr +von Thalermacher, in relation to the ball, that the gentlemen who +had prepared the subscription-list at once erased the +objectionable name: Herr von Thalermacher at once demanded +satisfaction from his accuser, but this Lieutenant Kugelblitz +refused, on the ground that the banker was not respectable enough +for powder and shot. Hereupon two courts of honour were +formed, one composed of gentlemen civilians in Baden-Baden, and +the other of the officers in Carlsruhe. Both appeared to +have been called together at the wish <!-- page 135--><a +name="page135"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 135</span>of +Lieutenant Kugelblitz, to inquire into and pronounce upon the +point at issue. The civilians came to no decision. +The military court of honour put the result of its deliberations +in the <i>Carlsruhe Zeitung</i>, as a public advertisement, +couched in these terms: “The Herr von Kugelblitz may not +fight with the Herr von Thalermacher.” Thus posted as +a scamp, Thalermacher advertised back his own defence; and, by +public circulars and bills, declared the accusation of Kugelblitz +to be false and malicious, and his behaviour dishonourable and +cowardly. At the same time, a Russian officer of good +family,—Demboffsky—who had acted throughout as +negotiator and friend on the part of Thalermacher, and who felt +himself deeply compromised by the imputations put forth against +his principal, declared publicly that the military court which +had condemned the Herr von Thalermacher, after hearing only his +accuser, was a one-sided and absurd tribunal, and that it was not +competent to give any decision.</p> +<p>The result of this declaration was a challenge from Lieutenant +Kugelblitz. Demboffsky said that he was quite willing to +give his challenger the satisfaction he demanded, on condition +that he should first arrange his quarrel with Herr Thalermacher, +as became a gentleman.</p> +<p>On the night of the first of September (at the beginning of +our English shooting season), the Russian being on a visit to his +friend Thalermacher, in his apartments, assured him in the most +positive terms that he would keep promise, and would make no +hostile arrangement with Lieutenant Kugelblitz. Prince +Trubetzkoi and other friends then present completely coincided in +this mode of action. At half-past eleven at night, +Demboffsky quitted his friend, and hastened homewards. Be +had advanced only a few steps on the road, when suddenly two +figures strode up to him, and stayed his progress. He at +once recognised Kugelblitz, and a Spaniard named Manillo, who had +lived for many years in Germany.</p> +<p>“Will you fight with me?” shouted Kugelblitz in a +passion.</p> +<p>The Russian, although taken completely by surprise, replied +that he would do as he had already said. He would fight +with Senor Manillo at once if it were thought desirable; but he +would engage in no hostilities with Kugelblitz, until the quarrel +with Thalermacher was adjusted. Great was the wrath of +Kugelblitz. He clenched his fist, shook it in the face of +Demboffsky, and demanded furiously that he should give his word +of honour to fight him in the <!-- page 136--><a +name="page136"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +136</span>morning. The Russian, who expected bodily +violence, then said that since the insult had been pushed so far, +there remained no other course open to him, than to accept the +challenge; which he accordingly did, pledging himself to meet +Kugelblitz on the morrow. He then hastened back to his +friend Thalermacher, and related the occurrence to him.</p> +<p>On the following day the duel took place. It happened +that Lieutenant Kugelblitz was under orders to mark out the +artillery practice-ground at Hardwald, near Rastadt, and as he +could not leave his post, the meeting took place in its +neighbourhood. The two officers stood forward in deadly +opposition with a measured distance of ten paces only.</p> +<p>Nevertheless, the first fire was without result; but, at the +second fire, Kugelblitz was struck in the breast; yet he still +held his weapon undischarged. He pressed his left hand on +the wound as he pulled the trigger with his right. The +pistol missed fire. Another cap was placed upon the nipple, +but it also failed. The second of Demboffsky then handed +another weapon to the dying man; who, with quiet resolution, +still closing his wound with his fingers, drew for the third time +upon his opponent, and with such effect, that, uttering a wild +cry, and the words “<i>Je suis mort</i>!” “I am +dead!” the Russian leapt up into the air, and then rolled +upon the ground a corpse. Kugelblitz, exhausted by the +efforts he had made to die like a gentleman, sank into the arms +of his second, Manillo, and was carried insensible to +Carlsruhe. He died at noon on the second day after the +duel.</p> +<p>Thereupon the discerning and indignant public, a little +biassed—as it too often has been in Germany—against +the Jews in general, gutted the house of Herr von +Thalermacher.</p> +<p>The state also fell in with the common notion; and, under the +plea of sheltering an injured man, lodged him in prison for +eleven days. Seals were also placed upon his papers and +apartments. The State then set about ascertaining privately +in how far the victim of mob law had been guilty of the mischief +which by general acclamation was imputed to him.</p> +<p>After a hunt through the banker’s desk, and an +inspection of his drawers, the decision of the court tribunal of +Rastadt was delivered. It was ordered that the Herr Heller +von Thalermacher be forthwith liberated from the fortress of +Rastadt, free and untainted. Further: that the seals be +removed from his apartments and papers, <!-- page 137--><a +name="page137"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 137</span>seeing that +nothing among them had been found which could cast the faintest +shadow upon his reputation.</p> +<p>We had all been yelling at the wrong man. Kugelblitz +was, after all, the author of the tragedy.</p> +<h2>CHAPTER XXIII.</h2> +<p class="gutsumm"><span class="smcap">greece and her +deliverer</span>.</p> +<p>Four happy tramps in company, we passed the frontiers of +Austria and Bavaria, near Berchtesgaden, in the hazy shimmering +of an autumn morning sun. We came from the lakes and +mountain regions of Upper Austria, and already yearned towards +Munich, the Bavarian capital, as our next station and brief +resting place. The sun seemed to have melted into the air, +for we walked through it rather than beneath it, and sought in +vain for coolness and shelter among the plum trees which lined +the public road. Halting as the night closed in at the +frontier town, Reichenhall, with its quaint old streets, and its +distant fortress, casting a lengthened protective shadow over the +place, we felt the indescribable luxury of the +foot-traveller’s rest; as readily enjoyed at such times on +a litter of straw in the common room of an alehouse as between +the cumbersome comforts of two German feather beds. Both +the ale and the feather beds were at our service at Reichenhall, +and we did not neglect them.</p> +<p>In the morning our road lay by sombre, romantic Traunstein, +and what was better still, by the glistening waters of the lake +of Chiem, whose broad surface was so unruffled, that the wide +expanse seemed to lie in a hollow, and a delicious coolness +whispered rather than blew across its tranquil waves. The +day was waning as we made a half circuit round the edge of the +lake, and the deepening night only stayed our steps and drove us +to rest, after a march of twenty-four miles, in the village of +Seebruck. At Rosenheim we were challenged by the Bavarian +sentinel, who held post on a stone bridge leading to the town, +but it was rather in kindliness than suspicion; and with some +useful information as to our route, and a cheering valediction, +<!-- page 138--><a name="page138"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +138</span>we pursued our way. The villages of Weisham and +Aibling lay before us, and must be passed before night; and it +was in the immediate neighbourhood of these places, although I +confess to some indistinctness as to the precise locality, that +we came upon an object which at once surprised and delighted +us.</p> +<p>By the side of the road, on a slight elevation, stood a +beautiful stone monument, of the purest Grecian architecture, and +of the most delicate workmanship. It was fresh and sharp +from the chisel of the sculptor, and looked so stately and +graceful in the midst of the level landscape and simple village +scenery that we halted spontaneously to examine it. +“Can it be the memorial of some battle?” exclaimed +one. “Or a devotional shrine?” “Or +a tomb?” Not any one of these. Its purpose was +as singular as the sentiment it expressed would have been +beautiful and touching, but for its presumption. Graven +deeply into the stone were words in the German language to this +effect: “This monument is raised in remembrance of the +parting of Louis, King of Bavaria, with his second son Otho, who +here left his bereaved father to become the Deliverer of +Greece.” As we stood and read these words the vision +of the fond father and proud king, taking his last farewell of +the son whom he fondly believed destined to fulfil so great a +mission, floated before us, to be replaced the next instant by +the no less eloquent picture of the court of the then King Otho, +a German colony in the midst of the Greek people, living upon its +blood, and wantoning with its treasure; and of this same Greek +people, driven at length into fury by the rapacity of the hated +Tudesca, who filled every position of authority and grasped at +every office of emolument, and hunting them like a routed army +out of the land. Still there was a depth of paternal +affection in the words upon the monument, which impressed us with +respect, as the miniature temple, with its delicate columns and +classical proportions, had inspired us with admiration.</p> +<p>We pursued our way along the dull road, now halting a moment +to cool our fevered feet, now restlessly shifting our knapsacks +in the vain hope of lightening the burden, when, being in the +immediate neighbourhood of the village of Aibling, we came upon a +second monument equally classical in form, though of less +pretensions than the first. A twice-told tale, uttered this +time in a woman’s accents; for the block of stone repeated +the same story in almost identical words.</p> +<p>“Here the Queen of Bavaria parted with her beloved +second son <!-- page 139--><a name="page139"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 139</span>Otho, only comforted in her +affliction by the knowledge that he has left her to become the +Deliverer of Greece.”</p> +<p>The hopes of the King and Queen of Bavaria, thus unluckily +commemorated by these monuments, were no less at that time the +hopes and the belief of all Europe—with what little of +prophetic spirit full twenty years of experience has shown. +Greece, swarming with Bavarian adventurers, till goaded to the +utmost she drove them from her bosom; Greece, bankrupt, +apathetic, and ungrateful; a Greek port blockaded by the ships of +her first defender, and her vessels held in pawn for the payment +of a miserable debt; Greece, piratical, dissembling, and +rebellious, aiding in her weak and greedy ambition the worst +enemy of Europe—so runs the story—but Greek +deliverance not yet. Her joint occupation by French and +English forces, and the possible imposition of a provisional +government, may indeed lead to the unprophesied +consummation—her deliverance—from King Otho.</p> +<p>No doubt, those monuments of mingled weakness and arrogance +still whiten in the air; as for us, we continued our march +towards the Bavarian capital, slept at a pilgrimage church that +night, and on the following morning made a bargain with the +driver of a country cart who had overtaken us, and seated on the +rough timber which formed his load, jolted into Munich.</p> +<p>King Louis then reigned in Bavaria, but being so indifferent a +prophet could not foresee his own speedy abdication.</p> +<h2>CHAPTER XXIV.</h2> +<p class="gutsumm"><span class="smcap">the french +workman</span>.</p> +<p>The original stuff out of which a French workman is made, is a +street boy of fourteen years old, or, perhaps, twelve. That +young <i>gamin de Paris</i> can sing as many love ditties and +drinking songs as there are hairs upon his head, before he knows +how much is nine times seven. He prefers always the +agreeable to the useful: he knows how to dance all the +quadrilles: he knows how to make grimaces of ten thousand sorts +one after the other without stopping, <!-- page 140--><a +name="page140"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 140</span>and at the +rate of twenty in a minute. Of his other attainments, I say +little. It is possible that he may have been to one of the +elementary schools set up by the Government; or, it may be that +he knows not how to read; although, by Article 10 of a law passed +in eighteen hundred and thirty-three, it was determined that no +chief town of a department, or chief place of a commune, +containing more than six thousand inhabitants, should be without +at least one elementary school for public instruction.</p> +<p>Such as the boy may be, he is made an apprentice. He +needs no act, or, as you say in England, indenture. His +contract has to be attested at the Prefecture of Police, Bureau +of Passports, Section of Livrets. Formerly, it was the +custom in France for the apprentice to be both fed and lodged by +his master; but, as the patron seldom received money with him, he +was mainly fed on cuffs. Apprenticeship in Paris, which is +France, begins at ages differing according to the nature of the +trade. If strength be wanted, the youth is apprenticed at +eighteen, but otherwise, perhaps, at fourteen. There are in +Paris nineteen thousand apprentices dispersed among two hundred +and seventy branches of trade.</p> +<p>Of all the apprentices whose number has been just named, only +one in five is bound by a written agreement with his +master. The rest have a verbal understanding. The +youths commonly are restless; and, since they are apt to change +their minds, the business of the master is not so much to teach +them as to obtain value for himself as soon as he can out of +their labour. It is the apprentice who is sent out to take +orders in the town, and to play the part of messenger. In +consequence of the looseness of the tie, it often happens that a +thoughtless parent, when his son is able to earn wages, tells the +youth that his master is sucking him and fattening upon his +unpaid labour; that he might earn money for the house at +home. The youth is glad to earn, and throws up his +apprenticeship for independent work. It soon occurs to him +that his parents are sucking him, and that his earnings ought to +be for himself, and not for them. He then throws up his +home dependence, as he had thrown up dependence on his master, +takes a lodging, falls into careless company, and works on, a +half-skilled labourer, receiving all his life a less income than +he could have assured to himself by a few years of early +perseverance.</p> +<p>When I was apprentice, eight years ago, I found that to be a +good workman, it was needful to design and model. +“Come with me,” <!-- page 141--><a +name="page141"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 141</span>said my +comrade Gredinot, “I will show you a good +school.” It was a winter evening; our work was over; +and, with leave of the patron, we left our shop in the Rue Saint +Martin, and went by Saint Saviour to the Rue Montorgueil. +We bought as we went about twelve pounds of modelling clay. +At the upper end of the street, my friend Gredinot turned up a +dark passage. I followed him. A single lamp glimmered +in the court to which it led us. We went up a few steps to +the schoolroom. “Here we are,” said Gredinot, +in opening the door. We entered, carrying our caps. +There was a low room lighted by flaring oil lamps; but in it were +busts and statues of such beauty that it seemed to me to be the +most delightful chamber in the world. Boys and youths and a +few men, all in blouses like ourselves, laboured there. We +threw our clay upon a public heap in a wooden trough near the +door. There was only that mud to pay, and there were our +own tools to take. Everything else was free. Gredinot +introduced me to the master, and I learnt to model from that +night. There are other schools—the school of Arts and +Trades in the Rue St. Martin, and the Special and Gratuitous +School of Design in the Rue du Tourraine, in connection, as I +think, with the School of Fine Arts. I might number the +museums and the libraries, and I may make mention also of the +prizes of the Academy of Industry and of the Society for the +Encouragement of National Industry.</p> +<p>The apprentice when out of his time goes to the prefecture of +police. There he must obtain a livret, which must have on +the face of it the seal of the prefecture, the full name of the +admitted workman, his age, his place of birth, and a description +of his person, his trade, and the name of the master who employs +him. The French workman is taboo, until he is registered by +the police and can produce his livret. The book costs him +twopence halfpenny. Its first entry is a record of the +completion of his apprenticeship. Afterwards every fresh +engagement must be set down in it, with the dates of its +beginning and its end, each stamped by the prefecture. The +employer of a workman holds his livret as a pledge. When he +receives money in advance, the sum is written in his book, and it +is a debt there chargeable as a deduction of not more than one +fifth upon all future employment, until it is paid. The +workman when travelling must have his livret <i>viséd</i>; +for, without that, says the law, “he is a vagabond, and can +be arrested and punished as such.”</p> +<p><!-- page 142--><a name="page142"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +142</span>The workman registered and livreted, how does he live, +work, and sleep? He is not a great traveller; for, unless +forced into exile, the utmost notion of travel that a French +workman has, is the removal—if he be a +provincial—from his native province to Paris. We pass +over the workman’s chance of falling victim to the +conscription, if he has no friends rich enough to buy for him a +substitute, or if he cannot subscribe for the same object to a +Conscription Mutual Assurance Company. When Louis Blanc had +his own way in France the workmen did but ten hours’ labour +in the day. Now, however, as before, twelve or thirteen +hours are regarded as a fair day’s work. I and +Friponnet, who are diamond jewellers, work ten hours only. +My friend Cornichon, who is a goldsmith, works as long as a +painter or a smith. Sunday labour used to be very general +in France, but extended seldom beyond the half day; which was +paid for at a higher rate. In Paris seven in eight of us +used to earn money on the Sunday morning. That necessity +could not be pleaded for the act, is proved by the fact, that +often we did no work on Monday, but on that day spent the +Sunday’s earnings. As for wages, calculated on an +average of several years, they are about as follows:—The +average pay for a day’s labour is three shillings and +twopence. The lowest day’s pay known is five pence, +and the highest thirty shillings. About thirty thousand of +us receive half-a-crown a day; five or six times as many (the +majority) receive some sum between half-a-crown and four and +twopence. About ten thousand receive higher wages. +The best wages are earned by men whose work is connected with +print, paper, and engraving. The workers in jewels and gold +are the next best provided for; next to them workers in metal and +in fancy ware. Workers on spun and woven fabrics get low +wages; the lowest is earned, as in London, by slop-workers and +all workers with the needle. The average receipts of Paris +needlewomen have not, however, fallen below fourteenpence a day; +those of them who work with fashionable dressmakers earn about +one and eightpence. While speaking of the ill-paid class of +women, I must mention that the most sentimental of our +occupations earns the least bread. Those who make crowns of +<i>immortelles</i> to hang upon the tombs, only earn about +sevenpence-halfpenny a day. That trade is, in very truth, +funereal. To come back to ourselves, it should be said that +our wages, as a whole, have risen rather than declined during +<!-- page 143--><a name="page143"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +143</span>the last quarter of a century. It is a curious +fact, however, that the pay for job-work has decreased very +decidedly.</p> +<p>And how do we live? it is asked. Well enough. All +of us eat two meals a day; but what we eat depends upon our +money. We three, who draw up this account, work in one +room. We begin fasting, and maintain our fast until eleven +o’clock. Then we send the apprentice out to fetch our +breakfasts. When he comes back with his stores, he disposes +them neatly on a centre table in little groups. I generally +have a pennyworth of ham, which certainly is tough, but very full +of flavour; bread to the same value; a half share with Friponnet +in two-pennyworth of wine, and a half-pennyworth of fried +potatoes; thus spending in all threepence-halfpenny. +Cornichon spends the same sum generally in another way. He +has a pennyworth of cold boiled (unsalted) beef, a pennyworth of +bread, a halfpennyworth of cheese and a pennyworth of currant +jam. Friponnet is more extravagant. A common +breakfast bill of fare with him is two penny sausages, +twopennyworth of bread, a pennyworth of wine, a halfpenny +<i>paquet de couenne</i> (which is a little parcel of crisply +fried strips of bacon rind), and a baked pear. All this is +sumptuous; for we are of the aristocracy of workmen. The +labourers of Paris do not live so well. They go to the +<i>gargottes</i>, where they get threepence halfpennyworth of +bouilli—soup, beef and vegetable—which includes the +title to a liberal supply of bread. Reeking, dingy dens are +those <i>gargottes</i>, where all the poorer classes of Parisian +workmen save the beef out of their breakfast bouilli, and carry +it away to eat later in the day at the wine-shop; where it will +make a dinner with more bread and a pennyworth of wine. Of +bread they eat a great deal; and, reckoning that at fourpence and +the wine at a penny, we find eightpence to be the daily cost of +living to the great body of Parisian workmen.</p> +<p>We aristos among workpeople dine famously. My own +practice is to dine in the street du Petit Carré upon +dinners for ninepence; or, by taking dinner-tickets for fourteen +days in advance, I get one dinner a fortnight given me +gratuitously. I dine upon soup, a choice of three plates of +meat, about half-a-pint of wine, a dessert and bread at +discretion. Our dinner hour is four o’clock, and we +are not likely to eat anything more before bedtime; although one +of us may win a cup of coffee or a dram of brandy at billiards or +dominoes in the evening. Cornichon and Friponnet dine in +the street Chabannais; have soup at a penny a portion, small +plates of <!-- page 144--><a name="page144"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 144</span>meat at twopence each, dessert at a +penny, and halfpenny slips of bread. Each of us when he has +dined rolls up a cigarette, and lounges perhaps round the Palais +Royal for half an hour.</p> +<p>As for our lodging the poorest of us live by tens in one room, +and sleep by fours and fives upon one mattress; paying from +twopence to tenpence a night. The ordinary cost of such +lodging as the workman in Paris occupies is, for a whole room for +one person, nine or ten shillings a month; for more than one, six +or seven shillings each; and for half a bed, four +shillings. Cornichon lives in room number thirty-six on the +third floor of a furnished lodging house in the street du Petit +Lion. You must ring for the porter if you would go in to +Cornichon; and the porter must, by a jerk at a string, unlatch +the street door if Cornichon wishes to come out to you. In +a little court at the back are two flights of dirty stairs of red +tile edged with wood. They lead to distinct portions of the +house. Cornichon’s room is paved with red tiles, +polished now and then with beeswax. It is furnished with +the bed and a few inches of bedside carpet, forming a small +island on the floor, with two chairs, a commode with a black +marble top, a washing-basin and a water-bottle. Cornichon +has also a cupboard there in which he stores his wood for winter, +paying twenty-pence per hundred pounds for logs; and as the room +contains no grate, he rents a German stove from his landlord, +paying four-and-two-pence for his use of it during the +season.</p> +<p>Friponnet rents two unfurnished rooms up four pair of stairs, +at the back of a house in the street d’Argenteuil. He +pays ten shillings a month. They are furnished in mahogany +and black marble bought of a broker, and I think not paid for +yet. Fidette visits him there. She is a gold and +silver polisher, his <i>bonne amie</i>. She has her own +lodging; but she and Friponnet divide their earnings. They +belong to one another: although no priest has blessed their +voluntary contract. It is so, I am pained to say, with very +many of us.</p> +<p>I have a half-bed in a little street, with a man who is a good +fellow, considering he is a square-head—a German. The +red tiles of my staircase are very clean, and slippery with +beeswax. My landlord rents a portion of the third floor of +the house, and under-lets it fearfully. One apartment has +been penned off into four, and mine is the fourth section at the +end. To reach me one must pass through the first pen, which +is occupied by Monsieur and Madame. <!-- page 145--><a +name="page145"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 145</span>There they +work, eat, and sleep; as for Madame, she never leaves it. +Monsieur only goes away to wait upon the <i>griffe</i>, his +master, when he wants more work; his <i>griffe</i> is a slop +tailor. Monsieur and Madame sleep in a recess, which looks +like a sarcophagus. A little Italian tailor also sleeps in +the same pen; but whereabouts I know not—his bed is a +mystery. The next pen is occupied by two carpenters, seldom +at home. When they come home, all of us know it; for they +are extremely musical. In the third pen live three more +tailors, through whose territory I must pass to my own +cabinet. But how snug that is! Although only eight +feet by ten, it has two corner windows; and, if there is little +furniture and but a scanty bed, there is a looking-glass fit for +a baron, and some remains of violet-coloured hangings and long +muslin curtains; either white or brown, I am not sure. I +and the German pay for this apartment fifteen shillings +monthly.</p> +<p>There is a kind of lodgers worth especial mention. The +men working in the yards of masons, carpenters, and +others—masons especially—frequently come from the +provinces. They are not part of the fixed population; but +are men who have left their wives and families to come up to the +town and earn a sum of money. For this they work most +energetically; living in the most abstemious manner, in order +that they may not break into their hoard. They occupy +furnished lodgings, flocking very much together. Thus the +masons from the departments of la Creuse and la Haute Vienne +occupy houses let out in furnished rooms exclusively to +themselves, in the quarters of the Hotel de Ville, the Arsenal, +Saint Marcel, and in other parts of Paris. The rigid +parsimony of these men is disappointed terribly when any crisis +happens. They are forced to eat their savings, to turn +their clothing and their tools into food, and, by the revolution +of eighteen hundred and forty-eight, were reduced to such great +destitution, that in some of the houses occupied by them one +dress was all that remained to all the lodgers. They wore +it in turn, one going out in it to seek for work while all the +rest remained at home in bed. The poor fellows thanked the +want of exercise for helping them to want of appetite—the +only kind of want that poverty desires.</p> +<p>These men, however, working in the great yards, eating their +meals near them in an irregular and restless way, form clubs and +associations which lead not seldom to strikes—blunders +which we call placing ourselves <i>en Grève</i>. +They take the name <i>en Grève</i> from <!-- page 146--><a +name="page146"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 146</span>the place +in which one class of builders’ workmen assemble when +waiting to be hired. Various places are chosen by sundry +workmen and workwomen for this practice of waiting to be +hired. Laundresses, for example, are to be found near the +church of our Lady of Lorette, where they endure, and too often +enjoy, coarse words from passers-by.</p> +<p>Except in the case of the masons and labourers from the +departments, it is to be regarded as no good sign when a workman +makes a residence of furnished lodgings. The orderly +workman marries, and acquires the property of furniture. +The mason from the departments lives cheaply, and saves, to go +home with money to his family, and acquire in his own village the +property of land. The workman bound to Paris, who dwells +only in furnished lodgings, and has bought no furniture, has +rarely saved, and has rarely made an honest marriage. In +most cases he is a lover of pleasure, frequents the theatre and +the wine shop. From wine he runs on to the stronger +stimulus of brandy; but these leave to him some gleams of his +national vivacity. The most degraded does not get so +lumpish as the English workman, whose brains have become sodden +in the public-houses by long trains of pots of beer. By far +the largest portion of the Paris workmen possess furniture: only +twenty-one in a hundred—and that includes, of course, the +mobile population, the masons, etc.—live in furnished +lodgings.</p> +<p>For clothing we spend, according to our means, from four to +fourteen pounds a year. Half of us have no coat in addition +to the blouse. Before the crisis of eighteen hundred and +forty-eight, one sixth of us had money in savings’ banks, +and one man in every two was a member of some benefit +society. The benefit societies were numerous, each +generally containing some two or three hundred members; but even +our singing clubs are now suppressed, and we must not meet even +to transact the business of a benefit society without giving +notice of our design to the police, and receiving into our party +at least two of its agents as lookers-on. The result has +been the decay of all such societies, and the extinction of most +of them. Where they remain, the average monthly +subscription is fifteen-pence, which insures the payment of +twenty-pence a day during sickness, with gratuitous advice and +medicine from the doctor. The funds of such societies are +lodged either in savings’ banks, or in the <i>Mont de +Pieté</i>; which, though properly a pawnbroking +establishment, has also its uses as a bank. The <!-- page +147--><a name="page147"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +147</span>imperial fist presses everywhere down upon us. It +has forced us out of sick clubs, because we sometimes talked in +them about the state of the nation: it would build us huge +barracks to live in, so that we may be had continually under +watch and ward; and it has lately thrust in upon us a president +of its own at the head of our <i>Conseil de +Prud’hommes</i>, the only tribunal we possess for the +adjustment of our internal trade disputes.</p> +<p>Of our pleasures on a Sunday afternoon the world has +heard. We devote that to our families, if we have any; +Monday, too often, to our friends. There are on Sundays our +feats of gymnastics at open-air balls beyond the barriers, and +our dancing saloons in the city; such as the Prado, the Bal +Montesquieu, and the Dogs’ Ball. There are our +pleasant country rambles, and our pleasant little dinners in the +fields. There are our games at poule, and dominoes, and +piquet; and our pipes with dexterously blackened bowls. +There are our theatres, the Funambule and the Porte St. +Martin. Gamblers among us play at bowls in the Elysian +fields, or they stay at home losing and winning more than they +can properly afford to risk at <i>écarté</i>.</p> +<p>Then there are our holidays. The best used to be +“the three days of July,” but they were lost in the +last scramble. Yet we still have no lack of holiday +amusement; our puppets to admire, and greasy poles to climb for +prizes by men who have been prudently required first to declare +and register their ambition at the Bureau of Police. +Government so gets something like a list of the men who aspire; +who wish to mount. It must be very useful. There are +our water tournaments at St. Cloud and at Boulogne-sur-Seine; +where they who have informed the police of their combative +propensities, may thrust at each other with long-padded poles +from boats which are being rowed forcibly into collision. +We are not much of water-birds, but when we do undertake boating, +we engage in the work like Algerine pirates. We must have a +red sash round the waist or not a man of us will pull a +stroke.</p> +<p>To go back to our homes and to our wives. When we do +marry, we prefer a wife who can support herself by her own +labour. If we have children, it is in our power to +apply—and very many of us do apply—to the Bureau of +Nurses; and, soon after an infant’s birth, it can be sent +down into the country at the monthly cost of about ten shillings +and two pounds of lump sugar. That prevents the child from +hindering our work or pleasure; and, as it is the interest of +<!-- page 148--><a name="page148"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +148</span>the nurse to protect the child for which she receives +payment, why should we disturb our consciences with qualm or +fear?</p> +<p>In Paris there are few factories; some that have existed were +removed into the provinces for the sole purpose of avoiding the +dictation of the workmen in the town. The Parisian fancy +work employs a large number of people who can work at their own +homes. In this, and in the whole industry of Paris, the +division of labour is very great; but the fancy work offers a +good deal of scope for originality and taste, and the workman of +Paris is glad to furnish both. He will delight himself by +working night and day to execute a sudden order, to be equal to +some great occasion; but he cannot so well be depended upon when +the work falls again into its even, humdrum pace. On the +whole, however, they who receive good wages, and are +trusted—as the men working for jewellers are +trusted—become raised by the responsibility of their +position, shun the wine-shop, live contented with the pleasures +of their homes, dress with neatness, and would die rather than +betray the confidence reposed in them. With all his faults +and oddities, the workman of Paris is essentially a thoroughly +good fellow. The solitary work of tailors and of shoemakers +causes them of course to brood and think, and to turn out of +their body a great number of men who take a foremost place in all +political discussions. But the French workman always is a +loser by political disturbance. The crisis of eighteen +hundred and forty-eight—a workman’s +triumph—reduced the value of industry in Paris from sixty +to twenty-eight millions of pounds. Fifty-four men in every +hundred were at the same time thrown out of employ, or nearly two +hundred thousand people in all.</p> +<p>But there are some callings, indeed, wholly untouched by a +crisis. The manufacture of street gas goes on, for example, +without any change. There are others that are even +benefited by a revolution. After the last revolution, while +other trades were turning away men to whom there was no longer +work to give, the trades concerned in providing military +equipment were taking on fresh hands. To that class in +Paris, and to that only, there was an increase of business in +eighteen hundred and forty-eight to the extent of twenty-nine per +cent. The decrease of business among the printers, although +few books were printed, did not amount to more than twenty-seven +per cent., in consequence of the increased demand for +proclamations, handbills, and manifestoes.</p> +<p>Without any extra crisis, men working in all trades have +trouble <!-- page 149--><a name="page149"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 149</span>enough to get over the mere natural +checks upon industry, which come to most tradesmen twice a year +in the shape of the dead seasons. Every month is a dead +season to some trade; but the dead seasons which prevail over the +largest number of workmen in Paris are the two months, July and +August, in summer, and the two months, January and February, in +winter. The dead season of summer is the more decided of +the two. The periods of greatest activity, on the other +hand, are the two months, April and May, and next to those the +months, October and November. Printers are busiest in +winter, builders are busiest in summer—so there are +exceptions to the rule; but, except those who provide certain +requisites for eating and drinking which are in continual demand, +there are few workmen in Paris or elsewhere in France, who have +not every year quite enough slack time to perplex them. +They can ill afford the interference of any small crisis in the +shape of a strike, or large crisis in the shape of a national +tumult.</p> +<p>Finally, let me say that the French workman, take him all in +all, is certainly a clever fellow. He is fond of Saint +Monday, “solidarity,” and shows; but is quickwitted +at his work, and furiously energetic when there is any strong +call made upon his industry. In the most debased form he +has much more vigour and vivacity than the most debased of +English operatives. He may be more immoral; but he is less +brutish. If we are a little vain, and very fond of gaiety; +and if we are improvident, we are not idle; and, with all our +street fighting, we are not a discontented race. Except an +Arab, who can be so happy as we know how to make ourselves, upon +the smallest possible resources?</p> +<h2>CHAPTER XXV.</h2> +<p class="gutsumm"><span class="smcap">licensed to +juggle</span>.</p> +<p>Some years ago a short iron-built man used to balance a +scaffold pole upon his chin; to whizz a slop-basin round upon the +end of it; and to imitate fire-works with golden balls and +gleaming knives, in the public streets of London. I am +afraid his genius was <!-- page 150--><a name="page150"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 150</span>not rewarded in his own country; for +not long ago I saw him starring it in Paris. As I stood by +to watch his evolutions, in the Champs Elysées, I felt a +patriotic glow when they were rewarded with the enthusiastic +applause of a very wide and thick ring of French spectators.</p> +<p>There was one peculiarity in his performance which +distinguished him from French open-air artistes—he never +spoke. Possibly he was diffident of his French +accent. He simply uttered a grunt when he wished to call +attention to any extraordinary perfection in his performance; in +imitation, perhaps, of the “La!—la!” of the +prince of French acrobats, Auriol. Whatever he attempted he +did well; that is to say, in a solid, deliberate, thorough +manner. His style of chin-balancing, knife-catching, +ball-throwing, and ground and lofty tumbling, was not so agile or +flippant as that of his French competitors, but he never +failed. On the circulation of his hat, the French halfpence +were dropped in with great liberality.</p> +<p>As the fall of the curtain denotes the close of a play, so the +raising of the square of carpet signifies the end of a +juggler’s performance; and, when my old acquaintance had +rolled up his little bit of tapestry, and had pocketed his sous, +I accosted him—“You are,” I said, “an +Englishman?”</p> +<p>“That’s right!” he observed, familiarly.</p> +<p>“What say you to a glass of something, and a +chat?”</p> +<p>“Say?” he repeated, with a very broad grin, +“why, yes, to be sure!”</p> +<p>The tumbler, with his tools done up in a carpet-bag closed at +the mouth with a bit of rope, and your humble servant were +speedily seated in a neighbouring wine-shop.</p> +<p>“What do you prefer to drink?” I inquired.</p> +<p>“Cure-a-sore,” he modestly answered.</p> +<p>The epicure! Quality and not quantity was evidently his +taste; a sign of, at least, a sober fellow.</p> +<p>“You find yourself tolerably well off in +Paris?”</p> +<p>“I should think I did,” he answered, smacking his +lips, “for I wos a wagabon in London; but here I am an +artiste!”</p> +<p>“A distinction only in name, I suspect.”</p> +<p>“P’raps it is; but there’s a good deal of +difference, mind you. In England (I have been a’most +all over it) a feller in my line is a wagabon. He +don’t take no standing in society. He may be quiet, +never get into no trouble, and never give nobody else none; but +<!-- page 151--><a name="page151"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +151</span>that don’t help him. ‘He gits his +livin’ in the streets,’ they say, and that’s +enough. Well, ’spose he does? he ’as to work +tremenjus hard for it.”</p> +<p>“His certainly cannot be an idle life.”</p> +<p>“It just ain’t, if they’d only let us alone; +but they won’t—them blessed Peelers I mean. How +would you like it?” he continued, appealing to me with as +hard a look in the face as if I had been his most implacable +enemy, “how would you like it, if you had looked up a jolly +good pitch, and a reg’lar good comp’ny was a looking +on—at the west end, in a slap up street, where there +ain’t no thoroughfare—and jist as you’re a +doin’ the basin, and the browns is a droppin’ into +the ’at, up comes a Peeler. Then it’s +‘Move on!’ You must go;” he stared harder +than ever, and thumped his hand on the table; “I say you +<i>must</i> go, and lose p’raps a pick up as +’u’d keep you for a week. How would you like +that?”</p> +<p>“I should expostulate.”</p> +<p>“Spostallate!—would you?” a slight curl of +the lip, expressive of contempt at my ignorance of the general +behaviour of policemen. “Ah! if you say +’bo!’ to a Peeler he pulls you, and what’s the +consequence? Why, a month at the Steel!”—which +hard name I understood to be given to the House of +Correction.</p> +<p>“But the police are not unreasonable,” I +suggested.</p> +<p>“Well, p’raps some of ’em +ain’t,” he remarked, “but you can’t pick +out your policemen, that’s where it is.”</p> +<p>“Do the police never interfere with you here?” I +asked.</p> +<p>“They used to it; and I’ve had to beg back my +traps more than once from the borough of the Police +Correctionell, as they call it; but then that was ’cause I +was hignorant of the law. When they see that I could git a +’onest living, an old cove in a cocked hat ses he to me, +ses he, ‘You’re a saltimbanc, you are. Wery +good. You go to the borough of police for public morals, +and the minister (not a parson, mind you, but the ’ed +hinspector), if he’s satisfied with your character +he’ll give you a ticket.”</p> +<p>“And did he?”</p> +<p>“Course he did; and I’m now one of the +reg’lar perfession. I aint to be hinterfered with; +leastways, without I’m donkey enough to go on the cross and +be took up. <i>That’s</i> the ticket,” he +exclaimed triumphantly, pulling out a bronze badge, +“I’m number thirty-five, I am.”</p> +<p>“And can you perform anywhere?”</p> +<p><!-- page 152--><a name="page152"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +152</span>“No; the police picked out thirteen good +places—‘pitches,’ we calls +’em—where we can play. Ther’s the +list—thirteen on ’em all of a row—beginning on +the Boulevards at the Place de la Colonne de Juilliet, and ending +in the Champs Elysées.” He unfolded a neatly +written document that plainly defined the limits of Paris within +which he, in common with his co-professors, was allowed to +display his abilities.</p> +<p>With a small gratuity for the new light thrown upon the +subject of street performances, I parted from my enterprising +countryman, wishing him every success.</p> +<p>I have sometimes wondered whether—considering that we +have all sorts of licensed people about us; people who are +licensed to cram us upon steam-boats; to crowd us into omnibuses; +to jolt us in ramshackle cabs; to supply us with bad brandy and +other adulterated drinks; licentiates for practising physic; +licentiates for carrying parcels; licentiates for taking money at +their own doors for the diversions of singing and dancing; +licentiates for killing game with gunpowder, which other people +have been licensed to make—whether, I say, it would not be +wise to license in England out-of-door as well as in-door +amusements.</p> +<h2>CHAPTER XXVI.</h2> +<p class="gutsumm"><span class="smcap">père +panpan</span>.</p> +<p>“Monsieur Panpan lives in the Place Valois,” said +my friend, newly arrived from London on a visit to Paris, +“and as I am under a promise to his brother Victor to +deliver a message on his behalf, I must keep my word even if I go +alone, and execute my mission in pantomime. Will you be my +interpreter?”</p> +<p>The Place Valois is a dreamy little square formed by tall +houses: graced by an elegant fountain in its centre; guarded by a +red-legged sentinel; and is chiefly remarkable in Parisian annals +as the scene of the assassination of the Duc de Berri. +There is a quiet, melancholy air about the place which accords +well with its <!-- page 153--><a name="page153"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 153</span>traditions; and even the little +children who make it their playground on account of the absence +of both vehicles and equestrians, pursue their sports in a +subdued, tranquil way, hanging about the fountain’s edge, +and dabbling in the water with their little fingers. +Monsieur Panpan’s residence was not difficult to +find. We entered by a handsome porte-cochère into a +paved court-yard, and, having duly accounted for our presence to +the watchful concierge who sat sedulously peering out of a green +sentry-box, commenced our ascent to the upper regions. +Seeing that Monsieur lived on the fourth floor, and that the +steps of the spacious staircase were of that shallow description +which disappoint the tread by falling short of its expectations, +it was no wonder that we were rather out of breath when we +reached the necessary elevation; and that we paused a moment to +collect our thoughts, and calm our respiration, before knocking +at the little backroom door, which we knew to be that of Monsieur +Panpan.</p> +<p>Madame Panpan received us most graciously, setting chairs for +us, and apologising for her husband, who, poor man, was sitting +up in his bed, with a wan countenance, and hollow glistening +eyes. We were in the close heavy air of a sick +chamber. The room was very small, and the bedstead occupied +a large portion of its space. It was lighted by one little +window only, and that looked down a sort of square shaft which +served as a ventilator to the house. A pale child, with +large wandering eyes, watched us intently from behind the end of +the little French bedstead, while the few toys he had been +playing with lay scattered upon the floor. The room was +very neat, although its furniture was poor and scanty; and by the +brown saucepan perched upon the top of the diminutive German +stove, which had strayed, as it were, from its chimney corner +into the middle of the room, we knew that the pot-au-feu was in +preparation. Madame, before whom was a small table covered +with the unfinished portions of a corset, was very +agreeable—rather coquettish, indeed, we should have said in +England. Her eyes were bright and cheerful, and her hair +drawn back from her forehead à la Chinoise. In a +graceful, but decided way, she apologised for continuing her +labours, which were evidently works of necessity rather than of +choice.</p> +<p>“And Victor, that good boy,” she exclaimed, when +we had further explained the object of our visit, “was +quite well! I am charmed! And he had found work, and +succeeding so well in his <!-- page 154--><a +name="page154"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +154</span>affairs? I am enchanted! It is so amiable +of him to send me this little cadeau!”</p> +<p>Monsieur Panpan, with his strange lustrous eyes, if not +enchanted, rubbed his thin bony hands together as he sat up in +the bed, and chuckled in an unearthly way at the good news. +Having executed our commission, we felt it would be intrusive to +prolong our stay, and therefore rose to depart, but received so +pressing an invitation to repeat the visit, that, on the part of +myself and friend, who was to leave Paris in a few days, I could +not refuse to comply with a wish so cordially expressed, and +evidently sincere. And thus commenced my acquaintance with +the Panpans.</p> +<p>I cannot trace the course of our acquaintance, or tell how, +from an occasional call, my visits became those of a bosom +friend; but certain it is, that soon each returning Sunday saw me +a guest at the table of Monsieur Panpan, where my couvert and +serviette became sacred to my use; and, after the meal, were +carefully cleaned and laid apart for the next occasion. +This, I afterwards learned, was a customary mark of consideration +towards an esteemed friend among the poorer class of +Parisians. I soon learned their history. Their +every-day existence was a simple, easily read story, and not the +less simple and touching because it is the every-day story of +thousands of poor French families. Madame was a stay-maker; +and the whole care and responsibility of providing for the wants +and comforts of a sick husband; for her little Victor, her eldest +born; and the monthly stipend of her infant Henri, out at nurse +some hundred leagues from Paris, hung upon the unaided exertions +of her single hands, and the scrupulous and wonderful economy of +her management.</p> +<p>One day I found Madame in tears. Panpan himself lay with +rigid features, and his wiry hands spread out upon the +counterpane. Madame was at first inconsolable and +inexplicable, but at length, amid sobs, half suppressed, related +the nature of their new misfortune. Would Monsieur believe +that those miserable nurse-people, insulting as they were, had +sent from the country to say, that unless the three months +nursing of little Henri, together with the six pounds of lump +sugar, which formed part of the original bargain, were +immediately paid, cette pauvre bête (Henri that was), would +be instantly dispatched to Paris, and proceedings taken for the +recovery of the debt? Ces miserables!</p> +<p>Here poor Madame Panpan could not contain herself, but gave +<!-- page 155--><a name="page155"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +155</span>way to her affliction in a violent outburst of +tears. And yet the poor child, the cause of all this +sorrow, was almost as great stranger to his mother as he was to +me, who had never seen him in my life. With scarcely a +week’s existence to boast of, he had been swaddled up in +strange clothes; intrusted to strange hands; and hurried away +some hundred leagues from the capital, to scramble about the clay +floor of an unwholesome cottage, in company perhaps with some +half-dozen atomies like himself, as strange to each other as they +were to their own parents, to pass those famous mois de nourrice +which form so important and momentous a period in the lives of +most French people. Madame Panpan was however in no way +responsible for this state of things; the system was there, not +only recognised, but encouraged; become indeed a part of the +social habits of the people, and it was no wonder if her poverty +should have driven her to so popular and ready a means of meeting +a great difficulty. How she extricated herself from this +dilemma, it is not necessary to state; suffice it to say, that a +few weeks saw cette petite bête Henri, happily domiciled in +the Place Valois; and, if not overburdened with apparel, at least +released from the terrible debt of six and thirty francs, and six +pounds of lump-sugar.</p> +<p>It naturally happened, that on the pleasant Sunday afternoons, +when we had disposed of our small, but often sumptuous dinner; +perhaps a gigot de mouton with a clove of garlic in the knuckle; +a fricassée de lapins with onions, or a fricandeau, Panpan +himself would tell me part of his history; and in the course of +our salad; of our little dessert of fresh fruit, or currant +jelly; or perhaps, stimulated by the tiniest glass of brandy, +would grow warm in the recital of his early experiences, and the +unhappy chance which had brought him into his present +condition.</p> +<p>“Ah, Monsieur!” he said one day, “little +would you think, to see me cribbed up in this miserable bed, that +I had been a soldier, or that the happiest days of my life had +been passed in the woods of Fontainebleau, following the chase in +the retinue of King Charles the Tenth of France. I was a +wild young fellow in my boyhood; and, when at the age of eighteen +I drew for the conscription and found it was my fate to serve, I +believe I never was so happy in my life. I entered the +cavalry; and, in spite of the heavy duties and strict discipline, +it was a glorious time. It makes me mad, Monsieur, when I +think of the happy days I have spent on the road, in barracks, +and in snug country quarters, where there was cider or <!-- page +156--><a name="page156"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +156</span>wine for the asking; to find myself in a solitary +corner of great, thoughtless Paris, sick and helpless. It +would be something to die out in the open fields like a worn-out +horse, or to be shot like a wounded one. But this is +terrible!—and I am but thirty-eight.”</p> +<p>We comforted him in the best way we could with sage axioms of +antique date, or more lively stories of passing events; but I saw +a solitary tear creeping down the cheek of Madame Panpan, even in +the midst of a quaint sally; and, under pretence of arranging his +pillow, she bent over his head and kissed him gently on the +forehead.</p> +<p>Père Panpan—I had come by degrees to call him +“Père,” although he was still young; for it +sounded natural and kindly—continued his narrative in his +rambling, gossiping way. He had been chosen, he said, to +serve in the Garde Royale, of whom fifteen thousand sabres were +stationed in and about the capital at this period; and in the +royal forest of Fontainebleau, in the enjoyment of a sort of +indolent activity, he passed his happiest days; now employed in +the chase, now in the palace immediately about the person of the +king, in a succession of active pleasures, or easy, varied +duties. Panpan was no republican. Indeed, I question +whether any very deep political principles governed his +sentiments; which naturally allied themselves with those things +that yielded the greatest amount of pleasure.</p> +<p>The misfortunes of Père Panpan dated from the +revolution of eighteen hundred and thirty. Then the +glittering pageantry in the palace of Fontainebleau vanished like +a dream. The wild clatter of military preparation; the +rattling of steel and the trampling of horses; and away swept +troop after troop, with sword-belt braced and carabine in hand, +to plunge into the mad uproar of the streets of Paris, risen, +stones and all, in revolution. The Garde Royale did their +duty in those three terrible days, and if their gallant charges +through the encumbered streets, or their patient endurance amid +the merciless showers of indescribable missiles, were all in +vain, it was because their foe was animated by an enthusiasm of +which they knew nothing, save in the endurance of its +effects. Panpan’s individual fate, amid all this +turmoil, was lamentable enough.</p> +<p>A few hours amid the dust; the sweltering heat; the yellings +of the excited populace; the roaring of cannon and the pattering +of musketry; saw the troop in which he served, broken and +scattered, and Panpan himself rolling in the dust, with a +thousand lights flashing in his eyes, and a brass button lodged +in his side!</p> +<p>“Those villains of Parisians!” he exclaimed, +“not content with <!-- page 157--><a +name="page157"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 157</span>showering +their whole garde meuble upon our heads, fired upon us a +diabolical collection of missiles, such as no mortal ever thought +of before:—bits of broken brass; little plates of tin and +iron rolled into sugar-loaves; crushed brace-buckles; crooked +nails and wads of metal wire;—anything, indeed, that in +their extremity they could lay their hands on, and ram into the +muzzle of a gun! These things inflicted fearful gashes, +and, in many cases, a mere flesh-wound turned out a +death-stroke. Few that got hurt in our own troop lived to +tell the tale.”</p> +<p>A few more days and the whole royal cavalcade was scattered +like chaff before the wind, and Charles the Tenth a fugitive on +his way to England; a few more days and the wily Louis Philippe +was taking the oath to a new constitution, and our friend, +Panpan, lay carefully packed, brass button and all, in the +Hôtel-Dieu. The brass button was difficult to find, +and when found the ugly fissure it had made grew gangrened, and +would not heal; and thus it happened that many a bed became +vacant, and got filled, and was vacant again, as their occupants +either walked out, or were borne out, of the hospital gates, +before Panpan was declared convalescent, and finally dismissed +from the Hôtel-Dieu as “cured.”</p> +<p>The proud trooper was, however, an altered man; his health and +spirits were gone; the whole corps of which he had so often +boasted was broken up and dispersed; his means of livelihood were +at an end, and, what was worse, he knew of no other in the +exercise of which he could gain his daily bread. There were +very many such helpless, tradeless men pacing the streets of +Paris, when the fever of the revolution was cooled down, and +ordinary business ways began to take their course. Nor was +it those alone who were uninstructed in any useful occupation, +but there were also the turbulent, dissatisfied spirits; builders +of barricades, and leaders of club-sections, whom the late +excitement, and their temporary elevation above their fellow +workmen, had left restless and ambitious, and whose awakened +energies, if not directed to some useful and congenial +employment, would infallibly lead to mischief.</p> +<p>Panpan chuckled over the fate which awaited some of these +ardent youths: “Ces gaillards là!” he said, +“had become too proud and troublesome to be left long in +the streets of Paris; they would have fomented another +revolution; so Louis Philippe, under pretence of rewarding his +brave ‘soldats laboureurs,’ whom he was ready to +shake by the hand in the public streets in the first flush of +success, <!-- page 158--><a name="page158"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 158</span>enrolled them in the army, and sent +them to the commanding officers with medals of honour round their +necks, and special recommendations to promotion in their +hands. They hoped to become Marshals of France in no +time. Pauvres diables! they were soon glad to hide their +decorations, and cease bragging about street-fighting and +barricades, for the regulars relished neither their swaggering +stories nor the notion of being set aside by such parvenus; and +they got so quizzed, snubbed, and tormented, that they were happy +at last to slide into their places as simple soldats, and trust +to the ordinary course for promotion.”</p> +<div class="gapshortline"> </div> +<p>As for Panpan, his street wanderings terminated in his finding +employment in a lace manufactory, and it soon became evident that +his natural talent here found a congenial occupation. He +came by degrees to be happy in his new position of a +workman. Then occurred the serious love passage of his +life—his meeting with Louise, now Madame Panpan. It +was the simplest matter in the world: Panpan, to whom life was +nothing without the Sunday quadrille at the barrière, +having resolved to figure on the next occasion in a pair of +bottes vernis, waited upon his bootmaker—every Parisian has +his bootmaker—to issue his mandates concerning their +length, shape, and general construction. He entered the +boutique of Mons. Cuire, when, lo! he beheld in the little back +parlour, the most delicate little foot that ever graced a shoe, +or tripped to measure on the grass. He would say nothing of +the owner of this miracle; of her face—which was full of +intelligence; of her figure—which was gentille toute +à fait—but for that dear, chaste, ravishing model of +a foot! so modestly posé upon the cushion. +Heaven!—and Panpan unconsciously heaved a long sigh, and +brought with it from the very bottom of his heart a vow to become +its possessor. There was no necessity for anything very +rash or very desperate in the case, as it happened, for the +evident admiration of Panpan had inspired Louise with an +impromptu interest in his favour, and he being besides gentil +garçon, their chance rencontre was but the commencement of +a friendship which ripened into love,—and so the old story +over again, with marriage at the end of it.</p> +<p>Well! said M. Panpan, time rolled on, and little Louis was +born. This might have been a blessing, but while family +cares and expenses were growing upon them, Panpan’s +strength and energies were withering away. He suffered +little pain, but what there was seemed <!-- page 159--><a +name="page159"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 159</span>to spring +from the old wound; and there were whole days when he lay a mere +wreck, without the power or will to move; and when his feeble +breath seemed passing away for ever. Happily, these +relapses occurred only at intervals, but by slow degrees they +became more frequent and more overwhelming. Madame +Panpan’s skill and untiring perseverance grew to be, as +other resources failed, the main, and for many, many months, the +whole support of the family. Then came a time when the +winter had passed away, and the spring was already in its full, +and still Panpan lay helpless in bed with shrunken limbs and +hollow, pallid cheeks,—and then little Henri was born.</p> +<p>Père Panpan having arrived at this crisis in his +history, drew a long breath, and stretched himself back in his +bed. I knew the rest. It was soon after the event +last named that I made his acquaintance, and the remainder of his +simple story, therefore, devolves upon me.</p> +<p>The debility of the once dashing soldier increased daily, and +as it could be traced to no definite cause, he gradually became a +physiological enigma; and thence naturally a pet of the medical +profession. Not that he was a profitable patient, for the +necessities of the family were too great to allow of so expensive +a luxury as a doctor’s bill; but urged, partly by +commiseration, and partly by professional curiosity, both ardent +students and methodical practitioners would crowd round his +simple bed, probing him with instruments, poking him with their +fingers, and punching him with their fists; each with a new +theory to propound and establish; and the more they were baffled +and contradicted in their preconceived notions, the more +obstinate they became in their enforcement. Panpan’s +own thoughts upon the subject always reverted to the brass +button, although he found few to listen to or encourage him in +his idea. His medical patrons were a constant source of +suffering to him, but he bore with them patiently; sometimes +reviving from his prostration as if inspired, then lapsing as +suddenly into his old state of semi-pain and total +feebleness. As a last hope, he was removed from his fourth +floor in the Place Valois, to become an inmate of the +Bicêtre, and a domiciled subject of contention and +experiment to its medical staff.</p> +<p>The Bicêtre is a large, melancholy-looking building, +half hospital half madhouse, situated a few leagues from +Paris. I took a distaste to it on my very first +visit. It always struck me as a sort of <!-- page 160--><a +name="page160"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 160</span>menagerie, +I suppose from the circumstance of there having been pointed out +to me, immediately on my entrance, a railed and fenced portion of +the building, where the fiercer sort of inhabitants were +imprisoned. Moreover, I met with such strange looks and +grimaces; such bewildering side-glances or moping stares, as I +traversed the open court-yards, with their open corridors, or the +long arched passages of the interior, that the whole of the +inmates came before me as creatures in human shape indeed, but as +possessed by the cunning or the ferocity of the mere +animal. Yet it was a public hospital, and in the +performance of its duties there was an infinite deal of kindly +attention, consummate skill, and unwearying labour. Its +associations were certainly unhappy, and had, I am sure, a +depressing effect upon at least the physically disordered +patients. It may be that as the Bicêtre is a sort of +forlorn hope of hospitals, where the more desperate or +inexplicable cases only are admitted, it naturally acquires a +sombre and ominous character; but in no establishment of a +similar kind (and I have seen many) did I meet with such +depressing influences.</p> +<p>Panpan was at first in high spirits at the change. He +was to be restored to health in a brief period, and he really did +in the first few weeks make rapid progress towards +convalescence. Already a sort of gymnasium had been +arranged over his bed, so that he might, by simple muscular +exercises, regain his lost strength; and more than once I have +guided his tottering steps along the arched corridors, as, clad +in the gray uniform of the hospital, and supported by a stick, he +took a brief mid-day promenade.</p> +<p>We made him cheering Sunday visits, Madame Panpan, Louis, the +little Henri, and I, and infringed many a rule of the hospital in +regard to his regimen. There was a charcutier living close +to the outer walks, and when nothing else could be had, we +purchased some of his curiously prepared delicacies, and smuggled +them in under various guises. To him they were delicious +morsels amid the uniform soup and bouillon of the hospital, and I +dare say did him neither good nor harm.</p> +<p>Poor Madame Panpan! apart from the unceasing exertions which +her difficult position demanded of her; apart from the harassing +days, the sleepless nights, and pecuniary deficiencies which +somehow never were made up; apart from the shadow of death which +hovered ever near her; and the unvarying labours which pulled at +her fingers, and strained at her eyes, so that her efforts seemed +still <!-- page 161--><a name="page161"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 161</span>devoted to one ever unfinished +corset,—there arose another trouble where it was least +expected; and alas! I was the unconscious cause of a new +embarrassment. I was accused of being her lover. +Numberless accusations rose up against us. Had I not played +at pat-ball with Madame in the Bois de Boulogne? Yes, +pardi! while Panpan lay stretched upon the grass a laughing +spectator of the game; and which was brought to an untimely +conclusion by my breaking my head against the branch of a +tree. But had I not accompanied Madame alone to the Champs +Elysées to witness the jeu-de-feu on the last fête +of July? My good woman, did I not carry Louis pick-a-back +the whole way? and was not the crowd so dense and fearful, that +our progress to the Champs Elysées was barred at its very +mouth by the fierce tornado of the multitude, and the trampling +to death of three unhappy mortals, whose shrieks and groans still +echo in my ear? and was it not at the risk of life or limb that I +fought my way along the Rue de la Madeleine, with little Louis +clinging round my neck, and Madame hanging on to my +coat-tail? Amid the swaying and eddying of the crowd, the +mounted Garde Municipale came dashing into the thickest of the +press, to snatch little children, and even women, from impending +death, and bear them to a place of safety. And if we did +take a bottle of Strassburger beer on the Boulevards, when at +length we found a freer place to breathe in, faint and reeling as +we were, pray where was the harm, and who would not have done as +much? Ah, Madame! if you had seen, as I did, that when we +reached home the first thing poor Madame Panpan came to do, was +to fall upon her husband’s neck, and in a voice broken with +sobs, and as though her heart would break, to thank that merciful +God who had spared her in her trouble, that she might still work +for him and his children! you would not be so ready with your +blame.</p> +<p>But there was a heavier accusation still. Did you not, +sir, entertain Madame to supper in the Rue de Roule? with the +utmost extravagance too, not to mention the omelette +soufflée with which you must needs tickle your appetites, +and expressly order for the occasion? And more than that: +did you not then take coffee in the Rue St. Honoré, and +play at dominoes with Madame in the salon? Alas, yes! all +this is true, and the cause still more true and more sad; for it +was under the terrible impression that Madame Panpan and her two +children—for they were both with us, you will remember, +even little Henri—had not eaten of one tolerable meal +throughout <!-- page 162--><a name="page162"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 162</span>a whole week, that these +unpardonable acts were committed on the Sunday. An omelette +soufflée, you know, must he ordered; but as for the +dominoes, I admit that that was an indiscretion.</p> +<p>Père Panpan drooped and drooped. The cord of his +gymnasium swung uselessly above his head; he tottered no more +along the corridors of the hospital. He had ceased to be +the pet of the medical profession. His malady was obstinate +and impertinent; it could neither be explained nor driven away; +and as all the deep theories propounded respecting it, or carried +into practical operation for its removal, proved to be mere +elaborate fancies, or useless experiments, the medical +profession—happily for Panpan—retired from the field +in disgust.</p> +<p>“I do believe it was the button!” exclaimed +Panpan, one Sunday afternoon, with a strange light gleaming in +his eyes. Madame replied only with a sob. “You +have seen many of them?” he abruptly demanded of me.</p> +<p>“Of what?”</p> +<p>“Buttons.”</p> +<p>“There are a great many of them made in England,” +I replied. Where were we wandering?</p> +<p>Panpan took my hand in his, and, with a gentle pressure that +went to my very heart, exclaimed: “I do believe it was the +brass button after all. I hope to God it was not an English +button!”</p> +<p>I can’t say whether it was or not. But, as to poor +Père Panpan, we buried him at Bicêtre.</p> +<h2>CHAPTER XXVII.</h2> +<p class="gutsumm"><span class="smcap">some german +sundays</span>.</p> +<p>Of how Sunday is really spent by the labouring classes in some +towns in Germany, I claim, as an English workman who has worked +and played on German ground, some right to speak. It is +possible that I may relate matters which some do not suspect, and +concerning which others have already made up their minds; but, as +I shall <!-- page 163--><a name="page163"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 163</span>tell nothing but truths, I trust I +may not very much disconcert the former, nor put the latter +completely out of patience; nor offend anybody.</p> +<p>To begin with Hamburg. I spent seven months in this +free, commercial port. I came into Hamburg on a Sunday +morning; and, although everything was new and strange to me, and +a number of things passed before my eyes which could never be +seen in decorous London, yet there were unmistakable signs of +Sunday in them all—only it was not the Sunday to which I +had been born and bred. The shops were closed, and there +was stillness in the houses, if not in the streets. I +passed by the fore-courted entrance to a theatre, and its doors +were shut; but one could easily guess by the bills at the +door-posts that it offered histrionic entertainment for the +evening. Wandering through some beautifully-wooded walks +which encircle the city, I met many promenaders, trim, +well-dressed, and chatty; and when I turned back into the city, +was once or twice absorbed in the streams of people which flowed +from the church doors. One thing was certain; the people +were not at work. It struck me at once; for I met them at +every turn in their clean faces and spruce clothes—the +veritable mechanic may be known in every country—and there +was the happy look and the lounging gait in all, which told that +they had laid down their implements of trade for that day, and +were thoroughly at leisure. When I came to be domiciled and +fairly at work, I learned to discriminate more clearly between +many apparently irreconcilable things; and will here roughly set +down what we did, or did not, on Sundays, in the emporium and +outlet of Northern Germany; which, it will be well to remember, +is thoroughly Lutheran-Protestant in its faith.</p> +<p>There was a church not far from our workshop—I think the +Jacobi-Kirche—which had the sweetest set of Dutch bells +that ever rung to measure, and these played at six o’clock +in the morning on every day in the week; but, to our minds, they +never played so beautiful a melody as when they woke us on the +Sunday morning, to the delightful consciousness of being able to +listen to them awhile, through the drowsy medium of our upper +feather bed. Once fairly roused, properly attired, and +breakfasted with the Herr, what did we next? Sometimes we +worked till mid-day, but that was a rarity; for our ordinary +day’s labour was thirteen hours, <!-- page 164--><a +name="page164"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 164</span>with +scarcely a blink of rest at meal-times, and often we had not +stirred from the house during the whole week, but had worn out +the monotonous hours between bed and workboard. When, +however, orders pressed, we did work; but this again was no new +thing to me, for I had done the same thing in London; had toiled +deep into the Saturday night, and had been up again to work on +the Sunday morning, because some gentleman or lady who was +engaged, I dare say, in their morning devotions, could not bide +the ordinary time for their trinkets. If we did work, which +as I have said was a rarity, our ordinary pay of two schillinge, +scarcely twopence per hour, was increased to three.</p> +<p>Sometimes we went to church; and we always found a goodly +congregation there. The service was in good honest German; +and the preacher—quaintly conspicuous to an English eye by +his velvet skull-cap, and a wonderfully plaited frill which +bristled round his neck—was always earnest and impressive, +and often eloquent. Among other religious services, I well +remember that of the Busse and Bet-Tag (day of Repentance and +Prayer); the anniversary of the battle of Leipsic; and a +remarkable sermon preached on St. Michael’s Day, and of +which I bought a copy after the service of a poor widow who stood +at the church door. If the weather were fine, we strolled +along the banks of the beautiful Alster, or made short excursions +into the country; and here again all was repose, for I recollect +having once had pointed out to me as a matter of wonder a woman +who was toiling in the field. Or, if the weather were +stormy and wet, we stayed in the workshop and read, or made +drawings, or worked in the manufacture of some favourite +tool. Often, again, we had especial duties to perform on +that day in the shape of visiting some sick craftsman in the +hospital, to pay him his weekly allowance, or convey him a book, +or some little creature comforts. The Sunday morning was an +authorised visiting time, and the hospital was usually +crowded—too crowded with patients, as we thought—and +each had his cluster of cheering friends. Or we paid +friendly visits to fellow workmen; smoked quiet pipes, and told +travellers’ stories; or listened to the uncertain essays of +our brethren of the Männergesangverein as they practised +their part music. There was one piece of business +transacted on the Sunday morning which may have been sinful, +although we did not view it in that light. We paid our +tailors’ bills on the Sunday morning if we had <!-- page +165--><a name="page165"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +165</span>the money, or ordered new garments if we had credit; +and I believe it is a practice more generally prevalent even in +England than gentlefolks are apt to imagine.</p> +<p>We dined with the Herr at noon, and at one o’clock were +at liberty for the day. I have seen a Danish harvest-home +on a Sunday afternoon in the pretty village of Altona; watching +its merry mummers as they passed by the old church-yard wall, +where Klopstock lies buried. I have attended a funeral as a +real mourner, followed by the mourning professionals in the +theatrical trappings with which the custom of Hamburg usually +adorns them. If we bent our steps, as we sometimes did, +through the Altona gate to Hamburger Berg, we came upon a scene +of hubbub and animation which was something between Clare Market +on Saturday night, and High Street, Greenwich, at fair +time. Stalls, booths, and baskets lined the way; flowers, +fruit, and pastry disputed possession of the side-paths with +sugar-plums, sticks and tobacco-pipes; and, although +Franconi’s Circus was not open yet, it gave every promise +of being so; and the air already rang with voices of showmen, and +the clangour of instruments. In the Summer there were gay +boats on the Alster, and nautical holiday-makers were busy with +oar and sail; while, in the Winter months, if the ice held well, +there was no end of skating and sledging; and then we had a +pleasant winter-garden near the Tivoli, with orange-trees in +tubs, the mould so covered over as to form extemporary tables, +and the green leaves and pale fruit shining above our +heads. At the upper end was a conservatory of choice +plants, which was more particularly appropriated to the ladies +and children. The café pavilions on the Alster +steamed odoriferously; punch and hot coffee were in the +ascendant; and there were more cigars smoked in an afternoon on +the Jungfern Stieg (the Maiden’s Walk) than would have +stored the cases of a London suburban tobacconist.</p> +<p>These may, perhaps, be reckoned mere idlings, but there were +occasionally official doings on the Sunday, which might have been +national, if Hamburg had been a nation, and which no doubt were +eminently popular. Two such, I remember; one a grand review +of the Bürger Militär; the other the public +confirmation of the apprentices and others, and the conscription +of the youth of the city. The former was a trying +affair. Some twelve thousand citizen-soldiers had to turn +out, fully rigged and equipped, by early dawn, ready for any +amount of drill and evolution. Many were the +stories—more witty than generous—of the whereabout of +their uniforms <!-- page 166--><a name="page166"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 166</span>and accoutrements; as to their being +deposited in Lombardian hands, or wholly used up since the last +grand field-day some three years before. Such furbishing as +there was of brass ornaments and metal-buttons; such an oiling +and sand-papering of brown muskets, and such a rearrangement of +blue tunics which, after all, did not match in colour, length, +nor appointments! Fortunately our warriors did not burn +powder; and there was enough of military ardour among them to +carry them through the fatigue of the day. It required a +great deal; for, like other military bodies of a late day, the +commissariat department totally broke down, and citizens were +kept hungering and thirsting upon the blank, dusty plain, within +half-a-mile of stored-up abundance. The confirmation of the +apprentices and the conscription of the young men was a more +serious matter. It took place in the great square, where a +stage and pavilion were erected; all the authority of the senate, +and the services of the church were united to render it solemn +and impressive. It was a source of deep interest to many of +my own acquaintances, more especially to the young cooper who +worked underground at our house, and who, just released from his +apprenticeship, had the good or ill fortune to be drawn for the +next year’s levy.</p> +<p>There was one institution, not precisely of Hamburg, but at +the very doors of it, which exercised considerable influence upon +its habits and morals, and that of no beneficial kind. This +was the Danish State Lottery, the office of which was at Altona, +where the prizes were periodically drawn upon Sunday. The +Hamburgers were supposed to receive certain pecuniary advantages +from this lottery in the shape of benefits bestowed upon the +Waisenkinder of the town, who, like our own blue-coat boys of the +old time, were the drawers of the numbers; but the advantages +were very questionable, seeing that the bulk of speculators were +the Hamburgers themselves, and the great prizes of the +undertaking went to swell the Danish Royal Treasury. +Portions of shares could be purchased for as low a sum as +fourpence, and the Hamburg Senate, in self-defence, and with a +great show of propriety, prohibited the traffic of them among +servants and apprentices: which prohibition passed, of course, +for next to nothing, seeing that the temptation was very strong, +and the injunction very weak. It was a curious sight to +witness the crowd upon the occasion of a public drawing in the +quaint old square of Altona; a pebble-dotted space with a dark +box in the centre, not unlike the basement of a gallows. On +this stood the <!-- page 167--><a name="page167"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 167</span>wheel, bright in colours and gold, +and by its side two orphan boys in school-costume, who officiated +at the ceremony. One boy turned the wheel, the other drew +the numbers, and called them aloud as he held them before the +spectators; while the blast of a trumpet heralded the +announcement. What feverish anxiety, what restless cupidity +might be fostering among that crowd no man could calculate, and +certainly, to my mind, there was no worse thing done on the +Sunday in all Hamburg than this exhibition of legalised +gambling.</p> +<p>Of course the theatres were open, and we of the working people +were not unfrequent visitors there. But let us thoroughly +understand the nature of a German theatrical entertainment. +There is rarely more than one piece, and the whole performance is +usually included in the period of two hours—from seven till +nine. The parterre, or pit, is a mere promenade or standing +place, in which the few seats are let at a higher price than the +rest of the space. The whole of the arrangements are +conducted with the utmost decorum: so much so, that they would +probably disappoint some people who look upon the shouting, +drovers’ whistling, and “hooroar” and hissing +of some of our theatres as part of the legitimate drama. On +the Christmas day, when I had the option of getting gloriously +fuddled with a select party of English friends, or of +entertaining myself in some less orthodox way, I preferred to +witness the opera of “Norma” at the Stadt Theatre, +and think I was the better for the choice. +“Hamlet” was the source of another Sunday +evening’s gratification (an anniversary play of the +Hamburgers, and intensely popular with the Danes), although with +unpardonable barbarity the German censors entirely blotted out +the gravediggers, and never buried the hapless, “sweet +Ophelia.” In the gallery of the Imperial Opera House +at Vienna, liveried servants hand sweetmeats, ices, and coffee +about between the acts; and although the Hamburger theatricals +have not yet reached this stage of refinement, there is much in +the shape of social convenience in their arrangement, which even +we might copy.</p> +<p>Sometimes, we workmen spent a pleasant hour or two in the +concert-rooms, of which there were several admirably conducted; +or pored hours long over the papers, chiefly literary, in the +Alster Halle; sipping our coffee, and listening in the pauses of +our reading to the band of choice musicians, who played +occasionally through the evening. Sometimes we dived into +snug cellars, where they sold good beer, or mixed odoriferous +punch; and here again music <!-- page 168--><a +name="page168"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 168</span>would come, +though in a more questionable shape, her attendant priestesses +being the wandering harp-players, who sang sentimental ditties to +the twanging of their instruments. Other places there were, +some in the city, and some outside the walls, where an abominable +medley of waltz, smoke, wine, and lotto made up the +evening’s entertainment. The larger of these +establishments had some pretensions to gentility, seeing that +they did not allow gentlemen to dance with their hats on; but +whatever other claims they set up to the respect of the community +may be briefly set down as worth very little. It will not +unnaturally follow that where there is much liberty there will be +some licence, and with respect to Hamburg, it is in her +dance-houses that this excess is to be found. But where is +the wonder? The Hamburger authorities in this, and some +other cases, set up a sort of excise officer, and grant permits +for this frivolity, and that vice, at a regular scale of +charges.</p> +<p>In spite of these half-incentives and whole encouragements to +laxity of behaviour, what is the general character of the +Hamburger population? I venture to call them provident, +temperate, and industrious. Let it be remembered that we +speak of a mercantile port, in some parts a little like Wapping, +and into and out of which there is a perpetual ebb and flow of +seamen of all nations, full of boisterous humour, of strong life, +and wilful in their recent escape from ship restraint. The +worst of the dance-houses are situated near the water’s +edge, and are almost wholly frequented by sailors; while the +other resorts which are open to the charge of licentiousness, +have also a strong proportion of maritime frequenters, and the +rest is mostly made up of the wandering workmen of Germany, to +many of whom Hamburg is a culminating point, and who are, as it +were, out on leave. But, after all, these cancer spots are +few indeed, when compared with the great proportion of the means +of amusement thrown open, or, rather never closed to the +people. Wander on the Sunday when and where you will; in +theatre, concert-room, or coffee-house; in public garden or +beer-cellar; you will find them joyous indeed, sometimes loud in +song or conversation, and taking generally a sort of pride in a +dash of rudeness, calling it independence, but you will never +find them sottish; nowhere cumbering the footway with their +prostrate carcases; nowhere reeling zigzag, blear-eyed and +stupid, to a miserable home.</p> +<p>On tramp towards the South, we rested on the Sunday in +Schwerin, the capital of Mecklenburg; but there was public <!-- +page 169--><a name="page169"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +169</span>mourning in the city for a death in the ducal family, +and the usual Sunday festivities were forbidden. On +attending church in the evening I found a large congregation, and +the service similar to that of Hamburg. In the afternoon, +as there was no military parade or music, over the absence of +which the chambermaids of Der Gross-Herzog moaned dolorously, we +rambled through the ducal garden, admiring the quaintly-shaped +basin in its centre, its numerous statues, and fresh grass. +The town was dull and methodical enough, but would have been +rejoicing, if it had not been respectfully mournful.</p> +<p>Our next resting-place was Berlin, where we stayed two months; +and here, according to our experience, the Sunday afternoon +recreations differed only in tone from those of Hamburg, being +less boisterous in their gaiety than in the former seaman’s +paradise. We never worked on Sunday in Berlin, nor did any +of our artizan friends, although there were very pressing orders +in the shape of those unvarying German court douceurs, +diamond-circled snuff boxes, and insignia of the Red and Black +Eagle. Once, we accompanied our principal, by special +invitation, to the Hasenheide, to witness the rifle practice, +civil and military, among its heather and sandy hollows. +Officers and rank and file alike were there; the officer +practising with the private’s heavy gewehr, and the private +in his turn with the light weapon of his superior in grade. +There were some capital shots among them. Thence, on the +same day, we waded through the sand to Tegel, to visit the +residence and private grounds of Baron Humboldt; and from a mound +in his garden beheld the beautifully picturesque view of Lake +Tegel, and the distant towers of Spandau. I have been +present on the Sunday at a review of the Royal Guard in their +striking uniform of black and dazzling white.</p> +<p>Once, we made a river voyage in a huge tub of a boat along the +weedy banks of the Spree, under the command of a female +captain—a jolly matron, weighing I am afraid to guess how +many stone. I am told it was a very plebeian piece of +business, but we were very happy notwithstanding. We had a +Tafel-lieder party on board, with a due proportion of guitars, +and they played and sang all the way to Treptow and back +again. Once arrived at our destination, we sat upon the +grass, and watched the merry groups around, or sauntered along +the margin of the stream, sipping occasionally very +inconsiderable quantities of feeble cordials; and when the +evening <!-- page 170--><a name="page170"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 170</span>drew near, we re-embarked, and, +under the safe conduct of our female commodore—who was +skilled in the difficult navigation of the shallow +river—returned soberly home. The environs of Berlin +are of no great beauty, the city being built on a sandy plain, +with the single eminence of the Kreutzberg, from which it can be +viewed with advantage; but in and about the city there are +beautiful gardens, private and of royal foundation, and these are +invariably open to the public. One happy Sunday afternoon +we spent in Charlottenburg, the pleasure-palace of the king; and +one other in the noble botanical gardens in the city; while on a +fine day the avenue of lime trees, Unter-den-Linden, in its crowd +of promenaders, and social groups at the refreshment tables, +presented an animated, and, to my mind, a recreative and +humanising spectacle. Music was everywhere; and in the +theatres, in the display of pyrotechnic eccentricities, or +perhaps in ballooning—but that was English—the +evening was variously spent. There may be dance-houses and +other abominations in Berlin, as in Hamburg, but I never heard of +them, and if they existed, more was the pity. For my own +part, I was happy in enjoying the moderate pleasures of life in +company with the majority of my fellow-workmen, who, I must again +say, and insist upon, were not at work, but at rest, on the +Sunday. It is true that here, as elsewhere, tailors and +boot-makers (master-men) were content to take measures, and +receive orders from the workmen, for very little other +opportunity presented itself for such necessary service.</p> +<p>A few hours’ whirl on the railway on a Sunday saw us in +Leipsic. This was at the Easter festival; and we stayed two +months in this Saxon market of the world, embracing in their +course the most important of the three great markets in the +year. If ever there was a fair opportunity of judging the +question of Sunday labour and Sunday rest, it was in Leipsic, at +this period. If Sunday work be a necessary consequence of +Sunday recreation—an absurd paradox, surely—it would +have been exhibited in a commercial town, at a period when all +the elements of frivolity, as gathered together at a fair; and +all the wants of commerce compressed into a few brief weeks, were +brought into co-existence. Yet in no town in Germany did I +witness so complete a cessation from labour on the Sunday. +There was no question of working. Early in the morning +there was, it is true, a domestic market in the great square, +highly interesting to a stranger from the number <!-- page +171--><a name="page171"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 171</span>of +curious costumes collected together; the ringletted Polish Jew, +old Germans from Altenburg, seeming masqueraders from the mining +districts of the Erzgeberge, and country folks from every +neighbouring village, who flocked to Leipsic with their wares and +edibles. But all this was at an end long before the church +service commenced. I have been in the Nicolai-Kirche +(remarkable for its lofty roof, upheld by columns in the form of +palm trees), and the congregation thronged the whole +edifice. And at a smaller church, I was completely wedged +in by the standing crowd of unmistakable working people, whose +congregational singing was particularly effective. The +German Protestant church service is not so long as our own. +There are only a few pews in the body of the building; and the +major part of the audience stand during the service. I was +not so well pleased with one sermon I heard in the English +church, for it happened to be the effort of a German preacher; a +student in our tongue, whose discourse was indeed intrinsically +good, and would have been solemn, if the pauses and emphases had +only been in the right places.</p> +<p>I never worked on Sunday in Leipsic, nor was I acquainted with +any one who did. The warehouses were strictly closed; and a +few booths, with trifling gewgaws, were alone to be seen. +The city was at rest. Leipsic has but one theatre, and to +this the prices of admission are doubled in fair-time, which +placed it out of our reach. Thus we were forced to be +content with humbler sources of amusement, and to find +recreation, which we readily did, in the beautiful promenades +round the city, laid out by Dr. Müller; in country rambles +to Breitenfeld, and other old battle-fields; in tracing the +winding paths of a thin wood, near the town, wonderful to us from +the flakes of wool (baumwolle) which whitened the ground. +Or again, among the bands of music and happy crowds which dotted +the Rosenthal—a title, by the bye, more fanciful than just, +seeing that the vale in question is only a grassy undulating +plain. Here we sometimes met the “Herr,” with +wife on arm, and exchanged due salutations.</p> +<p>The fair, such as we understand by the name, commenced in the +afternoon, and was a scene of much noise and some drollery. +The whole town teemed with itinerant musicians, whose violent +strains would sometimes burst from the very ground under your +feet, as it appeared, issuing as they did from the open mouths of +beer and wine-cellars. Quiet coffee-houses there were, in +which grave citizens smoked and read; and admirable concerts in +saloons, and in the <!-- page 172--><a name="page172"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 172</span>open air. To one of these +latter I was seduced by the mendacious announcement of a certain +Wagner of Berlin, that a whole troop of real Moors would perform +fantastic tricks before high heaven; and on paying the price of +admission, I had to run the gauntlet through a score of +black-headed Teutons, who salaamed and grinned as they ushered me +into the blank space beyond, containing nothing more interesting +than a few tables and chairs, a dumb brass band, and a swarm of +hungry waiters. I saw no dance-houses, such as there were +in Hamburg; and by nine o’clock the festivities of the day +were at an end. The Easter fair lasted some five or six +weeks, and at its termination its merriment disappeared. +The wandering minstrels wailed their last notes as they departed, +and the quiet city was left to its students and the pigeons.</p> +<p>So much for my experiences of Protestant Germany as regards +Sunday occupation. I have, however, said nothing of museums +or picture galleries. I should be sorry to misrepresent the +kindred commercial cities of Hamburg and Leipsic; but I think +they may shake hands on this question, seeing that, at the period +of my visit, they possessed neither the one nor the other. +I do not say that there were no stored-up curiosities, dignified +with the title of museums. But, as far as the public +instruction was concerned, they were nearly useless, being little +known and less visited, and certainly not accessible on the +Sunday. Schwerin, in Mecklenburg, possesses a noble ducal +museum of arts and sciences, but this also was closed on the +weekly holiday; and in Berlin, where the museum, par excellence, +may vie with any in Europe, and which city is otherwise rich in +natural and art collections, the doors of all such places were, +on the Sunday, strictly closed against the people. Of the +good taste which authorises the display of stage scenery and +decorations (and that not of the best), and yet forbids the +inspection of the masterpieces of painting; of the judgment which +patronises beer and tobacco, yet virtually condemns as unholy the +sight of the best evidences of nature’s grandeur, and the +beautiful results of human efforts in art, it is not necessary to +treat here.</p> +<h2><!-- page 173--><a name="page173"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 173</span>CHAPTER XXVIII.</h2> +<p class="gutsumm"><span class="smcap">more sundays +abroad</span>.</p> +<p>Still on tramp toward the south, we came to Dresden, and there +rested five days; but as they were week-days their experiences +gave us no insight into the Sunday usages of the place, and I +only allude to them because it would seem unbecoming to pass the +capital of Saxony without a word; and because I feel morally +convinced that of all the art-wonders collected in the Zwinger, +Das Grüne Gewölbe, and in the picture gallery, all of +which we visited, not any of them are visible to the public on +Sunday. <a name="citation173"></a><a href="#footnote173" +class="citation">[173]</a> On a sultry day in August we +struggled, dusty and athirst, into Vienna. It is said that +the first impressions of a traveller are the most faithful, and I +therefore transcribe from a diary of that time some of my +recollections of the first Sunday spent in the capital of +Austria. It is not flattering.</p> +<p>“Yesterday (Sunday), we rambled through a part of the +city known as Lerchenfeld, in the suburb of St. Joseph, where the +low life of Vienna is exhibited. It was a kind of +fair. The way was lined with petty booths and stalls, +furnished with fruit, pipes, and common pastry. Here were +sold live rabbits and birds; there, paper clock-faces, +engravings, songs, and figures of saints. In one part was a +succession of places of public resort, like our tea-gardens in +appearance, but devoted to the sale of other beverages; tea being +here almost unknown, except as a medicine. From each of +them there streamed the mingled sounds of obstreperous music and +human voices, while in several there appeared to be a sort of +conjuring exhibition in course of performance. Further on, +there came from the opposite side of the way the screaming of a +flageolet, heard far above its accompaniment of a violin and a +couple of horns, to all of which the shuffling and scraping of +many feet formed a sort of dull bass, as the dancers whirled +round in their interminable waltz. Looking into the window +of the building thus outrageously conspicuous, we saw a motley +crowd of persons of both sexes, and in such a variety of costumes +as scarcely any other city but Vienna could furnish; some of <!-- +page 174--><a name="page174"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +174</span>them careering round in the excitement of the dance; +others impatiently awaiting their turn, or quizzing the dancers; +while a third party sat gravely at the side-tables, smoking their +pipes, playing at cards, and sipping their wine and beer. +Passing onward, we came upon a diminutive merryman, screaming +from the platform of his mountebank theatre, the nature of the +entertainment and the lowness of the price of +admission—‘Only four kreutzers for the first +place!’</p> +<p>“Continuing our course, we were attracted into a +side-street by a crowd, among whom stood conspicuous a brass +musical band, and an old man in a semi-religious costume of black +and white, bearing a large wooden crucifix in his hand. In +anticipation of some religious ceremony, we waited awhile to +watch its development. It was a funeral, and the whole +procession soon formed itself in the following order:—First +came the large crucifix, then a boy bearing a banner on which was +painted the figure of the Virgin; then came six other boys, +followed by the same number of girls, all neatly and cleanly +dressed; and then the coffin, hung with scarlet drapery, adorned +with flowers, and having a small silver crucifix at its +head. We were told it was the funeral of a girl of +thirteen. Close upon the coffin came the minister, or +priest, clad in a black, loosish gown, and wearing a curiously +crown-shaped cap, also black. Every head was uncovered as +he and the coffin passed. Then came, as we imagined, the +real mourners of the dead, followed by six exceedingly old women, +mourners by profession, and immediately behind them the brass +band which had first attracted our attention. The latter, +as soon as the procession was fairly in motion, burst forth into +a noisy, and by no means melancholy strain, and continued to play +for some time; they suddenly ceased, and there was heard from +some one at the head of the procession a Latin prayer, which was +immediately echoed by the old women in the rear, in the same +drowsy, monotonous tone in which the church responses are usually +made. The scene was altogether curious and striking; the +progress of the procession was everywhere marked by uncovered +heads and signs of sympathy and respect; but in spite of its +attempted solemnity, there was a holiday appearance about it +which jarred sadly with its real character of grief and +death.”</p> +<p>I have given this description a front place because it is the +worst thing I can say of Vienna, and in no other part of the city +did I ever see its like. During a stay of twelve months, I +lost no opportunity of enjoying all that the Viennese enjoyed, or +of witnessing whatever <!-- page 175--><a +name="page175"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 175</span>was part of +the national customs in festival, holiday, or religious +ceremonial. In addition to the Sundays, which were all, to +a certain extent, days of rejoicing—there were nine +distinct festivals in the year enjoined by the church, and on +which, if they fell on week-days, the working people rested from +their labours. Of course each of these days had its special +religious reference and obligations, and these were in general +faithfully observed; but, apart from this, they were essentially +holidays, and, as no deduction of wages was made by the employers +on their account, they did not fall as a burden upon the working +classes. These days were: New Year’s Day, the +Annunciation, Good Friday, Easter and Whit Sunday, Corpus Christi +Day, All Saints’ Day, the Birth of the Virgin, Christmas +Day, and the festival of St. Leopold, the patron saint of +Vienna. On the strictly church festivals, with the +exception of All Saints’ Day, theatrical performances, and +public amusements generally, were interdicted, but rest and quiet +recreation, in addition to the religious observances, were their +great characteristics. Easter and Whit Monday were among +the Volks Feste (people’s feasts), as well as one known as +that of the Brigittenau, from the place in which it is held; and +another on the first of May, when the laüfer (running +footmen) have their races in the Prater, and the emperor permits +himself to be mobbed—at least the Emperor Francis +did—as he strolls for a half-hour or so among his people in +their own park. Then the Bohemians have a special religious +festival, when one is astonished to see, in out-of-the-way niches +and corners, a perhaps hitherto-unobserved figure of an +amiable-looking priest, with a star on his forehead, now hung +about and conspicuous with wreaths and festoons of flowers, and +bright with the glittering of tiny lamps. This is the Holy +St. John of Nepomuk. I have, however, nothing to do with +the religious ceremonies of the Catholic Church. It is +sufficient for my purpose to know that I watched the solemn and +splendid procession of mingled royalty, priest, and people, on +Corpus Christi Day, from the open door of a coffee and wine-house +in the Kohl-market; and that, at the Easter festival, after +ascending and descending the Mount Calvary, near Vienna, or +rather having been borne up and down its semicircular flight of +steps, and past the modelled groups of painted figures to +represent the life of Christ, from the birth to the crowning act +of the crucifixion on the summit, I then sauntered away with my +landlord (a cabinet-maker) and his family to Weinhaus, to drink +of the new wine called heueriger. <!-- page 176--><a +name="page176"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 176</span>It is +enough that, on All Saints’ Day, after wandering awhile +about a swampy churchyard in the suburb of Maria Hilf, to see the +melancholy spot of light which glimmered at each grave-head, I +went to the Burg Theatre, and witnessed Shakespeare’s play +of “King Lear” (and the best actor in Vienna played +the Fool); and further, that I spent the evening of Christmas Day +in Daum’s coffee-house in reading <i>Galignani’s +Messenger</i>, in order to bring myself, in imagination at least, +as near home as possible.</p> +<p>The jewellers in Vienna are not such elderly apprentices as +they are in Hamburg, Leipsic, and the majority of small towns in +Germany. They dine at gast haüse, and sleep in the +independence of a separate lodging. They have, therefore, +more liberty; but there are many trades in Vienna among whom the +old usages still exist, by which they become a kind of vassals, +living and sleeping under the patriarchal roof. All worked +twelve hours a-day alike, from six till seven, including one hour +for dinner. Various licences were, however, allowed; +quarter-of-day or half-hour deductions were scarcely known; and I +have myself spent the morning at a public execution, without +suffering any loss in wages. This brings me to the Sunday +work; and I say, unhesitatingly that, as a system, it does not +exist. I never worked on the Sunday myself during my whole +twelve months’ stay. I do not know that there was any +law against it; but rest was felt to be a necessity after a week +of seventy-two hours’ labour. It is not unusual, both +in Germany and France, to engage new hands on the Sunday morning, +because it is a leisure time, convenient to both master and +workman; and I have sought for work at this time, and found the +Herr in a silk dressing-gown, and white satin slippers with pink +bows. I recollect visiting a working cabinet-maker’s +on one Sunday morning, whose men slept on the premises, and found +the workshop a perfect model of cleanliness and order: every tool +in its place, and the whole swept and polished up; and was once +invited, under the impression that, as an Englishman, I ought to +know something of newspaper presses, to inspect those of the +Imperial Printing Office, with the last number of the Wiener +Zeitung in type; and this was on a Sunday morning—a time +especially chosen on account of the absence of the workmen. +My landlord, a master-man, would sometimes work in the Sunday +morning when hard pressed; but, if he did, he took his revenge in +the week.</p> +<p>As we did not work, at what did we play? Perhaps there +was a <!-- page 177--><a name="page177"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 177</span>sick comrade to visit in the great +hospital; and we paced the long corridors, and stepped lightly +through the lofty wards to his bedside. Or, if he were +convalescent, we sought him out, among many others, in the open +square, with its broad grass-plots and young trees, where, in his +grey loose gown, he smoked a morning pipe. Or we went to +church, I, with others, to the Evangelical Chapel near the +Augustine Platz. There, among a closely-pressed throng, we +heard admirable discourses (and not too long, the whole service +being concluded in an hour), and heard much beautiful music; but, +to my mind, there were too many tawdry ornaments in this place of +worship—too many lamps about the altar; and the altar-piece +itself—a gigantic figure of the Saviour on the Cross, said +to be by Albert Dürer—seemed to be out of place.</p> +<p>It was lawful in Vienna to bathe on Sunday; and this we did, +with great delight, in the public baths upon the Danube. Or +we strolled about the Glacis; attended the miniature review in +the Hof-Burg; wandered out as far as Am-Spitz, by the long wooden +bridge over the broad and melancholy river; or, what was better, +sauntered in some one of the beautiful gardens of the Austrian +nobility,—those of Schwargenberg, Lichtenstein, or in the +Belvidere—thrown open to the public, not only on Sunday, +but on every day in the week.</p> +<p>As the day waned, music burst forth in many strains at +once. There was a knot of artisans in our back room, who +were learning the entire “Czar and Zimmerman,” and +who were very vigorous about this hour. At seven, the +theatres opened their doors, with something of our own rush and +press, although there was a guard-house, and a whole company of +grenadiers in the ante-room; but, once in the interior, all was +order and decorum. There was, of course, a difference in +tone and character between the city and the suburban theatres, +inasmuch as the ices and coffee of the court playhouses found +their parallel in the beer and hot sausages of the Joseph Stadt +and An-der-Wieden; but the performances of all rarely occupied +more than two, and never exceeded three hours; and there was an +amount of quiet and propriety manifested during the +entertainment, which said something for the authorities, but more +for the people.</p> +<p>As the night deepened, the ball-rooms and dancing-booths of +Vienna,—the Sperl’s, Das Tanz Salon beim Schaf, and +so downward to the dens of Lerchenfeld—grew furious in +music, and hysterical in waltz. It was something +fearful. It made your eyes twinkle, <!-- page 178--><a +name="page178"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 178</span>and your +head dizzy, to see that eternal whirling of so many human +teetotums. They seemed to see nothing, to feel nothing, to +know nothing; there was no animation in their looks; no +speculation in their eyes; nothing but a dead stare, as if the +dancers were under a spell, only to be released when the music +was at an end. Generally speaking, I think the ball-rooms +of continental cities are the curses and abominations of the +Sunday. My landlord, who was no moralist, but played faro, +draughts, and billiards on the Sunday evening, would not hear of +his daughter attending a public ballroom. There is a +curious anomaly in connection with places of public entertainment +which strikes a stranger at once, and which is equally true of +Berlin as of Vienna; it is this: that, while private houses are +closed at nine and ten o’clock, according to the season of +the year, coffee-houses, taverns, dancing and concert-rooms, are +open till midnight. Up to the former hours you may gain +admission to your own house by feeing the porter to the extent of +twopence; but, later than this, it is dangerous to try the +experiment.</p> +<p>To return to out-of-door amusements. A visit to +Schœnbrun was business for a whole afternoon; for we must +perforce each time unravel the windings to the pure spring in the +maze, with vague and mysterious ideas of some time or other +falling upon the grave of the Duc de Reichstadt, there secretly +buried, according to popular tradition. On rare occasions +we spent the whole of Sunday in some more distant palatial +domain, or suburban retreat. In Klosterneuburgh, with its +good wine: in the Brühl, with its rugged steeps, its +military memorials, and ruined castles; at the village of +Bertholdsdorf, with its Turkish traditions; among the viny slopes +of the Leopoldiberg, or the more distant and wilder tract of +mingled rock and forest which encircle the Vale of Helen. +Above all, there was Laxenberg,—an imperial pleasure-palace +and garden, and a whole fairy-land in itself, peopled by the +spirits of ancient knights and courtly dames. Some one of +the Hapsburgs had built, many years ago, a knightly castle on a +lake, and in it were stored dim suits of armour of Maximilian; a +cabinet of Wallenstein; grim portraits of kings and warriors; +swords, halbards, jewelled daggers, and antique curiosities +innumerable; only rather prosaically completed by the exhibition +of the every-day suit of the last Emperor of Austria, which, +however affecting a spectacle for a simple-hearted +Viennese—and they are mere babies in matters of +royalty—irresistibly reminded <!-- page 179--><a +name="page179"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 179</span>one of +Holywell Street, London, and cast-off regimentals. +Laxenberg is distant less than a shilling ride, and about two +hours’ walk from Vienna; and, like our Hampton Court +Palace, is thrown unreservedly open to the public. There +were no end to its wonders: fishing-grounds, and boats upon the +lake; waterfalls, and rustic bridges were there; and one little +elegant pavilion, perched on the water, dedicated to the beauties +of Windsor, illustrating its scenery in transparent +porcelain. There was a list for knightly riders; a dais for +the Queen of Beauty; and places for belted nobles, saintly +abbots, and Wambas in motley; an Ashby-de-la-Zouch in miniature, +which a little imagination could people. Then, for the +plebeians, there were leaping-bars and turning-posts, +skittle-alleys, and the quintain; and, for all alike, clusters of +noble trees, broad grassy meads, and flowers unnumbered. +There was even a farm-house, homely and substantial, with a dairy +and poultry-yard, sheep in the paddocks, and cattle in the +stalls.</p> +<p>We started from Vienna on a Sunday morning on board the +steamboat Karl for Linz; and trudging thence on foot came on the +following Saturday night into Salzburg, the queen of the +Salzack. We rested here one happy Sunday: not so much in +the town, which had its abundant curiosities, as in the pleasure +gardens of the old Archbishops of Salzburg, at an easy stroll +from it. This garden is pleasant enough in itself, but +there are besides a number of water eccentricities in it such as +I should think were in their peculiar fashion unequalled. +Here blooms a cluster of beautiful flowers, covered as it were by +a glass shade, but which turns out to be only water. There +a miniature palace is in course of erection, with crowds of +workmen in its different storeys, each man at his avocation with +hammer and chisel, pulley and wheel, and the grave architect +himself directing their labour. All this is set in motion +by water, and is not a mere doll’s house, but a symmetrical +model. Then we enter a subterranean grotto, with a roof of +pendant stalactites, where the pleasant sound of falling waters +and the melodious piping of birds fill all the air. There +is a sly drollery too in some of the water performances, invented +years ago by the grave Archbishops of Salzburg; for suddenly the +stalactites are set dripping like a modern shower bath: and the +gigantic stags at its entrance spout water from the very tips of +their horns. The garden is not a Versailles, for there is +nothing grand in any of its hydraulic <!-- page 180--><a +name="page180"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +180</span>arrangements; but in the beauty with which are clothed +such trifles, the artistic spirit which has suggested its +objects, and the humour which spirts up tiny jets of water by +seats where lovers sit, and in unsuspected places where the +public congregate, even in the middle of a walk, it is a +wonderful and delightful exhibition. This garden was +thronged by the holiday folks of Salzburg. There was an +official to explain the curious display, and nothing but innocent +gaiety was to be seen.</p> +<p>The Sunday we spent in Munich was passed in the Kirche Unserer +Lieben Frauen, with its self-supporting roof; in the English +Garden; and at a lovely spot on a hill-side, in the environs of +the city. During the week we were escorted by a friend to a +sort of tea-gardens of some notoriety, but found it silent and +deserted. Our friend apologised for its dulness, but +exclaimed, in part explanation, “You should see it on +Sunday!” It was evident that Sunday was a day of rest +and enjoyment, and not a working day in Munich. My own +impression of the Munichers was, that they drank too much beer +every day in the week.</p> +<p>Still tramping towards France, we passed one Sunday in +Heidelberg, among all its romantic wonders; but as everybody +knows, or ought to know, all about Heidelberg, I will not allow +my enthusiasm to lead me into a description which would not be +novel, and might probably be tedious. This was the last +Sunday we spent on German ground. So far as Germany is +concerned, you may look upon everything but museums, picture +galleries, and the like, on Sunday; you may, as Luther says you +ought, “dance on it, ride on it, play on it,—do +anything”—but see that which is most likely to +instruct you. You may visit tawdry shows, and inspect badly +painted scenery; you may let off fireworks; gamble to your ruin; +smoke the eyes out of your head, and dance the head off your +shoulders; but you shall not, with few exceptions, look upon +works of art, or the results of science in museums and picture +galleries. Let it be said, however, that the general +opportunities for acquiring correct and elevated taste are, on +the whole, greater in Germany than in England; and that in many +cities there is a profusion of exterior ornament, more especially +in Munich, in the shape of the fresco paintings of the Palace +Garden, on Isar Thor, and in the Basilica and churches generally, +so that the eye is better educated in artistic combinations; and +the same necessity does not exist for special art instruction +with them as <!-- page 181--><a name="page181"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 181</span>with us. Then, let us never +forget that their public and other gardens are as free to them as +the air they breathe, and that music is almost as universal.</p> +<p>The remembrances I have of Paris Sundays decidedly possess a +character of rest and recreation; of waking in the morning to a +grateful sense of repose; of clean shirts and trimmed beards; and +of delicious breakfasts at our Café aux Quatres Mendiants, +of coffee and white bread, instead of the bouillon and confiture +of the atelier. Did we not work, then? Assuredly we +did sometimes, when hard pressed; but the recollection of those +few occasions is drowned in that of a flood of happy, tranquil +Sundays. When we did work it was from eight till twelve, +which made half a day, and this was the rate at which all +overtime was reckoned. One hard taskmaster I remember, who, +instead of paying us our dues, as is the custom on Saturday +night, at the end of quinze jours, cajoled us to come and work +under the promise of their payment on the Sunday morning. +He failed us like a rogue; and we drudged on for another +quinzaine, Sunday mornings included, in hopeful anticipation of +the receipt of our wages. When we found that he slunk out +of the way, without paying us a sou, we rebelled, sang the +Marseillaise, demanded our wages, and never worked another +Sunday.</p> +<p>I am lost in my endeavours to define the mingled recollections +of Sunday tranquillity, enjoyment, and frivolity during a stay of +eighteen months in Paris. My thoughts run from the +Madelaine to Minu-montant; from Versailles to the Funambule; from +Diogenes’ lantern at St. Cloud to the blind man’s +concert in the Palais Royal. Sometimes I wander over the +plains of Auteuil and Passy; then suddenly find myself examining +a paper-making machine in the Museum of Arts and Trades. Or +I look over the vine fields from the heights of Montmorency at +one moment, and the next am pacing the long galleries of the +Louvre, or the classic chambers of the Palais des Beaux +Arts. I have passed a Whitsunday morning at Versailles +among the paintings; the afternoon at Sèvres among glass +and porcelain; have won a game at dominoes after dinner in Paris; +and have heard the last polka at the Salle Vivienne in the +evening. Paris is a city of extremes; the young +Théophile who works by my side, and is an ingenious fellow +and a clever workman, you will meet next Sunday in the Louvre +discoursing energetically on the comparative merits of the French +and Italian schools of painting; yet this same Théophile +shall be the Titi of the gallery of <!-- page 182--><a +name="page182"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 182</span>the Porte +St. Martin in the evening, who yells slang at his friend on the +opposite side; and the Pierrot or Débardeur of the next +opera masquerade.</p> +<p>With the vivid impressions of many Sundays abroad upon my +mind, I have been wondering whether, after all, the practices of +the continental Sunday have anything to do with the opening of a +museum or picture-gallery in London; and, after profound study, +in the laborious course of which I have several times fallen +asleep, I have come to the deliberate conclusion that there is no +connection between the two things. In the first case, as +regards Germany, seeing that they there almost sedulously close +all that relates to art or science, and give full licence only to +beer and tobacco, to music and dancing on the Sunday—where +is the parallel? In the second, as regards France or Paris, +although it must be admitted that there is unfortunately no +comparison between the Louvre and the National Gallery, it can at +least be claimed that there is no resemblance between the British +Museum and the Bal des Chiens in the Rue St. Honoré. +I take it that to preserve the English Sunday as a day of greater +rest than French or German Sundays ever were, and to add to it +such rational and instructive recreation, as a Museum or a +Picture-Gallery, or a place of innocent recreation could supply, +might be a good thing in the eyes of religious men; and I have +not yet heard of any society or association in any part of the +United Kingdom, which proposes to open a Sunday evening ball at +the Pig and Tinderbox, or to grant licences to the theatrical +performances at the Penny Gaff in the New Cut.</p> +<h2>NOTE.</h2> +<p><a name="footnote173"></a><a href="#citation173" +class="footnote">[173]</a> This is incorrect; the Picture +Gallery is open during the mid-day hours on Sunday.</p> +<p>***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A TRAMP'S WALLET***</p> +<pre> + + +***** This file should be named 28320-h.htm or 28320-h.zip****** + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/8/3/2/28320 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: A Tramp's Wallet + stored by an English goldsmith during his wanderings in Germany and France + + +Author: William Duthie + + + +Release Date: March 13, 2009 [eBook #28320] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A TRAMP'S WALLET*** + + +This ebook was transcribed by Les Bowler. + + + + + + A + TRAMP'S WALLET; + + + STORED BY + AN ENGLISH GOLDSMITH + DURING HIS + Wanderings in Germany and France. + + BY + WILLIAM DUTHIE. + + DEDICATED, BY PERMISSION, TO CHARLES DICKENS, ESQ. + + * * * * * + + LONDON: + DARTON AND CO., 58, HOLBORN HILL. + MDCCCLVIII. + + * * * * * + + [_The right of Translation is reserved by the Author_.] + + * * * * * + + TO + + + CHARLES DICKENS, ESQ., + This Volume + IS RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED, + IN GRATEFUL ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF HIS SYMPATHY AND + ENCOURAGEMENT DURING + THE PUBLICATION OF THE GREATER PORTION OF ITS CONTENTS; + AND AS A SLIGHT TRIBUTE OF ADMIRATION + FOR HIS UNWEARYING LABOURS AS A PUBLIC WRITER, + TO THE ADVANCEMENT OF THE WHOLE PEOPLE, + BY HIS SINCERE ADMIRER, + + THE AUTHOR. + + + + +PREFACE. + + +During a stay of three years and a half in Germany and France, sometimes +at work, sometimes tramping through the country, the Author collected a +number of facts and stray notes, which he has endeavoured in these pages +to present to the public in a readable shape. + +Of the twenty-eight chapters contained in the volume, sixteen originally +appeared in "Household Words." They are entitled THE GERMAN WORKMAN; +HAMBURG TO LUBECK; LUBECK TO BERLIN; FAIR-TIME AT LEIPSIC; DOWN IN A +SILVER MINE; A LIFT IN A CART; THE TURKS' CELLAR; A TASTE OF AUSTRIAN +JAILS; WHAT MY LANDLORD BELIEVED; A WALK THROUGH A MOUNTAIN; CAUSE AND +EFFECT; THE FRENCH WORKMAN; LICENSED TO JUGGLE; PERE PANPAN; SOME GERMAN +SUNDAYS; and MORE SUNDAYS ABROAD. Several other chapters were published +in a weekly newspaper; and the remainder, together with the Introductory +Narrative, appear in print for the first time. For the careful and +valuable revision of that portion of his book which has appeared in +"Household Words," the Author here begs to express his sincere thanks; +and to acknowledge, in particular, his obligation to some unknown +collaborator, who, to the paper called "The French Workman," has added +some valuable information. + +The desire of the Author in writing the Introductory Narrative was to +present to his readers a brief outline of his whole journey, and a +summary of its results; and to connect, so far as it was possible, the +somewhat fragmentary contents of the body of the work. It was also hoped +and believed that the statistical information there given, although of so +humble a character, would be valuable as illustrative of the social +condition of workmen in the countries to which they refer, and of a +character hitherto rarely attempted. + +Written, as these chapters were, at intervals of time, and separately +published, each paper must be taken as complete in itself; and, as they +are separate incidents of one narrative, occasional repetitions occur, +which could scarcely have been erased, now that they are collected +together, without injuring the sense of the passage. For that portion of +the book which has appeared in print no apology will be expected; and, +with regard to the remainder, the Author has rather endeavoured to avoid +censure than hoped to propitiate it. + +In conclusion, the Author must add, in order that he may not stand +self-accused of misleading his readers with regard to his personal +position, that good fortune has so far favoured his own exertions, that, +although still of the craft, he can no longer lay claim to the title of a +Journeyman Goldsmith. It was while in that capacity that the greater +part of the following pages were written: he cannot but believe that they +may be of some practical utility; and if, added to this, their perusal +should afford to his readers some portion of that pleasure which their +composition yielded to him, his purpose will have been fully answered. + + + + +CONTENTS. + + INTRODUCTORY NARRATIVE + _Page_ +HAMBURG.--ON TRAMP TO BERLIN i +BERLIN AND LEIPSIC.--ON TRAMP TO VIENNA vii +VIENNA xv +ON TRAMP TO PARIS xxiii +PARIS xxix + _Chapter_ + I. HAMBURG 1 + II. ALTONA.--A POET'S GRAVE.--A DANISH 6 + HARVEST-HOME + III. "MAGNIFICENCE."--AT CHURCH.--THE LAST 9 + HEADSMAN + IV. WORKMEN IN HAMBURG 15 + V. PLAYS AND PICCADILLOES.--"HAMLET" IN GERMAN 19 + VI. THE GERMAN WORKMAN 24 + VII. HAMBURG TO LUBECK 36 + VIII. LUBECK TO BERLIN 41 + IX. BERLIN.--OUR HERBERGE 51 + X. A STREET IN BERLIN 56 + XI. POLICE AND PEOPLE 62 + XII. THE KREUTZBERG.--A PRUSSIAN SUPPER AND 65 + CAROUSE + XIII. FAIR-TIME AT LEIPSIC 70 + XIV. DOWN IN A SILVER MINE 76 + XV. A LIFT IN A CART 85 + XVI. THE TURKS' CELLAR 94 + XVII. A TASTE OF AUSTRIAN JAILS 99 + XVIII. WHAT MY LANDLORD BELIEVED 108 + XIX. AN EXECUTION IN VIENNA 113 + XX. A JAIL EPISODE 116 + XXI. A WALK THROUGH A MOUNTAIN 121 + XXII. CAUSE AND EFFECT 130 + XXIII. GREECE AND HER DELIVERER 137 + XXIV. THE FRENCH WORKMAN 139 + XXV. LICENSED TO JUGGLE 149 + XXVI. PERE PANPAN 152 + XXVII. SOME GERMAN SUNDAYS 162 + XXVIII. MORE SUNDAYS ABROAD 173 + + + + +INTRODUCTORY NARRATIVE. + + +HAMBURG.--ON TRAMP TO BERLIN. + + +There have appeared from time to time, in public print, sorrowful +recitals of journeys attempted by English workmen in foreign countries, +with no better result than the utter failure of the resources of the +adventurous traveller, and his return homeward by the aid of private +charity or the good offices of his consul. It is precisely because the +travels about to be here narrated were financially a success, being +prosecuted throughout by means of the wages earned during their progress, +that it is thought they may be worthy of publication; not that it is +imagined many such examples may not be found, but because success in such +an undertaking has not hitherto appeared so often before the public as +failure. This narrative is necessarily a personal one; and as it is my +especial object in this place to present these foreign rambles in a +pecuniary point of view, I trust I shall not be misunderstood in stating +minute items of receipt and expenditure, as such details, however trivial +they may appear, are of vital importance in estimating the comparative +position of the foreign and the English workman. + +There was more than one cause which prompted me to seek my fortune +abroad; but it is sufficient here to state, that I had worked in the +company of Germans, and had thus become interested in their country, and, +as great depression prevailed at the time among the goldsmiths in London, +I provided myself with a letter of introduction to a working jeweller in +Hamburg, and prepared to start for this outpost of the great German +continent. My whole capital amounted to five pounds sterling; and, armed +with a passport from the Hanseatic consul, and provided with an extra +suit of clothes, a few books, and some creature comforts, I embarked for +my destination on board the "Glory," a trading schooner, then lying in +Shadwell basin. + +I paid thirty shillings for my passage, including provisions, and could +have slept in the cabin, and fared with the captain, for two pounds, but +in the weak state of my finances, considered it only prudent to content +myself with sailor's beef and biscuit, and a hard bulk and coil of ropes +for my bed. After, to me, a rough sea and river passage of eight days, +marked by no greater incidents than belonged to the vicissitudes of the +weather, we crossed the sand-bar at the mouth of the Elbe, and were soon +safe at our moorings in the outer harbour of Hamburg. It was Sunday +morning; paddled on shore in the ship's boat, I found myself in a town +utterly strange to me, armed only with a letter addressed to a person +with whom I could not converse, and written in a language I did not +understand. My chief comforts were three sovereigns, carefully wrapped +in a piece of cotton print, and deposited in my fob. + +In the course of a ramble through the town, I discovered an English +hotel, and was there happy in making the acquaintance of a needle-maker +of Redditch, Worcestershire, who at once offered to be my interpreter and +guide in search of employment. We began our peregrinations on the +morrow, and I was first introduced to the only English cabinet-maker +established in Hamburg, who, however, did not receive our visit +cheerfully. He drew a rueful picture of trade generally, but more +especially of his own. The hours of labour were long, he said; the work +was hard, and the wages contemptible. He concluded by assuring me that I +had been very ill advised to come there, and that the best course I could +pursue was to take the first ship home again. As I was not yet inclined +to follow this doleful piece of advice, we continued our enquiries. In a +short time I was shaking hands with the jeweller to whom my letter of +introduction was addressed; and before another hour had elapsed, acting +under his instructions, I had the gratification of knowing that I was "in +work," and, best of all, under an employer who spoke the English, French, +and German languages with equal facility. Thus, in ten days from leaving +England, eight of which were spent on the passage, I had found both +friends and employment in a foreign city, and now that my greatest source +of anxiety for the future was removed, felt thoroughly independent and at +my ease. + +My companions in the workshop were a quiet Dane who spoke German, and a +young Frenchman, whom I will call Alcibiade, who had been in London, and +acquired a smattering of English. We worked twelve hours a day, +commencing at six o'clock in the morning--the whole city was up and busy +at that hour--and kept on till seven in the evening. Thirteen hours were +thus spent in the workshop, one of which was given to meals. The +practice of boarding the workmen is universal in Hamburg, and we +therefore fared at the table of our "principal," and were amply and well +provided for. During the first week of my stay in Hamburg, I lodged at +an humble English hotel, where I paid at the rate of ten marks a week for +bed and board, a sum equal to eleven shillings and eightpence. +Reasonable as this may appear, it was beyond my resources, and would +indeed have been a positive extravagance under the circumstances. +Moreover, the arrangements of the workshop forbade it. My next lodging +was at a German hotel, where I slept in a little cupboard which hung over +a black, sluggish canal, and was without stove or fire-place. The cost +of this chamber was five marks a month, or scarcely one shilling and +sixpence a week. These expenses will appear paltry and insignificant, +till compared with the amount of wages received, when it will be apparent +that boarding and lodging in an English hotel at eleven shillings and odd +pence a week, was a monstrous extravagance; and that even an apartment in +a German gasthaus, at five marks a month, was more than the slender +pittance received would reasonably bear. Alcibiade, who, besides being +an expert workman, was an excellent modeller and draughtsman, received +seven marks a week, with board and lodging, or eight shillings weekly in +positive cash. Peterkin the Dane, who was yet a novice, was in the +receipt of four marks a week, and paid for his own lodging--weekly pay, +four shillings and eightpence. My own wages were seven marks a week and +board, while I paid for my own lodging; and when, upon the departure of +Alcibiade for Berlin, I took possession of his bedroom--a mere box +without a window--a deduction of one mark was made as an equivalent. I +thus received in wages six marks; lodging may be reckoned at one, and +board at five marks a week--total, twelve marks; which will yield in +English money the magnificent sum of fourteen shillings. + +In order to contrast these figures more fully with the pay of our English +artisans, it will be necessary to mention some further expenses to which +the workman in England is not liable, or in which the commercial +pre-eminence of his country gives him a marked advantage. With respect +to the former, as the employer in many cases furnishes only the ruder and +less portable machinery of the workshop, the workman has, to a certain +extent, to provide his own tools; and in regard to the latter, clothing +in general, and more especially cotton, woollen, and worsted articles of +apparel, are nearly as costly as in London. + +Of the social position of the workmen, and the rules of the trade Guilds, +I have endeavoured to treat under the head of "THE GERMAN WORKMAN;" but +there are some matters there omitted which may be worthy of mention. I +was forcibly struck, as well in Hamburg as in other towns and cities of +Germany, by the almost total want of that cheap serial literature which +is so marked a feature of popular education in England. There was, +indeed, a penny magazine published in Leipsic, after the type of the +original periodical of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge; +but it found no purchasers among any of my acquaintances, and was only to +be seen, with a few other literary magazines, at the better sort of +eating and coffee-houses. The workmen were gay, and fond of amusement, +but not recklessly so. They were passionately fond of music, and formed +little clubs among themselves for the practice of choral singing. There +was shown no want of respect for the Church and its institutions, quite +the reverse; and I well remember that we were gratified with a holiday on +a day set apart by the authorities for the public confirmation of the +youths about to be apprenticed, and the whole ceremonial of which wore an +imposing and solemn character. The conscription was, I believe, made +also on that day. With respect to the relation between employers and +employed, there existed a degree of amiability and consideration for +which we look too often in vain in England, while it must also be +confessed that every mark of respect was rigorously exacted by the +master, and that his affability towards the workmen sometimes assumed the +character of an affectionate condescension towards a favoured menial. I +did not personally know any one married journeyman in Hamburg; but there +was one jeweller who had entered into the silken bonds of wedlock, and +who was pointed out to me with a shrug of the shoulder and a shake of the +head, as a doomed mortal. + +It might be imagined that as the city of Hamburg claims the title of +"free," such assumed liberty might extend to its social institutions; as +well as to its port and navigation. Indeed, the worthy citizens are +under some such delusion themselves, and boast of immunities, and +liberalities of government, such as would place them at the head of the +German nation. It would be hard to know in what they consist. The +passport system is enforced with all its rigours and impertinences; an +annual conscription is taken of its inhabitants, and the more solvent of +them perform military service (this may perhaps be considered a liberty), +as a national guard, with the additional luxury of providing their own +weapons and equipments. Moreover, they were, at the time I write of, +called upon to render certain services in case of an outbreak of fire: +one contributing a bucket, another a rope, and a third a ladder; none of +which articles, as might easily be imagined, were forthcoming when most +wanted. The city tolls were heavy, and stringently levied, and, what +more nearly concerned the exercise of public liberty and private +convenience, the city gates were nominally closed at a certain hour in +the evening, varied according to the season of the year, and were only to +be passed after the appointed period by the payment of a toll. It was +curious to see the people hurrying towards the Jacob Thor on a Sunday +evening as the hour of closing approached, jostling and mobbing each +other in their endeavours to escape the human poll tax. + +But men are free, or in fetters, only by comparison; and although the +rule of the senate of Hamburg, when contrasted with British government, +can scarcely be called a liberal one, there is little doubt that +identical laws are in Hamburg less stringently carried out than in other +and most parts of the great German continent. + +Seven months' stay in Hamburg found me eager to commence the march into +Germany, which I had long meditated. Five months had already elapsed +since Alcibiade, my French fellow-workman, had departed for Berlin +(paying eight dollars for the journey by post), and he had never written +to inform me of his fortunes. I was resolved to follow him, and, if +possible, to seek him out, for we were already sworn friends; but my +finances would only allow of a journey on foot. During twenty-eight +weeks of employment in Hamburg, I had received two hundred and three +marks banco in wages, which would yield, in round numbers, twelve pounds +sterling, or exactly an average receipt of five shillings per week. +Against this sum were to be placed: expenses for tools, five shillings +and sixpence; trade society and police, five shillings and tenpence; +clothing and washing, three pounds, one shilling and twopence; and rent +and extra board, one pound seven shillings. Seventeen visits to theatres +at prices ranging from two shillings to sevenpence amounted to sixteen +shillings and sixpence, making a total of five pounds sixteen shillings. +The surplus of six pounds four shillings had been further reduced, by +outlay in necessities or indulgences, as the reader may assume according +to his fancy, to thirty marks banco. With this sum of thirty-five +shillings in English money, and consisting of two Dutch ducats and five +Prussian dollars, I started to tramp the two hundred miles between +Hamburg and Berlin. As a matter of explanation it may be stated that, +during a residence of seven months in Hamburg, I had acquired enough of +the German language to trust myself alone in the country. + +Under the impression that I might be required to set to work in any town +on my route, like any travelling tinker, I had packed in my knapsack my +best scoopers and an upright drillstock; and these tools, while they +added to its weight, presented so many obdurate points of resistance to +my back. Stowed within the knapsack were an extra suit, two changes of +linen, a few books, a flute, and a pair of boots. It weighed +twenty-eight pounds. My remaining personal property was safely packed in +a trunk, and left in the hands of a friend, to be forwarded by waggon as +soon as my resting place should be determined. + +I have only to deal in this place with the statistics of my first tramp. +The distance was lessened sixty miles by taking the _eilwagen_ from +Wusterhausen to Berlin, and nine days in all were spent upon the road. +My total expenses, including the dollar (three shillings) for coach fare, +amounted to eighteen shillings, or an average of two shillings a-day. Of +this sum I may particularise the cost of the straw-litter and early cup +of coffee at the outset of the journey, twopence; at Lubeck, where I +lodged respectably for one night, the bill was two shillings; at +Schonefeld, twopence halfpenny; a lodging, and board for two nights and a +day at Schwerin in a "grand hotel," but faring with the servants, cost +one shilling and ninepence; at Ludwigslust, a comfortable bed after a +grand supper with the carpenters at their house of call, was charged one +shilling and sevenpence; and at Perleberg, where I lodged superbly, the +cost was sixteen silver groschens, or a fraction over one shilling and +sixpence. + +Against this I have to place the trade gift of two shillings at Lubeck, +being the whole contents of their cash box, and which was kindly forced +upon me. At Schonefeld I was urged by the masons to demand the usual +"geschenk" from the only jeweller in the village. "Why," exclaimed the +landlord, enthusiastically, "if you only get a penny, it will buy you a +glass of beer!" I overcame the temptation. + + + +BERLIN AND LEIPSIC.--ON TRAMP TO VIENNA. + + +I was less fortunate in the search for work in Berlin than I had been in +Hamburg. Having started on my travels too early in the year, I paid the +penalty of my rashness. My guide into Berlin was a glovemaker, whose +acquaintance I had made upon the road, and through whom, curiously +enough, I succeeded in discovering my Parisian friend Alcibiade, the +first object of my search. Alcibiade, eccentric, but frank and generous, +received me like a brother. There was no employment to be obtained in +Berlin, or assuredly he would have ferreted it out; more especially as in +the search he had the assistance of one of those philological curiosities +met with in Germany more often than in any other country, a +school-teacher, who seemed to have any number of foreign languages glibly +at the end of his tongue. I stayed a week in Berlin, sleeping at the +Herberge in the Schuster Gasse, described in the body of this work; and +when forced at length to depart, Alcibiade pressed four dollars upon me +as a loan, to help me on my further wanderings. It must be remembered +that my stock was reduced to seventeen shillings on my arrival at Berlin, +and as my expenses in this capital, during a week's vain search for +employment, amounted to nine shillings, I was but indifferently provided. +Under these circumstances I asserted my claim to the trade geschenk, and, +having fulfilled all the conditions of a tramp unable to find work, +received from the Guild twenty silver groschens, or two shillings. + +Leipsic was my natural destination, and thither I proceeded by railway, +paying two dollars eight groschens for the transit in an open carriage. +This would give seven shillings in English money. The journey occupied +about twelve hours, and although the average speed through the Prussian +territory was slow, no sooner did we come upon Saxon ground at the +frontier town of Kothen, than we spun along over the sandy waste with a +rapidity which reminded one of a trip on an English railway. It was +already dark when the train reached Leipsic, and in the drizzling rain I +wandered round the city ditch and rampart, unknowing where to find a +lodging. At length, directed by a stranger to a trade herberge in the +Kleine Kirche Hof, after some demur on account of my not belonging to the +proper craft, I was admitted to a sort of out-house, paved with red +bricks, and allowed a bed for the night. On the morrow I presented a +letter of recommendation, from my good genius Alcibiade, to one of the +principal jewellers in the city, and felt inexpressibly happy on being at +once taken into employment. I spent two delightful months in Leipsic. +My fortnight's ramble, with its discomforts and anxieties, had given me a +desire for rest, and in the bustling town, (it was the Easter fair time), +skirted by its fringe of garden, and among its pleasant, good-natured +inhabitants, the time sped happily on. + +The pay was better than in Hamburg, but the living worse. My wages were +four dollars--twelve shillings per week--and board and lodging. I slept +in the same room with my one fellow workman and an apprentice. It was +light, and scrupulously clean, but had the single disadvantage of being +so low in the ceiling, that one could not stand upright in it. Saxony +has the unenviable distinction of being the country the worst fed in +Germany. I had no prejudice against Saxon fare upon my arrival in +Leipsic, but found, after a fortnight's trial, that I could not possibly +endure its unvarying boiled fresh beef, excessively insipid, with no +other accompaniment than various kinds of beans stewed into a sort of +porridge. Potato dumplings were a luxury with us. + +I am afraid I seriously offended my worthy "principal," on pleading my +inability to persist in this kind of training. But he acquiesced in the +desire to board myself, and generously made the additional payment of one +dollar sixteen groschens, or five shillings per week, for the purpose. I +found no difficulty in tracing out a "restauration," the proprietor of +which readily undertook to furnish one principal meal per diem for +seventeen silver groschens, that is, one shilling and eightpence +halfpenny per week, paid in advance. Each dinner cost, therefore, a +fraction less than threepence. With the remainder of the allowance it +was easy to purchase a simple supper, and even some small luxuries now +and then. The dinners, although certainly not sumptuous, were wholesome, +and infinitely more relishing than the fresh beef and beans of the +"principal's" table; while there was a relief in quitting the workshop +for a while, to descend the steep wooden staircase leading from the +street into the cellar, which formed the dining-room of the eating-house. + +The great Easter fair had just commenced as I reached Leipsic, and with +its termination came my stay in the city also to an end. The work was +exhausted. I had luxuriated in a few brilliants and the old Polish +rose-diamonds, and had descended to mounting a monstrous meerschaum pipe +in silver. But now there was nothing left but the turquoises and +Bohemian garnets, set in millegriffes, and the Herr shook his head, and +decided that they would not pay; so I received notice to leave in a +fortnight. During this period of six weeks, my receipts in wages were +six-and-twenty Prussian dollars, or three pounds eighteen shillings, +which would allow an average of eleven shillings per week with board and +lodging. Of expenses incurred there were: for Guild and police, +eightpence; and clothing and washing, fourteen shillings. The Leipsicers +have an ugly trick of doubling the prices of the theatre during the fair +time, so that my expenditure on that head was _nil_. My trunk, forwarded +from Hamburg in fourteen days, and weighing seventy pounds, cost three +shillings in the transit, including sixpence for city toll. + +After a vain search for further employment in Leipsic, and a +disappointment of obtaining a situation in Altenburg, there appeared +nothing before me but a toilsome march through Dresden to Vienna, with +little hope of finding occupation by the way, and scarcely more than +twenty shillings in my pocket. At this crisis there came a welcome +letter from Alcibiade, with the tidings that certain employment, for at +least two months, awaited me in Berlin. This was pleasant news indeed; +and the Herr entered so fully into the necessity of seizing this golden +opportunity, that he kindly released me from a day's labor, that I might +have full time to make my preparations. One would naturally suppose that +a few hours would suffice to pack my little stores and to depart; but +there were the Guild regulations to fulfil, the railway officials to be +waited on, and the police to satisfy. The last-named gentlemen would not +consent to _vise_ my passport till I should produce my railway ticket, as +a proof of my intention to go; while the railway officials doubted the +propriety of issuing a ticket till I had received the authority of the +police for my departure. Here was a case of daggers--a dead lock; but +the railway was obliged to cede the ground, and I departed in peace. As +I was to start at six in the morning, the Herr rose earlier than was his +wont, prepared for me with his own hands a cup of hot coffee, kissed me +on both cheeks, and wished me God speed. + +My stay in Berlin was limited to six weeks. It would have been longer, +but that Alcibiade had set his heart upon tramping to Vienna at the end +of that period; and I was pledged to accompany him. We worked together +at one of the court jewellers. Alcibiade stood in high favour, and +received in wages thirty dollars per calendar month, or an average rate +of twenty-two shillings and sixpence a week. My own wages were fixed at +twenty-four dollars a month to begin with, or eighteen shillings a week; +but I received ten dollars for the last ten days of my engagement, which +brought me on a level with my Parisian friend. These were, I believe, +high wages. We worked twelve hours a day. The city of Berlin had +outgrown the feudal usages of Hamburg and Leipsic, and we were no longer +lodged under the same roof with the Herr, nor humbly ate at his table. +Alcibiade had an apartment in a rambling house with a princely staircase, +but the central court of which happened, unfortunately, to be a stable. +An extra bed and double rent enabled us to domicile together, and we paid +for this chamber, roomy and commodious (always overlooking the stable), +per month, together with morning coffee and a bullet of white bread, two +dollars eighteen groschens each. This would give, in English money, +seven shillings and tenpence, being less than two shillings a week. Our +average expenses for living were five shillings each per week; and thus, +while our whole weekly necessities were met by the sum of seven +shillings, we were in the receipt of eighteen shillings and twenty-two +shillings and sixpence respectively. Reckoning, however, the average +wages in Berlin at sixteen shillings a week, it will be seen that the +artisan, whose necessary outlay for food and lodging need certainly not +exceed seven shillings, is at least in as good a position as his +self-vaunted brother of London upon thirty shillings. It naturally +results that the mechanics of Berlin, unlike those of the smaller towns +of Germany, "are married and given in marriage," although the practice is +regarded even there as indiscreet and improvident. It is doubtless a +creditable feeling which demands of the workman that he shall have past +out of his state of servitude, and have gained the position of an +employer of labor, before he dare assume still higher responsibilities; +but the system has also great evils. + +During my employment of one calendar month and ten days in Berlin, I +received thirty-four dollars in wages, or five pounds two shillings. Of +expenses, to the trade Guild, were paid tenpence; for a silk hat, four +shillings and twopence; a visit to Potsdam cost three shillings and +tenpence, including railway fare; and the fee for viewing the King's +Palace in Berlin was tenpence. One shilling and twopence were lost in +_agio_, in exchanging my small remaining stock of Prussian dollars into +Austrian gold. I may mention, that the binding of an 18mo. volume in +boards, covered in paper, cost one groschen, eight pfennige, or, as +nearly as it can be calculated, twopence in English money. + +As we were upon the point of departure, there arrived in Berlin an old +friend whom we had known in Hamburg, a silversmith of Vienna, accompanied +by two other silversmiths, natives of Lubeck, all bound to the same goal. +We made common cause at once. We started by rail for Leipsic; Alcibiade +provided with a purse of no less than eighty dollars, or twelve pounds +sterling, his savings in Berlin, while my own stock, with all my sparing +and scraping, scarcely amounted to two pounds. + +The length of the railway between Berlin and Leipsic is between eighty +and a hundred miles. From Leipsic, where we stayed only one night, +sleeping at the herberge, and supping off roasted pigeons, we had, in +round numbers, about four hundred miles before us. + +Having narrated the chief incidents of this journey under other heads, I +will only mention isolated points there omitted, and sum up its general +results. Leipsic was our real starting-point for the tramp, and our +first haven the Saxon capital Dresden. We took the road through +Altenburg, thus diverging considerably from the common route, in order to +visit the silver mines of Freiberg, and ramble through the romantic +scenery of the Plaunischen Grund. We passed through Saxon Altenburg, +Zwickau, Lichtenstein, Chemnitz, Oderan, Freiberg, Tharant, and Wildsruf, +and arrived in the evening of the fifth day at Dresden. We had in +reality no business near Zwickau, but were seduced out of our direct +route by the offer of a cheap ride in an open waggon, and were thus led +to a secluded village, where our couch of rest was among the beer puddles +on the table of the village tap. On the morrow we found we were a day's +march out of our road. Finding that my stock of cash was already reduced +to the half of its original bulk, that I had indeed expended one pound, I +seriously endeavoured to find employment in Dresden; but utterly failing +in that hope, I claimed the "viaticum" of the Guild, which was ten silver +groschens, or one shilling. We lodged at the herberge during our stay, +and were cleanly and comfortably housed, and at a reasonable cost. It is +a fact highly honourable to the Saxons, that the only trade herberges in +Germany which are in any way decent, are those of Leipsic and Dresden. +We rested in the Saxon capital during three days, visiting its principal +attractions, and then prepared once more for the road. + +There were many official regulations to observe before we could quit the +city. Alcibiade and I, who had passports, were not called upon to show +the condition of our finances, but our three companions, possessing only +wander-books, an inferior kind of pass which marks the holder as a simple +workman wholly dependent on his labor, were called upon to exhibit a sum +equal to at least ten shillings each. Now, the collective resources of +our three companions were certainly not equal to one pound ten shillings; +but, as may be easily imagined, a little sleight-of-hand would make any +one of them appear to be possessed of the stock of the whole. And this +was done; and thus the police were daily and hourly deceived. In +addition to the usual official routine--the testimony of the father of +the herberge to our having paid our score, the authority of the vorsteher +that we were not indebted to the Guild, and the usual police _visa_--we +had each to obtain the signature of his own consul; that of the Saxon +minister, as a testimony of his willingness to allow us to go; and of the +Austrian consul, as a sign that the Imperial Government was not +disinclined to receive us. This done, we departed under strict +injunctions to proceed through Pirna, a town which, as it was completely +out of our route, we never took any pains to reach. How we escaped +punishment for this infraction of police directions I scarcely know, but +we heard no more of the matter. When we had already passed through the +most romantic portion of Saxon Switzerland, and were slowly descending to +the plain, we met a poor, footsore wanderer, with a woe-begone visage, +who proved to be the dejected object of official vengeance. Four days +before, he had started from Dresden full of life and hope, but on +arriving at the frontier town of Peterswald, it was discovered that he +had neglected to obtain the signature of one of the numerous gentlemen of +whose existence he was scarcely even cognizant, and so was driven back to +Dresden to seek the required attestation, with loss of time, loss of +money, and almost broken-hearted. + +When we reached the Saxon frontier our little party, by the addition of +other tramps, had increased to the number of ten; and we leaped the +boundary line at word of command, and stood on Austrian territory. We +had been warned of a rigorous search for letters and tobacco at +Peterswald, and as we had made due arrangements for the visitation, we +felt somewhat slighted at our knapsacks being passed over with little +better than contempt. We had slept upon hay the previous night, but upon +our arrival at Toplitz, which we entered in a cabriolet, three of us +inside with five knapsacks, and other two companions hanging on behind, +we boldly took up our abode at one of the first hotels, and were, the +whole five of us, crammed into a little room on the top floor, and +charged a zwanziger (eightpence) a head for the accommodation. We looked +upon this charge as little short of a robbery. On the following day we +approached Prague, and I got a lift in a waggon, of about ten miles, and +then laid down by the city gates till my four friends should come up. +Upon presenting ourselves at the wicket, we were challenged by the +sentinel, our passes taken from us by the military guard, and a sort of +receipt given for them. Our three companions having only wander-books, +were imperiously directed to their herberge for accommodation, while we +were permitted to consult our own tastes upon the matter. Of course we +accompanied our friends. The herberge gained, we descended by a stone +step to the common room, a vaulted chamber half under ground, very ill +lighted, and provided only with a few rude tables and benches. We called +for beer, being weary and thirsty, (the Praguer beer is especially good) +and requested a private room for our party. The hostess, a fat, vulgar +woman, being called by the astonished servant maid, sneered at our +presumption, and said we must content ourselves with common tramps' +lodging. We submitted; but the Viennese, who had a visit of some +importance to pay in the city, and wished to remove some of the stains of +travel, and make himself generally presentable, having requested some +simple means of making his toilet, was, after considerable delay, +presented with water in a pint mug, and a soiled neckcloth as a towel. +This was too much for the Austrian's proud stomach; a storm of abuse in +the richest Viennese dialect was poured forth upon the landlady, her +maid, and the whole establishment, which being liberally responded to, +there resulted an uproar of foul language, such as was seldom heard, even +in those regions. The hostess threatened us with the vengeance of the +police, should we attempt to leave our authorised herberge, to which we +replied by tossing the beer into the kennel, buckling on our knapsacks, +and stalking into the street. We soon found a decent hotel, with the +accommodation of a large room containing five beds, and at so reasonable +a price that my whole expenses of entertainment during the two days and +three nights of our stay in Prague, amounted only to one florin and forty +kreutzers (schein), or one shilling and sixpence. We heard no more of +our Bohemian herberge and its landlady. I may mention as a further proof +of the different treatment which awaits the holder of the workman's +wander-book, as compared with the bearer of a passport, that on attending +at the police office, Alcibiade and myself were at once called into the +bureau, and our duly _vised_ passports handed to us with great +politeness, while our companions were left to cool their heels in a stone +paved hall, till the officials could find time to attend to them. We +soon left Prague, and were assisted on our journey towards Brunn by a +lift in a country cart, which brought us fifty English miles forward on +our road. We did not sleep in a bed during four consecutive nights; not, +indeed, till we reached the village of Goldentraum, on the Moravian +frontier. This was not the result of any wish of our own, but from an +apparent deficiency of beds in that part of the country. On one occasion +a heap of hay was delicately covered with a clean white cloth, lest the +stubbly ends should trouble our slumbers--a woman's attention you may be +sure--while on another, we slept on the bare boards, with no other +pillows than our knapsacks, in a room, the air of which was at fever heat +from recent bread-baking, and where the fierce flies made circular sweeps +at our ears, and droned about our nostrils. But we did sleep in spite of +that, for we had tramped more than thirty miles during the day. + +From Goldentraum there were still twenty English miles to Brunn, the +capital of Moravia, and thence thirty-eight German stunden, or about +eighty English miles, to Vienna. My funds were now reduced to about four +shillings, and we had still one hundred miles before us. One of our +Lubecker silversmiths, who had been ailing throughout the whole journey, +was unable to proceed further on foot, and we left him at Goldenstraun to +take a place in the eilwagen later in the day. We had, however, scarcely +made half our journey, when Alcibiade and the Viennese also gave +in--their feet were fearfully blistered--and seated themselves by the +road-side to await the expected conveyance. The remaining Lubecker, whom +we had called Hannibal, and myself tramped on to Brunn. On the morrow we +traced out our three friends, but found them still so lame that they were +resolved to take the railway to Vienna at an expense of three guldens +(muntz), about six shillings each. As my own resources were reduced to +less than half that sum, and those of Hannibal were in much the same +condition, there remained to us two only a choice of evils: either to +borrow the requisite amount, or to tramp the remaining distance on our +diminished finances. We chose the latter course. We walked the eighty +miles between Brunn and Vienna in two days and a half, subsisting chiefly +on bread and fruit--pears and plums, which were very plentiful--and long +pulls at the pumps. We were once induced to indulge in a half seidle +(pint) of wine, which was offered at a temptingly low price, but found it +of such a muddy and sour quality, that we bitterly repented of our +bargain. + +When within a few miles of Vienna, having been on the march since five in +the morning, we laid down on the road-side to sleep. It was with +something like grief that I felt myself forced to abandon one pair of +boots, a few miles before Vienna. I had brought them from London, and +they had done me good service; but now, with split and ragged fronts, and +scarcely a sole, they were only a torture to my feet, and a long way past +repair. I perched them on a little hillock with their toes pointing +towards Vienna, and turned round more than once as we advanced, to give +another farewell look to such faithful and long companions. + +After a refreshing sleep on the road-side, we entered Vienna early in the +afternoon. Hannibal was no richer than I was, and my whole stock +consisted of six groschens, a sum equal to threepence. + + + +VIENNA. + + +My first notes in Vienna must undoubtedly be devoted to the police. As +Hannibal and I arrived at the guard-house of the Tabor Linie, or barrier, +we were ordered by the sentinel to halt and hand over our papers; and, +upon doing so, received a slip of very little better than sugar paper in +return, with printed directions in German, French, and Italian, +commanding our attendance at the chief police office within twenty-four +hours. We knew better than to disobey. On the following morning we +presented ourselves and handed in our tickets, when mine was returned to +me with the words: "Three days' residence," written on the back. + +"And should I not obtain employment in three days?" I inquired. "Then +you must leave Vienna." + +Hannibal was permitted greater licence, being a native of one of the +states of the Bund; but both he and his fellow-townsmen of Lubeck were +taken into fictitious employment, in order to obtain the necessary +residence-card. Alcibiade, as a Frenchman, and, moreover, as being still +possessed of a certain amount of hard cash, was also more leniently dealt +with. Not having found work on the fourth day I waited again upon the +police, and was at first peremptorily ordered to depart; but, upon +explaining that I had friends in the city, a further stay of fourteen +days was promised, on the production of a written recommendation. On the +following day, through the friendship of our Viennese companion of the +road, I found work at a small shop-keeper's in the suburb of Maria-hilf. +Mark the routine. From my new employer I received a written attestation +of my engagement; with this I waited upon the police commissioner of the +district for his signature, and thence to the magistrate of the suburb to +obtain the authority of his name to the act. This done, I was in a +position to face the head police authorities in the city, and they, to my +astonishment, doled out a six weeks' permission of residence only, and +charged me a gulden, two shillings, for the document. I pleaded my +position as a workman, but was answered that my passport was that of a +merchant. This was disproved by every entry on its broad sheet, more +especially by a written description by the magistrate of Perleberg, +Prussia. All remonstrances were, however, in vain: while unemployed they +had dealt with me as a workman without resources; now that I was under +engagement, they taxed me like a proprietor. Alcibiade at once furnished +the means of meeting this new difficulty, as, indeed, of every other +connected with our finances at this period, and we consoled ourselves +with the assurance that one of us at least was in employment. Our +disgust was only equalled by our despondency when, upon reaching home, we +were met with the news that my new Herr refused to complete his +engagement, having met with an old workman whom he preferred to a +stranger. By law he was bound to furnish me with a fortnight's work, and +I threatened him with an enforcement of my claim; but I knew I should +come off the worse in the struggle, and submitted to the injustice. + +In the meantime two of our silversmiths were under fictitious +engagements--a common occurrence, and almost excusable under the +circumstances--and were dining upon credit. The times were bad. I did +not really commence work till the fourth week, and Alcibiade a week +later. But, these first difficulties overcome, our condition improved +daily; and for myself I can say with gratitude, that nowhere in Germany +was I more happy than in Vienna. Our position was this: Alcibiade was +engaged as a diamond jeweller at a weekly sum of six guldens, or twelve +shillings, a little more than half the sum he had earned in Berlin; but +no doubt, had he remained longer in the Austrian capital, he would have +increased his rate of pay. Unfortunately, after three months' stay there +came word from Paris requiring his presence by a certain day at the +military court of the department of Seine et Oise, to which, being a +native of Argenteuil, he belonged, to draw for the conscription. +Alcibiade was too good a Frenchman to hesitate about obeying this +summons, or even to murmur at the sacrifice it demanded of him. He left +Vienna with regret, but with the utmost alacrity; and thus I lost for a +time my best companion and sincerest friend. My first essay as a workman +in Vienna was discouraging, for I undertook, in my extremity, to execute +work to which I was unaccustomed, and made such indifferent progress at +the outset, that the Herr, a Russian from St. Petersburg, would only pay +me five guldens, or ten shillings a week. We worked twelve hours a day, +commencing at six o'clock in the morning in summer time; but there were a +number of fete and saint days in the year, which were paid for--I think +eight in all--including St. Leopold, the patron saint of Vienna; the +birth of the Virgin; _Corpus Christi Die_, and other church holidays. As +I improved in the practice of my new branch of business, I gained +additions to my wages, till I received nine gulden, eighteen shillings, a +week; a sum certainly much above the average pay. + +Alcibiade and I lodged in a narrow slip of a room, the last of a suite of +three, on the first floor of a house, or rather conglomerate of houses, +in the Neudegger Gasse, Josephstadt. Our landlord was a worthy Bohemian +cabinet-maker; his wife, a Viennese, who kept everything in the neatest +order. I do not know how many families lived in this house; but it was a +huge parallelogram with a paved courtyard, in the centre of which stood a +wooden pump. There was a common stair in each corner, all of stone, and +a common closet at the bottom of each staircase, equally of stone, seat +and all, and very common indeed. Each lodging consisted of three +continuous rooms, with only one entrance from the common stair: first was +the kitchen, with cooking apparatus, and the oven, which warmed the whole +suite; then a larger room with two windows, at once workshop, +dining-room, and bed-room; and beyond this the narrow closet with one +window, which was our dormitory. Thus we had to pass through our +landlord's bed-room to get to our own. The other portions of the +building were arranged much in the same manner, and the house must have +had, in all, at least a hundred inhabitants. There are much larger +houses in the suburbs of Vienna, but they are all built upon the same +principle, with trifling modifications. Here are two cards of address, +which are models of exactness in their way, and will illustrate the +nature of these barracks in the best possible manner: + + "JOSEPH UBERLACHNER, + Master Tailor, + + Lives in the Wieden, in the Lumpertsgasse, next to the Suspension + bridge, No. 831, the left hand staircase on the second floor, door + No. 31." + + "MARTIN SPIES, + Men's Tailor, + + Lives in Neubau, Stuckgosse, No 149, in the courtyard, the right hand + staircase, on the second floor, door on the left hand." + +The entrance to our house from the street was small and unimportant, and, +as may naturally be supposed, always open. The law was, however, strict +upon this subject, and permitted the house to be open in summer from five +in the morning till ten o'clock at night only; in winter from seven till +nine. There was a little room opening from the passage, where dwelt the +porter of the mansion. It was his duty to close the door at the +appointed hours; a duty which he scrupulously fulfilled, seeing that the +law empowered him to levy a fine of six kreutzers for his own especial +benefit, upon every inhabitant or stranger seeking egress or ingress +after the authorised hour of closing. The Viennese insist upon it that +this impost is recoverable by law; but, as the porter's whole existence +depends upon the employment of his labour in and about the house, and +therefore upon the good-will of its inhabitants, he takes care in general +not to be too pressing for his toll. + +Our dormitory, diminutive as it appeared, still managed to contain two +single bedsteads (French), a wash-hand-stand, wardrobe, used in common by +landlord and lodgers, a table, and two chairs. We paid in rent twelve +florins a month, or barely ten shillings between us; add to this, for +washing, candles, and morning coffee (a tiny cup at six in the morning, +before starting to work), another four florins, and our united expenses +for these necessaries did not exceed thirteen shillings per month. As in +Berlin, we dined at a "restauration," or at the "Fress Madam's" (Mrs. +Gobble's), a jocose term for a private eating-house, well known to the +jewellers. The mid-day meal of the Viennese workman is remarkable for +strength and solidity, but also for its sameness. It always takes the +shape of fresh boiled beef and vegetables, the latter arranged in a thick +porridge of meal and fat. It commences, of course, with soup; is +followed by the "rind-fleisch and gemuse," as above; and, if you can +afford it, is concluded by some such sweet dish as flour puddings stewed +with prunes, a common sort of cake called zwieback, omelette, macaroni, +or a lighter kind of cake, baked and eaten with jam. All solid, +wholesome, and of the best. There is a choice of other more relishing +dishes, and of these we usually partook, with an occasional descent into +the regions of beef and greens. Vienna prides itself upon its baked +chickens and Danube carps, but these were beyond our reach on ordinary +occasions; and our usual delectation was upon Augsburger sausages; bacon +and sour kraut; breaded veal cutlets; ditto lamb's head; and roasted +liver and onions. When we drank the ordinary white wine, we did so much +diluted. To sup at the "restauration" would have entailed too great an +expense; we therefore contented ourselves with bread and a taste of +butter at home, moistened by a glass of a liquor resembling gin, seeing +that it was made of the juniper berry, which our landlord obtained for us +at about tenpence a quart. It was supposed to be smuggled from Hungary, +and Vater Bohm coloured and sweetened it with molasses, and called it +Schlipowitzer. + +Our weekly outlay for food during the first month of residence in Vienna, +especially while unemployed, did not exceed five florins, _i.e._ four +shillings each. We ate bread and fruit in large quantities; indeed, +during one day my "rations" consisted of: breakfast at eight, half of a +coarse loaf and thirty plums; at twelve, one dozen pears and the other +half of the loaf; at seven a whole loaf, and forty more plums. Cost of +the whole, nine kreutzers (schein), or scarcely three halfpence in +English money. It was not surprising that I should fall ill upon this +diet, and this I accordingly did. When, however, we were in constant +work, we lived as I have already described, and at an average expense of +seven florins--five shillings and tenpence each weekly--and thus the +individual outlay for lodging, food, and other necessaries, was, in round +numbers, seven shillings and sixpence a week. A dinner on New Year's +Day, of baked pork and fried potatoes, with bread, wine, and apple puffs, +cost ninepence. + +To return to the police. When my six weeks' permission of residence was +expired, I attended again at the chief office in the Stadt, with the +certificate of my employer, signed and countersigned by +police-commissioner and magistrate, and was granted thereon a further +term of three months at the same fee, two shillings; to me at that time a +day's wages. Subsequently, however, the "Herr," by means of a further +attestation, with vouchers from the landlord of the house, and the usual +official signatures, obtained for me a card of residence for six months, +gratis, and I experienced no more trouble on that head. This, and the +various other certificates, were upon stamped paper of the value of six +kreutzers, or one penny. While upon this subject I may observe, that +domestic servants must make known to the police every change of service. +They are hired by the month. Change of residence is also a matter of +official interference: a printed sheet is handed to the new lodger, with +spaces for name, age, country, religion, condition, married or single, +where last resided, and probable length of stay in new apartments. All +these particulars must be stated and signed, witnessed by your own +particular landlord, and attested by the landlord of the house. The +document is then deposited in the archives of the district police. + +At the termination of my first year's stay in Germany, I found that my +receipts in wages, during the twelve months, amounted to twenty-one +pounds six shillings and fourpence, an average of eight shillings and +twopence-halfpenny per week; but it must be remembered that, during nine +months of that period, board and lodging formed part of my remuneration. +I stayed a full year in Vienna, and received in wages, in all, three +hundred and sixty-two guldens, thirty kreutzers, or thirty-six pounds +five shillings. This would give, in round numbers, fourteen shillings +per week throughout the year. Of this sum, as I have said, seven +shillings and sixpence were on an average spent weekly in lodging and +necessary food; there therefore remained six shillings and sixpence for +clothes, amusements, and savings. + +When the period arrived at which I had determined upon starting on foot +for Paris, my savings amounted to seven pounds sterling, and with that +sum I thought myself amply provided for the journey. In order that it +may not be supposed that I had suffered undue privations, or enforced, in +financial arrangements, anything beyond a reasonable economy, I must +state, that in addition to paying to the Guild and police, during the +year, eight florins twelve kreutzers, or six shillings and tenpence, I +had witnessed twenty-three theatrical representations, at prices varying +from fourpence to a shilling, at a total cost of eleven shillings and +fourpence; been present at eighteen concerts, at an outlay of seven +shillings and eightpence; and had visited the Bruhl, Woslau, Modlin, +Laxenburg, Helena-Thal, Klosterneuburg, Grinzing, and Weinhaus; the +Treasure Chamber, and picture-galleries innumerable; which latter, +although supposed to be open to public inspection free of expense, were +not conveniently accessible without a fee. Twenty-five kreutzers, or +fourpence, was the price of a seat in the gallery of the suburban +theatres of the Leopold, Joseph, and Wiener vorstadte; while tenpence and +a shilling procured a similar place in the imperial opera and play-house. +Hot sausages and beer were the luxuries vended in the former; while ices, +coffee, and delicate pastry, were the _bonnes bouches_ prepared for the +latter. + +I found the workmen in Vienna industrious and submissive; gay, +thoughtless, and kind-hearted. In some trades it was still the practice +for the workmen, if not numerous, to sleep in the workshop. I knew a +cabinet-maker who did so, and he was very cleanly and well lodged. I +knew one or two married journeymen, and there were no doubt very many in +so large a capital as Vienna, but marriage among artisans was generally +condemned. The wages were on the average much less than I have stated; I +knew silversmiths who were earning only three and four florins a +week--six shillings and eight shillings; and I have no doubt that +tailors, shoemakers, carpenters, and others, were paid even less. I +visited one family circle in the Leopoldstadt which consisted of the man, +his wife and child, and three single men lodgers, who all lived and slept +in one room. I found the lodgers airing themselves in the court-yard, +while the beds were made and the room set in order. But I saw very +little of squalor or filth even in the poorest quarters. As a check upon +the assumed thoughtlessness of the Viennese artisans, the pawnbrokers are +by civil ordinance closed a week before and after every great holiday, +such as Easter, Whitsuntide, etc. + +There were very many small masters, known in England as master-men, who +worked at home, and by their skill and quickness earned superior wages. +My own landlord was one of them, and called himself a "Gallanterie +Tischler." He was chiefly employed in ornamental woodwork for the +silversmiths, and, being tasty and expert, earned a very respectable +living. He used to buy English knives for certain parts of his work, on +account of the superiority of the steel, but he complained bitterly of +their clumsy and awkward fashion. He was extremely industrious during +the week, and many a pleasant Sunday visit have we paid to Weinhaus and +other suburban villages, when the "heueriger"--the young, half-made +wine--was to be tasted. Heueriger was sold at a few pence a quart, and +is a whitish liquid of an acid but not unpleasant flavour. It is a +treacherous drink, like most white wines, and from its apparently +innocent character tempts many into unexpected inebriation. The Viennese +delight in an Italian sausage called "Salami," said to be made of asses' +flesh, and a pale, but highly scented cheese, as the proper +accompaniments to the heueriger. + +Domestic servants in Vienna have one very laborious duty to perform, and +that is the fetching of water from the springs. These springs are simply +pumps in appearance, and were so formerly, but the flow of water is now +continuous, and to be obtained without effort. It is painful to see the +poor girls bending under the weight of their water troughs, which are +carried on the back, and shaped something like a pannier with a flat +side. They are made of wood, hooped like a barrel, and have a +close-fitting lid. The Bohemian women perform duties even more +unsuitable. They are bricklayers labourers; and sift sand, mix mortar, +and carry slates on their heads to the highest houses. In these labours +they are sometimes assisted, or set aside, by the soldiery, the more +well-behaved of whom are allowed to hire themselves as labourers and +porters. In one case, as I know, a soldier was "put in possession," as +his Imperial Majesty's representative, and provided daily with a sum of +money as an equivalent for food. + +There is another class of labourers who make themselves particularly +conspicuous in the streets of Vienna, and that is the "holzhacker," or +wood-chopper. Wood is the universal fuel, and is sold in klafters, or +stacks of six cubic feet. A klafter consists of logs, each about three +feet long, and apparently the split quarters of young trees of a uniform +size. This wood, when delivered to the purchaser, is shot upon the +footpath in front of the house, or in the court-yard, if there be a porte +cochere, which is not usual. The business of the holzhacker is to chop +the logs into small pieces for the convenience of burning, and this he +does in an incredibly short space of time, but to the great inconvenience +and sometimes personal risk of the passers by. He is, however, very +independent in his way, and is treated with astonishing forbearance by +the police. He is, moreover, the street wit of Vienna. + +The Viennese workmen are not merely uninformed of, but in general, +perfectly indifferent to political matters. This ignorance may in a +great measure result from the unthinking and pleasure-seeking character +of the Viennese public--which levity is encouraged by the Government, as +taverns and concert rooms are open long after private houses are +closed--but is also to be traced to the uneasy position which the +citizens hold with respect to the police. It is not alone that the +restrictions and impediments of official routine render his social +existence a matter of public legislation, but there is an unpleasant +consciousness that his landlord, his neighbour on the same flat, his +barber, or his fellow workman, may be a "vertrauter," a spy in the pay of +the police, and his simplest actions, through their means, perverted into +misdemeanours. A worthy cooper, with whom I occasionally dined, on +reading a skeleton report of a public meeting in England, where working +men had made speeches and moved resolutions, exclaimed, as he threw down +the paper: "But, seriously, don't you think this very ridiculous?" + + + +ON TRAMP TO PARIS. + + +We were three in number, a jeweller from Copenhagen, a Viennese +silversmith, and myself, who started from Vienna to walk to Paris. We +were all in tolerable feather as to funds. I was possessed of about +seventy guldens (seven pounds), and a little packet of fifty dozens of +piercing-saws, a trading speculation, which I hoped to smuggle over the +French frontier in my boots. I was better provided in all respects than +on any of my former journeys. We had forwarded our boxes to Strassburg, +our knapsacks were light, and we wore stout walking shoes with scarcely +any heels, and had prepared some well-boiled linen wrappers, intended, +when smeared with tallow, to serve the purpose of socks. They +effectually prevent blisters, and can be readily washed in any running +stream. Our first stage was by steam on the Danube to Linz, the capital +of Upper Austria; and we took our departure from Nussdorf amid the +valedictions and kisses of some thirty male friends, each of whom saluted +us thrice--on each cheek, and on the lips, for this is the true German +fashion, and may not be slighted or avoided. + +A voyage on the water may seem a curious commencement of a foot journey; +but the fact is, that no one knows better than the tramp that a railway +or a steamboat is always cheaper than shoe-leather and time; and no doubt +as these new means of progress increase in number they will entirely +change the character of German trade-wanderings. From Vienna to Linz is, +in round numbers, a distance of one hundred and fifty English miles, and +this one vessel, the "Karl," got over in two days and a night. The wind +was against us, and it must be remembered that it is all up stream. The +Danube is upon the whole a melancholy river, of a sullen encroaching +character, for its whole course is marked by over-floodings and their +consequent desolation. The passage cost ten florins, twenty-five +kreutzers, or eight shillings and fourpence, and we slept on the table +below, on deck, or not at all, as we best could. + +Our real starting-point on tramp was Linz, whence we pursued our way +through Wells, Gmunden, Ebensee, and Ishl to Salzburg, in which beautiful +city we rested for a day and half. We steamed across lake Traun from +Gmunden, and paid a fare of twenty-five kreutzers, or fourpence. From +Salzburg we pushed on to Hallein, to visit the salt mines there, and +thence diverged still further from the beaten route for the sake of +seeing the water-fall of Golling--the stern terrors of the OEfen--and +dream away an hour upon the beautiful and romantic waters of Konigsee, +the King's Lake. We had crossed the frontier of Bavaria near Hallein, +and, having loitered so long among the delightful scenery of its +neighbourhood, we now hurried on towards Munich, through Reichenhall, +Fraunstein, Weisham, Rosenheim, Aibling, and Peiss. Thirsty and weary, +we overtook a timber waggon when within eight miles of the capital, and +made a bargain with the driver to carry us forward to our destination for +six kreutzers, about one penny, each; and upon the unhewn timber of the +springless log-waggon we rode into Munich. We had been already fourteen +days upon the road, ten of which had been spent on tramp, advancing at an +average rate of twenty-five miles a day. From Linz to Munich, by the +circuitous route we had taken, I reckon in round numbers at two hundred +and fifty miles. My share of the expenses amounted to thirty-six +florins, forty kreutzers, say one pound nine shillings in English money, +or an average outlay of two shillings a day. It may be added, that many +of our expenses were those of ordinary foot-tourists, rather than of +tramping workmen; that we had lived well although frugally; and that, +save in a goatherd's hut on the Schaf-berg, we had never slept out of +bed. + +We spent five happy days in Munich: wandering among picture-galleries and +museums; visiting the royal palace in the capital, and the pleasure +retreat at Nymphenburg; and the churches, with their painted windows, +beautiful architecture, and radiant frescoes. We visited two theatres, +and roamed in the English garden, and among the wilder scenery of hills +in the environs. Munich is the real capital of modern art, and contains +more magnificent public buildings than any city of the same extent in the +world. Vulgar figures again: my expenses in Munich amounted to eight +guldens, forty kreutzers, Bavarian or Reich's money, which will yield, as +nearly as the intricacies of German coinage will allow of the +calculation, fifteen shillings and fourpence. The fare by railway from +Munich to Augsburg, our next station, was one gulden, twenty-four +kreutzers,--two shillings and fourpence,--and from the latter fine old +city we proceeded entirely on foot to Strassburg. We took the road +through Ulm, Stutgard, Heilbron, Heidelberg, Manheim, Carlsruhe, +Baden-Baden, and Keil; wandering a little from the beaten path near +Kissengan to see the beautiful waterworks and garden there. These cities +have all been described by innumerable travellers, and I doubt whether I +could add anything to the knowledge already possessed of them. + +We had passed fifteen days upon the road, and traversed a distance, +roughly estimated, of two hundred and fifty miles. We rested in all four +days in the towns of Augsburg, Ulm, Heidelberg, (of glorious +recollection), and Carlsruhe; and thus, during the ten days of actual +tramp, we had advanced at an average rate of twenty-five miles a day. +Since leaving Vienna, we had walked five hundred miles. On one occasion +only did we march more than thirty miles in the day. This was between +Stutgard and Heilbron. As we limped wearily through the latter city, we +came upon a tavern at the sign of the Eagle, and inquiring, like cautious +travellers, the price of a bed, we found it was twelve kreutzers Reich's +money, fourpence. This was beyond our mark, so we tottered onward to the +Stag, where we were very indifferently lodged for half the money. At +Heidelberg we paid twelve kreutzers for our bed, and were well +accommodated; but this was more by four kreutzers than we considered +ourselves in a position to pay. Our average expenses per day, while on +tramp at this period, were twenty-four kreutzers, or eightpence. My +total outlay from Munich to Strassburg was twenty-one florins, ten +kreutzers, or one pound five shillings; being at the rate of one shilling +and sixpence a day. + +It may be right to mention, that a German mile is divided into two +stunden, or hours, and the natural inference would be, that it would +occupy two hours to walk a mile. This is not the case, for a stunden can +generally be traversed in three quarters of an hour; but the German miles +are not uniform, and I well remember one terribly long one between Brunn +and Vienna, which was more than two hours walk. As three English miles +an hour is an average walking pace, a German mile, occupying on the +average an hour and a half in the traverse, should be equal to four and a +half English miles, and this is the rate at which I have estimated it, +although I have seen it variously stated at less than four, and even at +five English miles. + +While on tramp, we rose at five in the morning, and walked till eight +fasting, when we took breakfast--a simple affair of milk, or of coffee +and plain bread, with occasionally a little meat as a luxury--we then +proceeded on our march till twelve, always supposing that a town or +village was at such a distance as to render the arrangement possible, +when we dined. This meal consisted invariably of soup--milk soup, if +possible, peppered and salted like broth--and sometimes meat, but not +always, as it was dear, and supposed to be heavy for walking. As by this +time the sun was in its zenith, and our advance in the great heat would +be most fatiguing, and even dangerous, we laid ourselves down to rest +till three, in the open air if possible, and weather permitting; out on +the fields among the corn; stretched upon the hay in some shady nook; or, +as in Bavaria and Wurtemberg during a great part of the route, under the +apple and plum trees which lined the public way, eating of the fruit +unquestioned and without restraint. After this welcome repose we pursued +our march with renewed animation till eight o'clock, when we sought out a +place of rest; and for our evening meal usually indulged in something +more substantial than at any other time of the day. Our beds were not +always clean, and the lavatorial necessaries either deficient or wholly +wanting, in which latter case the pump was our only substitute. + +Our brief stays in towns or cities were by no means the least fatiguing +part of our journey; for it naturally happened that in our anxiety to see +whatever was remarkable or beautiful, in museum, picture-gallery, or +public building, that our time was tasked even more severely than on the +road; always remembering also, that the police required a great deal of +attention. My passport has fourteen distinct _visas_ during this +journey. We found the police in Bavaria the least civil among a very +exacting class of people. Here, for the first time, I heard a mode of +address which is, I think, peculiar to Germany. It is customary to +address strangers in the third person plural, _Se_; or, when on very +familiar or affectionate terms, in the second person singular, _Du_; but +of all modes of speech the third person singular, _Er_, when applied to +the person addressed, is the most opprobrious. A police official thus +interrogates a wandering workman:-- + +"What is he?" "A currier." + +"Where from?" "Siegesdorf." + +"Where to?" "Ulm." + +"Has he got the itch?" "No." + +"Then let him sign this book." + +At Augsburg the police were in a dilemma with respect to us. We had come +by rail from Munich, and, to our surprise, were suffered to pass through +the gate unchallenged by the sentinel, who paced leisurely before the +guard-house. The following morning, on presenting our papers at the +police-bureau, we were met with the accusation of having smuggled +ourselves into the city; and, as the usual official routine had been +departed from, we were ordered to proceed at once to the gates, and +humbly deliver up our passports to the sentinel in due form, that the +requirements of the law might be fulfilled. This sage proposition was, +however, overruled in consideration of our being jewellers: the +respectability of the craft being thus acknowledged. It was in Augsburg +also that I narrowly escaped being entered in the books of the Guild as +"Mr. Great Britain, native of London;" the slim apprentice whose duty it +was to make the entry, having mistaken the name of the country for that +of the individual in my English passport. + +I may not omit to mention, although I do it with a feeling of +humiliation, that during our journey we availed ourselves of whatever +assistance was granted by the Guild to "wandering boys" unable to obtain +employment. We had a perfect right to this aid, and had, while in work, +always contributed to the fund (in which we had, indeed, no option); but +I must confess that there was something exceedingly like asking for alms +in the whole process of obtaining it. Our slender resources must plead +as an excuse. The following were our individual receipts: in Linz, +twenty-four kreutzers; in Munich, thirty-six; Augsburg, eighteen; Ulm, +fifteen; Stutgard, thirty; Heilbron, twenty-four; Heidelberg, nine, +(begged from shop to shop, there being no general cash-box); and +Carlsruhe, twenty-four; making a total of one hundred and eighty +kreutzers, or the munificent sum of two shillings and sixpence in English +money. What must be the fate of those whose dependence was upon such a +pittance! + +I had passed two whole years and a few days in Germany, and during a +period of eighty-eight weeks, had been fully at work. I had received +fifty-six pounds thirteen shillings in wages, or an average, throughout +the whole term, of eleven shillings per week. I felt grateful for this +result in a strange country, and left Germany with a lingering step. + +As we crossed over the bridge of Kiel on our way to Strassburg, the +French soldiery were quietly fishing on their side of the Rhine, and the +sentinel, from whom we had expected a harsh summons to the guard-house, +and a rigorous search into our knapsacks, eyed us with a look of half +pity, half contempt, and allowed us to pass unchallenged. We were, to +him, only so many miserable "square-heads" (Germans) on our way to Paris. +The curiosities of Strassburg need not detain me: the cathedral, and the +wonderful clock; the theatre, which we visited; the fortifications, which +we overlooked from the lofty spire; those things are set down in every +traveller's guidebook, and the recollection of them is probably much more +agreeable to me than their description would be to the reader. We had +resolved not to tramp through France, and we therefore sought places in +the diligence; and by the time I had paid forty-three francs for my seat +in that respectable vehicle, and ten francs for the carriage of my box +from Vienna to Strassburg, together with two francs for a passeport +provisoire; and by the time also that I had paid some two francs more for +extra luggage, including two loaves and a string of six Strassburger +sausages, which were all included in the weight, I found that I should +arrive in Paris with less than five francs in my pocket. And this I +accordingly did, after a very uncomfortable ride of fifty-two hours, and +within a day of six weeks from our departure from Vienna. + + + +PARIS. + + +We thought ourselves very ill-used on our first night in Paris, when, +having been wiled into a grand hotel near the Bourse, we were stowed away +on the fifth floor, three in a room, and charged six francs for our beds, +one more for a candle, and one for service. Our parsimonious Dane was so +highly irritated, that he took possession of the candle and carried it +off in his pocket. But Alcibiade was soon by our side, to give us help +and advice with his old kindness; and under his guidance we removed +immediately to more suitable lodgings, and were set in the proper course +to obtain employment. Although scarcely possessed of a single franc in +actual cash, I had fifty dozens of fine piercing-saws, my contraband +speculation, and for which I ultimately obtained about twenty francs. +What was of more importance, in less than a week from our arrival in +Paris I commenced work at the modest remuneration of four francs and a +half, three shillings and ninepence, a day. My two companions were +scarcely so fortunate, but lingered on for a week or two without +employment. + +I found myself in a motley company; at one time our atelier contained +three Russians, two Germans, two Englishmen, an Italian, and a Frenchman; +and sometimes a simple inquiry would have to pass through four languages +before it received its answer. I did not remain long amid this babel, +although long enough to be offered six francs a day to remain. I never +afterwards worked for a less rate of remuneration than six francs a day, +but never succeeded in obtaining a sous more. I had many "Patrons" in +Paris. In one establishment there were three workmen continually +employed in making crosses of honour, in gold and silver, to reward the +merit, or to purchase the affection and support, of the French people. I +was variously employed: in gold work; in setting small rose-diamonds; and +upon the most costly brilliant ornaments. Sometimes idling upon three +days a week, or totally unemployed; at other times slaving night and day, +Sunday and all, to complete some urgent order. I have worked nineteen +days in a fortnight. + +I have endeavoured to give some details with regard to the manner of +living, working, and lodging, among the labouring population of Paris, +under the head of "THE FRENCH WORKMAN;" and which details were in most +part personal, or such as I had learned from actual experience. My +business here is with results, and I will condense them into as few words +as possible. I stayed in all one year and five months in Paris, during +the whole of which period I was never out of a situation, although at +various times but scantily provided with employment. I received in wages +a total of two thousand three hundred and one francs, thirteen sous, or +ninety-two pounds two shillings and twopence-halfpenny. This would give +an average receipt, upon the seventy-one weeks of my stay, of one pound +three shillings and three-halfpence a week. I have said that during the +greater part of this time I earned at the rate of six francs, or five +shillings a day; if I now give the current expenses per week, a +comparison may from these data be drawn as to the comparative position of +the English and French workman. The usual outlay for food per week +amounted to twelve francs, or ten shillings, of course with fluctuations; +for I have lived a whole week upon five francs when unemployed, and have +luxuriated upon twenty when in full work. Upon striking a balance among +my various lodgings,--I lodged in company and slept double during the +whole period of my stay in Paris--I find the result to be, that we paid +twelve francs each per month, or two shillings and sixpence per week. +This did not include extras: a German stove hired at five francs a month +for the winter season; wood at four francs the hundred pounds weight; +candles at thirteen sous the pound, and soap at a fraction less. Nor +does it include the half franc to the concierge, an obligatory payment +upon presenting yourself at the street-door after midnight. Summing up +these items, we arrive at this result: for food, ten shillings; rent, two +shillings and sixpence; and miscellaneous necessaries, including twelve +sous for washing, of another two shillings and sixpence; or a total of +fifteen shillings of expenditure against, in my case, of one pound three +shillings and odd pence of income. The cost of pleasure in the French +capital must not be omitted; and I feel bound to state that twenty-seven +visits to the theatres, from the pit of the Italian Opera House at four +francs, to the same place at the Vaudeville for eighteen sous; and +thirteen public balls and concerts, from the grand masked ball to that of +the "Grande Chaumiere," were met by an outlay of sixty-eight francs +thirteen sous, or three pounds seven shillings and tenpence-halfpenny. + +After an absence of nearly three years and a half, I turned my steps +towards home. From the time that I had crossed the French frontier, and, +upon delivering my papers, had received a passeport provisoire at +Strassburg, I had never sustained cheque or molestation from the police; +but now that I was about to depart, and made the usual application for my +original passport, it was discovered that, as a workman, I should have +had a "livret" upon my first entering Paris, and a number of certificates +and attestations were required, in order to reinstate me in a legitimate +position in the eyes of the law. Escaped from this dilemma, and +officially recognised as _ouvrier_, it was with some surprise that I +found myself dubbed gentleman at the Bureau des Affaires Etrangeres, and +charged a fee of ten franca for the signature of the foreign minister. +Too old a traveller to be entrapped into the payment of so heavy a fine +upon my vanity, I strongly repudiated any more pretentious title than +that of simple workman; and after a tough struggle succeeded in carrying +off the necessary visa at an outlay of two francs. The journey, by +diligence, from Paris to Boulogne, cost twenty-seven francs; I lost a +clear six francs in changing my French savings into English gold--twelve +sovereigns--and, after a rough passage by the Boulogne boat to London, at +an expense of twelve francs, found myself once more in my native city. + +Let those who would estimate the value of such an enterprise as mine, +consider its cost and its result. I had passed several years in foreign +travel; I had undeniably profited in the acquisition of new experiences +in my trade; new modes of working, and additional manual skill. I had +rubbed off some of the most valued, and therefore most absurd, prejudices +against foreigners; and made some progress in the acquisition of two +languages--a gain which must ever be a source of mental profit and +gratification. To conclude: I had started on my journey but +indifferently clad, and with scarcely five pounds in my pocket, of which +sum two pounds had been remitted home; and I had been able not merely to +subsist by the labor of my hands, but to enjoy much that was costly, and +an infinite deal more that was pleasurable and advantageous; and to +return home, having liquidated every debt, save that of gratitude, well +provided with apparel, and with ten pounds sterling in my purse. + +I would not venture to urge upon any man to follow in my footsteps. I +should scarcely retrace them myself under the same conditions; but I +believe I have shown the practicability of such an undertaking, and its +probability of success, with no more unusual qualifications than a ready +hand, a patient will, and some perseverance. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + + +HAMBURG. + +Hamburg at last!--after eight days' sail from London, three of them spent +in knocking about the North Sea, where the wind always blows in your +teeth. Never mind! we are now safely moored to these substantial +timbers; huge piles, driven in a line, which form the outer harbour of +Hamburg. The city lies before us, but there is nothing very imposing in +it; the houses, with gable roofs and whitened walls, look rather +lath-and-plastery, in fact; but we must not express our opinions too +rashly, for first impressions are not always the most faithful after all. + +"Now, Tom, is the boat ready?" + +"Ay, ay, sir!" + +We scramble down the sides of the British schooner, the "Glory," and seat +ourselves along with Tom. What a confusion of boats, long-pointed +barges, and small sailing vessels! + +"Mind how you go, Tom." + +"Ay, ay, sir!" replies Tom, contemptuously shifting his quid. + +These small sailing vessels we see are from the Hanoverian and Danish +coasts. Their cargoes consist principally of wood, and whole stacks of +vegetables, the latter ridiculously small. Those long-pointed barges are +for canal navigation, and are admirably adapted to Hamburg, threaded as +it is by canals in every direction. + +Steady! Do you see that curious, turret-looking building, old and +time-worn, guarded by a sentinel?--it is the fort to protect the +water-gate through which we are now passing. It is also occasionally +used as a prison. On the opposite side is a poor, dilapidated, wooden +building, erected on a barge, where permits are obtained for spirits and +tobacco--a diminutive custom-house indeed. There being no one to +question or molest us, we pass on, and in a few moments are at our +landing-place, a short flight of stone steps leading to the Vorsetzen or +quay. + +Tom moors his boat with a grave celerity, leads the way up the stone +steps on to the quay, and as speedily disappears down a sort of trap +which gapes in the open street, in the immediate vicinity of the +landing-place. Let him alone; Tom knows the way. We follow him down an +almost perpendicular flight of stairs into a spirit kellar, and gratify +Tom's little propensity for ardent liquors. + +Tom has disappeared, and is now paddling his way back to the "Glory," and +we stand upon the humble water-terrace, the Vorsetzen, looking out upon +the shipping. It is a still, bright, Sunday afternoon in September. +There is no broiling sun to weary us; the sky is clear, and the air soft +and cheering, like the breath of a spring morning. We will turn our +backs upon the river and proceed up Neuerweg. + +We cannot walk upon the narrow strip of footpath, for, besides that there +is very little of it, our course would become a sort of serpentine as we +wound about the fresh young trees which skirt the edge of it at regular +intervals. But are they not pleasant to look upon, those leafy +sentinels, standing by the stone steps of the houses, shaking their green +tops in happy contrast to the whitened walls? So we will walk in the +road, and being good-tempered today, will not indulge in violent +invectives upon the round-topped little pebbles which form the pavement; +but, should we by chance step into a puddle which has no manner of means +of running out of our way, we will look with complacency at our dirtied +boots, and trip smilingly on. Yes, trip is the word, for I defy the +solemnest pedestrian in Christendom to keep a measured pace upon these +upright, pointed, shining-faced pebbles. + +There! we are in the Schaar-markt. Now look around, and say, would you +not fancy yourself in some quaint old English village? What a curious +complication of cross-beams is presented in the fronts of the houses!--a +barring and binding of huge timbers, with their angles filled in with red +bricks. How simple and neat is everything!--the clean stone steps +leading up to the principal entrance of each house, and the humbler +flight which conducts you to the _kellar_ and kitchen. You would imagine +you had seen the place before, or dreamt of it, or read of it in some +glorious old book when your memory was fresh and young. + +See that young damsel with bare arms, no bonnet, no cap, but her hair +cleanly and neatly parted in the middle of her head, and disclosing her +round, rosy, honest German face. She is not pretty, but how innocent and +good-tempered she looks; and see how lightly and easily she springs over +those, to us, ruthless pebbles, her short petticoats showing her clean +white stockings and bright shoes to advantage. + +And here comes a male native of the place; a shortish, square-built, and +somewhat portly man, clad in a comfortable, old-fashioned way, with +nothing dashing or expensive about him. He is not very brisk, to be +sure; and when you first look at his round face an idea of his simplicity +comes over you; but it is only for an instant, and then you read the +solid, sterling qualities quietly shining in his clear eyes. There is +not a great amount of intellectuality, that is to say nervous +intellectuality, in his contented countenance, but a vast quantity of +unstudied common sense. + +We will pass on, leaving the guard-house on our left; and winding up +Hohleweg, many simple and not a few pretty faces with roguish eyes do we +see at the open windows. + +We halt only for a moment to look at the noble Michaelis Kirche which +lies to our right, and turn off on the left hand, crossing an open space +of some extent called Zeughaus Platz, and behold us before the Altonaer +Thor, or Altona-gate. + +Ah, these are pleasant banks and noble trees! How green the grass upon +those slopes--how fresh the flowers! And what a splendid walk is this, +looking to the right down the double avenue of sturdy stems waving their +spreading tops across the path! You did not think that quaint old town +below could boast of such a border as this; but take a tour about the +environs, and you will find them cheerful, fresh, and beautiful, from +Neuer Kaye to Deich Thor. + +We will pass through the simple Altona-gate, and make towards +Hamburger-Berg. Do not be alarmed. Perhaps you have heard of the "Berg" +before, and virtuous people have told you that it is a godless place. +Well, so it is; but we will steer clear of its godlessness; we will avoid +the dancing-houses. Before us lies a broad open road, neither dignified +by buildings nor ornamented by trees, but there are plenty of people, and +they are worth our notice. There is a neat figure in a close boddice and +a hauben, or hood-like headdress; she has taken to winter attire early. +She carries no trailing skirts, nor has she ill-shapen ankles to hide. +Look at her healthy face, though the cheek-bones are rather too high; but +the mouth is ever breaking into a smile. Her hair is drawn back tightly +from her face, tied in a knot at the back, and covered with a velvet +skull-cap, richly worked with gold and silver wire and braid. The effect +is not bad. + +There is a country girl from Bardewick--Bardewick, you know, though now a +mere village, is traditionally said to have been once a large and +flourishing city. She has flowers to sell, and stands by the wayside. +She has neither shoes nor stockings, nor is her dark dress and white +apron of the longest. Her tightly fitting boddice is of blue cloth, with +bullet buttons, and has but a short waist, while a coral confines her +apron and dress. Her head-dress is only a striped coloured handkerchief, +tied under the chin, but in such a way that it presents a sort of +straight festoon just above her sparkling eyes, and completely hides her +hair. + +But here comes a curiosity of the male species. Surely this is Rip van +Winkle from the States. He has no sugar-loaf hat, but he wears the +trunkhose, stockings, and large buckled shoes of the old Dutchman, and +even his ample jacket, with an enormous sort of frill at the bottom. No, +my friend, let me give you to understand that this is a _Vierlander_, and +a farmer of some means. Do you not see that he has a double row of +bullet buttons on his jacket, down the front of his ample hose, and even +along the edges of his enormous pockets? They are solid silver, every +button of them, nor are the massive buckles on his shoes of any more +gross material. Here come more velvet skull-caps, with gold and silver +worked into them. How jauntily the wearers trip along! It is a fact, +the abominable pavement of Hamburg sets the inhabitants eternally on +their toes. + +Here is a Tyroler, and a tall fellow he is; straight as an arrow, and +nimble as a chamois; but yet with a steady, earnest look about him, +although a secret smile is playing round his handsome, mustachioed mouth, +that tells you of a strong and persevering character. He is shaped like +an Adonis, and his short jacket, breeches, pale striped stockings, and +tightly laced boots; the broad leathern embroidered band about his waist, +and the steeple-crowned hat with the little coquettish feather, all help +to make up a figure that you would like to see among his native +mountains. And yet he is but a dignified sort of pedlar, and would be +very happy to sell you a dozen or so of table napkins, Alpine +handkerchiefs, or a few pieces of tape. + +Well! he is gone, and before us comes a female figure, who forms a fit +companion to the silver-buttoned _Vierlander_ we have just past. Notice +her dress; she is a _Vierlanderin_. Her petticoats are shamefully short, +you will say, stiff and plaited too as they are, but what a gallant pair +of red stockings she wears, and what a neat, bright pair of buckled +shoes! Her dress consists of a close boddice with long sleeves, all of +dark purple stuff, and her neat black apron does not make a bad contrast +to it. But her head-gear!--her hair is drawn from her face under a +closely fitting caul, while an exaggerated black bow, or rather a pair of +triangular wings, project some distance from the back of the head, and +beneath them two enormous tails of hair trail down her back, each +terminating in a huge red bow. + +This country girl appears to have sold all her fruit, and has placed her +basket upside down upon her head. No such thing; that is her peculiar +head-dress; look again, and you will see that it is a small plaited straw +basket, about a foot and a half in diameter, with a very deep straight +edge. It is fastened on her head by a caul sewn into the inside. Well! +at any rate this is a Quakeress we see coming at such a stately pace +along the gravelled road? Wrong again, my friend; this is a young lady +from Heligoland, the little island we passed at the mouth of the Elbe, +and a very prim and neat young lady she is, though where she got her +bonnet shape from I cannot say. + +The way is lined with hawkers of every description: fruit, songs and +sausages; toys, sticks and cigars; pipes, sweetmeats and tape; every +imaginable article that was ever sold at a fair is to be found here, and +every vender in a different dress, illustrating at one view the peasant +costumes of every village in the vicinity. As for tobacco, the air is +like a gust from some gigantic pipe. Here is the entrance to Franconi's +Circus, though not yet open for public entertainment. Blasts of +obstreperous music rush upon you from every door; the shrill squealing of +a flageolet being heard above everything else. + +Knife-swallowers, mesmerisers, and the eternal Punch--here called +Caspar--ballad-singers, tumblers, quacks, and incredible animals, are +here for inspection. You would fancy it was some old English fair; for +in spite of yourself there is a quaint feeling steals over you, that you +had suddenly tumbled back into the middle of the last century. + +And who pays for all this? for whose especial amusement is all this got +up? For our old friend "Jack." Here are English sailors, and French +sailors; sailors in green velveteen jackets; sailors with their beards +and whiskers curled into little shining ringlets. We meet our salt-water +friend everywhere, and, by the intense delight depicted on his features, +"Jack" is evidently in a high state of enjoyment. + +Let us go on; we have promised not to visit the dancehouses to-day, and +we will quit this clamorous crowd. + + + + +CHAPTER II. +ALTONA. + + +THE POET'S GRAVE.--A DANISH HARVEST HOME. + +We tread upon elevated ground, and far away to our left, down in a +hollow, flows the broad Elbe; placid indeed from this distance, for not a +ripple can we see upon its surface. A few ships are lazily moving on its +waters. Stand aside, and make way for this reverend gentleman; he is a +_prediger_, a preacher of the gospel; he is habited in a black gown, +black silk stockings and shoes, a small black velvet skull-cap on his +head, while round his neck bristles a double plaited frill, white as a +curd, and stiff as block tin. You would take him for the Dutch nobleman +in an old panel painting. It may appear rather grotesque to your +unaccustomed eyes, but remember there are many things very ridiculous at +home. + +A blackened gate, a confused mass of houses, an open square, and the +pebbles again, and we are in Holstein, Denmark, in the public square and +market place of Altona. Here it is that the Danish state lotteries are +drawn, and we might moralise upon that subject, but that we prefer to +press onwards to the real village of Altona. + +Here through this beautiful avenue of trees; here where the sunshine is +broken into patches by the waving foliage; far away from the din of +trumpets, huxterers and showmen; here can the sweet air whisper its low +song of peace and lull our fervid imaginations into tranquillity. This +is no solitude, though all is quiet and in repose. Under the trees and +in the road are throngs of loiterers, but there is no rude laughter, no +coarse jests; a moving crowd is there, but a quiet and happy one. And +now we come upon the venerable church with its low steeple, its +time-eaten stone walls, and its humble, grassy, flower-spangled graves. +We see a passer-by calling the attention of his friend to a stone tablet, +green and worn with age, and surrounded by a slight railing. Can it be +that there is a spirit hovering over that grave whose influence is peace +and love? May not some mighty man lie buried there, the once frail +tenement of a great mind whose noble thoughts have years ago wakened a +besotted world to truths and aspirations hitherto unknown? There is +veneration and respect in every countenance that gazes upon that simple +stone; a solemn tread in every foot that trenches on its limits. This is +the grave of a great poet. A man whose works, though little read in +modern times, were once the wonder of his country; and whose very name +comes upon the German people in a gush of melody, and a halo of bright +thoughts. It is like an old legend breathed through the chords of a +harp. This is the grave of Klopstock, the Milton of Germany. We will +enter the churchyard, and look for a moment on the unimposing tablet. +The inscription is scarcely legible, but the poet's mother lies also +buried here, and some others of his family. Could there be anything more +humble, more unobtrusive? No; but there is something about the grave of +a great poet that serves to dignify the simplest monument, and shed a +lustre round the lowest mound. + +We will cross the churchyard to yonder low brick wall which confines it. +There are clusters of rosy, happy children, clambering about its +crumbling top; little knots of men too in the road beyond--evidently +expecting something. Even this is in keeping with the poet's grave, +which should not be sombre and melancholy, like other graves; and what +could better embellish and enliven its aspect than young, blushing life +clustering around it? We linger awhile among the boisterous children +playing on the churchyard wall, and then we hear a confused sound of +voices and music in the distance. + +"What is this we hear, my friend?" we inquire. + +"It is the harvest-home; if you wait you will see the procession." + +We turn out upon the high road, and soon come upon the first signs of +this Danish festival. An open gravelled space of some extent stretches +out before an imposing mansion of modern appearance; a plantation of +trees on each side shapes the space into a rude semicircle. This mansion +is the manor house, and in front, in the midst of a confused crowd, some +dozen young men in gay sylvan costumes are standing in a circle, armed +with flails, and vigorously threshing the ground. Jolly, hearty young +fellows they are, and a merry chant they raise. One eager thresher in +his zeal breaks his flail at the bend, and a shout from the bystanders +greets the exploit. + +Now they thresh their way from the great house to a hostelry where the +remaining portion of the pageant is awaiting their arrival. Let us stand +a little on one side and view the procession. The threshers lead the +way, singing and plying their flails as they advance, thus effectually +clearing the road for the rest. A merry group of other threshers, each +with his lass upon his arm, and his flail swung across his shoulder, come +tripping after, singing the harvest song and dancing to their own music. +Now a rude wooden car comes lumbering on, and within sits a grave man in +old German costume, who from a large sack before him takes handsful of +grain, and liberally casts it about him. This is the sower, but the +grain is in this instance only chaff. Now follow heavy instruments of +husbandry--ploughs and harrows--while rakes, scythes, and reaping-hooks +form a picturesque trophy behind them. A shout of laughter greets the +next figure in the procession, for it is no other than the jolly god +Bacchus. And a hearty, rubicund, big-bellied god he is, and very decent, +too, being decorously clad in a brown suit turned up with red, and cut in +the fashion of the time of Maximilian I., or thereabouts. A perpetual +smile mantles over his broad face, and complacently he pats his huge +rotundity of stomach as he rolls from side to side on the barrel astride +which he is seated. Is he drunk, or does he only feign? If it be a +piece of acting it is decidedly the most natural we ever saw. + +Next comes the miller; a lank rascal, with a white frock, a tall, white +tasselled nightcap, and a cadaverous, flour-besprinkled face; and he is +the reaper, too, it would seem by the scythe he bears in his hand: other +threshers close the procession. A happy train it is. God speed them +all! A merry time, and many a bounteous harvest! + +Let us turn now upon our steps. Once more before the antique church, the +reverenced grave; and with a soothed and grateful mind, we will bend our +way back to Hamburg, and diving into one of the odorous cellars on the +Jungfern Stieg, will delectate ourselves with beefsteaks and fried +potatoes, our glass of Baierisches Bier, and perhaps a tiny schnapschen +to settle our repast. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + + +MAGNIFICENCE.--AT CHURCH.--THE LAST HEADSMAN. + +"Herrlichkeit!" Magnificence! What a name! Ye Paradise-rows, ye +Mount-pleasants, what is your pride of appellation to this? In all +Belgravia there is not a terrace, place, or square that can match it. +Fancy the question, "Where do you reside?" + +"In Magnificence--number forty." + +Yet it is a fact, Magnificence is a street in Hamburg. I have lived in +Magnificence. + +The Herrlichkeit, like many other places of imposing title, loses +considerably upon a close acquaintance. You approach it from the +waterside through a rugged way, blessed with the euphonious appellation +of Stuben Huck; and having climbed over two pebbly bridges--looking down +as you do so at the busy scene in the docks below, where crowds of canal +craft lie packed and jumbled together--you turn a little to the left hand +and behold--Magnificence! + +Magnificence has no footpath, but it is not singular in that respect. It +is of rather less than the average width of the streets in Hamburg--and +they are all narrow--and the houses are lofty. It is paved with small +pebbles, and has a gutter running down the centre; and as a short flight +of stone steps forms the approach to the chief entrance of each house, +the available roadway is small indeed. But they are grand houses in +Magnificence, at least they have been, and still bear visible signs of +their former character. + +Let us enter one house; it will serve as a type of many houses in +Hamburg. Having mounted the stone steps, we stand before a half-glazed +folding-door, and seeing a small brass lever before us, we test its +power, and find the door yield to the pressure. But we have set a +clamorous bell ringing, like that of a suburban huxter, for this is the +Hamburger's substitute for a knocker. We enter a large stone-paved hall, +lighted from the back, where a glazed balcony overlooks the teeming +canal. You wish to wipe your shoes. Well! do you see this pattern of a +small area-railing cut in wood? That is our scraper and door-mat--all in +one. + +To our right is a massive oaken staircase. We ascend in gloom, for the +staircase being built in the middle of the house, only a few straggling +rays of light can reach it, and whence they proceed is a mystery. Every +few steps we mount we are upon the point of stumbling into the door of +some cupboard or apartment; they are in all sorts of places. At length +we reach a broad landing paved with stone. What a complication of doors +and passages, which the vague light tends to make more obscure! Here are +huge presses, lumbering oaken cabinets, jammed into corners. We ascend a +second flight and arrive at another extensive landing. Here are two +suites of apartments, besides odd little cribs in the corners which are +not occupied by other presses. There are still two floors above, but as +they are both contained in the huge gable roof of the house, they are +more useful as store-rooms than as habitable apartments. The quantity of +wood we see about us is frightful when associated with the idea of fire. + +We will enter the suite on the right hand; the apartments are light and +agreeable, and overlook the canal, and, when the tide is up, and the +canal full, and the grassy bleaching ground on the opposite bank is +dotted with white linen, it is a pleasant scene indeed; but when the tide +is out--ugh! the River Thames at low water is a paradise to it. The +tidal changes are carefully watched, and it is not an unusual occurrence +to hear the solemn gun booming through the air as a warning to the +inhabitants to block and barricade their cellars and kitchens against the +rush of waters. + + * * * * * + +It is Sunday morning, and the most beautiful melody of bells I ever heard +is toning through the air. They are the bells of S. Michael's church, +and I am told that the musician plays them by a set of pedal keys, and +works himself into a mighty heat and flurry in the operation. But we +cannot think of the wild manner and mad motions of the player in +connection with those beautiful sounds, so clear and melodious; that half +plaintive music so sweetly measured. They ring thus every morning, +commencing at a quarter to six, and play till the hour strikes. + +We descend, and make our way through irregular streets and dingy canals +till we reach the church of St. Jacobi. It stands in an open space, is +neither railed in, nor has it a graveyard attached to it. It is of +stone, and has an immense gable roof, slated, and studded with eaved +windows. A shortish square basement is at one end, from which springs a +tall octangular steeple. Within all is quiet and decorous. The church +is paved with stone, and there is a double row of pews down the centre. +But is this a Protestant Church? Most assuredly; Lutheran. You are +astonished at the crosses, the images, the altar? True! there is +something Romish in the whole arrangement, but it is Protestant for all +that. You cannot help feeling vexed at the pertinacity with which the +Germans whitewash everything, nor do the pale lavender-coloured curtains +of the pulpit appear in keeping with the edifice. Everything is +scrupulously clean. + +We are too late to hear the congregational singing, the devotional union +of voices, for as we enter the minister ascends into the pulpit in his +black velvet skull-cap, and bristling white frill. Unless you are a good +German scholar you will fail to understand the discourse so earnestly, so +emphatically delivered. The echo of the building, and the high character +of the composition, will baffle and mislead you; while, at the same time, +the incessant tingling of the little silver bells suspended from the +corners of scarlet velvet bags, which are handed along the pews (at the +end of a stick), during the whole of the sermon, will distract and +irritate you. It is thus they collect alms for the poor. Yet even to +one ignorant of the language, there is a fullness and vigour in the style +and manner of delivery that would almost persuade you that you had +understood, and felt convinced of the truth of what you had heard. As we +quit the church we purchase at the door a printed copy of the sermon from +a poor widow woman, who is there to sell them at a penny each. + +We will loiter home to dinner. The streets are thronged with people, +with cheerful, contented faces, and in holiday attire. Who are these +grave gentlemen? This little troop in sable trappings; buskins, cloaks, +silken hose, hats and feathers, and shoes with large rosettes--all black +and sombre, like so many middle aged Hamlets? Can they be masqueraders +on the Sabbath? Possibly some of the senators in their official costume? +No! Oh, human vanity! A passer-by informs us that they are only +undertakers' men--paid mourners. They are to swell the funeral +procession, and are the mere mimics of woe. The undertakers of Hamburg +vie with each other in the dressing of their men, and indeed, one +indispensable part of their "stock-in-trade" are some half-dozen +dress-suits of black, it matters not of what age or country, the stranger +the better, so that the "effect" be good. + + * * * * * + +We will take a stroll about the beautiful Alster this Sunday afternoon. +It is late autumn, and the early budding trees have already shed their +leaves. But rich, floating masses of foliage are still there--the +deepening hues of autumn, and here and there broad patches of bright +summer green. There are two Alsters, the "inner" and "outer," each of +them a broad expanse of water; they are connected by flood-gates, +surrounded by verdure, and studded with pleasure-boats; while on the city +side several elegant pavilions hang on the water's edge, where coffee and +beverages of every kind can be obtained, and the seldom omitted and +never-to-be-forgotten music of the Germans may be heard thrilling in the +evening air. + +It is already growing dusk; let us enter the _Alster Halle_. This is the +most important of these pavilions. It is not large; there is but the +ground-floor. It has much the appearance of a French _cafe_, the whole +space being filled with small, round, white marble tables, and +innumerable chairs. Here all the lighter articles of refreshment are to +be obtained; tea, coffee, wines, spirits and pastry in numberless shapes. +There is an inner room where the more quietly disposed can read his +newspaper in comparative silence; here are German, Danish, French, and +English journals, and a little sprinkling of literary periodicals. +Another room is set apart for billiards, where silent, absorbed +individuals may be seen playing eternally at poule. In the evening a +little band of skilled musicians, in the pay of the proprietor, perform +choice morsels of beautiful music, and all this can be enjoyed for the +price of a cup of coffee--twopence! + + + +THE LAST HEADSMAN. + + +Ten years ago the ancient city of Hamburg was awakened into terror by the +commission of a fearful murder. The cry of "Fire!" arose in the night; +the _nachtwachter_ (watchman) gave the alarm; and the few means at +command were resorted to with an energy and goodwill that sufficed soon +to extinguish the flames. It was, however, discovered that the fire had +not done the work it had been kindled for; it would not hide murder. +Among the smouldering embers in the _kellar_ or underground kitchen, +where the fire had originated, was discovered the charred body of a poor +old woman, whose recent wounds were too certain evidences of a violent +death. It was also ascertained that a petty robbery of some few dollars +had been committed, and the utmost vigilance was called into exercise to +discover the perpetrator. + +All surmises were in vain, till suspicion fell upon the watchman who had +first given the alarm; and the first evidence of the track of guilt being +thus fallen upon, it was not difficult to trace it to its source. +Numerous little scraps of evidence came out, one upon another, till the +whole diabolical plot was stripped of its mystery, and the guilt of the +_wachter_ clearly proved. He was convicted of the crime imputed to him, +and condemned to death by the Senate. But on receiving sentence, the +condemned man assumed a tone totally unexpected of him, for he boldly +asserted that the punishment of death had fallen into disuse; that it was +no longer the law of Hamburg; and concluded by defying the Senators to +carry the sentence pronounced into execution. + +It was indeed true that the ponderous weapon of the headsman had lain for +two-and-twenty years rusting in its scabbard; nor without reason. At +that period a criminal stood convicted and condemned to death. The law +gave little mercy in those days, and there was no hesitation in carrying +the sentence into effect. But an unexpected difficulty arose; the old +headsman was but lately dead, and his son, a fine stalwart young man, +was, from inexperience, considered unequal to the task. A crowd of eager +competitors proffered their services in this emergency, but the ancient +city of Hamburg, like some other ancient cities, was hampered with +antiquated usages. Its profits and other advantages were tied up into +little knots of monopoly, in various shapes of privileges and hereditary +rights. The young headsman claimed his office on the latter ground; to +the surprise of all, his mother, the wife of the old headsman, not merely +supported him in his claim, but persisted, with a spirit that might have +become a Roman matron but certainly no one else, that if her son were +incapable, she herself was responsible for the performance of her +husband's duty, and would execute it. The Senate was in consternation, +for this assertion of hereditary right was unanswerable; and while they +courteously declined the offer of the chivalrous mother, they felt +constrained to accept the services of her son. + +The fatal morning came; the scaffold stood erected; and pressing closely +around the wooden barriers, stood the anxious crowd awaiting the +execution. The culprit knelt with head erect, his neck and shoulders +bared for the stroke, while the young headsman stood by his side armed +with the double-handed sword, the weapon of his office. At a sign given, +he swung the tremendous blade in the air, and aimed a fearful blow at the +neck of the condemned; but his skilless hand sloped the broad blade as it +fell, and it struck deeply into the victim's breast. Amid a cry of +terror he raised his sword again; again it whirled through the air, and +again it failed to do its deadly work. The miserable wretch still lived; +and a third stroke was necessary to complete the task so dreadfully +began. Who can wonder that that fearful weapon had for years long rested +from its service? + +Influenced by this terrible scene, and, let us hope, as well by motives +of humanity as by the conviction of the utter uselessness of such a +spectacle as a moral lesson, the Senate of Hamburg had commuted the +punishment of death into that of a life imprisonment. Yet now they were +taunted with their unreadiness to shed blood, and dared to carry the law, +as it still stood upon the statute-book, into effect. For a while it +seemed that anger would govern the acts of the Senate, for every +preparation was made for the execution. The headsman, whose blundering +essay has been above related, was still living, but he had long filled +the humble office of a messenger, and made no claim to repeat his effort. +Among the many competitors who offered their services, a Dane was finally +selected, and the inhabitants of Hamburg, excited to the utmost degree by +the anticipation of the forthcoming spectacle, awaited the event with a +morbid and gloating curiosity. They were, however, disappointed; +humanity prevailed, and the guilty _wachter_ was conducted to a life +prison. + +The Senate of Hamburg has not formally abolished the punishment of death; +but the last _hereditary_ headsman is now growing an old man, and the +first and only stroke of his weapon was dealt thirty-two years ago. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + + +WORKMEN IN HAMBURG. + +Here amid the implements of labor, in the dingy _werkstube_ in Johannis +Strasse; lighted by the single flicker of an oil lamp, with the workboard +for a writing-desk, let me endeavour to collect some few scattered +details about the German workmen in Hamburg. + +German workmen! do not the very words recall to your memory old +amber-coloured engravings of sturdy men, with waving locks, grasping the +arm of the printing-press, by the side of Faust, Schoeffer, and +Gottenberg? Or, perhaps, the words of Schiller's "Song of the Bell" may +not be unknown to you, and hum in your ears: + + Frisch, gesellen, seyd zur hand! + Von der stirne heiss, + Rinnen muss der schweiss. + + Briskly, comrades to your work! + From the flushing brow + Must the sweatdrops flow. + +But your modern German workman is somewhat of a different stamp; he +points his moustaches with black wax, trims his locks _a la Francaise_, +and wears wide pantaloons. He tapers his waist with a leathern strap, +and wears a blouse while at his labors. He discards old forms and +regulations as far as he can or dare, and thus the old word "Meister" has +fallen into disrepute, and the titles "Herr" and "Principal" occupy its +place. Schiller, like a true poet, calls his workmen "gesellen," which +is the old German word meaning companion or comrade, but modern +politeness has changed it into "gehulfe," assistant; and "mitglied," +member. In some places, however, the words "knecht" and "knappe," +servant or attendant, are still in use to signify journeyman; as +"schusterknecht," shoemaker; "schlachterknecht," butcher's man; +"muhlknappe," miller; "bergknappe," miner; but these terms are employed +more from habit than from any invidious distinction. + +Well! we live and work on the fourth floor of a narrow slip of a house in +Johannis Strasse. Herr Sorgenpfennig, our "principal," occupies the +suite of four rooms, and devotes a central one (to which no light can +possibly come save at second hand through the door), to his "gesellen." +We are three; a quiet Dane, full of sage precepts, and practical +illustrations of economy; a roystering Bavarian from Nuremberg, who never +fails to grieve over the thin beer of Hamburg, and who, as member of a +choral union near Das Johanneum, delights in vigorous and unexpected +bursts of song; and myself. + +Workmen in Hamburg are still in a state of villanage; beneath the roof of +the "Herr" do they find at once a workshop, a dormitory, and a home. We +endeavour so far to conform to the rules of propriety as to escape the +imprisonment and other penalties that await the "unruly journeyman." The +table of Herr Sorgenpfennig is our own, and a very liberal one it is +esteemed to be. Let me sketch you a few of its items: delicious coffee, +"white bread and brown," or rather black, and unlimited butter, make up +our breakfast. Dinner always commences with a soup, usually made from +meat, sometimes from herbs, lemon, sweet fruit, or other ingredients +utterly indescribable. Meat, to be fit for a German table, must be +carefully pared of every vestige of fat; if boiled it is underdone, +unless expressly devoted to the soup, when the juiceless shreds that +remain are served up with plums or prepared vegetables; if it be baked +(roasting is almost unknown) it is dry and tasteless. Bacon and +sausages, with their inevitable accompaniment, sourkraut, is a favourite +dish; but not so unvaryingly so as some choose to imagine. Acids +generally are much admired in German cookery. In nothing, perhaps, are +the Hamburgers more to be envied, in a gastronomic view, than in their +vegetables. Singularly small as are these products of the kitchen +garden, they are sweeter and more delicately flavoured than any I ever +tasted elsewhere. As _entremets_, and as accompaniments to meat, they +are largely consumed. The Hamburgers laugh at the English cooks who boil +green peas and potatoes in plain water, for here boiled potatoes are +scarcely known--that nutritious vegetable being cut into slices and +fried; while green peas are slowly stewed in butter or cream, and +sweetened with fine sugar. But we "gesellen" have plebeian appetites, +and whatever dish may be set before us, as surely vanishes to its latest +shred. The little patches of puff-paste, smeared with preserve, sent to +us as Sunday treat, or the curious production in imitation of our English +pie, and filled with maccaroni, are immolated at once without misgiving +or remorse. If we sup at all, it is upon pasty, German cheese, full of +holes, as if it had been made in water, or a hot liver sausage, as an +extraordinary indulgence. + +And our "Licht Braten?" Herr Sorgenpfennig rubs his short, fat hands, +and his round eyes twinkle again, as he tells his little cluster of +"Herren Gesellen" that there will be a feast, a sumptuous _abendbrod_, to +inaugurate the commencement of candle-light. The "Licht Braten," as this +entertainment is called, is one of the old customs of Hamburg now falling +into disuse. It would be doing Herr Sorgenpfennig an eternal injustice +did we pass over it in silence, more especially as he boasts of it as +real "North German fare." Here we have it: raw herrings to begin with. +Bah! I confess this does not sound well upon the first blush; but, then, +a raw dried herring is somewhat different to one salted in a barrel. To +cook it would be a sacrilege, say the Germans. And then the +accompaniments! We have two dishes of wonderful little potatoes, baked +in an oven, freshly peeled and shining; and in the centre of the table is +a bowl of melted butter and mustard well mixed together. You dip your +potato in the butter, and while you thus soften the deep-sea saltness of +your herring, the rough flavour of the latter relishes and overcomes the +unctuous dressing of your potato. I swear to you it is delicious! + +But where is our "braten," the "roast," in fact? Oh, thou unhappy Peter! +I see thee still, reeking over the glowing forge fire, cooking savoury +sausages thou art forbidden to taste! I see thee still, struggling in +vain to "bolt" the blazing morsel, rashly plucked (in the momentary +absence of Sorgenpfennig), from the bubbling, hissing fat, and thrust +into thy jaws. Those burning tears! those mad distortions of limb and +feature! God pity thee, Peter, but it was not to be! Those savoury +sausages are our "braten," and they smack wonderfully after the herrings. +If there is one item in our repast to be deplored, it is the Hamburger +beer, which, however, is as good as it can be, I suppose, for the +money--something under an English penny a bottle. But here is wine; +good, sound wine, not indeed from the Rhine, nor the Moselle, but red, +sparkling, French _vin ordinaire_, at a mark--fourteen-pence the bottle. + +Truly, Hamburg, thou art a painstaking, industrious, money-making city, +with more available wealth among thy pitch and slime than other towns can +boast of in their trimness and finery, but spendthrift, and debauched, +and dissolute withal art thou! + + _Punch, du edler trank der Britten_! + Punch, thou noble drink of Britons-- + +the outburst of some exhilarated poet--should be inscribed upon thy +double-turreted gate, good Hamburg! The odorous steam of rum and lemon +contends in thine open streets with the fumes of tobacco; the union of +these two perfumes make up thine atmosphere; while thy public walks are +strewn with the unsmoked ends of cigars, thick as the shrivelled leaves +in autumn. + +Seriously, the Hamburger toils earnestly, and takes his pleasure with a +proportionate amount of zeal. His enjoyments, like his labours, are of a +strong and solid description. The workmen trundle _kegle_ balls in long, +wooden-built alleys; and down in deep beer cellars, snug and warm, do +they cluster, fondling their pipes like favoured children; taking long +gulps of well-made punch, or deeper draughts of Bairisches beer. If they +talk, they do so vehemently, but they love better to sit and listen to +some little troop of _harfenisten_--street harp-players--as they tone the +waltzes of Lanner, or sing some chivalrous romance. Sometimes they form +themselves into bands of choristers, and sing with open windows into the +street, or play at billiards as if it were for life, or congregate in the +dance-houses, and waltz by the hour without a pause. In all they are +hearty, somewhat boisterous, but never wanting in good temper. + +As marriage is out of the question with the workman in Hamburg, whether +stranger or native--unless indeed the latter may have passed through the +probationary course of travel and conscription, and be already on the +verge of mastership--so also is honourable courtship. His low wages and +dependent position form an impassable barrier to wedlock, and a married +journeyman is almost unknown. By the law of his native city he must +travel for two or three years, independently of the chances of +conscription, and thus for a period at least he becomes a restless +wanderer, without tie or home. No prudent maiden can listen to his +addresses, and thus it is that Hamburg swarms with unfortunates; and this +it is which gives them rights and immunities unknown in any other city. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + + +PLAYS AND PICCADILLOES.--"HAMLET" IN GERMAN. + +It is Sunday again. Soberly and sedately do we pass our morning hours. +We waken with the sweet music of bells in our ears; bells that whisper to +us of devotion; bells that thrill us with a calm delight, and raise up in +us thoughts of gentleness and charity. + +There is no lack of churches; we see their tapering steeples and deep +gable roofs rising above the general level in many places, and there is a +Little Bethel down by the water's side on the Vorsetzen, for the sailors. +There are two or three Little Pandemoniums in its immediate vicinity, or +at least by that classical title are they designated by the Bethlemites +over the way; but salt-water Jack and fresh-river Jack give them much +simpler names, and like them a great deal better, more's the pity. We +have heard the little jangling bells in the church pews, and they will +not ring in tune, although they tell the deeds of charity; we have +marched staidly home, and joined in Herr Sorgenpfennig's blessing over +the midday meal;--Herr Sorgenpfennig delivers it with the presence and +intonation of an Eastern patriarch, standing among his tribe;--and the +delicacies of German cookery having fulfilled their purpose and +disappeared, with a whispered grace and a bow of humbleness, we sidle out +of the room, and leave the "Herr Meister" to his meditations and his +punch. And so ends the service of the day. + +The blond-headed Bavarian begins to hum the last _Tafellied_, and our +quiet Dane smiles reservedly. "Whither, friends, shall we bend our +steps?" No! by the eternal spirit of modesty, we will not visit the +dance-houses to-day! Those vile shambles by the water-side, growing out +of the slime and filth of the river, and creeping like a noxious, +unwholesome weed, up the shaded hill, and by narrow ruts and gullies into +the open country. No! Those half-draped, yet gaping doors, have no +attractions for us; those whining notes of soulless music find no echo in +our ears or hearts. There, in their hideous blandishments, the shameless +sit, miserable in their tawdriness, their painted cheeks peeling in the +hot sun, which they cannot shut out if they would. Throughout the long +day the wearied minstrels pant over their greasy tubes of brass, or +scrape their grimy instruments with horny fingers, praying for the deep +night; and there, through the long day, does the echoing floor rebound +with the beating of vigorous feet; for salt-water Jack is there, and +fresh-river Jack is there, and while there is a copper _pfennig_ in their +pockets, or a flicker of morality in their hearts, doomed are they +equally; for what can escape spoliation or wreck among such a crowd? + +Yet from such commodities as these does the merchant spirit of the Senate +of Hamburg draw huge profits; indeed, it is said that the whole expense +of police and city, and what is worse, yet better, the tending of the +sick, the feeding of the poor, and the succouring of the helpless and +desolate, are alike defrayed from the produce of the city's vice; and let +us add, the Senate's fostering care of it. + +And if we wandered out beyond the walls to the right or to the left, what +do we find? On the one hand, "Peter Hund's;" on the other "Unkraut's +Pavilion;" mere dance-houses, after all, though for "the better sort." +"Peter" has a tawdry hall, smeared with the escutcheons of all nations, +where music and waltzing whirl through the dense air, hour after hour; +and what is at least of equal consequence to him, Peter holds a tavern in +the next room, where spirits, beer, or coffee are equally at the command +of the drouthy or the luxuriant. And so also if we followed the road +which passes through Stein Thor, away across the leafy fringing of trees +and shrubs which ornament the city's outline; and still on through the +shady avenues of youthful stems, when we come upon a great house with +deep overhanging eaves, square-topped chimneys, and altogether with a +Swiss air about it. There are idlers hanging about the door, for this is +"Unkraut's," and the brisk air of musical instruments streams out of the +open portal. Within all is motion and uproar. A large _salle de danse_ +occupies the greater part of the ground floor, the central portion of +which is appropriated to the waltzers, while a broad slip on each side, +beneath an overhanging gallery, running round the whole of the apartment, +remains for those who drink, or take a temporary repose. Sometimes, +however, the flood of waltzers pours in upon the side-tables, amid the +clatter of chairs, the ringing of glass and china, and the laughter of +the spectators. Gentlemen are not allowed to dance with their hats on; +(where else, in Heaven's name, can they place them?) and must lay their +heavy pipes and cigars aside, as smoking is permitted only in the gallery +above. The company is of the "better sort" in the _salle_ below; that is +to say, that vice, shameless and unveiled, is not allowed to flaunt +without a check; but there is taint and gangrene among all; feeble wills +and failing hearts to bear up against the intoxicating stream of music, +and giddy heads for thought or reason amid the whirl and swimming of the +dance. + +"Unkraut's" has, however, attractions apart from the ball-room. By a +quiet stair at the end of the gallery, through muffled doors that close +upon you as you enter, and shut out like walls the hum and hubbub below, +we come upon an ill-shapen apartment, where hushed, absorbed men are +seated at desks, as at a school, each with a huge frame dotted with +numbers before him. A strange contrast to the scene without. There is a +heavy quiet in the place, disturbed only by an occasional cough, a +shuffling of feet, and the silvery ringing of little plates of glass. A +monstrous game of Lotto is this. A mere child's play of gambling, +requiring neither tact, wit, nor reasoning; a simple lottery, in fact, +dependent for success upon the accidental marking (each player upon his +own board or table) of the first five numbers that may be drawn. Now we +hear a strange rattling of wooden pieces, shaken in a bag, and as each +piece is drawn, a bustling man with an obstreperous voice, calls out the +number; not in full, sonorous German, but in broad, uncouth Platt +Deutsche (low German), and eager tongues respond from distant corners +claiming the prize. A dull-headed game is this, fitted only for the most +inveterate gamblers; but it yields money to the Stadt, and that is its +recommendation. + +As the day wears on, its attractions increase. The Elb Pavilion offers a +rare treat; exquisite music, executed with vigour, delicacy, and +precision. Moreover, its frequenters are decidedly of a respectable +class. But we will not be moved; we have set our hearts upon witnessing +a play of Shakespeare's, announced for this night at the Stadt Theatre, +and that no less a one than "Hamlet, Prince of Denmark." + +The Stadt Theatre in Hamburg enjoys a strange monopoly; for by the +Senate's will it is declared that no other theatre shall exist within the +city walls. Yet, curiously enough, a wonderful old woman, by some +unaccountable freak, has the privilege, or hereditary right, of licensing +or directing a theatrical establishment within the boundaries, and thus a +second theatre contends for the favours of the public; and in order to +define its position and state of existence, it is entitled simply Das +Zweite Theatre (The Second Theatre). It is an especially favourite place +of amusement with the Hamburgers, although they play an incomprehensible +jumble of unconnected scenes, called "possen," adapted solely to display +the peculiar talents of certain actors. One odd fellow there reaps +showers of applause for no other exhibition of ability than that of +looking intensely stupid, for he seldom utters a word; but assumes an +appearance of unfathomable vacuity that is inimitable. There are still +two theatres outside the city walls: the one, the Tivoli, devoted to +farces and vaudevilles; the other consecrated to the portrayal of the +deeply sentimental, and the fearfully tragic--with poison, dagger-blades, +convulsions and heavy-stamping ever at command. + +But our play! Here we are in the gallery of a splendid edifice, equal in +extent to our Covent Garden Theatre at home, having come to this part of +the house in anticipation of a feeble audience in preference to the +parterre or pit. Note also, that here we pay eight _schillinge_ only, +while a place below would cost us twenty. But the house is crammed, for +Shakespeare draws as well in Germany as in England, perhaps for the +simple reason that in no other country are his works so well translated. +We find ourselves in the midst of a dense cluster of earnest Danes, who +say the most impressive things in the quietest way in the world. They +are strongly interested in the coming performance, for "Hamlet the Dane" +has taken deep hold upon the Danish affections; and in Elsinore, so great +is the consideration entertained for this all but fabulous prince, that +they will point you out the garden wherein his royal father suffered +murder + + --most foul, strange, and unnatural, + +and the grave where the "gentle prince" himself lies buried. The play +begins; with the deepest earnestness the audience listen, and, crowded as +they are, preserve the utmost quiet. The glorious drama scene by scene +unfolds itself, and passage by passage we recognise the beauties of our +great poet. Herr Carr, starring it from Vienna, is no unworthy +representative of the noble-hearted Dane, although unequal, we think, to +the finer traits, and more delicate emotions of the character. The +dresses are admirable, sometimes gorgeous, and the groupings most +effective. The scenery alone is unsatisfactory; indecisive and +colourless as it is, without depth or tone, it strikes you as the first +effort in perspective of a feeble-handed amateur. As the play proceeds, +the action grows upon us, and the rapt spectators resent with anger the +least outcry or disturbance. The first scene with the players is +omitted, but the concluding portion is a triumph; for as _Hamlet_, +arriving at the climax of his sarcasm, and bursting for a moment into +rage, flings the flute away, with the exclamation: "S'blood, do you think +I am easier to be played on than a pipe?" the whole theatre rings with +the applause. + +Presently, however, we are aware of a gap, a huge hiatus in the +performance; a grave, and yet no grave, for the whole churchyard scene, +with its quaint and exquisite philosophy, the rude wit of the +gravediggers, and the pointed moralising of the prince, are all +wanting--all swept away by the ruthless hand of the critic; skulls and +bones, picks and mattocks, wit and drollery, diggers, waistcoats and all! +Not even _Yorick_, with his "gibes" and "flashes of merriment"--not even +he is spared. On the other hand, a portion of a scene is represented +which, until lately, was always omitted on the English stage. It is that +in which the guilty king, overcome by remorse, thus soliloquises:-- + + O, my offence is rank, it smells to heaven! + +_Hamlet_, coming upon his murderous uncle in his prayers, exclaims:-- + + Now might I do it, pat, while he is praying; + And now I'll do 't--and so he goes to heaven: + And so am I revenged? + +The omission or retention of this scene might well be a matter of +dispute, for while it represents the guilty Claudius miserable and +contrite, even in the height of his success, it also portrays the +anticipated revenge of _Hamlet_ in so fearful a light, that he stands +there, not the human instrument of divine retribution, but with all the +diabolical cravings of Satan himself. I leave this question to abler +critics, and, in the meantime, our play is finished, amid shouts of +delight and calls before the curtain. It is but half-past nine, yet this +is a late hour for a German theatre, where they rarely perform more than +one piece, and that seldom exceeding two hours in duration. Descending +to the street, wrapped in the recollections of the gorgeous poem whose +beauties still echo in our ears, we are vulgar enough to relish hot +sausages and Bavarian beer. + +An hour later we pace our half-lighted Johannis Strasse, seeking the +portal of our house amid the gloom. Suddenly we are startled by the +tramp of a heavy foot, and the clang and rattle of a steel weapon as it +strikes upon the ground. A burly voice assails us: "Whither are you +going?" + +Is this Bernardo, wandered from the ramparts in search of the ghost of +Hamlet's father? + +Not so: it is but one of the night-watch, armed with an enormous halbert +which might have done good service in the thirty years' war. The +faithful _nachtwachter_ strikes it upon the ground with the butt-end at +regular intervals, so that sinful depredators may have timely notice of +his approach. As it has a large hook at the back it is said to be +admirably adapted for catching thieves by the leg, if its opportune +clattering does not keep them out of its reach. + +We render a good account of ourselves, and are duly escorted to our home. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + + +THE GERMAN WORKMAN. + +That workmen in England may have some clear knowledge of the ways and +customs of a large number of their brethren on the Continent, I here +intend to put down for their use a part of my own knowledge and +experience. + +The majority of trades in Germany are formed into guilds, or companies. +At the head of each guild stands an officer chosen by the government, +whatever it may be--for you may find a government of any sort in Germany, +between an emperor and a senate--this officer being always a master, and +a member of the guild. His title differs in almost every German state, +but he is generally called Trade-master, or Deputy. Associated with him +are two or three of the oldest employers; or, in some cases, workmen in +the trade, under the titles of Eldermen, or Masters' Representatives. +These three or four men govern the guild, and have under them, for the +proper transaction of business, a secretary and a messenger. Such +officers, however, do not represent their trade in the whole state or +kingdom, but are chosen, in every large town, to conduct the multifarious +business that may require attention within its limits. + +Although all these guilds are, in their original constitution, formed on +the same model, they differ materially in their internal arrangements. +Much depends upon the ruling government of the state in which they are +situated; for, while in despotic Prussia, what is there called Freedom of +Trade is declared for all, in the "free" town of Hamburg everything is +bound and locked up in small monopolies. + +In some parts of Germany there are "close trades," which means to say +that the number of masters in each is definitely fixed. This is so in +Hamburg. For instance, among the goldsmiths, the number of new masters +annually to be elected is three, being about sufficient to fill up the +deficiencies occurring from death and other causes. I have heard of as +many as five being elected in one year, and I have also heard it asserted +that this was to be accounted for on the supposition that the aldermen +had been "smeared in the hand," that is to say, bribed. + +There are other trades locked up in a different way. There exist several +of this kind in Nuremberg and thereabouts; as, the awl and punch-makers, +lead-pencil makers, hand-bell makers, gold and silver wire-drawers, and +others. They occupy a particular town or district, and they say, "Here +we are. We possess these trades, and we mean to keep them to ourselves. +We will teach no strangers our craft; we will confine it among our +relatives and townsmen; and in order to prevent the knowledge of it from +spreading any farther, we will allow our workmen to travel only within +the limits of our town or land;" and so they keep their secrets close. + +In other trades, the workmen are allowed to engage themselves only to a +privileged employer. That is to say, they dare not execute a private +order, but can receive employment from a master of the craft only. In +Prussia, and some few other lands, each workman can work on his own +account, and can offer his goods for sale in the public market +unhindered, so long as they are the production of his own hands alone; +but should he employ a journeyman, then he pays a tax to Government of +about ten shillings annually, the tax increasing in proportion to the +number of men he may employ. + +There are also "endowed" and "unendowed" trades. An endowed guild is one +the members of which pay a certain small sum monthly while in work, and +thus form a fund for the relief of the sick and the assistance of the +travelling members of the trade. There are few trades of the unendowed +kind, for the workmen of such trades have to depend upon the generosity +of their companions in the craft in the hour of need; and it is generally +found more economical to pay a regular sum than to be called on at +uncertain intervals for a donation; moreover, the respectability of the +craft is better maintained. + +While we talk of respectability, we may add that it was formerly the +especial care of the heads of each guild, to see that no disreputable +persons became members of the trade; and illegitimate children, and even +the lawful offspring of shepherds, bailiffs, and town servants were +carefully excluded. This practice exists no longer, except in some few +insignificant places; but the law is still very general which says that +no workman can become a master who has not fulfilled every regulation +imposed by his guild; that is to say, he must have been apprenticed at +the proper age to a properly-constituted master; must have regularly +completed his period of apprenticeship, and have passed the appointed +time in travel. The worst part of all these regulations is, that, as +they vary in almost every state, the unfortunate wanderer has to conform +to a new set of laws in every new land he enters. + +One other regulation is almost universal. Each guild must have a place +of meeting; not a sumptuous hall, but mere accommodation in a +public-house. It is called the "Herberge," and answers, in many +respects, to our "House of Call." This is the weary traveller's place of +rest--he can claim a shelter here; indeed, in most cases, he dares sleep +nowhere else. Here also the guild holds its quarterly meetings. By way +of illustration, let us take the Goldsmith's Herberge in Hamburg; the +"Stadt Bremen" is the sign of the house. In it, the goldsmiths use a +large, rectangular apartment, furnished with a few rough tables and +chairs, and a wooden bench running round its four walls. On the tables +are arranged long clay pipes, and in the centre of each table is a small +dish of what the uninitiated might take to be dried tea leaves. This is +uncut tobacco, which the host, the father of the House of Call, is bound +to provide. The secretary and messenger of the guild of goldsmiths are +there, together with one or two of the "Altgesellen" (elder journeymen), +who perform the active part of the duties of the guild. The minutes of +the last meeting, and the incidents of the quarter--possibly, also, an +abstract of the rules--having been read, and new officers, to supersede +those who retire, having been balloted for, the business of the evening +closes. Then commences a confusion of tongues; for here are congregated +Russians, Hungarians, Danes, Hamburgers, Prussians, Austrians; possibly +there may be found here a member of every state in the German Union. +None are silent, and the dialect of each is distinct. Assiduously, in +the pauses of his private conversation, every man smokes his long pipe, +and drinks his beer or punch. Presently two female harp-players +enter--sources of refreshment quite as popular in Hamburg as the punch. +They strike up an infatuating waltz. The effect is wonderful. Two or +three couples (men waltzing with men, of course) are immediately on their +feet, scrambling, kicking, and scraping round the room; hugging each +other in the most awkward manner. Chairs and tables are huddled into +corners; for the mania has seized upon two-thirds of the company. The +rest cannot forsake their beer, but congregate in the corners, and yell, +and scream toasts and "Lebe-hoch!" till they are hoarse. + +Two girls enter, with trifling articles of male attire for sale; stocks, +pomatum, brushes, and beard-wax; but the said damsels are immediately +pounced upon for partners. In the intervals of the music a grand +tournament takes place; the weapons being clay-pipes, which are speedily +shattered into a thousand pieces, and strewn about the room to facilitate +dancing. Such a scene of shuffling, whirling, shouting, and +pipe-crunching could scarcely be seen elsewhere. + +We will take a German youth destined to become an artisan, and endeavour +to follow him through the complication of conflicting usages of which he +stands the ordeal. Hans is fourteen years of age, and has just left +school with a decent education. Hans has his trade and master chosen for +him; is taken before the heads of the guild, and his indenture duly +signed and sealed in their presence, they themselves witnessing the +document. His term of apprenticeship is probably four years, perhaps +six; a premium is seldom given, and when it is, it shortens the period of +apprenticeship. The indenture, together with a certificate of baptism, +in some cases that of confirmation (which ceremony serves as an important +epoch in Germany), and even a documentary proof of vaccination, are +deposited in the coffers of the guild, and kept at the Herberge for +future reference. + +Obedience to elders and superiors is the one great duty inculcated in the +minds of all Germans, and Hans is taught to look upon his master as a +second father; to consider short commons as a regulation for his especial +good, and to bear cuffing--if he should fall in the way of it--patiently. +If he be an apprentice in Vienna, he may possibly breakfast upon a hunch +of brown bread, and an unlimited supply of water; dine upon a thin soup +and a block of tasteless, fresh-boiled beef; and sup upon a cold crust. +He may fare better or worse; but, as a general rule, he will sleep in a +vile hole, will look upon coffee and butter as undeniable luxuries, and +know the weight of his master's hand. + +Hans has one great source of pleasure. There is a state school, which he +attends on Sundays, and where he is instructed in drawing and modelling. +In his future travels he will find the advantage he has acquired over +less educated mechanics in this necessary knowledge; and should he come +to England, he will discover that his skill as a draughtsman will place +him at once in a position superior to that of the chance-taught workmen +about him. He completes his apprenticeship without attempting to run +away. That is practically impossible; but he yearns, with all the ardour +of a young heart, for the happy day when he may tramp out of his native +town with his knapsack on his back, and the wide world before him. + +We will suppose Hans out of his time, and declared a free journeyman by +the guild. The law of his country now has it that he must +travel--generally for three years, perhaps four or six--before he can +take up the position of a master. He may work for a short period in his +native town as a journeyman, but forth he must; nor is he in any way +loth. One only contingency there is, which may serve to arrest him in +his course,--he may be drawn as a conscript--and, possibly, forget in the +next two or three years, as a soldier, all he has previously learned in +four as a mechanic. But we suppose Hans to have escaped this peril, and +to be on the eve of his departure. + +When an English gentleman, or mechanic, or beggar, in these isles, has +resolved upon making a journey, he has but to pack up his traps, whether +it be in his portmanteau, his deal-box, or his pocket-handkerchief; to +purchase his ticket at the railway or steam-packet station; and without +asking or consulting with anybody about the matter, to take his seat in +the vehicle, and off he goes. Not so Hans. He gives his master fourteen +days' notice of his intention to wander; applies to the aldermen of his +guild for copies of the various documents concerning himself in their +possession; and obtains from his employer a written attestation of his +past services. This document is called a "Kundschaft;" is written in set +form, acknowledges his probity and industry, and is countersigned by the +two aldermen. He is now in a condition to wait upon the +"Herberges-Vater" (the landlord of the House of Call), and request his +signature also. The Vater, seeing that Hans owes nothing to him or to +any other townsman--and all creditors know that they have only to report +their claims at the Herberge to obtain for them a strict attention--signs +his paper, "all quit." Surely he may start forth now! Not so; the most +important document is still wanting. He has, as yet, no passport or +wander-book. + +Hans goes to the police-bureau, and, as he is poor, has to wait a long +while. If Hans were rich, or an artist, or a master's son, it is highly +probable that ho would be able to obtain a passport--and the possession +of a passport guarantees many advantages--but as Hans is simply a +workman, a "wander-book" only is granted to him. This does indeed cost +him less money, but it thrusts him into an unwelcome position, from which +it is not easy to escape. He is placed under stricter rule, and, among +other things, is forced, during his wandering, to sleep at his trade +Herberge, which, from the very monopoly it thus enjoys, is about the +worst place he could go to for a lodging. + +The good magistrate of Perleberg--the frontier town of Prussia, as you +enter from Mecklenburg--had the kindness to affix to my passport a +document entitled, "Ordinance concerning the Wandering of Working-men." +I will briefly translate its contents. The "Verordnung" commences with a +preamble, to the effect that, notwithstanding the various things that +have been done and undone with respect to the aforesaid journeymen, it +still happens that numbers of them wander purposeless about the land, to +the great burden of their particular trades and the public in general, +and to the imminent danger of the common safety. Therefore, be it +enacted, that "passports," that is to say, "passes," in which the +distinct purpose of the journey is stated, such as a search for +employment; or "wander-books," in which occupation by manual labour is +the especial object, are to be granted to those natives of Prussia only +who pursue a trade or art for the perfection of which travelling may be +considered useful or necessary. To those only who are irreproachable in +character, and perfectly healthy in body; this latter to be attested by a +medical certificate. To those only who have not passed their thirtieth +year, nor have travelled for the five previous years without +intermission. To those only who possess a proper amount of clothing, +including linen, as well as a sum of money not less than five dollars +(about sixteen shillings) for travelling expenses. So much for natives. +Foreigners must possess all the above-named requisites; must be provided +with proper credentials from their home authorities, and may not have +been more than four weeks without employment on their arrival at the +frontier. Again, every wanderer must distinctly state in what particular +town or city he intends to seek employment, and by what route he purposes +to get there; and any deviation from the chosen road (which will be +marked in the wander-book) will be visited by the punishment of expulsion +from the country. A fixed number of days will be allotted to the +wanderer in which to reach his destination, but should he overstep that +period, a similar punishment awaits him; expulsion from the country +always meaning that the offender shall retrace his steps, and quit the +land by the way he had entered it. This is the substance of the +"ordinance." + +Hans is ready for the road. He has only now to take his farewell. A +farewell among workmen is simply a drinking-bout, a parting glass taken +overnight. Hans has many friends; these appoint a place of assemblage, +and invite him thither. It is a point of honour among them that the +"wandering boy" shall pay nothing. Imagine a large, half-lighted room; a +crowded board of bearded faces. On the table steams a huge bowl of +punch, which the chosen head of the party, perhaps Johann's late master, +ladles into the tiny glasses. He proclaims the toast, "The Health of the +Wanderer!" The little crowd are on their feet, and amid a pretty +tinkling of glasses, an irregular shout arises, a small hurricane of +voices, wishing him good speed. + +What songs are sung, what healths are drunk, what heartfelt wishes are +expressed! The German workmen are good friends to one another--men who +are already away from friends and home, and whose tenderest recollections +are awakened in the farewell expressed to a departing companion. Many +tears are shed, many hearty presses of the hand are given, and not a few +kisses impressed upon the cheek. Little tokens of affection are +interchanged, and promises to write are made, but seldom kept. With this +mingling and outpouring of full hearts, the stream of punch still flows +through tiny glasses: but, since "Many a little makes a mickle," the +farewell thus taken ends sometimes as a debauch. + +Hans, in the morning, is perhaps a little the worse for last night's +punch. He is attired in a clean white blouse, strapped round the waist; +a neat travelling-cap; low, stout shoes; and, possibly, linen wrappers, +instead of socks. The knapsack, strapped to his back, contains a +sufficient change of linen, a coat artistically packed, which is to be +worn in cities, and a few necessary tools; the whole stock weighing, +perhaps, twenty or thirty pounds. On the sides of the knapsack are +little pouches, containing brushes, blacking, and soap; and in his +breast-pocket is stowed away a little flask of brandy-schnaps, to revive +his drooping spirits on the road. A stout stick completes his equipment. +A last adieu from the one friend of his heart, who will walk a few miles +with him on the way--and so he is launched fairly on his journey. + +Hans finds the road much harder, and his knapsack heavier than he had +expected. Now he is drenched with rain, and can get no shelter; and, +when he does, he will find straw an inconvenient substitute for a bed. +At last he arrives at Berlin. He has picked up a companion on the road; +and, as it frequently happens that several trades hold their meetings in +the same house, they both are bound to the same Herberge. Through +strange, half-lighted streets, along narrow edges of pavement, they +proceed till they enter a court, or wynd, with no footpath at all, and +they are in the Schuster Gasse, before the door of the Herberge. The +comrade of Hans announces them as they pass the bar, and the next moment +they are in the travellers' room, amid as motley a group as ever met +within four walls. + +Tumult and hubbub. An indescribable odour of tobacco, cummin (carraway), +and potato-salad. A variety of hustled blouses. Sunburnt and haggard +faces. Ragged beards and unkempt locks. A strong pipe hanging from +every lip; beer, or kummil (a spirit prepared with cummin) at every hand. +Wild snatches of song, and hurried bursts of dialogue. Some are all +violence and uproar; some are half dead with sleep and fatigue, their +arms sprawling about the tables. Such is the inside of a German trade +traveller's room. + +Hans and his companion hand over their papers to the "father" as a +security, and their knapsacks to a sluttish-looking girl, who deposits +them in a cupboard in the corner of the room, and locks the door upon +them. Our travellers order a measure of Berliner Weiss Bier, to be in +keeping with the rest, and long for the hour of sleep. At length, a +stout young man enters, carrying a lighted lantern, and in a loud voice +of authority summonses all to bed. And there is a scrambling and +hustling among some of the travellers, a hasty guzzling of beer and +spirits, and a few low murmurs at being disturbed, but none dare disobey. + +A shambling troop of sixteen or eighteen, they quit the room, and enter a +small paved yard, preceded by the young man with the lantern. There is a +rough building resembling a stable, at the other end of the yard; and, in +one corner, a steep ladder, with a handrail, which leads to a chamber +above. They ascend, and enter a long, low loft, so completely crowded +with rough bedsteads that there remains but a narrow alley between them, +just sufficient to allow a single person to pass. Eight double beds, and +the ceiling so low that the companion of Hans can scarcely stand upright +with his hat on. + +"New-comers this way," shouts the conductor. + +"What's the matter, now?" inquires Hans of his comrade. + +"Take off your coat," is the answer in a whisper; "undo the wristbands, +and throw open the collar of your shirt." + +"What for?" + +"To be examined." + +So they are examined; and, being pronounced sound, are allowed to sleep +with the rest of the flock. In this loft, each bed with at least two +occupants, and the door locked--without consideration for fire, accident, +or sudden indisposition,--Hans passes the first night in Berlin. + +But there is no work in Berlin, and Hans must pursue his journey. He +waits for hours at the police-office, as play-goers wait at the door of a +London theatre. By and by, he gets into the small bureau with a +desperate rush. That business is settled, and he is off again. Time +runs on; and, after a further tramp of good two hundred miles, Hans gets +settled at last in the free city of Hamburg. + +With the exception of a few factories, such as the silk-works at +Chemnitz, in Saxony, and the colony of goldsmiths at Pfortzheim, in +Wurtemburg, there are few extensive manufactories in Germany. Trade is +split up into little masterships of from one to five or six men. This +circumstance materially affects the relation between the employer and +employed. + +The master under whom Hans serves at Hamburg is a pleasant, affable +gentleman; his apprentice Peter may be of a different opinion, but that +is of no consequence. The master has spent the best years of his life in +England and France; has learned to speak the languages of both countries +with perfect facility, and is one of the lucky monopolists of his trade. +He employs three workmen; one of them, who is possessed of that peculiar +cast of countenance generally attributed to the children of Israel, has +been demurred to by the Guild,--and why? Because a Jew is legally +incapable of working in Hamburg. He is, however, allowed the usual +privileges on attesting that he is not an Israelite. + +Our master accommodates under his own roof one workman and his apprentice +Peter. The others, whom he cannot lodge, are allowed each one mark-banco +(fourteen pence) per week, to enable them to find a bed-chamber +elsewhere. They suffer a pecuniary loss by the arrangement. Hans sleeps +in a narrow box, built on the landing, into which no ray of heaven's +light had ever penetrated. His bedding is a very simple affair. He is +troubled with neither blankets nor sheets. An "under" and an "over" bed, +the latter rather lighter than the former, and both supposed to be of +feathers, form his bed and bedding. Hans is as well off as others, so he +does not complain. As for the apprentice, Peter, it was known that he +disappeared at a certain hour every evening; and from his appearance when +he turned out in the morning, Hans was under the impression that he +wildly shot himself into some deep and narrow hole, and slept the night +through on his head. + +And how does Hans fare under his master's roof? Considering the +reminiscences of his apprenticeship, he relishes his cup of coffee in the +morning; his tiny round roll of white bread; the heavy black rye-loaf, +into which he is allowed to hew his way unchecked; and the beautiful +Holstein butter. Not being accustomed to better food, it is possible +that he enjoys the tasteless, fresh boiled beef, and the sodden baked +meat, with no atom of fat, which form the staple food at dinner. Whether +he can comprehend the soups which are sometimes placed before him,--now +made of shredded lemons, now of strained apples, and occasionally of +plain water, with a sprinkling of rice, is another matter; but the +sourkraut and bacon, the boiled beef and raisins, and the baked veal and +prunes, are certain to be looked upon by him as unusual luxuries. + +The master presides at the table, and blesses the meat with the air of a +father of his people. Although workmen in Germany are little better than +old apprentices, this daily and familiar intercourse has the effect of +breaking down the formal barriers which in England effectually divide the +capitalist and the labourer. It creates a respectful familiarity, which +raises the workman without lowering the master. The manners of both are +thereby decidedly improved. + +Hans gradually learns other trade customs. His comrade falls sick, and +is taken to the free hospital, a little way out of the city. This +hospital is clean and well kept, but fearfully crowded. The elder +journeymen of the Guild are there too, and they comfort the sick man, and +hand him the weekly stipend, half-a-crown, allowed out of the sick-fund. +Hans contributes to this sick-fund two marks--two shillings and +fourpence--a quarter. He does it willingly, but the master has power to +deduct it from his wages in the name of the Guild. His poor sick friend +dies; away from home and friends--a desolate being among strangers. But +he is not, therefore, to be neglected. Every workman in the trade is +called upon to contribute his share--about sevenpence--towards the +expenses of the funeral; and the two senior, assisted by four other +journeymen, in full evening dress, attend his funeral. His effects are +then carefully packed up, and sent--a melancholy memorial of the dead--to +his relations. + +From the same fund which relieves the sick, are the "wandering boys" also +assisted. But the "Geschenk" (gift), as it is called, is a mere trifle; +sometimes but a few pence, and in a large city like Berlin it amounts to +but twenty silver groschen--little more than two shillings. It is not +considered disgraceful to accept this donation; as all, when in work, +contribute towards the fund from which it is supplied. + +And what is the amount of wages that German workmen receive? In Hamburg +wages vary from five to eight marks per week, that is, from seven +shillings to ten and sixpence, paid monthly. In Leipsic they are paid +fortnightly, and average about ten shillings per week. In Berlin wages +are paid by the calendar month, and average twenty-four dollars (a dollar +is rather more than three shillings), for that period; so that a workman +may be said to earn about eighteen shillings a week, but is dependent on +his own resources for food and lodging. In Vienna the same regulation +exists, and wages range from five to eight guldens--ten to sixteen +shillings per week--paid weekly, as in England. But a workman in Vienna +may be respectably lodged, lighted, and washed for at the rate of +half-a-crown a week. In Berlin and Vienna married journeymen are to be +met with, but not in great numbers, and in smaller towns they may almost +be said to be unknown. Dr. Korth, in his address to his young friends, +the "travelling boys," on this subject, emphatically says--"Avoid, in +God's name, all attachments to womankind, more especially to those of +whom your hearts would say, 'These could I love.'" And then the quaint +old gentleman proceeds to say a number of ungallant things, which are not +worth translating. + +No! the German workman is taught to hold himself free, that he may carry +out the law of his land to the letter; that he may return from his +travels at the appointed time "a wiser and a better man;" that he may +show proofs of his acquired skill in his trade, and thereupon claim the +master's right and position. He is then free to marry, and is looked +upon as an "eligible party." But how seldom does all this come to pass, +may the thousands who swarm in London and Paris; may the German colonies +which dot the American States, sufficiently tell. Many linger in large +cities till they feel that to return to the little native village, and +its old, poor, plodding ways, would be little better than burial alive; +and some return, wasted with foreign vice and purchased adversity, +premature old men, to die upon the threshold of their early homes. + +One more question--what are their amusements? It would be a long story +to tell, but certainly home-reading is not a prominent enjoyment among +them. German governments, as a rule, take care that the people's +amusements shall not be interfered with. The workmen throng in +dance-houses, beer-cellars, cafes, and theatres, which are all liveliest +and most attractive on a Sunday; and, as they are tolerably cheap, they +are generally a successful lure from deep thinking or study. Besides, +the German workman has no home. If he stay there at all in holiday +hours, it is to draw, or model, or sing romances to the strumming of his +guitar. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + + +HAMBURG TO LUBECK. + +The bleak, icy winter of North Germany is past. We have trodden its +accumulated snows as they lay in crisp heaps in the streets of Hamburg; +and have watched the muffled crowd upon the frozen Alster, darting and +reeling, skating, sliding, and sleighing upon its opaque and motionless +surface. We have alternately loved and execrated the massive German +oven, which warmed us indeed, but never showed us a cheerful face. We +have sipped our coffee or our punch in the beautiful winter garden of +Tivoli, under the shade of lemon-trees, with fragrant flowers and shrubs +around us; and finally, have looked upon the ice-bound Elbe with its +black vessels, slippery masts, and rigid cordage, and seen the Hanoverian +milk lasses skimming its dun expanse laden with their precious burdens. +We have got over the slop and drizzle, and half-thawed slush, too; and +the boisterous March wind dashes among the houses; and what is better +than all, the fresh mornings are growing brighter and longer with every +returning sun. + +Away, then, out of the old city, alone on the flat, sandy road that lies +between Hamburg and Berlin. Here we are, with hope before us, resolution +spurring us on, and a twenty-eight pound knapsack on our backs. Tighten +the straps, my friend, and you will walk easier with your load. + +My journey as a workman on the tramp from Hamburg to Berlin I propose to +tell, as simply as I can. I have no great adventures to describe, but I +desire to illustrate some part of what has already been said about the +workmen in Germany, and I can do this best by relating, just as it was, a +small part of my own road experience, neither more nor less wonderful +than the experience which is every day common to thousands of Germans. + +I was very poor when I set out from Hamburg in the month of March, with +my knapsack strapped to my back, my stick in my hand, and my bottle of +strong comfort slung about my neck after the manner of a locket. I was +not poor in my own conceit, for I had in my fob--the safest pocket for so +large a sum of money--two gold ducats and some Prussian dollars: English +money, thirty-five shillings. I thought I was a proper fellow with that +quantity of ready cash upon my person, and a six weeks' beard on my chin. + +Many adieus had been spoken in Hamburg at our last night's revel, but a +Danish friend was up betimes to see me out of town. At length he also +bade the wanderer farewell, and for the comfort of us both my locket +having passed from hand to hand, he left me to tramp on alone, over the +dull, flat, sandy road. There was scarcely a tree to be seen, and the +sky looked like a heavy sheet of lead, but I stepped out boldly and made +steady progress. The road got to be worse; I came among deep ruts and +treacherous sloughs, and the fields on each side of the road were +flooded. In some parts the road was a sand swamp, and the walk became +converted into a gymnastic exercise; a leaping about towards what seemed +the hard and knobby places that appeared among the mud. This exercise +soon made me conscious of the knapsack, to which I was then not +thoroughly accustomed. It was not so much the weight that I felt, but +the tightness of the belt across the chest, which caused pain and +impediment of breathing. Custom, however, caused the knapsack to become +even an aid to me in walking. + +A sturdy young fellow who did not object to mud was pushing his way +recklessly behind me. I was soon overtaken, we exchanged kind greetings, +and jogged on together, shoulder to shoulder. He had been upon his +travels; had been in Denmark for two years, and had left Copenhagen to +return to his native village, that lay then only eight or ten miles +before us. What was his reason for returning? He was required to +perform military service, and for the next two years at least--or for a +longer time, should war break out--was doomed to be a soldier. He did +not think the doom particularly hard, and we jogged on together in a +cheerful mood until his knowledge of the ground became distressingly +familiar, and he illustrated portions of the scenery with tales of +robbery and murder. The scenery of the road became at every turn more +picturesque. Instead of passing between swampy fields, it ran along a +hollow, and the ground was on each side broken into deep holes with +rugged edges; black leafless bushes stood out from the grey and yellow +sand, while farther away in the background, against the leaden sky, there +was a sombre fringe of thickly planted fir-trees. The daylight, dim at +noon, had become dimmer as evening drew near; the grey sky darkened, and +the tales of robbery and murder made my thoughts anything but cheerful. +As the hills grew higher on each side of us, it occurred to us both that +here was a fine place for a murder, and I let my companion go before, +handling my stick at the same time as one ready to strike instantly if +any injury were offered. I was just demonstrative enough to frighten my +companion. We were a mere couple of rabbits. Each of us in his +innocence feared that the other might be a guilty monster, and so we were +both glad enough to get out of the narrow pass. On the other side of the +glen the road widened, and my companion paused at the head of a little +path that led down to a deeper corner of the hollow, and across the +fields. That was his way home. He had but a mile to go, and was already +anticipating all the kisses of his household. He wished me a prosperous +journey; I wished him a happy welcome in his village; and we shook hands +like two young men who owed amends to one another. + +He had told me before we parted that there were two houses of +entertainment not far in advance. Already I saw the red-tiled roof of +one, that looked like a respectable farm-house. From the door of that +house, however, I was turned away; and as the darkness of the evening was +changing into night, I ran as fast as I was able to the next place of +shelter. By the pump, the horse-trough, and the dirty pool I knew that +there was entertainment there for man and horse. I therefore raised the +wooden latch, and in a modest tone made my request for a bed. A vixenish +landlady from the midst of a group of screaming children cried to me, +"You can't have a bed, you can have straw." That would do quite as well, +I said. + +I sat down at a table in a corner of the large room, called for a glass +of beer, produced some bread and sausage that I had brought with me from +Hamburg, and made a comfortable supper. There was a large wood fire +blazing on the ample hearth, but the landlord and his family engrossed +its whole vicinity. The house contained no other sitting-room and no +other sleeping accommodation than the one family bedroom and the barn. + +While I was at supper there came in other wandering boys like myself. I +had escaped the rain, but they had not; they came in dripping: a stout +man, and a tall, lank stripling. The youth wore a white blouse and hat +covered with oil-skin; his trousers were tucked halfway up his legs, and +he had mud up to his ankles. We soon exchanged our scraps of information +about one another. The stout man was a baker from Lubeck on the way to +Hamburg; the stripling, probably not yet out of his teens, was part +brazier, part coppersmith, part tinman; had been three weeks on his +travels, and had come, like myself, from Hamburg since morning. He was +very poor. He did not tell us that; but he ordered nothing to eat or +drink, and except the draught of comfort that he got out of my bottle, +the poor fellow went supperless to bed. Not altogether supperless +though, for he had some smoke. We made a snug little party in the +corner, and talked, smoked, and comforted ourselves, after the children +had been put to bed, and while the landlord, landlady, and an old +grandfather told stories to each other in Low German by the fire. At +nine o'clock the landlord lighted his lantern, and told us bluffly that +we might go to bed. We therefore, having handed him our +papers--passports and wander-books--for his security and for our own, +followed into the barn. That was a place large enough to hold straw for +a regiment of soldiers. It was a continuation of the dwelling-house, +sheltered under the same roof. We mounted three rude ladders, and so got +from floor to floor into the loft. Having guided us safely thither, he +quitted us at once with a "good night;" taking his lantern with him, and +leaving us to make our beds in the thick darkness as we could. The straw +was not straw: it was short-cut hay, old enough to have lost all scent of +hay, and to have acquired some other scents less pleasing to the nose; +hay, trodden, pressed, and matted down, without a vestige in it of its +ancient elasticity. There was nothing in it to remind us of a summer +tumble on the hay-cock. The barn roof was open, and the March night wind +whistled over us. I took off my boots to ease my swollen feet; took my +coat off that I might spread it over my chest as a counterpane; and +struggled in vain to work a hole for my feet into the hard knotted bank +of hay. So I spent the night, just so much not asleep that I was always +conscious, dimly, of the snoring of the baker, and awoke sometimes to +wonder what the landlord's cock had supped upon, for it was continually +crowing in its sleep, on the barn-floor below. When morning broke we +rose and had a brisk wash at the pump, scraped the mud from our boots, +and breakfasted. The baker and I had plain dry bread and hot coffee. +The tinman breakfasted on milk. He said it was better--poor fellow! he +knew it was cheaper. By seven o'clock we were all afoot again, the baker +journeying to Hamburg, the tinman and I road-companions to Lubeck. + +At noon, after a five hours' walk, a pleasant roadside inn with a deep +gable roof and snug curtains behind its lattice windows, tempted me to +rest and dine. "We shall get a good dinner here," I said; "let us go +in." The tinman would hear of no such thing. "We must get on to +Lubeck," he replied. "Two more hours of steady walking and we shall be +there." Poor youth! At Lubeck he could demand a dinner at his herberge, +and he had no chance of any other. So we trudged on till the tall +turrets and steeples of Lubeck rose on the horizon. The tinman desired +to know what my intentions were. Was I going straight on to Berlin +without working? Should I seek work at Lubeck? If not, of course I +would take the _viaticum_. "I thought not," I told him. "Ah, then," he +said, "you have some money." The viaticum is the tramp-money that may be +claimed from his guild by the travelling workman. Germans, like other +people, like to take pills gilded, and so they cloak the awkward incident +of poverty under a Latin name. + +Lubeck being in sight we sat down upon a grassy bank to make our toilet. +A tramp's knapsack always has little pouches at the side for soap, +brushes, and blacking. We were not so near to the tall steeples as we +thought, and it took us a good hour and a half before we reached the city +gates. The approaches are through pretty avenues of young trees and +ornamental flower-plots. The town entrance at which we arrived was +simply a double iron gate, like a park gate in England. As we were about +to pass in, the sentinel beckoned and pointed us towards a little +whitened watchbox, at which we stopped to hand our papers through a +pigeon-hole. In a few minutes the police officer came out, handed to me +my passport with great politeness, and in a sharp voice bade the tinman +follow him. Such is the difference between a passport and a wander-book. +I, owner of a passport, might go whither I would: tinman, carrying a +wander-book, was marched off by the police to his appointed house of +call. I took full advantage of my liberty, and, as became a weary young +man with two gold ducats in his fob, went to recruit my strength with the +best dinner I could get. Having taken off my knapsack and my blouse, I +soon, therefore, was indulging in a lounge upon the sofa of one of the +best hotels in the sleepy and old-fashioned free city of Lubeck. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + + +LUBECK TO BERLIN. + +By right of churches full of relics, antique buildings, and places +curiously named, Lubeck is, no doubt, a jewel of a town to antiquarians. +Its streets are badly paved, but infinitely cleaner than the streets of +Hamburg. I did not much wonder at that, for I saw no people out of doors +to make them dirty, when I exposed myself to notice from within doors as +a solitary pedestrian, upon my way to take a letter to a goldsmith in the +market place. The market place is a kind of exchange; a square building +with an open court in the centre, around which there is a covered way +roofed quaintly with carved timbers. In this building the mechanical +trades of Lubeck are collected, each trade occupying a space exclusively +its own under the colonnade. Here, all the tradesmen are compelled to +work, but are not permitted to reside. Each master has his tiny +shop-front with a trifling show of goods exposed in it, and his small +workshop behind, in which, at most, two or three men can be employed. In +some odd little nooks the doors of these boxes are so arranged, that two +masters cannot go out of adjoining premises at the same time without +collision. + +Though my friend in Lubeck was a stranger, as a brother jeweller he gave +me friendly welcome. Having inquired into my resources, he said, "You +must take the _viaticum_."--"It is like begging," I +answered.--"Nonsense," he replied; "you pay for it when you are in work, +and have a right to it when travelling."--"But I might find employment, +on inquiry."--"Do not be alarmed, my friend; there is not a job to be +done in the whole city." I was forced, therefore, by my friend's +good-natured earnestness, to make the usual demand throughout the little +group of goldsmiths, and having thus satisfied the form, I was conducted +to our Guild alderman and treasurer. A little quiet conversation passed +between them, and the cash-box was then emptied out into my hand; it +contained twenty-eight Hamburg shillings, equal to two shillings in +English money. + +I returned to my hotel and slept in a good bed that night. The morning +broke heavily, and promised a day's rain. Through the lowering weather +and the dismal streets I went to the police office to get my passport +_vised_ for Schwerin in Mecklenburg. Most dismal streets! The Lubeckers +were complaining of loss of trade, and yearned for a railway from Lubeck +to Hamburg. But the line would run through a corner of Holstein, and no +such thing would be tolerated by the Duke. The Lubeckers wanted the +Russian traffic to come through their town and on to Hamburg by rail. +The Duke of Holstein wished to bring it through his little port of Kiel +upon the Baltic. + +Too poor to loiter on the road, having got my passport _vised_, I again +strapped the knapsack to my back, and set out through the long avenues of +trees over the long, wet road, through bitter wind and driving rain. +Soaked with rain, and shivering with cold, I entered the village of +Schoneberg at two o'clock, just after the rain had ceased, as deplorable +a figure as a man commonly presents when all the vigour has been washed +out of his face, and his clothes hang limp and damp about his body. +Wearied to death, I halted at the door of an inn, but was told +inhospitably--miserable tramp as I seemed, and was--that "I could go to +the next house." At the next house they again refused me, already +humbled, and advised me to go to The Tall Grenadier. That is a house of +call for masons. I went to it, and was received there hospitably. My +knapsack being waterproof, I could put on dry clothes, and hang my wet +garments round the stove, while the uproarious masons--terrible men for +beer and music--comforted me with unending joviality. They got into +their hands a book of German songs that dropped out of my knapsack, and +having appointed a reader, set him upon the table to declaim them. +Presently, another jolly mason cried out over a drinking song--declaimed +among the others in a loud monotonous bawl--"I know that song;" and +having hemmed and tuned his voice a little, broke out into music with +tremendous power. The example warmed the others; they began to look out +songs with choruses, and so continued singing to the praise of wine and +beauty out of my book, until they were warned home by the host. I +climbed a ladder to my bedroom, and slept well. The Grenadier was not an +expensive hotel, for in the morning when I paid my bill for bed and +breakfast, I found that the accommodation cost me fourpence-halfpenny. + +Since it is my desire not to fatigue the reader of this uneventful +narrative, but simply to illustrate by a few notes drawn from my own +experience the life of a German workman on the tramp, I shall now pass +over a portion of the road between Hamburg and Berlin in silence. My way +lay through Schwerin; from Schoneberg to Schwerin is twenty-six English +miles, and we find it a long way. In reckoning distances, the Germans +count by "stunden"--_i.e._ hours--and two "stunden" make one German mile. +From experience, I should say that five miles English were about equal to +one mile German; but they vary considerably. Having spent a night in the +exceedingly neat city of Schwerin beside its pleasant waters, and under +the protection of the cannon in the antiquated castle overhead, I set out +for a walk of twenty miles onward to Ludwigslust. The road was a +pleasant one, firm and dry, with trim grass edgings and sylvan seats on +either side. The country itself was flat and dull, enlivened only now +and then by a fir plantation or a pretty village. Brother tramps passed +me from time to time with a cheerful salutation, and at three o'clock I +passed within the new brick walls of Ludwigslust; a town dignified as a +pleasure seat with a military garrison, a ducal palace, and an English +park. + +The inn to which I went in Ludwigslust, was the house of call for +carpenters. The carpenters were there assembled in great force, +laughing, smoking, and enjoying their red wine, which may have come from +France, for Mecklenburg is no wine country. It was the quarter-day and +pay-day of the carpenters, who were about to celebrate the date as usual +with a supper. I went to sit down in the small travellers' room, and was +assailed instantly by the whole army of joiners, some with bleared eyes; +with flushed faces under caps of every shape and colour; and a flexible +pipe hanging from every mouth--Who was I?--What was I?--Whence did I +come?--Where was I born? and whither was I going? etc., etc. When they +had found out all about me and confirmed their knowledge by examination +of my passport, which one dull dog persisted in regarding as a book of +ballads, out of which he sang, I began to ask concerning food. "Nothing +warm in the house," said the housefather, a carpenter himself. "There +will be a grand supper at six o'clock, and everything and everybody is +wanted in the preparation of it. Make yourself easy for the present with +brown bread and dripping, and a glass of beer, and then you can make your +dinner with us when we sup." That suited me well enough. + +The carpenters flowed out into the street, to take a stroll and get their +appetites, leaving behind them one besotted man, who propped himself +against the oven, and there gave himself a lecture on the blessings of +equanimity under all circumstances of distress. + +"Do you sleep here to-night?" inquired the host. Certainly, I desired to +do so. "Then you must go to the police bureau for a permission."--"But +you have my passport; is not that sufficient?"--"Not in Ludwigslust; your +passport must be held by the police, and they will give you in exchange +for it a ticket, which I must hold, or else I dare not let you have a +lodging." I went to the police office at once; through the ill-paved +street into the middle of the town. I went by a large gravelled square, +which serves as a riding ground for the cavalry in the adjoining +barracks; and a long broad street of no great beauty, ending in a flight +of steps, led me then to the police office, and would have led me also, +had that been my destination, to the ducal palace. The palace fronts to +a paved square; it is a massive, noble edifice of stone, having before it +a fine cascade with a treble fall. To the left, across a green meadow, I +observed the church--the only church--a simple whitewashed building with +a colonnaded front. At the foot of the low flight of steps was the +police office, in which I found one man, who civilly copied my passport +into a book, put it aside, and gave me a ticket of permission to remain +one night in Ludwigslust. I was desired to call for my passport before +leaving in the morning. + +At seven o'clock there was no sign of supper. At eight o'clock the cloth +was spread in a long, low lumber-room at the back of the inn, and the +assembled carpenters took their seats before the board, or rather boards +supported upon tressels. I took my place and waited hungrily. Very soon +there was a great steam over the whole table sent up from huge tureens of +boiled potatoes; smaller dishes of preserved prunes, boiled also, +occupied the intervals. A bottle of red wine was placed for every two +men. We then began our meal with soup; thin, sorry stuff. Then came the +chief dishes, baked veal and baked pig's head. The prunes were to be +eaten with the veal, which meat, having been first boiled to make the +soup, and then baked in a deep dish in a close oven to bring out some of +the faded flavour, was a sodden mass, and the whole meal was removed a +very long way from the roast fillet of veal and pickled pork known to an +Englishman. Our pig's head was, however, capital,--no soup had been made +out of that. The carpenters, with assiduous kindness, heaped choice bits +upon my plate, and as I had not dined, I supped with energy. The drunken +man who had fallen asleep by the stove sat by my side with greedy looks, +eating nothing, for he had not paid his share; he was a man who drank +away his gains, and he received no pity. + +Then after supper there came toasts. The president was on his legs, all +glasses were filled; men ready. "Long live the Guild of carpenters! +Vivat h--o!" The ho! was a howl; the glasses clashed. "Long live all +carpenters! Vivat ho--o!" At ten o'clock there was a bustle and +confusion at the door, and a long string of lads marched, two and two, +cap in hand, into the room. These were all the carpenters' apprentices +in Ludwigslust. Every quarterly night the hospitable carpenters have +them in after supper to be regaled with beer and cordials, and initiated +into the mysteries of jollity that are connected with the existence of a +master carpenter. "Long live all carpenters' apprentices! Vivat +ho--o--o!" The apprentices having revelled in as much beer and spirits +as could be got through, shouting included, in a quarter of an hour, +formed double line again, and marched out under a fire of lusty cheers +into the street. Some jolly carpenters still lingered in the supper +room, smoking or singing choruses, or making partners of each other for +mad waltzes round the table to the music of their tongues. + +Longing for bed, I was obliged to wait until the landlord was at leisure +to attend to me. After I rose next morning, I waited for three hours +impatiently enough until the sleepy host had risen; for until I had +received my ticket back from him I was unable to get my passport and go +on. At length, however, I got out of the brick walls of Ludwigslust, and +marched forward under a clear sky on the way to Perleberg, my next stage, +distant about fifteen English miles. + +Having passed through two dirty, ill-paved towns, and being in some +uncertainty about the road, I asked my way of a short, red-faced man who, +being himself bound for the frontier station, favoured me so far with his +company. He was a post-boy whose vocation was destroyed, but who was +nevertheless blessed with philosophy enough to recognise the merits of +the railway system, and to point out the posts marking the line between +Berlin and Hamburg, with the comment that "the world must move." It +seemed to be enough for him that he lived in the recollection of the +people on his old road-side, and that he could stop with me outside a +toll-gate, the first I had seen in Germany, sure of the production of a +bottle for a social dram, in which I cordially joined. Then presently we +came to a small newly-built village, the Prussian military station. A +sentinel standing silent and alone by his sentry box striped with the +Prussian colours, black and white, marked where the road crossed the +Prussian frontier. We passed unchallenged, and found dinner upon the +territory of the Black Eagle, in a very modest house of entertainment. + +Travelling alone onward to Perleberg, I stopped once more for refreshment +at a melancholy, dirty place, having one common room, of which the chairs +and tables contained as much heavy timber as would build a house. I +wanted an hour's rest, for my knapsack had become a burden to me, and the +handles of the few tools I was obliged to carry dug themselves +relentlessly into my back. "White or brown beer?" asked the attendant. +Dolt that I was to answer Brown! They brought me a vile treacley +compound that I could not drink; whereas the Berlin white beer is a +famous effervescing liquor; so good, says a Berliner, that you cannot +distinguish it from champagne if you drink it rapidly with closed eyes, +and at the same time press your nose between your fingers. In the +evening I got to Perleberg, and walking wearily up the old, irregular +High Street, established myself at the Londoner Schenke--the London +Tavern. I found the parlour pleasant and almost private, the hostess +quiet and lady-like. While she was getting coffee ready for me, I paid +my call of duty upon the police; for though my passport had been _vised_ +to Berlin in half a dozen places, the law required that I should not +sleep in a new kingdom without first announcing my arrival. + +At the upper end of the market place I found a red brick building with a +gloomy door, opening upon a broad stone staircase, by which I mounted to +the magistrate's room. That was a lofty hall, badly lighted by two +little windows, and scantily furnished with a few seats. Behind a +railing sat the magistrate in a velvet skull-cap and black robe; a short +fat man with a satisfied face, but unsatisfied and restless eyes. Two +armed soldiers shared with him the space beyond the rail. Two townsmen, +hat in hand, were patiently waiting for their passes. Having mentioned +my business, I was told that I might wait; standing, of course. The +heavy quiet of the room was broken presently by the entrance of two young +workmen in clean blouses, bound upon an errand like my own, who hovered +in a tremulous condition near the doorway. + +The magistrate of Perleberg, after awhile, looked at my passport, and +asked "Have you the requisite amount of travelling money to show?" I had +not expected such a question, but the two gold ducats were still in my +fob, and I produced them with the air of a fine gentleman. One of the +soldiers took them in his hand, examined them and passed them to his +comrade, who passed them to the townspeople. "They are good," said the +soldier, as he put them back into my hand.--"Is that enough?" I asked, as +though there had been thousands of such things about other parts of my +person, for I saw that I had made an impression. "That will do," said +the magistrate, "you may sit down." O miserable homage before wealth! +They would not keep me standing. + +It had grown dark, and a lighted candle had been placed upon the desk of +the chief magistrate, a most diligent man in his office, who, seeing no +description of my person in the passport, set to work with the zest of an +artist upon the depiction of my features. Examining each feature +minutely with a candle, he put down the results of his researches, and +then finally read off his work to me with this note at the bottom--"The +little finger of his left hand is crooked." + +The hostess of the London Tavern, when I got back to my quarters, must +have heard about my wealth. That pleasant little maiden lady told me all +about her house, and how it had been named afresh after the King of +Prussia slept there on his way to London, where he was to act as sponsor +to the Prince of Wales. I, who had been turned away from the doors of +the humblest inns, was flattered and courted by a landlady who had +entertained His Majesty of Prussia. The neatest of chambermaids +conducted me to an elegant bedchamber--"her own room," the little old +maid had said as I left her--and there I slept upon the couch sacred to +her maiden meditations, among hangings white as snow. + +The next morning I went out into Perleberg,--a ricketty old place, full +of rats and legends. There is a colossal figure in the market-place of +an armed knight, eighteen or twenty feet high, gazing eternally into the +fruit baskets below. He has his head uncovered, his hand upon his sword, +and is made of stone; but who he is nobody seemed to know; I was only +told that the statue would turn any one to stone who fixed his eyes upon +it in intense gaze for a sufficiently long time. I visited the chief +jeweller, a wonderful man, who was said to have visited nearly all parts +of the known world except London and Paris. I found him with one +workman, very busy, but not doing much; and he was very civil, although +manifestly labouring under the fear that I had come to ask for a +"_viaticum_." I did not. I went back to eat a hearty breakfast at the +London Tavern, where I found the mistress gracious, and the handmaid very +chatty and coquettish. From her talk I half concluded that I was +believed to be an Englishman who travelled like a journeyman for the +humour of the thing: the English are so odd, and at the London Tavern +they had not been without experience of English ways. My display of the +gold pieces must have been communicated to them overnight, by one of the +townspeople who heard me tell the magistrate at what inn I was staying. + +From Perleberg to Keritz was eighteen miles. Upon the road I came up +with a poor fellow limping pitiably. He had a flat wooden box upon his +back, being a tramping glazier; and he made snail's progress, having his +left thigh swollen by much walking. I loitered with him as long as my +time allowed, and then dashed on to recover the lost ground. Passing at +a great pace a neat road-side inn, singing the while, a jolly red face +blazed out upon me from the lattice window. "Ei da! You are merry. +Whither so fast?"--"To Berlin."--"Wait an instant and I'm with you." Two +odd figures tumbled almost at the end of the instant out of the house +door. One a burly man with a red face and a large moustache, the other a +chalky young man with a pair of Wellington boots slung round his neck. +They were both native Prussians on the way from Hamburg to Berlin, having +come through Magdeburg, travelling, they declared, at the rate of about +six-and-twenty English miles a day. These Prussians will talk; but at +whatever rate my friends might have travelled, they were nearly dead +beat. They had sent on their knapsacks by the waggon, finding them +unmercifully heavy. The stout traveller had a white sack over his +shoulders, his trousers tucked up to his knees, and his Wellington boots +cut down into ankle-jacks to ease his chafed shins, that were already +dotted with hectic red spots from over-exertion. His young friend +carried his best Wellingtons about his neck, and wore a pair of cracked +boots, through which I could see the colour, in some places, of his dark +blue socks, in other places of his dark red flesh. Both were lamed by +the same cause, inflammation of the front of the leg, in which part I +also had begun to feel some smartings. + +We got on merrily, in spite of our legs, and overtook two very young +travellers, whom I recognised as the flutterers before the presence of +the magistrate at Perleberg. One proved to be a bookbinder, the other a +wood-turner. They were fresh upon their travels, and their clean white +blouses, the arrangements of their knapsacks, and the little neatnesses +and comforts here and there about them, showed that they had not yet +travelled many days' march from a mother's care. Then we toiled on, +until our elder friend grew worse and worse about his feet, laughing and +joking himself out of pain as he was able. Finally, he could go no +farther, and we waited until we could send him forward in a passing cart. + +He being dispatched, we travelled on, I and my friend with the +boot-necklace, till we met a little crowd of men in blouses, little queer +caps, knapsacks, and ragged beards, all carrying sticks. They were +travelling boys like ourselves, bound from Berlin to Hamburg. "Halloo!" +they cried. "Halloo!" we answered, shouting in unison as we approached +each other. When we met, a little friendly skirmish with our sticks was +the first act of greeting. A storm of questions and replies then +followed. We all knew each other in a few minutes; carpenters, turners, +glovers were there,--not a jeweller among them but myself. We parted +soon, for time was precious. "Love to Berlin," cried one of them back to +us. "My compliments to Hamburg," I replied; and then we all struck up an +amatory chorus of the "Fare thee well, love" species, that fitted +properly with our position. + +Continuing upon our way we found our lame companion smoking a pipe +comfortably outside the village inn at Warnow. His cart was resting +there for bait to man and horse. We baited also and discussed black +bread-and-butter, and Berlin white beer, till the cart carried away our +moustachioed friend, never again, perhaps, to meet us in this world, and +not likely to be recognised by his moustachios in the other. + +My chalky comrade, who was also very lame, lay on the ground in a +desperate condition before the day was over, and it was with some +difficulty that I brought him safe by nightfall into Wusterhausen. He +had become also mysterious, and evidently inquisitive as to the state of +my finances, exhibiting on his own part hasty glimpses of a brass medal +wrapped up in fine wool, which he wished me to look upon as a double +ducat. When we got to the inn-door, my friend made a hurried proposition +very nervously, which made his purpose clear. There were sixty English +miles of road between us and Berlin; he was knocked up, and a fast coach, +or rumbling omnibus, accommodating six insides, would start for Berlin in +the morning. He thought he could bargain with the coachman to take us to +Berlin for a dollar--three shillings--a piece, if I did not mind +advancing his fare, because he did not want to change the double ducat +until he got home. I put no difficulty in his way, for he was a good +fellow, and moreover would be well able to help me in return, by telling +me the addresses of some people I depended upon finding in Berlin. He +proceeded, therefore, into the agonies of bargaining, and was not +disappointed in his expectation. At the price of a dollar a-piece we +were packed next morning in a frowsy vehicle, tainted with much +tobacco-smoke, to which he came with his swollen feet pressed only +half-way down into the legs of his best Wellingtons. The ride was long +and dull, for there was little prospect to be caught through the small, +dirty window; and the air tasted of German tinder. From a cottage villa +on the roadside, a German student added himself to the three passengers +that started from Wusterhausen. He came to us with a pipe in his mouth, +unwashed, and hurriedly swaddled in a morning gown, carelessly tied with +a cord about the middle. After a few miles travelling the vehicle was +full, and remained full--until we at last reached Berlin. + +There I found no work, and wandered listlessly through the museums and +picture-galleries; for a troubled mind is a poor critic in works of art. +So I squeezed myself into the Police Court, meaning to leave Berlin, and +had the distinction of being beckoned, before my turn out of the reeking +mass of applicants for passports, because my clothes had a respectable +appearance, and I wore a showy pin in my cravat. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + + +BERLIN.--OUR HERBERGE. + +Fairly in Prussia! We have passed the frontier town of Perleberg, and +press onward in company with a glovemaker of Berlin, last from +Copenhagen, whom we have overtaken on the road towards Wusterhausen. + +"Thou wouldst know, good friend, the nature of my prospects in Berlin +when I arrive there? Have I letters of recommendation--am I provided in +case of the worst? Brother, not so! I am provided for nothing. I dare +the vicissitudes of fortune. I had a friend in Hamburg, a Frenchman, who +departed thence five months ago for Berlin, under a promise to write to +me at the lapse of a month. He has never written, and he is my hope. +That is all. Let us go on." + +"I have a cousin," says the glovemaker, "who is a jeweller in Berlin. I +will recommend you to him. His name is Kupferkram." + +"Strange! I knew a Kupferkram in Hamburg; a short, sallow man, with no +beard." + +"A Prussian?" + +"Yes." + +"It cannot be that my cousin was in Hamburg and I not know it. I was +there twelve months." + +"Why not? A German will be anywhere in the course of twelve months +except where you expect to find him." + +"His name is Gottlob--Gottlob Kupferkram." + +"The very man! Does he not lisp like a child, and his father sell +sausages in the stadt?" + +"Donnerwetter! Ja!" + +This may not appear to be of much importance, but to me it is everything; +for upon the discovery of this vender of sausages depends my meeting with +my best and only friend in Berlin, Alcibiade Tourniquet, of Argenteuil, +the Frenchman before mentioned. It is at least a strange coincidence. + +We came into the capital of Prussia in the eil-wagen from Wusterhausen. +We had tramped the previous day a distance of good two-and-thirty English +miles, through a flat, uninteresting country, and being dead beat, had +made an anxious bargain with the driver of the "Fast-coach," to carry us +to Berlin for a dollar a-head. It was late in the evening as we rumbled +heavily along the dusty road, and through the long vista of thick +plantations which skirt the public way as you enter the city from +Spandau. We dismounted, cramped and weary, from our vehicle, and my +companion, a native of Berlin, unwilling to disturb his friends at that +late hour, and in his then travel-worn guise; and I myself being unknown +and unknowing in the huge capital, led the way at once to "Our Herberge." + +The English term "House of Call" is but an inadequate translation of the +German "Herberge." It must be remembered that the German artisan is +ruled in everything by the state; for while English workmen, by their own +collective will, raise up their trade or other societies, in whatever +form or to whatever purpose their intelligence or their caprices may +dictate to them, the German, on the contrary, discovers among his very +first perceptions that his position and treatment in the world is already +fixed and irrevocable. He becomes numbered and labelled from the hour of +his birth, and the gathering items of his existence are duly +recorded--not in the annals of history--but in the registry of the +police. Thus he finds that the State, in the shape of his Zunft or +Guild, is his Sick Benefit Club and his Burial Society, his Travellers' +Fund and his Trade Roll-Call; aspires indeed to be everything he ought to +desire, and certainly succeeds in being a great deal that he does not +want. + +I have a little paper at my hand presented to me by the police of +Dresden, which may help to elucidate the question of associations of +workmen in Germany. It is an "Ordinance" by which "We, Frederick +Augustus, by God's grace King of Saxony, &c., &c., make known to all +working journeymen the penalties to which they are liable should they +take part in any disallowed 'workmen's unions, tribunals, or +declarations;'" the said penalties having been determined on by the +various governments of the German Union. "Independently," says the +Ordinance, "of the punishment" (not named) "which may be inflicted for +the offence, the delinquent shall be deprived of his papers, which shall +be sealed up and sent to his home Government. On his release from +prison(!) he shall receive a restricted pass for his immediate and direct +return home; and on his arrival there he shall be strictly confined +within its limits, nor ever be permitted to travel into the other states +of the German Union, until by a long course of repentance and good +behaviour his home government may think him worthy of such a favour." It +will easily be understood from this that mechanics' or other +institutions, independent of the government, are unknown. + +The German Herberge is the home of the travelling workman. It should be +clean and wholesome; there should he be provided, together with simple +and nutritious food, every necessary information connected with his +trade, and such aid and reasonable solace as his often wearisome +pilgrimage requires. All this is to be rendered at a just and +remunerative price, and it is usually supposed that the fulfilment of +these requisites is guaranteed by the care and surveillance of the +police. But this is a fiction. + +Our Herberge is in the Schuster-gasse; and a vile, ill-conditioned, +uncleanly den it is; nor, I am sorry to say, are its occupants, in +appearance at least, unworthy of their abode. But we must not be +uncharitable; it is a hard task this tramping through the length and +breadth of the land; and he is a smart fellow who can keep his toilet in +anything like decent condition amid the dust, the wind, the pelting rain +or the weltering sunshine that beset and envelope him on the implacable +high road. As there is no help, we take our places among the little herd +of weary mortals without a murmur; among the ragged beards and uncombed +locks; the soiled blouses and travel-worn shoe-leather; the horny hands +and embrowned visages of our motley companions. We are duly marshalled +to bed at eight o'clock with the rest; huddled into our loft where nine +beds await some sixteen occupants; and having undergone the customary +examination as to our freedom from disease and vermin, are safely locked +in our dormitory, to be released only at the good will of the "Vater" in +the morning. + +Your German is truly a patient animal; the laws of his Guild compel him +to wander for a period of years, but the laws of his country do not +provide him with even the decencies of life upon the road. With his +humble pack, and his few hoarded dollars, he sets forth upon the road of +life; he is bullied and hustled by the police upon every step of his +journey; burdened with vexatious regulations at every halting-place; and +while the law forbids him to seek any other shelter than that of his +Herberge, it leaves it to the mercy of his host to yield him the worst +fare, spread for him the vilest litter, and to filch him of his scanty +savings in the bargain. What, in Heaven's name! are the accommodations +for which we in the Schuster-gasse are called upon to pay? There is the +common room with its rude benches and tables; a stone-paved court-yard +with offices, doubtless at one period appropriated as stabling, but the +ground floor of which is now penned off for some few choice biped +occupants; while the story above, reached by a railed ladder, and, in +fact, no more than a stable loft, is nightly crammed to the door with +sweltering humanity. For the purpose of cleanliness there is no other +toilette apparatus than the iron pump in the yard; and for the claims of +nature and decency, no better resource than is afforded by the sheltering +arch of the nearest bridge over the Spree. + +The goldsmiths and jewellers in Berlin are too inconsiderable a body to +have a Herberge of their own, and therefore we crowd in with the turners, +the carpenters, and the smiths; the glove-makers, bookbinders, and others +who claim the hospitalities of the asylum in the Schuster-gasse. Let us +take a sketch or two among them that may serve as a sample of the whole. + +We have a sturdy young carpenter from Darmstadt, bound to Vienna, or +wherever else he may find a resting-place, who makes his morning and +almost only meal of _Kummel_--corn spirit prepared with caraways--and +brown bread; and whose great exploit and daily exercise is that of +lifting the great table in the common room with his teeth. An iron-jawed +fellow he is, with every muscle in his well-knit body to match. +Fortunately, though a Goliath in strength, he is as simple-minded and +joyous as a child. + +Then comes a restless pigmy of a Hungarian, a jeweller, last from +Dresden, full of life and song, but who complains ruefully that the +potatoes of Berlin are violently anti-dyspeptic. This suffering wanderer +from the banks of the Theiss is also vehemently expressive in his opinion +that the indiscriminate use of soap is injurious to the skin, and, as a +matter of principle, never uses any. + +Near him stands a lank native of Lubeck, a fringe-maker, whose whole +pride and happiness is concentrated in his ponderous staff of pilgrimage; +a patriarchal wand, indeed! rightly bequeathed as an heirloom from father +to son, and in its state and appearance not unworthy of the reverence +with which it is regarded. It is no flimsy cane to startle flies with, +but a stout stem some six feet long, duly peeled, scraped and polished, +and mounted with a chased head of massive silver. + +Close by his side an effeminate leather-dresser from Carlsruhe sits +stroking his yellow goat's beard. Instead of strapping his knapsack to +his back like a stalwart youth, after the manly fashion of his +forefathers when on the tramp, he trundles behind him as he goes, a +little iron chaise loaded with his pack and worldly equipage. + +There broods a sombre cordwainer from Bremen, gloating over his enormous +pipe, in form and size like a small barrel, raising an atmosphere for +himself of the fumes of coarse uncut _knaster_. He has doffed his white +kittel (blouse), and has wriggled himself into a short-waisted, +long-skirted, German frock-coat, which, having been badly packed in his +knapsack, exhibits every crease and wrinkle it has acquired during a +three weeks' march. Know, friend, that the skilful folding of apparel, +to be worn on his arrival in every important town, is one of the +necessary acquirements of the German wanderer. + +Add to these a rollicking saddler from Heldesheim, who figures in a full +beard, a rich cluster of crisp, brown curls, his own especial pride, and +the object of deep envy to his less hirsute companions; and who, far too +fond of corn brandy-wine, goes about singing continually the song of the +German tramp, "_Ich Liebe das liederliche Leben_!"--This vagabond life I +delight in!--an earnest, quiet student, who, for reasons of economy, has +made the Schuster-gasse his place of refuge; and a dishevelled +button-maker, last from Hamburg, who has just received his geschenck, or +trade-gift, amounting to fifteen silver groschens, about eighteenpence in +English money; and who ponders drearily over it as it lies in the palm of +his hand, wondering how far this slender sum will carry him on the road +to Breslau, his native place, still some two hundred miles away. + +We have among us the wily and the simple, the boisterous and the patient, +the taciturn and the unruly; but though they will sing songs before they +go to sleep, and swagger enormously among themselves, they become as +still and meek as doves at the voice of the Herberges-Vater (the father +of the Herberge), and quake like timid mice beneath the eye of the +police. + + + + +CHAPTER X. + + +A STREET IN BERLIN. + +Berlin is a fine city, let the wise Germans of the East say what they +will. It may be deficient in those monumental records of "the good old +times," the crumbling church, the thick-walled tower, the halls and +dungeons of feudal barbarism, but it abounds with evidences of the vigour +and life of modern taste and skill; and instead of daily sinking into +rotten significance, like some of its elder brethren, is hourly growing +in beauty and strength. It has all the attributes of a great +city--spacious "places," handsome edifices, broad and well-paved streets. +Its monuments, while they are evidences of great cultivation in the arts, +tell of times and events just old enough to be beyond the ken of our own +experiences, yet possess all the truth and vividness of recent history. +"Der Alter Fritz," Blucher, Zieten, Seyditz, Winterfeldt, Keith, and "Der +Alter Dessauer"--what names are these in Prussian story! + +The entrance into Berlin, on the western side, from Spandau, by the +Brandenburger Gate, is the finest that the capital of Prussia has to +present. A thickly-planted wood skirts the road for a mile or two before +you reach the city. The trees are dwarfed and twisted, for they cannot +grow freely in the dense, eternal sands of this part of North Germany, +but they form a rough fringing to the white road; while the noble gate +itself, built of massive stone in the Doric order of architecture, and +surmounted by an effective group of a four-horse chariot, within which +stands the figure of Victory raising the Roman eagle above the almost +winged steeds, might grace the entrance to the city of the Caesars. + +This Brandenburger Thor, as it is called, is a copy of the Propylaea of +the Acropolis of Athens, but built on a much grander scale. The central +gate is of iron, eighteen feet high; of the fourteen land gates of Berlin +it is immeasurably the finest, and it acquires a still deeper interest +when some enthusiastic Berliner, pointing to the prancing steeds upon the +summit of the arch, tells you how Napoleon in his admiration had ordered +this self-same group to be transported to Paris in 1807, to ornament a +French "_arch de triomphe_," and how "We, the Prussians," had torn the +spoil from the eagle's very nest in 1814, to replant it on its original +site. A glow of military ardour flushes over your heart at the recital, +and the echoes of a hundred battles thunder in your ears. + +Through this gate, which is in the Dorotheen Stadt, after crossing the +Square of Paris, we enter upon one of the handsomest streets in the +world, and one bearing the most poetical of titles: +"Unter-den-Linden,"--"Under the Lime Trees!"--there is something at once +charming and imposing in the very sound. Nor is this appellation an +empty fiction, for there stand the lime trees themselves, in two double +rows with their delicate green leaves rustling in the breeze, forming a +two-fold verdant allee, vigorous and fragrant, down the centre of the +street, and into the very heart of the city. Unter-den-Linden itself is +two thousand seven hundred and fifty-four feet in length, and one hundred +and seventy-four in width; but it extends, under another title, for a +much greater distance. This is the summer evening's ramble of your true +Berliner, and not a little proud and pompous he is as he parades himself +and family beneath the leafy canopy; and here, in the snowy winters, when +the city lies half buried in the snowdrift, the gaily dressed sleighs go +skimming under the leafless branches, filling the bright cold air with +the music of their bells. + +As we proceed deeper into the city, we find gay shops and stately houses. +A noble range of buildings appropriated to the foreign embassies rises +upon the left hand, and is succeeded by the Royal Academy; while some +distance beyond stands the University, an edifice of a rather sombre +appearance, although graced with columns and pilasters of the Corinthian +order. To enter it you traverse a spacious court-yard, and it may be +that the nature of its contents impart a melancholy character to the +building itself; for, on ascending its stone staircase, and wandering for +a brief period among its bottles and cases, its wax models and human +preserves, we find them of so unsightly and disgusting a character that +we are happy to regain the echoing corridor which had led us into this +huge, systematised charnel-house. + +As we cross to the opposite side of the broad street, the Royal Library +faces us; a massive temple of stored knowledge, polyglot and universal; +while to the right of it, in the centre of a paved space of considerable +extent, stands the Catholic church of St. Hedwig, at once a model of +Roman architecture, and the emblem of the liberty of faith. + +Close at hand is the Opera-house, once already purified by fire, like so +many of its companion edifices, and only lately rebuilt. Some idea may +be formed of the extent of its interior from the fact that it affords +accommodation for three thousand spectators. Our way lies onward still. +What noble figure is this? Simple but commanding in character and +attitude, it fixes your attention at once. Look at the superscription. +Upon a scroll on its pedestal are the words "Frederick William III. to +Field Marshal Prince Blucher of Wahlstatt, in the year 1826." Yes! the +impetuous soldier, figured in eternal bronze by the first sculptor of +Prussia, Rauch himself, here claims and receives the admiration of his +countrymen. Bare-headed stands the old warrior, but is duly crowned with +laurels on every returning anniversary of the well remembered day, the +18th of June. + +Leaving the sanctuary of the Christian Deity, the heathen temple of +Terpsichore, and the effigy of the renowned soldier, thus grouped +together, we traverse the fine road, and pause for a moment to look at a +severe but elegant structure, erected, we are told, in exact imitation of +a Roman _castrum_, or fortress, and therefore eminently in character with +the purpose for which it is intended. The smart Prussian infantry are +grouped about its pillared entrance, which is graced also by two statues +of military celebrities--for this is the royal guard-house. + +"Der Alter Fritz." "Old Fred!" This is the familiar title bestowed upon +a great monarch; and there is something in this nickname a thousand times +more telling to the ear and heart of a Prussian than the stately +appellation of "Frederick the Great." The former is for their own hearts +and homes, the latter for the world. And for the world also is the noble +equestrian statue upon which we now gaze. It is a question whether a +work of sterling genius does not speak as effectively to the eye of the +uninitiated as to that of the most inveterate stickler for antecedents of +grace and technicalities of beauty. This statue of Frederick of Prussia +tells upon the sense at once, because it is true to art as established by +ancient critics, but more so, because it is imitated nature, which art +too often only presumes to be, reckoning too much upon fixed rules and +time-honoured dogmas. It is noble and impressive, because it is _like_; +no antiquated Roman figure in _toga_ and _calcei_, but the representation +of the living man. + +Das Zeughaus, or arsenal, which we now approach, is a massive +quadrangular building, and the warlike character of its architectural +decorations strikingly indicate the nature of its contents. We pass +through the open gate into an inner court, and looking round upon the +sombre walls which inclose us, see the fearful faces of dead and dying +men, cut in stone, which the taste or caprice of the architect has +considered their fittest ornament. There is something strangely original +and attractive in the grotesque hideousness of these heads, agonised with +pain, scowling in anger, or frightful with their upturned eyes in the +rigidity of death, all bleached and shadowed as they are by the +vicissitudes of the weather. + +Within the arsenal we find walls of glistening steel, columns of lances, +architectural and other devices worked out in dagger blades and pistol +handles; while battered armour and faded draperies, in the shape of +pennons and standards, storm and battle-tattered, help to make up +trophies, and swing duskily in every corner. + +After a rapid survey, we are about to leave this magazine of Bellona, +when we are struck by the sight of an object which reminds us so +completely of one of those "gorgeous processions" in Eastern "spectacles" +at home, that we wonder for a moment whether it be "part of the play," or +tangible, sober reality. Yes! placed upon a scarlet cushion lies an +enormous gilt key (such a one as clown in the pantomime might open his +writing-desk with, or such as hangs over a locksmith's door), and above +it glistens a golden legend to the effect that the treasure beneath was +presented to "William of Prussia by his loving cousin, Nicolas, Emperor +of all the Russias," and is no less a prize than the identical key of the +captured city of Adrianople! Has, then, the Russian Emperor so many such +trophies of Eastern spoliation that his own museums at Petersburg are +insufficient to contain them? + +Up the steep way towards the residence of the Prince of Prussia, guarded +by its zealous sentries, we pursue our course, and reach the first bridge +we have yet seen, being one of the very many which span the Spree as it +meanders through the city. This river does not present an imposing +appearance in any part of Berlin. The Berliners may shake their heads, +and talk of the "Lange Brucke," but let them remember that in no part +does the Spree exceed two hundred feet in width. Moreover, the manner in +which it is jammed up between locks, like a mere canal--one is puzzled +sometimes to know which is canal and which river--does not improve its +appearance, while the use to which some of its bridges are appropriated +does not increase its purity. Passing onwards we come upon the Schloss +Platz, which is itself half a garden, and find ourselves in the midst of +an assemblage of public wonders--the Museum, the Protestant Cathedral, a +handsome basin and fountain (the pride of the true Berliner), the +Exchange, and the Old Palace. + +The Museum stands on the left-hand, gracefully shaded by young trees. +Traversing this miniature grove, which guards its entrance, and passing +by the lofty fountain scattering its spray upon the leaves, we come upon +an elegant vase of gigantic proportions, sculptured from a solid mass of +native granite. Ascending into the body of the building by a sombre +stone staircase, we reach the Gallery of Antiquities and the Museum of +Paintings. The latter, though no doubt very valuable, appeals +unsatisfactorily to me (not presuming to be a critic), and is of a +peculiarly rigid, ecclesiastical character, of the early school; +certainly one of its chief features is a crowd of martyred St. +Sebastians. + +The portion of the Museum appropriated to painting, unlike the National +Gallery of London, and the Pinakothek at Munich, receives a lateral +light. Imagine a long gallery divided into small cabinets by partitions, +which advance only so far from the outer wall as to leave a commodious +passage along its entire extent; imagine also that each of these cabinets +has a lofty window, and that on its side walls (the partitions) are +suspended the paintings for exhibition,--and you will form something like +a notion of the general arrangement. An effective _ensemble_ is out of +the question; but, on the other hand, every painting is well lighted, and +a better opportunity is afforded for quiet observation and study. + +We descend into the "Platz," and proceed towards the palace, a huge +rectangular building, striped with columns, dotted with windows, and +blackened as few continental edifices are. + +The palace of the kings of Prussia--few as they have been--has surely its +thrilling historical records. Doubtless; and through them all the spirit +of the _one_ king, "Der Alter Fritz," shines, all but visible. Here did +he hold his councils, here sit in private study; this was his favourite +promenade, here did he take his rest. These details light up the +imagination; but when we have traversed the echoing galleries, admired +the gilt mouldings and the costly hangings, the quaint furniture and +beautiful pictures: when we have, in short, become wrought into +enthusiasm by the clustering memories of a great monarch, by traits and +traditions which fill the very air, what do we see next? We are ushered +into a private chamber, and called upon to express our especial reverence +for a miserable figure, dressed up in the Great Frederick's "own +clothes;" seated in his own chair, stuck into his identical boots; his +own redoubtable stick dangling from its splayed fingers, and the whole +contemptible effigy crowned by the very three-cornered hat and crisp wig +he last wore! The spirit of mountebankism overshadows the spirit of the +mighty man, and his very relics are rendered ridiculous. + +We turn from this puppet-show to contemplate with a melancholy wonder the +truly iron records of the almost life-imprisonment of Baron von Trenck. +For here, a silent memorial of at least one bad act of the Prussian +monarch, are iron cups and utensils engraved with scrolls and legends; +the work, not of the skilled artisan with tempered and well-prepared +gravers, but of the patient hands of a state prisoner with a mere nail +sharpened on the stony walls of his dungeon, and the painful result of +long and weary years. A strange contrast! the waxen image of the jailer, +tricked out in his last garments; the solitary labours of his captive. + +Thinking more of the soldier and less of the king, we quit the palace and +turn on the left hand once more towards the waters of the Spree. Here is +one other monument we must not forget in our hasty ramble through the +main artery of the Prussian capital. In the centre of the Lange Brucke +(the Long Bridge) stands the bronze figure of the last Elector and Duke +of Brandenburg, Frederick William, the grandfather of Frederick the +Great. It is a well-executed equestrian statue, but to my mind the four +figures clustered round the pediment, on whose hands still hang the +broken chains of slavery, are better works of art, as well as admirable +emblems of the energetic materials--the oppressed but spirited +inhabitants of a few small states--of which the now powerful kingdom of +Prussia was originally formed. + +We might follow the course of the wandering river over whose waters we +now stand, and thus penetrate into the heart of the old city, but we +should find little that was picturesque, and a great deal that was very +unclean. Indeed, in spite of its general beauty, Berlin is lamentably +deficient in the modern and common-place article, sewerage. But even +this will come; and in the meantime we may well ponder over the rapid +growth of the city, since the brief space of time that has elapsed since +it was the little town of Cologne upon the Spree, to distinguish it from +the then greater one of Cologne upon the Rhine. + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + + +BERLIN.--POLICE AND PEOPLE. + +It may not appear correct to an English reader to couple the people and +the police thus cavalierly together, but in Prussia, as in the rest of +Germany, the police are so completely bound up in, and their services so +entirely devoted to, the every-day existence, as well as any more +prominent acts of the people, that it is impossible to proceed far with +the one without falling into the company of the other. A few facts may +serve to illustrate this point. + +We (Alcibiade and I) are here duly received into the employment of Herr +Stickl, Jeweller to the Court. This may appear a matter of no importance +to any but ourselves; nevertheless the "Herr" is bound duly to notify the +circumstance to the police, with date and certification, and must also +instruct the Forsteher, or chief of the Guild of goldsmiths and +jewellers, of the matter, that we may be properly registered by +corporation and police. This is item number one. But I am still +unhoused, and here my good friend and fellow-workman, Alcibiade +Tourniquet, native of Argenteuil, stands me in good stead. Tourniquet +claims to be a Parisian, and has lofty notions about style and +appearances. He lives in Jerusalem Strasse in a grand house, with a +_porte cochere_, and a wide, scrambling staircase. He offers me a share +in his apartment, which is light and commodious; and as his landlady +generously consents to provide an additional bed for my accommodation, on +condition of doubling the rent, that matter is satisfactorily arranged. +Alcibiade has experiences to relate, and this is one of them: + +"Pense donc!" cries he. "I arrive in Berlin a perfect stranger. Without +work and without friends, I find living at an hotel too expensive: +Bon!--I look about me for some quiet little chambre garni, and finding +one to my liking, up a great many stairs, genteelly furnished, and not +too dear, I move myself and my little baggage into it without further +inquiry. Bon! Imagine me on the first night of residence, snugly coiled +up between my two feather beds in true German fashion, dreaming of la +belle France, and of the grapes at Argenteuil, when rap, rap, rap! comes +a tantamarre at the chamber door, and I start up wide awake all at once, +and hear a shuffling noise outside, and a rough voice which calls to be +admitted. 'Diable! qu'est que tu veux, donc?' I inquire. But before I +can make up my mind whether to admit them or not, crack! goes the door, +and half a dozen Prussian police take my citadel by storm, and surround +me in a moment. I complain indignantly, but it is of no use. I hurl at +them--not my boots--but all the hard words I know of in their own +abominable language, together with a considerable quantity of good +French, but all of no avail; for they make me dress myself and carry me +off bodily with bag and baggage to the police-bureau. And what was it +all about, pense tu? Just this: they said I had got into a suspected +house, and that it was for my own protection I was made a prisoner of! +Nom de Dieu! that might be all very well, but there was no necessity to +pull me out of bed to take care of me; and it was not till I had shown +that my papers were all _en regle_, and threatened an appeal to the +French Ambassador, that they gave me these soft words, and expressed +their regret at my discomfiture. Du reste, what can you expect? they are +only Prussians." This is item number two. + +I too have a little experience of the Prussian Police; let me relate it. +Being regularly domiciled, it was necessary that I should inform them of +my residence. I stand within the dingy little bureau, and hand over a +certificate from my landlord in proof of my place of habitation. The +liveried functionary casts it back to me, with the curt remark, "It is +imperfect, the year is omitted." And so it is; and I trudge back to my +landlord to have this rather important omission rectified. Returning, in +haste, I re-present my document, corrected and revised, for inspection. +"This won't do," exclaims the irate registrar of apartments; "the day of +the week should be mentioned." Dull-headed landlord! unlucky lodger!--it +should have been written, "_Wednesday_, the 19th of," etc. This looks +something like quibbling, however, and no doubt I express as much by my +countenance as I leave the bureau, and race back to Jerusalem Strasse +once more. For the third time I offer my credentials. "This will do," +observes the official, with a ferocious calmness, "but I must have a +duplicate of this, for the convenience of entry and reference." Now, by +all the gilded buttons on the best coat of the British Ambassador, this +is too bad! and I say as much. "You have nothing of this sort in +England, I suppose?" sneers the clerk-policeman. "No, thank Heaven!" I +exclaim, as I rush home once more to obtain the copy of my certificate. +This is item the third. To a Prussian, all this is a mere matter of +course, yet to such a degree does this home interference extend, that the +_porte cochere_ of our grand house, and the door of every other house in +Jerusalem Strasse, is officially closed at nine o'clock in the evening; +and no man can enter his own residence after that hour without first +applying to the police-watchman, who retains in his keeping, literally +and in fact, the "key of the street." + +While on my way to Berlin, I had been frequently warned by Germans, +natives of other states, of the boastful and deceptive character of the +Prussians. Such was the general opinion expressed; and although I never +found them deceptive, the epithet of boastful seemed only too truthfully +bestowed. A Prussian is naturally a swaggerer; but then, unfortunately +for other Germans, who are swaggerers too, the Prussian has something to +boast of. He feels and thinks differently to those around him; for, by +the very impetus of his nature, he stands on a higher position. It is +because Prussia has progressed like a giant, while the rest of Germany +has been lagging behind, or actually losing ground, that every individual +in her now large area seems personally to have aided in the work, and +acts and speaks as if the whole ultimate result depended upon his own +exertions. This naturally leads to exaggeration, both in words and +actions, and your true Berliner figures as a sort of Ancient Pistol, with +more words than he knows properly what to do with, and more pretensions +than he is able to maintain. One striking characteristic of the people +of Berlin is the Franco-mania, which prevails among all classes. This +may be the result of the decided leaning towards France and its +literature, which was evinced by their almost idolised king, Frederick +the Great; but one would think that the events of the last war with +Napoleon must have effectually obliterated that. But, no; in their +language, their literature, their places of public amusement, their +shops, and promenades, French words sound in your ears, or meet your eye +at every turn; while the sometimes ridiculous mimicry of French habits +forces itself upon your attention. There would be nothing so very +remarkable in this, if the opinion generally expressed of the French +people were consonant with it; but while the Berliner apes the Parisian +in language and manners, he never fails to express his derision, and even +contempt, for the whole French nation on every convenient opportunity. I +suspect, however, that these remarks might not inaptly apply to the +inhabitants of the British capital, as well as those of Berlin. + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + + +KREUTZBERG.--A PRUSSIAN SUPPER AND CAROUSE. + +Herr Kupferkram the elder, I have done thee wrong. I have set thee down +as a mere vender of sausages, and lo! thou holdest tavern and +eating-house; dispensing prandial portions of savoury delicacies in flesh +and vegetable, at the charge of six silver groschens the meal. I beg a +thousand pardons; and as a sincere mark of contrition, will consent to +swallow thy dinners for a while. + +"Will the Herrn Tourniquet and Tuci," said the Frau Kupferkram one +morning, with a duck and a smirk, "do us the honour of supping with us +this evening? There will be a few friends, for this is the 'nahmenstag' +of our dear Gottlob, now in England." + +"Liebe Frau Kupferkram, we shall be delighted!" + +I ought, perhaps, to observe, that in Prussia, although a Protestant +country, the Catholic custom of commemorating the "saint" rather than the +"birth-day," is almost universal. The former is called the "nahmenstag," +or name-day. + +But the day is yet "so young," that nothing short of the most inveterate +gluttony could bend the mind at present upon the evening's festivity; and +moreover, the Berlin races have called us from the workshop and the cares +of labour, and our very souls are in the stirrups, eagerly panting for +the sport. My dear reader, how can I describe what I never saw? Did we +not expend two silver groschens in a programme of the races, and gloat +over the spirited engraving of a "flying" something, which was its +appropriate heading, and which you would swear was executed somewhere in +the neighbourhood of Holywell Street, Strand? Did we not grow hotter +than even the hot sun could make us, in ploughing through the sand, and +commit some careless uncivilities in struggling among the crowd that +hemmed the course as with a wall? See? Of course not! Nobody at the +Berlin races ever does see anything but the mounted police and the dust. +Yes, sir, lay out two dollars in a "card" for the grand stand, and fix it +in your hat-band like a turnpike ticket, and you may saunter through the +whole police-military cordon; but be one of the crowd, and trust to no +other aid than is afforded by your own eyes, and the said cordon will be +the extent of your vision. + +A fig for the races! we will go and see the Kreutzberg instead. Our way +lies through the Halle gate--Halle, a town that belonged to the Saxons +before the French invasion, but lost through their adherence to Napoleon, +is now the seat of a Prussian university--and by the Place of the Belle +Alliance. What "alliance?" The alliance of sovereigns against +destruction, or of people against tyranny? One and both; but while the +union of the former has triumphed over the common leveller, the latter, +by whose aid it was effected, still drag their unrelenting chains. The +Kreutzberg is consecrated to the same magniloquent union, and bears upon +its head a military monument illustrative of the triumph of a roused and +indignant people against a great oppression; but alas! it does not record +the emancipation of that same people from intestine slavery. But that is +their business and not ours. + +The Kreutzberg stands about a mile and a half from the city gates, and +rears its grey height like a mountain amid the general level, commanding +a prospect of thirty miles around. Berlin, half garden, half palace, +lies at your feet, rising majestically from the sandy plain, and +irregularly divided by the winding Spree. The surrounding country, by +its luxuriance, gives evidence of the energy of an industrious race +struggling against a naturally barren soil. Turning our eyes upwards +upon the military monument which graces the summit of the hill, we cannot +repress our gratification at its beauty. A terrace eighty feet in +diameter rises from the bare ground, and in its centre, upon a +substructure of stone, towers an iron temple or shrine in the turreted +Gothic style, divided into twelve chapels or niches. In each recess +stands a figure, life size, emblematical of the principal battles +(defeats included) fought in the campaigns of 1813, 1814, and 1815. A +noble cluster of idealised military heroism they stand; some in the +stubborn attitude of resistance, others in the eager impetuosity of +attack, all wonderfully spirited. When you have warmed your imagination +into a glow by the sight of these effigies of war, read and ponder over +this inscription:-- + +"The Sovereign to his People, who at his summons magnanimously poured +forth their Blood and Treasure for the Country. In Memory of the Fallen, +in Gratitude to the Living, as an Incitement to every future Generation." + +One is tempted to add, "and of sacred promises still unfulfilled." There +is a beautiful garden and saloon called the Tivoli, close at hand, and +from our heroics we soon slide into the peaceful enjoyment of a "baisser" +and a cup of coffee; lounging luxuriantly among the flowers till the hour +approaches for our departure. + +We are a snug little party of a dozen, not including Herr Kupferkram and +the Frau, who will insist upon waiting on us. There is the smug +master-butcher from round the corner, who has a very becoming sense of +his own position in society; two mild-spoken bookseller's clerks, who +scarcely find their voices till the evening is far advanced; my friend +and fellow-tramp the glovemaker; a spruce little model of a man, with the +crispest hair, and the fullest and best trimmed moustache in the world, +and who is no doubt a great man somewhere; a tremendous fellow of a +student, who talks of cannon-boots, rapiers, and Berliner Weiss Bier; and +an individual whose only distinguishing feature is his nose, and that is +an insult to polite society. The rest have no characteristics at all. + +But ah! shall I forget thee, the beautiful Louise!--the affianced of +Gottlob, the blonde, the coquettish, and the gay! Have you not asked me, +in half confidence (Alcibiade being present), whether the German +"_geliebte_," is not changed in English into "_susses herz_," +"sweet-heart," as Gottlob had told you in his last letter from London? +And you think the sentiment "so pretty and poetical!" And so it is; but +we dunderheads in England have used the word so often that we have half +forgotten its meaning. + +Down we sit to supper; commencing with a delicate gravy soup and liver +fritters; following up with breaded pork-chops and red saurkraut; +continuing upon baked veal and prunes; not forgetting the _entremets_ of +green pease and finely-sliced carrots stewed in butter together; going on +with a well-made sallad; and winding up with a syllabub and preserves. +Hah! Bread unlimited, and beer without discretion. How can we sing +after all that and yet we do, and talk unceasingly. The tables are +cleared; and, accompanied by a beautiful tinkling of tiny bell-shaped +glasses, the china punch-bowl, odorous with its steaming orange fluid, is +placed at the head of the table. How the meek bookseller's clerks shine +out! They are all voice now. And we drink a "Lebe hoch!" to Gottlob far +away; and to Gottlob's mother, and to Gottlob's father, chinking our +glasses merrily every time, and draining them after each draught on our +thumb nails, to show how faithfully we have honoured the toasts. We +shout "Vivat h-o-o-o;" till the old German oven quakes again. + +"Sing, fair Louise, I prithee sing!" Louise is troubled with a cold, of +course; and, after due persuasion, lisps and murmurs some incoherent +tremblings; exceedingly pretty, no doubt, if we could only make out what +they meant. Then the student, who, although diminutive, has the voice of +a giant, shouts a university song with the Latin chorus:-- + + "Edite, bebite, collegiales, + Post multa saecula procula nulla!" + + "Eat ye then, drink ye then, social companions, + Centuries hence and your cups are no more!" + +The mildest of the clerks comes out well with Kotzebue's philosophical +song:-- + + "Es kann ja nicht immer so bleiben, + Hier unter den wechselnden Mond; + Es bluht eine Zeit und verwelket, + Was mit uns die Erde bewhont." + + "It cannot remain thus for ever, + Here under the changeable moon; + For earthly things bloom but a season, + And wither away all too soon." + +The spruce gentleman with the crisp hair throws back his head, and with +closed eyes warbles melodiously:-- + + "Einsich bin ich nicht allein." + + "Alone I'm not in solitude." + +The butcher has forgotten his dignity, and joins vigorously in every +chorus. At this crisis Louise gracefully retires, leaving us to our +replenished bowl. + +"My friends!" shouts the student, mounting on a chair, "listen to me for +a moment." And then he plunges into an eloquent discourse upon the +beauties of fraternity, and the union of nations, concluding his harangue +by proposing a "Lebe hoch" to Alcibiade and myself. Alcibiade is +decidedly the lion of the evening, and bears his honours gracefully, like +a well-tamed creature. "Se sollen leben! Vivat ho--o!" it roars in our +ears, and amid its echoes we duly acknowledge the compliment. + +"That's beautiful!" exclaims the student, whose name, by the bye, is +Pimblebeck. "And now grant me one other favour. Thou Briton, and thou +son of France, let us drink brotherhood together. What say ye? Let it +be no longer 'you' and 'yours' between us, but 'thou' and 'thine.'" +Having reached the affectionate stage of exhilaration, we enter at once +into the spirit of the proposal, and each in his turn, glass in hand, +locking his arm in that of the enthusiastic Pimblebeck, drinks eternal +friendship: to love truly; to defend valiantly; and to address each other +by no other title than that of "thou" and "thee" for the rest of our +lives. + +I confess to a certain obliviousness here; a mental haze, amid which the +mingled airs of "Rule Britannia" and the "Marsellaise" float +indistinctly. But above all, and through all, with terrible +distinctness, tones the voice of Pimblebeck; his boyish form dilated into +the dimensions of a Goliath, as he pours forth the words of a Prussian +revolutionary song, some few of which stand out in letters of fire in my +memory still, thus:-- + + "Prinzen vom Land hinaus, + Denn kommt der Burger Schmaus; + Aristokraten + Werden gebraten; + Fursten and Pfaffen die werden gehangt!" + + "Drive out the prince and priest, + Then comes the burger's feast; + Each aristocrat + Shall broil in his fat, + And nobles and bigoted bishops be hanged." + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + + +FAIR TIME AT LEIPSIC. + +From Berlin to Leipsic by rail, in an open carriage, is not the most +interesting journey in the world. Whirr, whizz, burr! away we hum +through the keen Spring air, between pleasant banks and dark fir-woods, +not very rapidly indeed, for we travel under government regulations, but +pleasantly enough if it were not for the sparks and the dust. There are +few objects of interest on our route, till we perceive the towers of +Wittenberg rising out of the hollow on the left, and we are at once +buried in a dream about the simple monk of Eisleben, who, in his struggle +against the papal authority, grew into the gigantic proportions of a +Luther. + +At Kothen we change carriages, for we are on the Saxon frontier. With a +snort and a roar, we start upon our journey over the dull waste, which +can be described in no better way than by the single word repeated: sand, +sand, sand. And now it comes on to rain, and my thin blouse is but a +sorry shred to withstand the cold, dead drizzle. By degrees the heavy +night clouds wrap themselves round us, fold by fold, till we see the +engine fire reflected on the ground like a flying meteor; and the forms +of lonely trees on the roadside come upon us suddenly, like spectres out +of the darkness. + +"Have you a lodging for the night, friend?" inquires a kind voice near +me, speaking to my very thoughts. + +"No. I am a stranger in Leipsic." + +"And your herberge?" + +"I know nothing of it." + +The inquirer is a little man with a thin face, and a voice which might be +disagreeable, were it not mellowed by good nature. He tells me, then, +that he is a jewel-case maker, and has no doubt that I shall find a ready +shelter in the herberge of his trade till the morning, if I am willing to +accept of it. It is in the Little Churchyard. In spite of this ominous +direction I shake the good man heartily by the hand, and, although I lose +him in the darkness and confusion of the railway-station, cling mentally +to the Little Churchyard as a passport to peace and rest. I don't know +how it is that I escape interrogation by the police, but once out of the +turmoil of the crowd, I find myself wandering by a deep ditch and the +shadowy outline of a high wall, seeking in vain amid the drizzling mist +for one of the gates of the city. When almost hopeless of success, a +welcome voice inquires my destination; and, under the guidance of a +worthy Saxon, I find myself in Kleine Kirche Hof at last. There is the +herberge in question, but with no light--welcoming sign!--for it is +already ten o'clock, and its guests are all in bed. Dripping with rain, +and with a rueful aspect, I prefer my request for a lodging. The "vater" +looks dubiously at me out of the corner of one eye, till, having +inspected my passport, he brightens up a little, and thinks he can find +me a bed, but cannot break through the rules of his house so far as to +give me any supper. It is too late. + +Lighting a small lantern he leads the way across a stone-paved yard, and, +opening one leaf of the folding-doors of a stable at its upper end, +inducts me at once into the interior. It also is paved with stones, is +small, and is nearly choked up with five or six bedsteads. The vater +points to one which happily is as yet untenanted, and says, "Now, make +haste, will you? I can't stop here all night." Before I have time to +scramble into bed we are already in darkness, and no sooner is the door +closed than my bed-fellows, who seemed all fast asleep a moment before, +open a rattling fire of inquiries as to my parentage, birthplace, trade, +and general condition; and having satisfied all this amiable questioning +we fall asleep. + +We turn our waking eyes upon a miserable glimmering which finds its way +through the wooden bars of our stable-door; but it tells us of morning, +of life, and of hope, and we rise with a bound, and are as brisk as bees +in our summary toilet. With a dry crust of bread and a cup of coffee, we +are fortified for our morning's work. I have a letter of introduction +upon Herr Herzlich of the Bruhl, at the sign of the Golden Horn, between +the White Lamb and the Brass Candlestick. Every house in Leipsic has its +sign, and the numbers run uninterruptedly through the whole city, as in +most German towns; so that the clown's old joke of "Number One, London," +if applied to them, would be no joke at all. + +I leave the gloomy precincts of Little Churchyard, and descending a +slight incline over a pebbly, irregular pavement, with scarcely a sign of +footpath, arrive at the lower end of the Bruhl. There is a murmur of +business about the place, for this is the first week of the Easter Fair, +but there are none of those common sounds usually associated with the +name to English ears. No braying of trumpets, clashing of cymbals, or +hoarse groaning of gongs; no roaring through broad-mouthed horns, +smacking of canvass, or pattering of incompetent rifles. All these +vulgar noises belonging to a fair, are banished out of the gates of the +city: which is itself deeply occupied with sober, earnest trading. + +Leipsic has the privilege of holding three markets in the year. The +first, because the most important, is called the Ostermesse, or Easter +Fair, and commences on Jubilee Sunday after Easter. It continues for +three weeks, and is the great cloth market of the year. The second +begins on the Sunday after St. Michael, and is called Michialismesse. It +is the great Book Fair, is also of three weeks' duration, and dates, as +does the Easter Fair, from the end of the twelfth century. The New +Year's Fair commences on the First of January, and was established in +fourteen hundred and fifty-eight. Curiously enough, the real business of +the Fair is negotiated in the week preceding its actual proclamation; it +is then that the great sales between manufacturers and merchants, and +their busy agents from all parts of the continent, are effected, while +the three weeks of the actual Fair are taken up in minor transactions. +No sooner is the freedom of the Fair proclaimed than the hubbub begins; +the booths, already planted in their allotted spaces--every inch of which +must be paid for--are found to be choked up with stock of every +description, from very distant countries: while every town and village, +within a wide radius, finds itself represented by both wares and +customers. + +It is not, however, all freedom even at fair time. The guild laws of the +different trades, exclusive and jealous as they are, are enforced with +the utmost severity. Jews, in general, and certain trades in +particular,--shoemakers, for example,--are not allowed the same +privileges as the rest; for their liberty to sell is restricted to a +shorter period, and woe to the ambitious or unhappy journeyman who shall +manufacture, or expose for sale, any article of his trade, either on his +own account or for others, if they be not acknowledged as masters by the +Guild. Every such article will be seized by the public officers, +deposited in the Rathhaus, and severe punishment--in the shape of +fines--inflicted on the offender. The last week of the Fair is called +the pay-week; the Thursday and Friday in this week being severally pay +and assignation days. The traffic at the Easter Fair, before the +establishment of railways, was estimated at forty millions of dollars, +but since, by their means, increased facilities of transit between +Leipsic and the two capitals, Berlin and Dresden, have been afforded, it +has risen to seventy millions of dollars, or ten millions five hundred +thousand pounds sterling. + +In the meantime, here we are in the Bruhl, a street important enough, no +doubt, so far as its inhabitants and traffic are concerned, but neither +beautiful nor picturesque. The houses are high and flat, and, from a +peculiarity of build about their tops, seem to leer at you with one eye. +Softly over the pebbles! and mind you don't tread on the pigeons. They +are the only creatures in Leipsic that enjoy uncontrolled freedom. They +wriggle about the streets without fear of molestation; they sit in rows +upon the tops of houses; they whirl in little clouds above our heads; +they outnumber, at a moderate estimate, the whole human population of the +city, and are as sacred as the Apis or the Brahmin bull. As we proceed +along the Bruhl, the evidences of the traffic become more perceptible. +Square sheds of a dingy black hue line one side of the way, and are made +in such a manner, that from being more closed boxes at night, they +readily become converted into shops in the daytime, by a falling flap in +front, which in some cases is adjusted so as to perform the part of a +counter. These booths form the outer depositories of the merchandise of +the fair, and are generally filled with small and inexpensive articles. +The real riches accumulated in Leipsic during these periods, are stowed +in the massive old houses: floor above floor being filled with them, till +they jam up the very roof, and their plenitude flow out into the street. +The booths, where not private property, are articles of profitable +speculation with the master builders of the city. They are of planed +deal painted, and are neatly enough made. They are easily stowed away in +ordinary times, and, when required, are readily erected, being simply +clammed together with huge hooks and eyes. + +We have not proceeded half-way down the Bruhl, when we are accosted by a +veritable child of Israel, who in tolerably good English requests our +custom. Will we buy some of those unexceptionable slippers? In spite of +my cap and blouse, it is evident that I bear some national peculiarity +about me, at once readable to the keen eyes of the Jew; and upon this +point, I remember that my friend Alcibiade, of Argenteuil, jeweller, once +expressed himself to me thus: "You may always distinguish an Englishman," +said he, "by two things: his trousers and his gait. The first never fit +him, and he always walks as if he was an hour behind time." + +We are at the sign of the Golden Horn. Its very door-way is blocked up +for the moment by an enormous bale of goods, puffy, and covered with +cabalistic characters. When we at length enter the outer gate of the +house, we find ourselves in a small court-yard paved with stone and open +to the sky, but now choked with boxes and packages, piled one upon the +other in such confusion, that they appear to have been rained from above, +rather than brought by vulgar trucks and human hands. Herr Herzlich, +whose house this is, resides on the third floor. As we ascend the +winding stair to his apartments, we perceive that the building occupies +the four sides of the courtyard, and that on the third floor a wooden +gallery is suspended along one side, and serves as a means of connection +between the upper portions of the house. Queerly-shaped bundles, and +even loose goods, occupy every available corner; and as we look down from +the gallery into a deep window on the opposite side, we perceive a +portly, moustachioed gentleman busily counting and arranging piles of +Prussian bank-notes, while heaps of golden coin, apparently Dutch ducats, +or French louis d'or, are built up in a golden barricade before him. We +pause before the door of Herr Herzlich, master goldsmith and house-owner, +and prepare to deliver our letter of introduction. They are trying +moments, these first self-presentations; but Herr Herzlich is a +true-hearted old Saxon, who raises his black velvet skullcap with one +hand, as I announce myself, while with the other he lowers his silver +spectacles from his forehead on to his nose. Then, with all sorts of +comforting words, as to my future prospects in Leipsic, he sends me forth +rejoicing. + +Once more in the open street, we pass up the crowded way into the +market-place. A succession of wooden booths lines the road; and many of +the houses have an overhanging floor resting on sturdy posts, which makes +the footpath a rude colonnade. Here are piled rolls and bales of cloth, +while the booths are crammed with a heterogeneous collection of articles +of use and ornament diversified beyond description. A strange knot of +gentlemen arrests our attention for a moment. They are clad in long +gowns of black serge, and wear highly-polished boots reaching to the +knee. Some have low-crowned hats, others a kind of semi-furred turban, +but they all have jet black hair arranged in innumerable wiry ringlets, +even to their beards. They are Polish Jews, and trade chiefly in pearls, +garnets, turquoises, and a peculiar sort of ill-cut and discoloured +rose-diamonds. + +The market-place is scarcely passable for the crowd, and the wooden +booths are so thickly studded over its whole space, as to allow of only a +narrow footway between them. Here we see pipes and walking-sticks, +enough not only for the present, but for generations unborn. Traversing +the ground by slow degrees, we bend towards the Dresden gate, and come +upon the country people, all handkerchief and waistcoat, who line the +path with their little stores of toys, of eggs, butter, and little pats +of goats'-milk cheese. Here is a farmer who has straggled all the way +from Altenburg. He wears a queer round-crowned hat, with the rim turned +up at the back; a jacket with large pockets outside, a sort of trunk +hose, and black boots reaching to the knee. A little beyond him is a +band of musicians with wind instruments, in the full costume of the +Berg-leute, or mountaineers of Freiberg. With their jackets of black +stuff, trimmed with velvet of the same hue, and edged at the bottom with +little square lappets; their dark leggings and brimless hats, they look +like a party of Grindoff the miller's men in mourning. + +As we approach the gates, the stalls and wares dwindle into +insignificance, until they disappear altogether; and so we pass out of +the city to the picturesque promenades which surround it. Afar off we +hear the booming and occasional squeal of the real Fair. It is not +without its drollery, and, if not equal to "Old Bartlemy" in noise and +rude humour, has a word to say for itself on the point of decency. It +is, however, but child's play after all, and abounds with toys and games, +from a half-penny whistle to an electric machine. Leipsic is now in its +waking hours; but a short time hence her fitful three weeks' fever will +have passed away, and, weary with excitement, or as some say, plethoric +with her gorge of profits, she will sink into a soulless lethargy. Her +streets will become deserted, and echo to solitary footsteps; and whole +rows of houses, with their lately teeming shops, will be black and +tenantless, and barred and locked in grim security. The students will +shine among the quiet citizens; the pigeons will flap their wings in +idleness, and coo in melancholy tones as they totter about the streets; +and the last itinerant player (on the flageolet, of course) will have +sounded his farewell note to the slumbering city. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + + +DOWN IN A SILVER MINE. + +The sojourner in Leipsic, while strolling through its quaint old streets +and spacious market-place, will be attracted, among other peculiarities +of national costume, by one which, while startling and showy, is still +attractive and picturesque. The wearer is most probably a young man of +small figure and of pallid appearance. He is dressed in a short jacket, +which is black, and is enriched with black velvet. The nether garments +are also black. His head is covered with a black brimless hat, and a +small semicircular apron of dark cloth is tied, not before, but behind. +This is one of the Berg-leute, mountain people; he comes from the +Freiberg silver district, and is attired in the full dress of a miner. + +Doubtless, these somewhat theatrically attired mountaineers hold a +superior position to the diggers and blasters of the earth. The dress +is, perhaps, more properly that worn in the mountains, than that of the +miners themselves. Still, even their habiliments, as I afterwards +learned, are but a working-day copy of this more costly model; and the +semicircular apron tied on behind, is more especially an indispensable +portion of the working dress of the labouring miner. + +From Leipsic, the mines are distant about seventy English miles. We--who +are a happy party of foot-wanderers bound for Vienna--spend three +careless days upon the road. Look at this glorious old castle of +Altenburg, gravely nodding from its towering rock upon the quaint town +below. It is the first station we come to, and is the capital of the +ancient dukedom of Saxon-Altenburg. Look at the people about us! Does +it not strike you as original, that what is here called modest attire, +would elsewhere be condemned as immoral and ridiculous? Each of the +males, indeed, presents an old German portrait, with short plaited and +wadded jacket, trunk breeches, and low hat, with a rolled brim. But the +women! With petticoats no deeper than a Highlandman's kilt, and their +legs thus guiltless of shoes or stockings, the bust and neck are +hideously covered by a wooden breastplate, which, springing from the +waist, rises at an angle of forty-five degrees as high as the chin; and +on the edge of it is fastened a handkerchief, tied tightly round the +neck. A greater disfigurement of the female form could scarcely have +been devised. Yet, to these good people, it is doubtless beauty and +propriety itself; for it is old, and national. + +Through pretty woods and cultivated lands; beside rugged, roadside dells, +we trudge along. We halt in quiet villages, snug and neat even in their +poverty; or wend our way, in the midst of sunshine, through endless +vistas of fruit-laden woods, the public road being one rich orchard of +red-dotted cherry-trees: purchasable for a mere fraction, but not to be +feloniously abstracted. Through Altenburg, Zwickau, Oederon, and +Chemnitz; up steep hill paths, and by the side of unpronounceable +villages, until, on the morning of the fourth day, we straggle into +Freiberg. + +Freiberg is the walled capital of the Saxon ore mountains, the +Erzgebirge; the centre of the Saxon mining administration. One of its +most spacious buildings is the Mining Academy, which dates from 1767. +Here are rich collections of the wonderful produce of these mountains; +models of mining machines, of philosophical and chemical apparatus; class +and lecture rooms, and books out of number. Here Werner, the father of +geology, and Humboldt, the systematiser of physical geography, were +pupils. The former has bequeathed an extensive museum of mineralogy to +the Academy, which has been gratefully named after its founder, the +Wernerian Museum. + +Freiberg holds up its head very high. The Mining Academy stands one +thousand two hundred and thirty-one feet above the sea, although this is +by no means the greatest altitude in the long range of mountains, which +form a huge boundary line between the kingdoms of Saxony and Bohemia. +The general name for the whole district is the Erzgebirg-Kreis--the +circle of ore mountains--and truly they form one vast store of silver, +tin, lead, iron, coal, copper, and cobalt ores; besides a host of +chemical compounds and other riches. The indefatigable Saxons have +worked and burrowed in them for more than seven hundred years. + +We proceed to the Royal Saxon Mining Office, and request permission to +descend into the "bowels of the land." This is accorded us without +difficulty, and we receive a beautiful specimen of German text, in the +shape of a lithographed Fahrschein, or permission to descend into +Abraham's Shaft and Himmelfahrt, and to inspect all the works and +appliances thereunto belonging. This Fahrschein especially informs us, +that no person, unless of the Minerstand (fraternity of miners), can be +permitted to descend into the Zechen or pits, who is not eighteen years +old; nor can more than two persons be intrusted to the care of one guide. +We cheerfully pay on demand the sum of ten silver groschens each (about +one shilling), for the purpose--as we are informed in a note at the +bottom of the Fahrschein--of meeting the exigencies of the Miners' +Pension and Relief Fund. + +The mine we are about to inspect, which bears the general title of +Himmelsfurst--Prince of Heaven--is situated near to the village of Brand. +How fond these old miners were of Biblical designations! and what an +earnest spirit of religion glowed within them! There is another mine in +the vicinity, at Voightberg, called the Old Hope of God; but we must +recollect that Freiberg was one of the strongholds of early +Protestantism, and that the first and sternest of the reformers clustered +about its mountains. They have a cold, desolate look; and we think of +the gardens we have left at their bases, and of the forests of fir-trees +which wave upon some of the loftier pinnacles of these same Erzgebirge. +Nor are the few men we meet of more promising appearance: not dwarfed nor +stunted, but naturally diminutive, with sallow skins and oppressed +demeanour. How different are the firm, lithe, sun-tanned mountaineers, +who breathe the free air on the summits of their hills! + +We are near the entrance of the mine; and, entering the neat, wooden +office of the Schachtmeister, or mine-controller, we produce our +credentials. Having signed our names in a huge book (in which we +decipher more than one English name), we are passed to the care of an +intelligent-looking guide; who, although still in early manhood, is of +the same small and delicate growth observable in the miners generally. + +Our guide, providing himself with small lanterns and an ominous-looking +bundle, leads the way out of the Schachtmeister's office to another +portion of the same building. Here are heaps of dark grey "macadamised" +stones;--silver and lead ores just raised from the pit; over whose very +mouth we are unknowingly standing. A windlass is in the centre of the +chasm; and it is by means of this windlass that the metalliferous +substance is raised to the surface in square wooden boxes. Here the +dressing of the ores commences; boys cluster in all directions, under the +wooden shed, and in oilier sheds beyond that. Here the ores are picked +and sorted, washed and sieved, and, we believe, crushed or pulverised, +according to the amount of metal contained in them, till they are in a +fit state for the smelting furnace. We are not admitted to a minute +inspection of these processes; but, under the direction of our guide, +turn towards the mouth of the pit which we are to descend. Ere we leave +the shed, we pick out a small block of ore as a memorial of the visit, +and are astonished at its weight; bright yellow, and dull lead-coloured +crystals gleam over its surface; and a portion of the gneiss, from which +it has been broken, still adheres to it. + +We follow our guide across a dusty space towards a wooden building with a +conical roof; and, as we approach it, we become conscious of, rather than +hear, the sweet, melancholy sound of a bell, which, at minute intervals, +tones dreamily through the air. Whence comes that sad sound? In the +centre of the shed is a square box, open at the top; and immediately +above hangs the small bell; thence comes the silvery voice. + +"For what purpose is this bell?" we inquire of our guide. + +"It is the bell of safety." + +"Does it sound a warning?" + +"No, the reverse; its silence gives the warning. The bell is tolled by a +large water-wheel, immediately below the surface. By means of this +wheel, and others at greater depths, the whole drainage of this mine is +effected. If, by any means, these waterwheels should cease to act, the +bell would cease to sound, and the miners would hasten to the day, for no +man could tell how soon his working might be flooded." + +"And can it be heard throughout the mine?" + +"Through this portion of it. Probably the water acts as a conductor of +the sound; but the miners listen earnestly for its minute tolling." + +Toll on, thou messenger of comfort! May thy voice ever tell of safety to +the haggard toiler, deep in the earth! + +Our guide now directs us to attire ourselves in the garments disgorged +from the portentous-looking bundle. They consist of a pair of black +calico trousers, a dark, lapelled coat, a leathern semicircular apron, +buckled on behind--the strap of which serves to hook a small lantern on +in front--and a terrible brimless felt hat, which we feel to be a curse +the moment we put it on, and which we never cease to anathematise, up to +the instant when we take it off. These habiliments being drawn over our +ordinary clothing, do not facilitate our motions, or help to keep us in +so cool a state as might be desirable. + +Over the edge of the square box, and down a stone staircase cut through +the solid granite, we follow our guide. We pause on the first few steps, +and are just able to distinguish the huge, broad water-wheel, slowly +revolving in its stony chamber: its spokes, like giant arms, sweep +through the wet darkness with scarcely a sound, but a low dripping and +gurgling of water. That terrible staircase! dark and steep and slimy! +Water drips from its roof and oozes from its walls. It is so low, that +instead of bending forward as the body naturally does when in the act of +descent, we are compelled to throw our heads back at the risk of +dislocating our necks, in order that the detestable hat may not be driven +over our eyes by coming in contact with the roof. Down, down the +slippery steps; feeling our way along slimy walls: through the dense +gloom, and heavy, moist air! The way seems to wave and bend we scarcely +know how; sometimes we traverse level galleries, but they only lead us +again to the steep, clammy steps, cut through the tough rock, always at +the same acute angle. Down, down, six hundred feet! and our guide +whispers to us to be careful how we go, for we are in a dangerous place: +he has brought us to this portion of the mine to show us how the water +accumulates when undisturbed. + +The vein of ore has, in this part, ceased to yield a profit for the +necessary labour, and the works have been abandoned. We creep +breathlessly down until our guide bids us halt; and, holding out his +lantern at arm's length, but half reveals, in the pitchy darkness, a +low-roofed cavern, floored by an inky lake of still, dead water; in which +we see the light of the lantern reflected as in a mirror. It is fearful +to look on--so black and motionless: a sluggish pool, thick and +treacherous, which seemingly would engulf us without so much as a wave or +a bubble; and we are within a foot of its surface! We draw involuntarily +back, and creep up the steep stair to the first level above us. + +Along a narrow gallery we proceed for a short space, and then down again; +still down the interminable steps, till our knees crack with the ever +uniform motion, and the hot perspiration streams from every pore. The +air is so thick and heavy, that we occasionally draw breath with a half +gasp; and still we descend, till we hear the muffled ring of +steel,--tink, tink, tink,--immediately near us, and are suddenly arrested +in our downward course by the level ground. + +We are in a narrow gallery, considerably loftier than any we have yet +seen; for we can walk about in it without stooping. At the further end +are two miners, just distinguishable by the tiny glow of their lanterns. +From these proceed the ring of steel--the muffled tinkling in the thick +air we had heard--and we see that they are preparing for a "blast." With +a long steel rod, or chisel, they are driving a way into the hard rock +(geologists say there is little else in the Erzebirge than the primitive +gneiss and granite), and thus prepare a deep, narrow chamber, within +which a charge of gunpowder is placed and exploded. The hard material is +rent into a thousand pieces, bringing with it the ore so indefatigably +sought. + +With every limb strained and distorted, the miners pursue their cramping +labours, grovelling on the earth. The drilling or boring they are +engaged in is a slow process, and the choice of a spot, so that the +explosion may loosen as much of the lode and as little of the rock as +possible, is of considerable importance. They cease their labours as we +enter, and turn to look at us. The curse of wealth-digging is upon them. +They, in their stained and disordered costume, seated on the ground on +their semicircular leather aprons (for that is the obvious use of this +portion of the dress, in these moist regions); we, in our borrowed +garments and brimless beavers, with flushed features and dripping hair. +The miners do not wear the abominable hats, at least "beneath the day," +that is, in the mines. + +"Is this the bottom of the mine?" we inquire anxiously. + +The guide smiles grimly as he answers, "We are little more than half-way +to the bottom; but we can descend no deeper in this direction." + +Heaven knows we have no desire! + +"This is the first working," he continues. "The rest of the mine is much +the same as you have already seen. We have no other means of reaching +the workings than by the stone staircases you have partly descended." + +"What are the miners' hours of work?" + +"Eight hours a day for five days in the week at this depth," is the +answer. "In the deeper workings the hours are fewer." + +"What is the extent of the mine?" we demand. + +"I cannot tell. There is no miner living who has traversed them all. +The greater portion is out of work, and spreads for miles under ground." + +"And the depth?" + +"About two hundred fathoms--twelve hundred feet--the sea level. The 'Old +Hope of God' is sixty feet below the level of the sea." + +"Are there many mines like this?" + +"There are about two hundred mines in all, with five hundred and forty +pits: in all the mines together there are some four thousand eight +hundred hands, men and boys. This mine occupies nine hundred of them." + +"And your pay?" + +"One dollar a week is a good wage with us." + +One dollar is about three shillings of English money! This seems small +pay, even in cheap Saxony. + +"But," we pursue our inquiries, "you have no short time, and are +pensioned?--at least, so says our Fahrschein." + +"We are paid our wages during sickness, and are never out of work. When +we can no longer use the pick, nor climb these staircases, we can retire +upon our pension of eight silver groschens a week." + +Tenpence! Magnificent independence! This is digging for silver with a +vengeance. + +But we are faint with fatigue; and, bidding adieu to the two miners, we +gladly agree to our guide's suggestion of ascending to the happy +daylight. Our way is still the same; although we mount by another shaft, +most appropriately named Himmelfahrt--the path of heaven; but we clamber +up the same steep steps; feel our way along the same slimy walls, and +occasionally drive our hats over our eyes against the same low, dripping +roof. With scarcely a dry thread about us; our hair matted and dripping; +beads of perspiration streaming down our faces, we reach the top at last; +and thank Heaven, that after two hours' absence deep down among those +terrible "diggins," we are permitted once more to feel the bracing air, +and to look upon the glorious light of day. + +Our labours, however are not over. Distant rather more than an English +mile from Himmelsfurst are the extensive amalgamation works, the smelting +furnaces and refining ovens. Painfully fatigued as we are, we cannot +resist the temptation of paying them a brief visit. The road is dusty +and desolate; nor are the works themselves either striking or attractive. +An irregular mass of sheds, brick buildings, and tall chimneys, present +themselves. As we approach them we come upon a "sludge hole"--the bed of +a stream running from the dredging and jigging works; where, by the +agency of water, the ore is relieved of its earthy and other waste +matter, and the stream of water--allowed to run off in separate +channels--deposits, as it flows, the smaller particles washed away in the +first process. These are all carefully collected, and the veriest atom +of silver or lead extracted. It is only the coarser ores that undergo +this process; the richer deposits being pulverised and smelted with white +or charred wood and fluxes, without the application of water, and refined +by amalgamation with quicksilver. The two metals are afterwards +separated by distilling off the latter. + +Here are heaps of scoria--stacks of piglead, wood, coke, limestone and +waste earth, everything, indeed, but silver; although we are emphatically +in a silver mining district, silver is by no means the material which +presents itself in the greatest bulk. Having placed ourselves under the +direction of one of the workmen, we are led into some newly built brick +buildings, where force-pumps and other water appliances, erected at great +cost by the Saxon government, are gratefully pointed out to us. These +water-works are equally applicable to the extinction of fire, as to the +preparation of ores. + +Into what an incomprehensible maze of words should we be betrayed, were +we to attempt a description of the multifarious operations for the +extraction and refining of metals! Every description of ore, or +metalliferous deposit, requires a different treatment: each suggested and +verified by laborious experience and vigilant attention. In some cases +the pure silver is separated by mechanical means; in others the ore is +roasted, in order to throw off the sulphur, arsenic, and other volatile +matters, which are separately collected and form no inconsiderable +portion of the valuable produce of the mine. These roastings again are +smelted with a variety of fluxes, and in different states of +purification, until they are ready for refining. + +Here are roasting furnaces, dull and black; huge brick tubes with swollen +ends; others built in, and ready for ignition. Everywhere, we see pigs +of lead, sometimes lying about in reckless confusion, at others, neatly +packed in square stacks. Now, they bring us to a huge circular oven, +with at least half-a-dozen firmly closed iron doors, and as many glowing +caves; and a swarthy man, armed with an iron rake, swinging open one of +the iron doors with a ring and a clatter, we look in upon a small lake of +molten silver, fuming, and steaming, and bubbling. The iron rake is +thrust in, and scrapes off the crumbling crust--the oxide of lead, which +has formed upon its surface. The silver fumes and flashes, and a white +vapour swims in the air. The swarthy man swings the iron door to with a +clang, takes us by the arm, and bids us look through into a dark cavity, +and watch the white drops which fall at intervals like tiny stars from +above. This is the quicksilver evaporated from the heated silver in the +furnace, which passes through the chimney into a kind of still, and is +restored to its original condition. + +And what is the result of all this skill and labour? We find that the +average produce of the Saxon mines is from three to four ounces of silver +to the hundred pounds' weight of ore; and that the mines about Freiberg +yield annually nearly four hundred and fifty thousand ounces of silver. +We find further that the total mines of the Erzgebirge-Kreis--"circle of +ore mountains"--of which those of Freiberg form a portion, produce a +total of seven hundred and twenty thousand ounces of silver every year; +besides from four hundred to five hundred tons of lead, one hundred and +forty tons of tin, about thirty tons of copper, from three thousand five +hundred to four thousand tons of iron, and six hundred tons of cobalt. +They are rich also in arsenic, brimstone, and vitriol, and contain, in no +inconsiderable quantities, quicksilver, antimony, calamites, bismuth, and +manganese. Even precious stones are not wanting; garnets, topazes, +tourmalines, amethysts, beryls, jaspers, and chalcedonies having been +found. + +A shrewd old workman tells us, with a proud satisfaction, that when +Napoleon's power was crushed, and Saxony had to pay the penalty of her +adhesion to the French conqueror, in the shape of various parings and +loppings of her already narrow territories--that Prussia gloated with +greedy eyes, and half stretched out an eager hand to grasp the Erzgebirge +and their mineral riches. "_Aber_," exclaims he with a chuckle, "_die +sind noch Sachische_, _Gott sey dank_!" "But they are still Saxon, +thanks be to God!" + +All things considered (the Australian diggins included), we came to the +conclusion, from our small experience of Saxon mines, that there are more +profitable, and even more agreeable occupations in the world than +mining--pleasanter ways, in short, of getting a living, than digging for +silver in Saxony, or even for gold in Australia. + + + + +CHAPTER XV. + + +A LIFT IN A CART. + +We left Dresden in the middle of July, a motley group of five: a +Frenchman, an Austrian, two natives of Lubeck, and myself; silversmiths +and jewellers together; all of us duly _vised_ by our several ambassadors +through Saxon Switzerland, by way of Pirna, on to Peterswald. The latter +is the frontier town of Bohemia, and forms, therefore, the entrance from +Saxony into the Austrian empire. + +At dusk we were on the banks of the Elbe, at the ferry station near +Pillnitz, the summer dwelling of the King of Saxony. Having crossed the +broad stream, we leapt joyously up the steep path that led into a mimic +Switzerland; a country of peaks, valleys, and pine trees, wanting only +snow and glaciers. For three days we wandered among those wild regions; +now scaling the bleak face of a rock; now stretched luxuriously on the +purple moss, or gathering wild raspberries by the road side. From the +abrupt edge of the overhanging Bastei we looked down some six hundred +feet upon the wandering Elbe, threading its way by broad slopes, rich +with the growth of the vine; or by bleached walls of stone, upon which +even the lichens seemed to have been unable to make good their footing. +From the narrow wooden bridge of Neu Rathen, we looked down upon the +waving tops of fir trees, hundreds of feet beneath us. Then down we +ourselves went by a wild and jagged path into a luxuriant valley called +by no unfit name, Liebethal--the Valley of Love! + +Then there was Konigstein, seen far away, a square-topped mountain, +greyish white with time and weather, soaring above the river's level some +fourteen hundred feet. And we clambered on, never wearying; by mountain +fall and sombre cavern, and round the base of an old rock up to a +fortress, till we reached the iron gates; and, amid the echo of repeated +passwords and the clatter of military arms, entered its gloomy portal. +We entered only to pass through; and having admired from the summit a +glorious summer prospect, we journeyed on again into the plains beyond, +and so entered the Austrian territory at Peterswald. + +Then there was a great change from fertility to barrenness. From the +moment we entered Bohemia we were oppressed by a sense of poverty, of +sloth, or some worse curse resulting from Austrian domination, which +seemed to have been enough to cripple even Nature herself as she stood +about us. It was evident that we had got among another race of people, +or else into contact with a quite different state of things. At the +first inn we found upon the road, although it was a mighty rambling +place, with stone staircases and spacious chambers, there was not bedding +enough in the whole establishment for our party of five, and yet we were +the only guests. We were reduced to the expedient of spreading the two +mattresses at our disposal close together upon the bare boards, and so +sleeping five men in one double bed. A miserable night we had of it. We +fared better at Prague, which town we entered the next day. That is a +fine old city. From the first glimpse we caught of it from an adjoining +hill, bathing its feet, as it were, in the Moldan, we were charmed. +There was a wonderful cluster of minarets and conical towers, half +Eastern, half German, piled up to the summit of the castle hill. There +was the beautifully barbarous chapel of Johann von Nepomuk, with its +silver tomb. It was all one mass of picturesque details, beautiful in +their outline and impressive in their very age,--and, I may add, dirt. A +rare picture of middle-age romance is Prague--a fragment of the past, +uninjured and unchanged. The new suspension bridge across the Moldan +looks ridiculous; it is incongruous; what has old Prague to do with +modern engineering? It is a noble structure, to be sure, of which the +inhabitants are proud; but it was designed and executed for them by an +Englishman. + +From Prague we tramped with all the diligence of needy travellers to +Brunn, the capital of Moravia. Our march was straggling. Foremost +strode Alcibiade Tourniquet, jeweller and native of Argenteuil, the best +fellow in the world: but one who would persist in marching in a pair of +Parisian boots with high, tapering heels, bearing the pain they gave with +little wincing. For him the ground we trod was classical, for we were in +the neighbourhood of Austerlitz. Immediately in his rear swaggered the +Austrian, with swarthy features and black straggling locks, swaddled and +dirty; he was called "bandit" by general consent. The other three men of +our party tramped abreast under the guidance of a Lubecker, a smart +upright fellow, who, on the strength of having served two years in an +infantry regiment, naturally took the position of drill-sergeant, and was +dignified with the name of Hannibal on that account. + +We halted to rest in the village of Bischowitz, where the few straggling +houses, and the dreary, almost tenantless hostelry, told their own +sorrows. But we got good soup, with an unlimited supply of bread, which +formed a dinner of the best description; for, besides that the adopted +doctrine in Germany is that soup is the best meat for the legs, we found +that it also agreed well with our pockets. While in the full enjoyment +of our rest, we observed that an earnest conversation had sprung up +between the landlord and a ruddy-featured fellow in a green half-livery. + +"Whither are you going, friends?" inquired the landlord at length, +advancing towards us. + +"We were going to Brunn by the high-road," we answered. + +"This man will carry you beyond Chradim for a _zwanziger_ a head," said +the landlord, pointing to the half-liveried fellow, who began +gesticulating violently, and marking us off with his fingers as if we +were so many sheep. This was a tempting offer for foot travellers, each +burthened with a heavy knapsack. Chradim was eleven German miles on our +road--a good fifty miles in English measurement--and we were all to be +transported this distance for a total of about three shillings and +sixpence. We therefore inspected the _furwerk_, which did not promise +much; but as it was drawn by a neat sturdy little horse, who rattled his +harness with a sort of brisk independence that spoke well for a rapid +journey, we readily decided upon the acceptance of the offer made by the +Bohemian driver. That worthy shook his head when we addressed him, and +grunted out "_Kein Deutsch_,"--"No German." Indeed we found that, +excepting people in official situations, innkeepers, and the like, the +German language was either unknown to, or unacknowledged by the natives. +In less than half an hour we had tumbled our knapsacks into the +cart--which was a country dray, of course without either springs or +seats--and disposing ourselves as conveniently as we could on its rough +edges, were rattling and jolting off over the uneven road towards Collin, +our station for the night. + +The country through which we passed was uncultivated and uninteresting; +but, like the rest that we had seen, it spoke of a poverty rather induced +than natural. With the exception of the two villages of Planinam and +Bohmishbrod we scarcely saw a house, and human creatures were extremely +scarce. As we approached Collin we halted for a moment to look at a +column of black marble erected on the roadside to commemorate the +devotion of a handful of Russian troops, who had at this spot checked the +progress of the whole French army for many hours. A little later, and we +were lodged at our inn in the market-town of Collin, where we supped on +bread and cheese and good Prague beer. A wild chorus of loud voices, and +an overwhelming odour of tobacco and onions, were the accompaniments of +our meal. The morrow being market-day in Collin, the whole population of +the district had flocked to the town, and the houses of accommodation +were all full. Our common room was quite choked up with sturdy forms in +white loose coats; broad country faces, flushed with good humour, or +beer, shone upon us from all sides. Our driver, who had been very sedate +and reserved during the whole of the day, soon joined a cluster of +congenial spirits in one corner, and was the thirstiest and most +uproarious of mortals. As for ourselves, we seemed to be made doubly +strangers, for there was not a word of German spoken in our hearing. +Hours wore on, and the country folks seemed to enjoy their town excursion +so extremely well, that there were no signs of breaking up, till mine +host made his appearance and insisted upon the lights being put out, and +upon the departure of his guests to bed. But, beds; where were they? +Our military Lubecker laughed at the idea. + +"There are never more than two beds in a Bohemian house of +entertainment," said he, "and the landlord by law claims the best of the +two for himself. The other is for the first comer who pays for it. +Perhaps we shall get some straw, perhaps not. At the worst there are the +boards." + +But we did get some straw, after considerable trouble, and the whole +crowd of boozers (with the exception of our driver, who went to bed with +his horses) set about preparing couches for themselves, with a tact that +plainly showed how well they were accustomed to it. The straw was spread +equally over the whole chamber, and each man turned over his heavy oaken +chair, so that its back became a pillow. Divested of boots and coats, we +were soon stretched upon our litters, thirty in a room. + +Our morning duty was to shake the loose straw out of our hair and ears, +and then to clear away every vestige of our night accommodation, in order +that a delicious breakfast of rich, black, thick coffee, and plain bread, +might be spread before us in the same room. The country folks were all +at market, and, as far as we could see, so was our driver. He was +nowhere to be found. We had vague notions of his having decamped; but +considering that we had only paid him two zwanzigers out of the five +bargained for, the supposition seemed hardly a reasonable one. After +seeking him in vain through every room in the house, in the crowded +market place, and in the neat little town, full of low, square-built +houses and whitened colonnades, we thought of the stable, and there we +found our friend, stretched on his back among the hoofs of his horse, +who, careful creature, loving him too well to disturb him, never stirred +a limb. + +We saw our guide in a new light that day. In spite of all our urging, it +was nine o'clock before we fairly quitted Collin, and he was then already +in an exhilarated state, having taken several strong draughts to cool his +inward fever. We would have given much to have been able to converse +with him; for, as we were about to start, he grinned and gesticulated in +such a violent way--having, evidently, something to communicate which he +was unable to express--that we called the host to our assistance. + +"You must not be alarmed," said the landlord in explanation, "if he +should swerve from the high-road, for he thinks of taking you cross +country, and it may be a little rough." + +We started at last, and the brave little horse rattled along at a gallant +pace. "Hi, hi, hi!" shouted the Bohemian, and away we went along the +well-beaten high-road, jolted unmercifully; our knapsacks dancing about +our feet like living creatures. We were too much occupied in the task of +keeping our seats, to be able to devote much attention to the country, +until, having passed Czaslau, we turned suddenly out of the high-road, +and came upon a scene of cultivation and refinement that was very +charming. A rapid cooling down of our driver's extravagance of manner +was the immediate result of our entering upon the well-kept paths, and +between smooth lawns; we went at a decent trot, following a semicircular +road, by which we were brought immediately in front of a noble mansion. +At the door of an inn, which pressed upon the pathway, our Bohemian +halted and addressed to us a voluble and enthusiastic harangue in his own +language (one that has a soft and pleasant sound): evidently he meant to +impress us with the beauty of the scene. + +We soon learned all about it from the landlord of the inn. Our driver +was a liveried servant of the Prince before whose mansion we had stopped, +and he was probably running much risk of dismissal in letting his grace's +country cart for hire. He was a sad dog, for, in the course of a quarter +of an hour he ran up a score upon the strength of an alleged promise on +our parts to pay all expenses, and succeeded in wheedling another +zwanziger in advance out of our cashier, the military Lubecker. This +piece of money, however, on being proffered in payment of a last +half-pint of beer, was instantly confiscated by the landlord for previous +arrears. + +Amid a hurricane of abuse, exchanged between landlord and driver, we +clattered out of private ground to the main road again. Our charioteer +had risen into a state of exaltation that defied all curb, and in a short +time we were again firmly planted before the sign-post of a public-house. +But here there was no credit, and our good-natured Lubecker having doled +out a fourth zwanziger on account, was scarcely surprised to see it +pounced upon and totally appropriated by the host in liquidation of some +ancient score. With a shout of rage, or rather a howl, from our Bohemian +whip, we again set forward. "Hi, hi, hi!" and helter-skelter we went, +through bush and bramble, where indeed there was no trace or shadow of a +beaten track. The Bohemian was lost to control; he shouted, he sang, he +yelled, savagely flogging his willing beast all the while, until we began +to have serious fears for the safety of our necks. Presently we were +skimming along the edge of the steep bank of a broad and rapid stream, +wondering internally what might possibly come next, when, to our terror, +the Bohemian, pointing with his whip to the opposite bank, suddenly +wheeled the horse and rude vehicle round, and before we could expostulate +with or arrest him in his course, plunged down a long slope and dashed +into the river, with a hissing and splashing that completely blinded us +for a few seconds, and drenched us to the skin. We held on with the +desperation of fear; but before we could well know whether we swam or +rode we had passed the stream, and our unconquered little horse was +tugging us might and main up the opposite bank. That once obtained, we +saw before us a wide expanse of heath, rugged and broken, and no trace of +any road. + +But horse and driver seemed to be alike careless about beaten tracks. +The Bohemian grew wilder at every step, urging on his horse with mad +gestures and unearthly cries. His driving was miraculous; along narrow +strips of road, scarcely wide enough to contain the wheels, he passed in +safety; sometimes skimming the outer ridge of a steep bank, and when, +seemingly about to plunge into an abyss, suddenly wheeling both horse and +cart round at an acute angle, and darting on with a reckless speed to new +dangers and new escapes. We had been told that he was an admirable hand +at the rein when sober; but, when drunk, he certainly surpassed himself. +As for ourselves, we were in constant fear of our lives; and, being +utterly unacquainted with the country and the language, and unable to +control the extravagances of our driver, we calmly awaited, and almost +invoked, the "spill" that seemed inevitable. + +But the paroxysm of the Bohemian had reached its height; from an +incarnate devil, in demeanour and language, he rapidly dropped into +childish helplessness, and finally into a deep uncontrollable slumber. +This was a state of things which, at first, threatened more danger than +his open madness; but then it was the horse's turn to show _his_ quality. +He saw that a responsibility devolved upon him, and he was quite equal to +the occasion. He seemed to know his way as well without as with his +master. We guessed this; and, taking the reins from the hands of the +quite helpless Bohemian, we left the gallant animal to take whatever +course he thought most prudent. The good beast brought us well out of +the tangled heath, and once more to a level, open road. + +Soon, a neat village was before us, and we came to the resolution that we +would dismount there at all hazards. But then our sleepy driver suddenly +started into life, and, with a terrible outburst of wrath, gave us, by +motions, to understand that we had gone beyond his destination. We paid +very little heed to him; but, leaping from the cart, felt grateful for +the blessing of whole bones. There remained still one zwanziger unpaid; +but, to our astonishment, the Bohemian relapsed into his old rage when +this was tendered to him, and, by a complication of finger reckoning, +explained to us that he had never received more than two. In fact, he +ignored all that had passed during his drunken fit. Argument being on +each side useless, we also betook ourselves to abuse, and a terrible +conflict of strong language, in which neither party understood the other, +was the result. We entered the chief inn of the village, followed by the +implacable Bohemian, who, though ejected several times, never failed to +re-appear, repeating his finger calculations every time, and concluding +each assault with the mystical words, "_Sacramentum hallaluyah_!" The +landlord came at length to our assistance; and, by a few emphatic words +in his own language, exorcised this evil spirit. + +We pursued our way by Hohenmauth, and having missed somehow the larger +village of Chradim, lodged for the night in a lonely hamlet. We walked +fully thirty-two miles the next day, through a wild, neglected country, +and hobbled into Loitomischl as the night was setting in. + +We were now upon the borders of Bohemia, and saw glaring on the wall of a +frontier hostelry, "Willkommen zu Mahren"--"Welcome to Moravia." We +sealed the welcome by a sumptuous breakfast of sausages and beer in the +frontier town of Zwittau--a pleasant place, with a spacious colonnaded +market-square--and finished our meal on a green bank on the outskirts of +the town, with a heap of sweet blackberries, of which we had purchased a +capful for six kreutzers shein. It was a quiet, beautiful Sunday +morning, and the country folks were streaming towards the church. They +were all in holiday trim, with a strong tendency to Orientalism in the +fashion of their garments. The women's head-dresses were arranged with +much taste, consisting generally of a large handkerchief, or shawl, +folded turban-wise, with hanging ends; but the heads of the men were +surmounted by an atrocious machine, in the shape of a hat, which, with +its broad, rolled brim, its expanded top, and numerous braidings and +pendants, could be nothing less than an heirloom in a family. We marched +some twenty-five miles that day, and as the even darkened, entered the +village of Goldentraum--Golden dream--happy name! for here, after four +nights of straw-litter, we slept in beds. + +Seated in the travellers' room was a group which at once arrested our +attention. A swarthy man, with scattered, raven locks, and a handsome +countenance, was filling a glass with red wine from a round-bellied +flask. His companion, a black, shaggy-bearded fellow, ragged and filthy, +sat opposite to him; while close by the wall, squatted on the ground, was +a squalid, olive-skinned woman, with black, matted hair, who was vainly +endeavouring to still the cries of a child, swaddled at her back. The +men wore slouched Spanish hats, and wide cloaks, which, partly thrown +aside, revealed the rags and dirt beneath. Bohemian gipseys--real +Bohemians were they--filchers and beggars, whose ample cloaks were +intended as much for a convenient means of concealing stolen property, as +articles of dress. Our military Lubecker thought they would be very +useful as a foraging party. They sat laughing and sipping their wine, +now and then handing a glass of the liquor, in an ungracious way, to the +woman squatted on the ground; and who received it with a real or assumed +humility which was, perhaps, the most curious part of the picture. Here +three of our companions, Alcibiade, the Viennese silversmith, and one of +the Lubeckers, were unable to proceed further on foot, and took places in +the "fast coach;" while "Hannibal" and myself tramped the remaining +twenty miles which lay between us and Brunn, the capital of Moravia. + +It was again Sunday, our usual rest day, and I stood in the open square +before the huge church at Brunn, watching the motley, shifting, and +clamorous crowd which had converted its very steps into a market-place. +There was something strikingly Eastern in the character of the women's +attire: intensely gaudy and highly contrasted; and their head-dresses the +very next thing to a turban with double-frilled ends. There was also +something peculiarly Catholic in the nature of the articles exposed for +sale; beads, crosses, coloured pictures of saints, and tiny images of +suffering Saviours; but more especially in the manner in which the Sunday +had been turned into a market-day. Above all, and through all, the +impressive tones of the solemn chant, mingled with bursts of inspiring +music, pealed out of the open doorway, round which clustered the kneeling +devotees. + +Our lame companions started on the following day by rail for the Austrian +capital, while we took the high road. The country through which we +passed was beautifully undulated; hill and dale following each other in +regular succession, and in a far different state of order and cultivation +to the neglected plains of Bohemia. We were now in Austria proper, and +everything spoke of prosperity and comfort. Neat, populous villages, +hung upon every hill-side--the southern side invariably--and there were +no shortcomings in the accommodation for man or horse. But our finances +were in a miserable plight; and our sustenance during the two and a half +days occupied in tramping the more than eighty miles between Brunn and +Vienna, consisted for the most part of fruit, bread, and water. We +crossed the Danube at a place called "Am Spitz," where there is an +interminable bridge across the broad flood, and entered Vienna almost +penniless. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. + + +THE TURKS' CELLAR. + +You enter the old town of Vienna from Leopoldstadt by the Ferdinand +Bridge; and, walking for a few minutes parallel with the river, come into +a hollow called the Tiefer Grund; passing next under a broad arch which +itself supports a street spanning the gulley, you find on the left hand a +rising ground which must be climbed in order to reach a certain open +space of a triangular form, walled in by lofty houses, called "Die +Freiung,"--the Deliverance. In it there is an old wine-house, the Turks' +Cellar, and there belongs to this spot one of the legends of Vienna. + +In the autumn of the year sixteen hundred and twenty-seven, when the city +was so closely invested by the Turks, that the people were half famished, +there stood in the place now called "Freiung," or thereabouts, the +military bakery for that portion of the garrison which had its quarters +in the neighbourhood. The bakery had to supply not only the soldiers, +but bread was made in it to be doled out to destitute civilians by the +municipal authorities; and, as the number of the destitute was great, the +bakers there employed had little rest. Once in the dead of the night, +while some of the apprentices were getting their dough ready for the +early morning batch, they were alarmed by a hollow ghostly sound as of +spirits knocking in the earth. The blows were regular and quite +distinct, and without cessation until cockcrow. The next night these +awful sounds were again heard, and seemed to become louder and more +urgent as the day drew near; but, with the first scent of morning air, +they suddenly ceased. The apprentices gave information to the town +authorities; a military watch was set, and the cause of the strange +noises in the earth was very soon discovered. The enemy was under +ground; the Turks, from their camp on the Leopoldiberg, were carrying a +mine under the city; and, not knowing the levels, had approached so +nearly to the surface that there was but a mere crust between them and +the bakehouse floor. + +What was to be done? The danger was imminent--the remedy must be prompt +and decisive. A narrow arm of the Danube ran within a hundred yards of +the place: pick and spade were vigorously plied, and in a short time a +canal was cut between the river and the bakery. Little knew the Turks of +the cold water that could then at any time be thrown upon their +undertaking. All was still. The Viennese say that the hostile troops +already filled the mine, armed to the teeth, and awaiting only a +concerted signal to tell them that a proposed midnight attack on the +walls had diverted the attention of the citizens. Then they were to rush +up out of the earth and surprise the town. But the besieged, forewarned +and forearmed, suddenly threw the flood-gates open and broke a way for +the water through the new canal under the bakehouse floor; down it went +bubbling, hissing, and gurgling into the dark cavern, where it swept the +Mussulmans before it, and destroyed them to a man. + +This was the origin of the Turks' Cellar; and although the title is +perhaps unjustly appropriated by the winehouse I have mentioned, yet +there is no doubt that the tale is true, and that the house at any rate +is near the spot from which its name is taken. Grave citizens even +believe that the underground passage still exists, walled and roofed over +with stone, and that it leads directly to the Turks' camp, at the foot of +the Leopoldiberg. They even know the size of it, namely, that it is of +such dimensions as to admit the marching through it of six men abreast. +Of this I know nothing; but I know from the testimony of a venerable old +lady--who is not the oldest in Vienna--that the bakers' apprentices were +formerly allowed special privileges in consideration of the service once +rendered by some of their body to the state. Indeed, the procession of +the bakers, on every returning anniversary of the swamp-in of the Turks, +when they marched horse and foot from the Freiung, with banners, emblems, +and music, through the heart of the city to the grass-grown camp outside +the city walls, was one of the spectacles that made the deepest +impression on this chatty old lady in her childhood. + +The Turks' Cellar is still famous. It is noted now, not for its bread or +its canal-water, but for its white wine, its baked veal, and its savoury +chickens. Descend into its depths (for it is truly a cellar and nothing +else) late in the evening, when citizens have time and money at their +disposal, and you find it full of jolly company. As well as the +tobacco-smoke will permit you to see what the place resembles, you would +say that it is like nothing so much as the after cabin of a Gravesend +steamer on a summer Sunday afternoon. There is just such a row of tables +on each side; just such a low roof; just such a thick palpable air, +uncertain light, and noisy steamy crowd of occupants. The place is +intolerable in itself, but fall-to upon the steaming block of baked veal +which is set before you; clear your throat of the tobacco-smoke by mighty +draughts of the pale yellow wine which is its proper accompaniment; +finally, fill a deep-bowled meerschaum with Three Kings tobacco, creating +for yourself your own private and exclusive atmosphere, and you begin to +feel the situation. The temperature of mine host's cellar aids +imagination greatly in recalling the idea of the old bakehouse, and there +comes over you, after a while, a sense of stifling that mixes with the +nightmare, usually constituting in this place an after-supper nap. In +the waking lethargy that succeeds, you feel as if jostled in dark vaults +by a mob of frantic Turks, labouring heavily to get breath, and sucking +in foul water for air. + +Possibly when fully awakened you begin to consider that the Turks' Cellar +is not the most healthful place of recreation to be in; and, cleaving the +dense smoke, you ascend into sunlight. Perhaps you stroll to some place +where the air is better, but which may still have a story quite as +exciting as the catastrophe of the imperial bakehouse: perhaps to +Bertholdsdorf; a pretty little market-town with a tall-steepled church, +and a half ruined battlement, situated on the hill slope about six miles +to the south of Vienna. It forms a pretty summer day's ramble. Its +chronicler is the worthy Markt-richter, or Town-justice, Jacob +Trinksgeld; and his unvarnished story, freely translated, runs thus:-- + +"When the Turkish army, two hundred thousand strong without their allies, +raised the siege of Raab, the retreating host of rebels and Tartars were +sent to overrun the whole of Austria below the Enns on this side of the +Danube, and to waste it with fire and sword. This was done. On the +ninth of July, detached troops of Spahis and Tartars appeared before the +walls of Bertholdsdorf, but were beaten back by our armed citizens. +Those attacks were repeated on the tenth and twelfth, and also repulsed; +but as at this time the enemy met with a determined resistance from the +city of Vienna, which they had invested, they gathered in increased force +about our devoted town, and on the fifteenth of July attacked us with +such fury on every side that, seeing it was no longer possible to hold +out against them, partly from their great numbers, and partly from our +failing of powder; and, moreover, seeing that they had already set fire +to the town in several places, we were compelled to seek shelter with our +goods and chattels in the church and fortress, neither of which were as +yet touched by the flames. + +"On the sixteenth, the town itself being then in ashes, there came a +soldier dressed in the Turkish costume, save that he wore the leather +jerkin of a German horseman, into the high street, and waving a white +cloth, he called out in the Hungarian language, to those of us who were +in the fortress, that if we would ask for grace, both we and ours should +be protected, and a safe conduct (salva quartier) given to us, that +should be our future defence. Thereupon we held honest counsel together, +citizens and neighbours then present, and in the meantime gave reply, +translated also into Hungarian, that if we should agree thereto, we would +set up a white flag upon the tower as a sign of our submission. Early on +the morning of the nineteenth of July there came a Pasha from the camp at +Vienna, at the head of a great army, and with him the same Turk who had +on the previous day made the proposal to us. And the Pasha sat himself +down upon a red carpet spread on the bare ground, close by the house of +Herr Streninger, till we should agree to his terms. It was five o'clock +in the morning before we could make up our minds. + +"Then, when we were all willing to surrender, our enemies demanded, in +the first place, that two of our men should march out of the fortress as +hostages, and that two Turks should take their places with us; and that a +maiden, with loose streaming hair, and a wreath upon her forehead, should +bring forth the key of the town, seeing that this place had never till +then been taken by an enemy. Further, they demanded six thousand florins +ransom from us, which, however, we abated to four thousand, handing to +them two thousand florins at once, upon three dishes, with the request +that the remainder should be allowed to stand over till the forthcoming +day of John the Baptist. As soon as this money had been paid over to +them, the Pasha called such of our faithful garrison as were in the +church to come out and arrange themselves in the square, that he might +see how many safe-conducts were required; but, as each armed man came to +the door, his musket was torn out of his hand, and such as resisted were +dragged by the hair of the head into the square by the Turks, and told +that they would need no weapons, seeing that to those who sought for +mercy, the passes would be sufficient protection. And thus were our arms +carried away from us. + +"As soon as the whole garrison, thus utterly defenceless, were collected +in the public square, there sprang fifty Turks from their horses, and +with great rudeness began searching every one of them for money or other +valuables; and the citizens began already to see that they were betrayed +into a surrender, and some of them tried to make their escape--among +others, Herr Streninger, the town-justice; but he was struck down +immediately, and he was the first man murdered. Upon this, the Pasha +stood up, and began to call out with a loud, clear voice to his troops, +and as they heard his words, they fell upon the unarmed men in the +market-place, and hewed them down with their scimitars without pity or +remorse--sparing none in their eagerness for the butchery, and which, in +spite of their haste, was not ended till between one and two o'clock in +the afternoon. Of all our citizens, only two escaped the slaughter, and +they contrived to hide themselves in the tower; but those who fled out of +the town were captured by the Tartars, and instantly dispatched. Then, +having committed this cruel barbarism, they seized the women and children +who had been left for safety in the church, and carried them away into +slavery, taking care to burn and utterly destroy the fortress ere they +departed. And when Vienna was relieved, and the good people there came +among the ruins of Bertholdsdorf, they gathered together the headless and +mangled remains of our murdered citizens to the number of three thousand +five hundred, and buried them all in one grave." + +In "eternal remembrance" of this catastrophe, the worthy town-justice, +Trinksgeld, in seventeen hundred ordered a painting to be executed, +representing the fearful scene described. It occupies the whole of one +side of the Town-hall, and in its quaint minuteness of detail, and +defiance of perspective--depicting, not merely the slaughter of the +betrayed Bertholdsdorfers, but the concealment of the two who were +fortunate enough to escape, and who are helplessly apparent behind some +loose timber--would be ludicrous, were it not for the sacred gravity of +the subject. + +As it is, we quit the romantic little town with a sigh, and turning our +faces towards Vienna, wonder what the young Turks of eighteen hundred and +fifty-four may possibly think of the Old Turks of one hundred and thirty +years ago. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII. + + +A TASTE OF AUSTRIAN JAILS. + +At the "Fete de Dieu," in Vienna (the _Frohnleichnamsfest_), religious +rites are not confined to the places of worship--the whole city becomes a +church. Altars rise in every street, and high mass is performed in the +open air, amid clouds of incense and showers of holy water. The Emperor +himself and his family swell the procession. + +I had taken a cheering glass of Kronewetter with the worthy landlord of +my lodgings, and sauntered forth to observe the day's proceedings. I +crossed the Platz of St. Ulrick, and thence proceeded to the high street +of Mariahilf--an important suburb of Vienna. I passed two stately altars +on my way, and duly raised my hat, in obedience to the custom of the +country. A little crowd was collected round the parish church of +Mariahilf; and, anticipating that a procession would pass, I took my +stand among the rest of the expectant populace. A few assistant police, +in light blue-grey uniforms with green facings, kept the road. + +A bustle about the church-door, and a band of priests, attendants, +and--what pleased me most--a troop of pretty little girls came, two and +two, down the steps, and into the road. I remember nothing of the +procession but those beautiful and innocent children, adorned with +wreaths and ribbons for the occasion. I was thinking of the rosy faces I +had left at home, when my reflections were interrupted by a peremptory +voice, exclaiming, "Take off your hat!" I should have obeyed with +alacrity at any other moment; but there was something in the manner and +tone of the "Polizeidiener's" address which touched my pride, and made me +obstinate. I drew back a little. The order was repeated; the crowd +murmured. I half turned to go; but, the next moment, my hat was struck +off my head by the police-assistant. + +What followed was mere confusion. I struck the "Polizeidiener;" and, in +return, received several blows on the head from behind with a heavy +stick. In less than ten minutes I was lodged in the police-office of the +district; my hat broken and my clothes bespattered with the blood which +had dropped, and was still dropping, from the wounds in my head. + +I had full time to reflect upon the obstinate folly which had produced +this result; nor were my reflections enlivened by the manners of the +police-agents attached to the office. They threatened me with heavy +pains and punishments; and the Polizeidiener whom I had struck, assured +me, while stanching his still-bleeding nose, that I should have at least +"three months for this." + +After several hours' waiting in the dreary office, I was abruptly called +into the commissioner's room. The commissioner was seated at a table +with writing materials before him, and commenced immediately, in a sharp +offensive tone, a species of examination. After my name and country had +been demanded, he asked: + +"Of what religion are you?" + +"I am a Protestant." + +"So! Leave the room." + +I had made no complaint of my bruises, because I did not think this the +proper place to do so; although the man who dealt them was present. He +had assisted, stick in hand, in taking me to the police-office. He was +in earnest conversation with the Polizeidiener, but soon left the office. +From that instant I never saw him again; nor, in spite of repeated +demands, could I ever obtain redress for, or even recognition of, the +violence I had suffered. + +Another weary hour, and I was consigned to the care of a police-soldier; +who, armed with sabre and stick, conducted me through the crowded city to +prison. It was then two o'clock. + +The prison, situated in the Spengler Gasse, is called the +"Polizei-Haupt-Direction." We descended a narrow gut, which had no +outlet, except through the prison gates. They were slowly opened at the +summons of my conductor. I was beckoned into a long gloomy apartment, +lighted from one side only, and having a long counter running down its +centre; chains and handcuffs hung upon the walls. + +An official was standing behind the counter. He asked me abruptly: + +"Whence come you?" + +"From England," I answered. + +"Where's that?" + +"In Great Britain; close to France." + +The questioner behind the counter cast an inquiring look at my escort:-- + +"Is it so?" he asked. + +The subordinate answered him in a pleasant way, that I had spoken the +truth. Happily an Englishman, it seems, is a rarity within those prison +walls. + +I was passed into an adjoining room, which reminded me of the back +parlour of a Holywell Street clothes shop, only that it was rather +lighter. Its sides consisted entirely of sets of great pigeon-holes, +each occupied by the habiliments or effects of some prisoner. + +"Have you any valuables?" + +"Few enough." My purse, watch, and pin were rendered up, ticketed, and, +deposited in one of the compartments. I was then beckoned into a long +paved passage or corridor down some twenty stone steps, into the densest +gloom. Presently I discerned before me a massive door studded with +bosses, and crossed with bars and bolts. A police-soldier, armed with a +drawn sabre, guarded the entrance to Punishment Room No. 1. The bolts +gave way; and, in a few moments, I was a prisoner within. + +Punishment Room No. 1, is a chamber some fifteen paces long by six broad, +with a tolerably high ceiling and whitened walls. It has but two +windows, and they are placed at each end of one side of the chamber. +They are of good height, and look out upon an inclosed gravelled space, +variegated with a few patches of verdure. The room is tolerably light. +On each side are shelves, as in barracks, for sleeping. In one corner, +by the window, is a stone sink; in another, a good supply of water. + +Such is the prison; but the prisoners! There were +forty-eight--grey-haired men and puny boys--all ragged, and stalking with +slippered feet from end to end with listless eyes. Some, all eagerness; +some, crushed and motionless; some, scared and stupid; now singing, now +swearing, now rushing about playing at some mad game; now hushed or +whispering, as the loud voice of the Vater (or father of the ward) is +heard above the uproar, calling out "Ruhe!" ("Order!") + +On my entrance I was instantly surrounded by a dozen of the younger +jail-birds, amid a shout of "Ein Zuwachs! Ein Zuwachs!" which I was not +long in understanding to be the name given to the last comer. "Was haben +sie?" (What have you done?) was the next eager cry. "Struck a +Polizeidiener!" "Ei! das ist gut!" was the hearty exclamation; and I was +a favourite immediately. One dirty villanous-looking fellow, with but +one eye, and very little light in that, took to handling my clothes; then +inquired if I had any money "up above?" Upon my answering in the +affirmative my popularity immediately increased. They soon made me +understand that I could "draw" upon the pigeon-hole bank to indulge in +any such luxuries as beer or tobacco. + +People breakfast early in Vienna; and, as I had tasted nothing since that +meal, I was very hungry; but I was not to starve; for soon we heard the +groaning of bolts and locks, and the police-soldier who guarded the door +appeared, bearing in his hand a red earthen pot, surmounted by a round +flat loaf of bread "for the Englishman." I took my portion with thanks, +and found that the pipkin contained a thick porridge made of lentils, +prepared with meal and fat; in the midst of which was a piece of fresh +boiled beef. The cake was of a darkish colour; but good wholesome bread. +Altogether, the meal was not unsavoury. Many a greedy eye watched me as +I sat on the end of the hard couch, eating my dinner. One wretched man +seeing that I did not eat all, whispered a proposal to barter his dirty +neckerchief--which he took off in my presence--for half of my loaf. I +satisfied his desires, but declined the recompense. My half-emptied +pipkin was thankfully taken by another man, under the pretence of +"cleaning it." + +One of my fellow-prisoners approached me. + +"It is getting late," said he; "do you know what you have got to do?" + +"No." + +"You are the Zuwachs (latest accession), and it is your business to empty +and clean out the 'Kiefel'" (the sink, etc.) + +"The devil!" + +"But I dare say," he added, carelessly, "if you pay the Vater a +'mass-bier,'" (something less than a quart of beer), "he will make some +of the boys do it for you." + +"With all my heart." + +"Have you a rug?" + +"No." + +"You must ask the Corporal, at seven o'clock; but I dare say the Vater +will find you one--for a 'mass-bier'--if you ask him." + +I saw that a mass-bier would do a great deal in an Austrian prison. + +The Vater, who was a prisoner like the rest, was appealed to. He was a +tall, burly-looking young man, with a frank countenance. He had quitted +his honest calling of butcher, and had taken to smuggling tobacco into +the city. This is a heavy crime; for the growth, manufacture, and sale +of tobacco is a strict Imperial monopoly. Accordingly, his punishment +had been proportionately severe--two years' imprisonment. The sentence +was now approaching completion; and, on account of good conduct, he had +received the appointment of Vater to Punishment Room No. 1. The benefits +were enumerated to me with open eyes by one of the prisoners--"Double +rations, two rugs, and a mass-bier a day!" + +The result of my application to the Vater was the instant calling out of +several young lads, who crouched all day in the darkest end of the +room--a condemned corner, abounding in vermin; and I heard no more of the +sink and so forth. The next day a newcomer occupied my position. + +At about seven o'clock the bolts were again withdrawn, the ponderous door +opened, and the Corporal--who seemed to fill the office of +ward-inspector--marched into the chamber. He was provided with a small +note-book and a pencil, and made a general inquiry into the wants and +complaints of the prisoners. Several of them asked for little +indulgences. All these were duly noted down to be complied with the next +day--always supposing that the prisoner possessed a small capital "up +above." I stepped forward, and humbly made my request for a rug. "You!" +exclaimed the Corporal, eyeing me sharply. "Oh! you are the +Englishman?--No!" + +I heard some one near me mutter: "So; struck a policeman! No mercy for +him from the other policemen--any of them." + +The Vater dared not help me; but two of his most intimate friends made me +lie down between them; and, swaddled in their rugs, I passed the night +miserably. The hard boards, and the vermin, effectually broke my +slumbers. + +The morning came. The rules of the prison required that we should all +rise at six, roll up the rugs, lay them at the heads of our beds, and +sweep out the room. Weary and sore, I paced the prison while these +things were done. Even the morning ablution was comfortless and +distressing; a pocket-handkerchief serving but indifferently for a towel. + +Restless activity now took full possession of the prisoners. There was +not the combined shouting or singing of the previous day; but there was +independent action, which broke out in various ways. Hunger had roused +them; the prison allowance is one meal a day: and although, by husbanding +the supply, some few might eke it out into several repasts, the majority +had no such control over their appetite. Tall, gaunt lads, just starting +into men, went roaming about with wild eyes, purposeless, pipkin in hand, +although hours must elapse before the meal would come. Caged beasts pace +their narrow prisons with the same uniform and unvarying motion. + +At last eleven o'clock came. The barred door opened, and swiftly, yet +with a terrible restraint--knowing that the least disorder would cost +them a day's dinner--the prisoners mounted the stone steps, and passed +slowly, in single file, before two enormous caldrons. A cook, provided +with a long ladle, stood by the side of each; and, with a dexterous +plunge and a twist, a portion of porridge and a small block of beef were +fished up and dashed into the pipkin extended by each prisoner. Another +official stood ready with the flat loaves. In a very short time, the +whole of the prisoners were served. + +Hunger seasoned the mess; and I was sitting on the bedstead-end enjoying +it, when the police-soldier appeared on the threshold, calling me by +name. + +"You must leave--instantly." + +"I am ready," I said, starting up. + +"Have you a rug?" + +"No." + +I hurried out into the dark passage. I was conducted to the left; +another heavy door was loosened, and I was thrust into a gloomy cell, +bewildered, and almost speechless with alarm. I was not alone. Some +half-dozen melancholy wretches, crouching in one corner, were disturbed +by my entrance; but half-an-hour had scarcely elapsed, when the +police-soldier again appeared, and I was hurried out. We proceeded +through the passage by which I had first entered. In my way past the +nest of pigeon-holes "up above," my valuables were restored to me. +Presently a single police-soldier led me into the open street. + +The beautiful air and sunshine! how I enjoyed them as we passed through +the heart of the city. "Bei'm Magistrat," at the corner of the Kohlmarkt +was our destination. We entered its porticoed door, ascended the stone +stairs, and went into a small office, where the most repulsive-looking +official I have anywhere seen, noted my arrival in a book. Thence we +passed into another pigeon-holed chamber, where I delivered up my little +property, as before, "for its security." A few minutes more, and I was +safely locked in a small chamber, having one window darkened by a wooden +blind. My companions were a few boys, a courier--who, to my surprise, +addressed me in English--and a man with blazing red hair. + +In this place I passed four days, occupied by what I suppose I may +designate "my trial." The first day was enlivened by a violent attack +which the jailer made upon the red-haired man for looking out of window. +He seized the fiery locks, and beat their owner's head against the wall. +I had to submit that day to a degrading medical examination. + +On the second day I was called to appear before the "_Rath_," or counsel. +The process of examination is curious. It is considered necessary to the +complete elucidation of a case, that the whole life and parentage of the +accused should be made known; and I was thus exposed to a series of +questions which I had never anticipated:--The names and countries of both +of my parents; their station; the ages, names, and birthplaces of my +brothers and sisters; my own babyhood, education, subsequent behaviour, +and adventures; my own account, with the minutest details of the offence +I had committed. It was more like a private conference than an +examination. The Rath was alone--with the exception of his secretary, +who diligently recorded my answers. While being thus perseveringly +catechised, the Rath sauntered up and down; putting his interminable +questions in a friendly chatty way, as though he were taking a kindly +interest in my history, rather than pursuing a judicial investigation. +When the examination was concluded, the secretary read over every word to +me, and I confirmed the report with my signature. + +The Rath promised to do what he could for me; and I was then surprised +and pleased by the entrance of my employer. The Rath recommended him to +write to the English Embassy in my behalf, and allowed him to send me +outer clothing better suited to the interior of a prison than the best +clothes I had donned to spend the holiday in. + +I went back to my cell with a lightened heart. I was, however, a little +disconcerted on my return by the courier, who related an anecdote of a +groom, of his acquaintance, who had persisted in smoking a cigar while +passing a sentinel; and who, in punishment therefor, had been beaten by a +number of soldiers, with willow rods; and whose yells of pain had been +heard far beyond the prison walls. What an anticipation! Was I to be +similarly served? I thought it rather a suspicious circumstance that my +new friend appeared to be thoroughly conversant with all the details (I +suspect from personal experience) of the police and prison system of +Vienna. He told me (but I had no means of testing the correctness of his +information) that there were twenty Rathsherrn, or Counsellors; that each +had his private chamber, and was assisted by a confidential secretary; +that every offender underwent a private examination by the Rath appointed +to investigate his case--the Rath having the power to call all witnesses, +and to examine them, singly, or otherwise, as he thought proper; that on +every Thursday the "Rathsherrn" met in conclave; that each Rath brought +forward the particular cases which he had investigated, explained all +their bearings, attested his report by documentary evidence prepared by +his secretary, and pronounced his opinion as to the amount of punishment +to be inflicted. The question was then decided by a majority. + +On the third day, I was suddenly summoned before the Rath, and found +myself side by side with my accuser. He was in private clothes. + +"Herr Tuci," exclaimed the Rath, trying to pronounce my name, but utterly +disguising it, "you have misinformed me. The constable says he did not +_knock_ your hat off--he only _pulled_ it off." + +I adhered to my statement. The Polizeidiener nudged my elbow, and +whispered, "Don't be alarmed--it will not go hard with you." + +"Now, constable," said the Rath; "what harm have you suffered in this +affair?" + +"My uniform is stained with blood." + +"From _my_ head!" I exclaimed. + +"From _my_ nose," interposed the Polizeidiener. + +"In any case it will wash out," said the Rath. + +"And you," he added, turning to me,--"are you willing to indemnify this +man for damage done?" + +I assented; and was then removed. + +On the following morning I was again summoned to the Rath's chamber. His +secretary, who was alone, met me with smiles and congratulations: he +announced to me the sentence--four days' imprisonment. I am afraid I did +not evince that degree of pleasure which was expected from me; but I +thanked him, was removed, and, in another hour, was reconducted to +Punishment Room No. 1. + +The four days of sentence formed the lightest part of the adventure. My +mind was at ease: I knew the worst. Additions to my old companions had +arrived in the interval. We had an artist among us, who was allowed, in +consideration of his talents, to retain a sharp cutting implement +fashioned by himself from a flat piece of steel--knives and books being, +as the most dangerous objects in prison, rigidly abstracted from us. He +manufactured landscapes in straw, gummed upon pieces of blackened wood. +Straw was obtained, in a natural state, of green, yellow, and brown; and +these, when required, were converted into differently-tinted reds, by a +few hours' immersion in the Kiefel. He also kneaded bread in the hand, +until it became as plastic as clay. This he modelled into snuffboxes +(with strips of rag for hinges, and a piece of whalebone for a spring), +draughts, chess-men, pipe-bowls, and other articles. When dry, they +became hard and serviceable; and he sold them among the prisoners and the +prison officials. He obtained thus a number of comforts not afforded by +the prison regulations. + +On Sunday, I attended the Catholic chapel attached to the prison--a damp +unwholesome cell. I stood among a knot of prisoners, enveloped in a +nauseous vapour; for there arose musty, mouldy, effluvia which gradually +overpowered my senses. I felt them leaving me, and tottered towards the +door. I was promptly met by a man who seemed provided for emergencies of +the kind; for he held a vessel of cold water, poured some of it into my +hands, and directed me to bathe my temples. I partly recovered; and, +faint and dispirited, staggered back to the prison. I had not, however, +lain long upon my bed (polished and slippery from constant use), when the +prison guard came to my side, holding in his hand a smoking basin of egg +soup "for the Englishman." It was sent by the mistress of the kitchen. +I received the offering of a kind heart to a foreigner in trouble, with a +blessing on the donor. + +On the following Tuesday, after an imprisonment of, in all, nine days, +during which I had never slept without my clothes, I was discharged from +the prison. In remembrance of the place, I brought away with me a straw +landscape and a bread snuff-box, the works of the prison artist. + +On reaching my lodging I looked into my box. It was empty. + +"Where are my books and papers?" I asked my landlord. + +The police had taken them on the day after my arrest. + +"And my bank-notes?" + +"Here they are!" exclaimed my landlord, triumphantly. "I expected the +police; I knew you had money somewhere, so I took the liberty of +searching until I found it. The police made particular inquiries about +your cash, and went away disappointed, taking the other things with +them." + +"Would they have appropriated it?" + +"Hem! Very likely--under pretence of paying your expenses." + +On application to the police of the district, I received the whole of my +effects back. One of my books was detained for about a week; a member of +the police having taken it home to read, and being, as I apprehend, a +slow reader. + +It was matter of great astonishment, both to my friends and to the +police, that I escaped with so slight a punishment. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII. + + +WHAT MY LANDLORD BELIEVED. + +My Bohemian landlord in Vienna told me a story of an English nobleman. +It may be worth relating, as showing what my landlord, quite in good +faith and earnest, believed. + +You know, Lieber Herr, said Vater Bohm, there is nothing in the whole +Kaiserstadt so astonishing to strangers as our signboards. Those +beautiful paintings that you see--Am Graben and Hohe Markt,--real works +of art, with which the sign-boards of other countries are no more to be +compared, than your hum-drum English music is to the delicious waltzes of +Lanner, or the magic polkas of Strauss. Imagine an Englishman, who knows +nothing of painting, finding himself all at once in front of one of those +charming compositions--pictures that they would make a gallery of in +London, but which we can afford to put out of doors; he is fixed, he is +dumb with astonishment and delight--he goes mad. Well, Lieber Herr, this +is exactly what happened to one of your English nobility. Milor arrived +in Vienna; and as he had made a wager that he would see every notability +in the city and its environs in the course of three days, which was all +the time he could spare, he hired a fiaker at the Tabor-Linie, and drove +as fast as the police would let him from church to theatre; from museum +to wine-cellar; till chance and the fiaker brought him into the Graben. +Milor got out to stretch himself, and to see the wonderful shops, and +after a few turns came suddenly upon the house at the sign of the Joan of +Arc. + +"Goddam!" exclaimed Milor, as his eye met the sign-board. + +There he stood, this English nobleman, in his drab coat with pearl +buttons, his red neckcloth, blue pantaloons and white hat, transfixed for +at least five minutes. Then, swearing some hard oaths--a thing the +English always do when they are particularly pleased--Milor exclaimed, +"It is exquisite! Holy Lord Mayor, it is unbelievable!" + +Mein Lieber, you have seen that painting of course, I mean Joan of Arc, +life-size, clad in steel, sword in hand, and with a wonderful serenity +expressed in her countenance, as she leads her flagging troops once more +to the attack upon the walls. It has all the softness of a Coreggio, and +the vigour of a Rubens. Milor gave three bounds, and was in the middle +of the shop in a moment. + +"That picture!" he exclaimed. + +"What picture--Eurer Gnaden?" inquired the shopkeeper, bowing in the most +elegant manner. + +"It hangs at your door--Joan of Arc, I wish to buy it." + +"It is not for sale, Eurer Gnaden." + +"Bah!" ejaculated Milor, "I must have it. I will cover it with guineas." + +"It is impossible." + +"How impossible?" cried Milor, diving into the capacious pocket of the +drab coat with the pearl buttons, and drawing forth a heavy roll of +English bank-notes, "I'll bet you anything you like that it is possible." + +You know, mein Lieber, that the English settle everything by a wager; +indeed, betting and swearing is about all their language is fit for. For +a fact, there were once two English noblemen, from Manchester or some +such ancient place, who journeyed down the Rhine on the steam-boat. They +looked neither to the right nor to the left; neither at the vine-fields +nor the old castles; but sat at a table, silent and occupied with nothing +before them but two lumps of sugar, and two heaps of guineas. A little +crowd gathered round them wondering what it might mean. Suddenly one of +them cried out, "Goddam, it's mine!" "What is yours?" inquired one who +stood by, gaping with curiosity. "Don't you see," replied the other, "I +bet twenty guineas level, that the first fly would alight upon my lump of +sugar, and by God, I've won it!" + +To return to Milor. "I'll bet you anything you like that it is +possible," said he. + +"Your grace," replied the shopkeeper, "my Joan of Arc is beyond price to +me. It draws all the town to my shop; not forgetting the foreigners." + +"I will buy your shop," said the Englishman. + +"Milor! Graf Schweinekopf von Pimplestein called only yesterday to see +it, and Le Comte de Barbebiche." + +"A Frenchman!" shouted Milor. + +"From Paris, your grace." + +"Will you sell me your Joan of Arc?" was the furious demand. "I will +cover it with pounds sterling twice over." + +"Le Comte de Barbebiche--" + +"You have promised it to him?" + +"Yes!" gasped Herr Wechsel, catching at the idea. + +"Enough!" cried the English nobleman; and he strode into the street. +With one impassioned glance at the figure of La Pucelle, he threw himself +into his fiaker, and drove rapidly out of sight. + +On reaching his hotel, he chose two pairs of boxing gloves, a set of +rapiers, and a case of duelling pistols; and, thus loaded, descended to +his fiaker, tossed them in, and started off in the direction of the +nearest hotel. "Le Comte de Barbebiche"--that was the pass-word; but +everywhere it failed to elicit the desired reply. He passed from street +to street--from gasthaus to gasthaus--everywhere the same dreary +negative; and the day waned, and his search was still unsuccessful. But +he never relaxed; the morning found him still pursuing his inquiries; and +midday saw him at the porte cochere of the Hotel of the Holy Ghost, in +the Rothenthurm Strasse, with his case of duelling pistols in his hand, +his set of rapiers under his arm, and his two pairs of boxing-gloves +slung round his neck. + +"Deliver my card immediately to the Comte," said he to the attendant; +"and tell him I am waiting." He had found him out. Luckily, the Comte +de Barbebiche happened to be in the best possible humour when this +message was conveyed to him, having just succeeded in dyeing his +moustache to his entire satisfaction. He glanced at the card--smiled at +himself complacently in the mirror before him, and answered in a gracious +voice, "Let Milor Mountpleasant come up." + +Milor was soon heard upon the stairs; and, as he strode into the room, he +flung his set of rapiers with a clatter on the floor, dashed his case of +duelling pistols on the table, and with a dexterous twist sent one pair +of boxing-gloves rolling at the feet of the Comte, while, pulling on the +other, he stood in an attitude of defence before the astonished +Frenchman. + +"What is this?" inquired the Comte de Barbebiche. + +"This is the alternative," cried the Englishman. "Here are weapons; take +your choice--pistols, rapiers, or the gloves. Fight with one of them you +must and shall, or abandon your claim to Joan of Arc." + +"Mon Dieu! What Joan of Arc? I do not have the felicity of knowing the +lady." + +"You may see her, Am Graben," gravely replied Milor, "outside a shop +door, done in oil." + +"Heh!" exclaimed the astonished Comte, "in oil--an Esquimaux, or a +Tartar, pray?" + +"Monsieur le Comte, I want no trifling. Do you persist in the purchase +of this picture? I have set my heart upon it; I love it; I have sworn to +possess it. Make it a matter of money, and I will give you a thousand +pounds for your bargain; make it a matter of dispute, and I will fight +you for it to the death; make it a matter of friendship, and yield up +your right, and I will embrace you as a brother, and be your debtor for +the rest of my life." + +The Comte de Barbebiche--seeing that he had to do with an Englishman a +degree, at least, more crazed than the rest of his countrymen--entered +into the spirit of the matter at once, and chose the easiest means of +extricating himself from a difficulty. + +"Milor," he exclaimed, advancing towards him, "I am charmed with your +sentiments, your courage, and your integrity. Take her, Milor--take your +Joan of Arc; I would not attempt to deprive you of her if she were a real +flesh and blood Pucelle, and my own sister." + +The Englishman, with a grand oath, seized the Comte's hand in both his +own, and shook it heartily; then scrambling up his paraphernalia of war, +spoke a hurried farewell, and disappeared down the stairs. + +The grey of the morning saw Milor in full evening costume, pacing the +Graben with hurried steps, watching with anxious eyes the shop front +where his beloved was wont to hang. He saw her carried out like a +shutter from the house, and duly suspended on the appointed hook. She +had lost none of her charms, and he stood with arms folded upon his +breast, entranced for awhile before the figure of the valiant maiden. + +"Herr Wechsel," said he abruptly, as he entered the shop; "Le Comte de +Barbebiche has ceded his claim to me. I repeat my offer for your Joan of +Arc--decide at once, for I am in a hurry." + +It certainly does appear surprising that Herr Wechsel did not close in +with the offer at once; perhaps he really had an affection for his +picture; perhaps he thought to improve the bargain; or, more probably, +looking upon his strange customer as so undoubtedly mad, as to entertain +serious fears as to his ever receiving the money. Certain it is, that he +respectfully declined to sell. + +"You refuse!" shouted Milor, striking his clenched fist upon the counter; +"then, by Jove! I'll--but never mind!" and he strode into the street. + +The dusk of the evening saw Milor in the dress of a porter, pacing the +Graben with a steady step. He halted in front of his cherished Joan; +with the utmost coolness and deliberation unhooked the painting from its +nail, and placing it carefully, and with the air of a workman, upon his +shoulder, stalked away with his precious burden. + +Imagine the consternation of Herr Wechsel upon the discovery of his loss. +His pride, his delight, the chief ornament of his shop was gone; and, +moreover, he had lost his money. But his sorrow was changed into +surprise, and his half-tearful eyes twinkled with satisfaction as he read +the following epistle, delivered into his hands within an hour after the +occurrence:-- + + "Sir,--You will find placed to your credit in the Imperial Bank of + Vienna the sum of five thousand pounds, the amount proffered for your + Joan of Arc. Your obstinacy has driven me into the commission of a + misdemeanour. God forgive you. But I have kept my word. + + "I am already beyond your reach, and you will search in vain for my + trace. In consideration for your feelings, and to cause you as + little annoyance as possible, I have placed _my_ Joan of Arc into the + hands of a skilful artist; and I trust to forward you as accurate a + copy as can be made. + + "Yours, MOUNTPLEASANT." + +And Milor kept his word, mein Lieber, and the copy hangs Am Graben to +this day in the place of the original. The original shines among the +paintings in the splendid collection of Milor at Mountpleasant Castle. + +I will not pretend to say, concluded Vater Bohm, reloading his pipe, that +the English have any taste, but they certainly have a strange passion for +pictures; and, let them once get an idea into their heads, they are the +most obstinate people in the world in the pursuit of it. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX. + + +AN EXECUTION AT VIENNA. + +Carl Fickte, a native of Vienna, stood condemned for execution. His +crime was murder. He was convicted of having enveigled his nephew, of +eight years old, to the Molker bastion of the city fortification, and of +having thrown him over the parapet into the dry ditch below. The depth +of the fall was between thirty and forty feet, and the shattered body of +the boy explained his miserable death. His nephew's cloak became +loosened in the struggle, and remained in the hands of Fickte, who sold +it, and spent the produce in a night's debauch. This cloak led to the +discovery of the murderer, and after a lapse of eight months to his +conviction and execution. + +I had resolved to witness the last act of the law, and started from home +at six o'clock on the appointed morning. A white mist filled the air, +and gradually thickened into rain; and by the time I had reached the +spot--a distance of about two miles--a smart shower was falling. The +place of execution is a field in the outskirts of the city, bounded on +one side by the main road, and close to the "Spinnerinn am Kreuz," an +ancient stone cross, standing on the edge of the highway. From this spot +a beautiful view of the city is obtained. + +The crowd was already gathering, and carts, benches, and platforms were +in course of arrangement by enterprising speculators, for the +accommodation of the people. A low bank which skirted the field was soon +occupied, and every swell of the ground was taken advantage of. Soon the +rain fell in torrents, and the earth became sodden and yielding; but no +pelting shower, no sinking clay, could drive the anxious crowd from the +attractive spectacle. Still on they came, men and women together; +laughing and joking; their clothes tucked about them, and umbrella-laden. +Over the field; on to the slippery bank, whence, every now and again, +arose a burst of uproar and laughter, as some part of the mound gave way, +and precipitated a snugly-packed crowd into the swamp below. + +Venders of fruit, sausages, bread, and spirits, occupied every eligible +situation, and from the early hour, and the unprepared state of the +spectators, found abundant patronage. + +A clatter was heard from the city side, and a body of mounted police +galloped along the high road, halted at the gallows, and formed +themselves into a hollow square around it. The gibbet was unlike our +own, it had no platform, and no steps; but was a simple frame formed by +two strong upright, and one horizontal beam. There was a little +entanglement of pulleys and ropes, which I learned to understand at a +later hour. + +Still the rain came pouring down, in one uninterrupted flood, that +nothing but the excitement of a public execution could withstand. And +still the people clustered together in a dense crowd, under the open air +and pelting rain, shifting and reeling, splashing and staggering, till +the field became trodden into a heavy, clinging paste of a full foot +deep. But no one left the spot; they had come for the sight, and see it +they would. Over the whole field and bank, and rising ground, a perfect +sea of umbrellas waved and swayed with the crowd, as they vainly sought a +firmer resting place among the clogging clay. An hour went by, but there +was no change, except a continued accession to the crowd. It was +wonderful how patiently they stood under the watery hurricane; helplessly +embedded in a slimy swamp; feverish and anxious; with no thought but the +looming gallows, towards which all eyes were turned, and the miserable +culprit, whose sudden end they were awaiting to see. + +Fagged, at length, and soaked with rain, I left the slough, and gaining +the highroad, pressed towards the city to meet the cavalcade. A rushing +of people, and a confused cry, told me of its approach. "There he is!" +Yes, there! in that open cart, surrounded by mounted police, and pressed +on all sides by a hurrying crowd. On either side of him sit the prison +officials; while in front, an energetic priest, with all the vehemence +and gesticulation of the wildest religious fervour, is evidently urging +him to repentance. + +It is the law of Austria, that no criminal, however distinctly his crime +may have been proved by circumstantial evidence, can suffer death, till +he has himself confirmed the evidence by confession. But any artifice +can be lawfully employed to entrap him into an acknowledgment of his +guilt; therefore, although the sentence of the law may often be deferred, +it is rare indeed that its completion is averted. Fickte had of course +confessed. A flush was on his face; but there was no life or +intellectual spirit there. + +Another battle with the crowd, and I stood in the rear of the gibbet. +After a weary interval, the scharfrichter--executioner--mounted, by means +of a ladder, to the cross beam of the gallows. By the action of a wheel +the culprit slowly rose into the air, but still unhurt. Three broad +leathern straps confined his arms; and perfectly motionless, held in a +perpendicular position by cordage fixed to the ground, and to the beam +above, he awaited his death. No cap covered his face. A looped cord +passing through another pulley, was placed under his chin, the cord +running along the cross-beam, and the end fixed to a wheel at the side of +the gibbet. + +The culprit kissed the crucifix; a single turn of the wheel; a hoarse cry +of "Down with the umbrellas!" and his life had passed away; though no +cry, no struggle, announced its departure. The scharfrichter laid his +hand upon the heart of the criminal, then, assured of his death, +descended. And still, amid the incessant rain, with eager eyes bent upon +the dead, the crowd waited, gloating on the sight. According to the +sentence of the law, the corpse, with nothing to hide its discoloured and +distorted features, remained hanging till the setting of the sun. + +Ashamed, wearied, and horrified, I hurried home; only halting on my way +to purchase the "Todesurtheil," or "Death-sentence," which was being +cried about the streets. This is an official document, and indeed the +only one with which the people of Vienna are gratified on such a subject. +Trials are not public, nor can they be reported; and although the whole +of the details invariably ooze out through the police, no authentic +account appears before the public till the sentence is carried out. + +The "Todesurtheil" appears, like our "Last Dying Speech," at the time of +the execution, but contains no verses; being a simple, and very brief +narrative of the life and crime of the condemned. He is designated by +his initials only, out of delicacy to his relatives, although his real +name is, somehow or other, already well known. + +Six months later there occurred another execution, but I had no curiosity +to witness it. The condemned was a soldier, who, in a fit of jealousy, +had fired upon his mistress; but killed a bystander instead. There was +no mystery about the affair, and he was condemned to death. + +On the day previous to his execution, he was allowed to receive the +visits of his friends and the public. Only a single person was admitted +at a time. He awaited his visitor (in this instance, an acquaintance of +my own), with calmness and resolution; advanced with outstretched hand to +meet him; greeting him with a hearty salutation. The visitor, totally +unprepared for this, trembled with a cold shudder, as he received the +pressure of the murderer's hand; murmured a blessing; dropped a few coin +into the box for the especial benefit of his soul, and hurriedly +withdrew. + +On the following morning the condemned quitted his prison for the gibbet. +But the soldier, unlike the civilian--the soldier who has forfeited his +right to a military execution--must walk to his death. The civilian +rides in the felon's cart; the soldier, in undress, must pace the weary +way on foot. Imagine a death-condemned criminal walking from the Old +Bailey to Copenhagen Fields to the gallows, and you have a parallel case. + + + + +CHAPTER XX. + + +A JAIL EPISODE. + +While in the full enjoyment of that luxury, "A Taste of Austrian Jails," +already related in these pages, I met with a man whose whole life would +seem to signify perversion; a "dirty, villanous-looking fellow, with but +one eye, and very little light in that." A first glance at this fellow +would call up the reflection, "Here is the result of bad education, and +bad example, induced perhaps by natural misfortunes, but the inevitable +growth of filth and wretchedness in a large city." + +With thin, straggling wisps of hair thrown, as it were, on his head, a +dull glimmer only in his one eye, and his whole features of a crafty, +selfish character--such he was; clad in a long, threadbare, +snuff-coloured great-coat, reaching almost to his heels, and which served +to hide the trowsers, the frayed ends of which explained their condition; +on his bare feet he wore a pair of trodden-down slippers, with upper +leathers gaping in front with open mouths; a despicable rascal to look +at, and yet this was a brother of one of the magistrates of Vienna. + +It was soon evident to me that this individual was held in great respect +by the rest of the prisoners; such an influence has education,--for he +was an educated man,--even in such a place as a common jail. + +I was soon informed of the peculiar talent which gave him a prominent +position. He was an inexhaustible teller of stories; and, added my +informant, "he can drink as much beer as any three men in Vienna." + +This was saying a great deal. + +On the second night of my incarceration in Punishment Room No. 1, I had +an opportunity of judging of his powers; for, on our retiring to our +boards and rugs, which, according to prison regulations, we were bound to +do at the ringing of the eight o'clock bell, I heard his peculiar voice +announce from the other side of the room, where he lay, propped up +against the wall by the especial indulgence of his comrades, that he was +about to tell a story. I could not sleep, but lay upon the hard planks +listening, as he recounted with a wonderful power of language, and no +mean amount of elocutionary dignity, some principal incidents in the life +of Napoleon. His companions lay entranced; they did not sleep, for I +could hear their whispers, and, now and then, their uneasy shiftings on +the relentless wood. And so he went on, and I fell off to sleep before +he had come to a conclusion. + +This was repeated each night of my confinement, for which he received his +due payment in beer from his fellow prisoners. + +He professed to have a great affection for me; would take my arm, and +walk with me up and down the ward, telling me of his acquirements, little +scraps of his history, and invariably making a request for a little beer. + +On one occasion it was suggested by the "Vater" that he should tell us +his own story. + +"My story!" chuckled the unashamed rascal. "Why, all Vienna knows my +story. I am the brother of Rathherr Lech, of the +Imperial-royal-city-police-bureau of Vienna. My brother is a great man; +I am a vagabond. _He_ deserves it, and _I_ deserve it; but he is my +brother for all that, and I put him in mind of it now and then. + +"My brother, by his zeal and talent, has acquired great learning, and +raised himself to a position of honour and independence. And why have I +not done the same? Because I am lazy, have got weak eyes, and am fond of +beer. I do not care for your wine; good Liesinger beer is the drink for +me. + +"My brother wished me to attain a lofty position in the world. I am the +younger. He paid teachers to instruct me, and I learned a great deal; +but it was dry work, and I sought change, after days of study, in +beer-cellars, among a few choice boosers. And my eyes were weak, and +close study made them worse; and many a day I stole from my lessons on +the plea of failing sight. My brother, who is a good fellow, only that +he does not sufficiently consider my weakness, employed physicians and +oculists out of number; and among them I lost the sight of one eye. It +was of no use; I did not like the labour of learning, and I made my weak +eyes an excuse for doing less than I could have done. + +"At last I gave it up altogether, and my brother got me into the +'Institute for the Blind.' _That_ would not do for me at all; I was not +blind enough for _that_. So, one day, when the door was open, and the +weather fine, I strolled home again to my brother. This vexed him +greatly; but he got over it, and then he placed me in the 'Imperial +Bounty.' A stylish place, I can tell you, where few but nobles were +allowed. + +"But how could I, a lusty young fellow, be happy among that moping, +musty, crampt-up lot of old respectables? Not I! so, as I could not +easily get out in the day-time, I ran away one night, and went back to my +old quarters. At first my brother would not see me; but that passed +over, for he could not let me starve. He then obtained for me a post in +the 'Refuge for the Aged;' about the dullest place in all Vienna. I was +too young to be one of the members, so they gave me a birth, where I did +nothing. But what was the use of that? I could not live among that +company of mumbling, bible-backed old people; and if I could, it was all +the same, for they kicked me out at the end of a month for impropriety. + +"It was lucky for me that I tumbled into a legacy about this time, of +eighty gulden munz. I enjoyed myself while it lasted, and never troubled +my brother with my presence. + +"It did not last long; for, what with drinking beer, and wearing fine +clothes, and taking a dashing lodging on the Glacis, I found my eighty +guldens gone, just as I was in a position to enjoy them most. But I was +never very proud; so, seeing that there was nothing to be done, but to go +without beer, or to humble myself to my brother, the rath, I chose the +latter course as the most reasonable, and made my peace with him at once. + +"And what do you suppose he did for me? He said I had disgraced myself +and him at all the other places, so he could do nothing but send me to +the 'Asylum for the Indigent.' But I did not stay there long. There was +no beer there; nothing but thin soup and rind-fleish (fresh boiled beef) +all the year round. And a pretty lot of ill-bred, miserable ignoramuses +they were--the indigent! Not a spark of life or jollity in the place. + +"One day I coolly walked out of the 'Asylum,' made off to a house I well +knew, and ran up a credit account in my brother's name of good eight +guldens for beer and tobacco. A glorious day! for I forgot all about the +'asylum,' and the 'indigent,' and every mortal pain and trouble in this +inconvenient world. + +"I was awakened from a deep dream by a heavy hand on my shoulder, and a +loud voice in my ear. + +"'Holloa! friend Lech.' + +"'What's the matter?' inquired I, gaping. + +"'Get up, and I'll tell you.' + +"'Who are you?' + +"'You'll know that soon enough; I am a police officer.' + +"'And where am I, in God's name?' + +"'Why, lying on your back, on the open Glacis.' + +"That was pleasant, was it not? So they took me to the police-bureau, in +the first case, for lying out in the open air; and when they found that I +had used my brother's name to incur a debt, without his permission, they +gave me two months for fraudulent intentions. + +"'Why did you not stay at the "Bounty?"' expostulated my friend, the +police-assistant, as we were talking the matter over. + +"'Because it was too aristocratic and uncomfortable,' answered I. + +"'Perhaps the Rathherr, your brother, will be able to get you into the +"Refuge,"' said he, in a consoling way. + +"'God bless you! they have kicked me out of there long ago.' + +"'Then I know of nothing but the "Indigent" left for you.' + +"'My worthy friend,' said I, 'that is the very last place I came from.' + +"But I was determined to be revenged. When my time was expired, I +sallied forth with my mind fully made up as to what I was to do. I knew +the hour when my brother, in pursuance of his duties, usually entered the +magistrate's office, and, attired as I was--look at me! just as I am +now--in this old coat, the souvenir of the 'Indigent,' and these +free-and-easy slippers, I waited at the great entrance of the Magistracy, +to pay my respects to my brother, the Rath. + +"I saw him coming; and, as soon as he reached the foot of the flight of +stone steps, I marched forward, gave him a mock salute, and exclaimed, in +a loud voice, + +"'Good morning, brother!' + +"'What is the meaning of this?' demanded he. + +"'Look here, brother!' said I, 'look at this coat, and these shoes.' + +"'Remove this fellow!' exclaimed he to the police, who were standing at +his heels. + +"I knew what would be the result, but had determined to have the play +out. So I drew off my slipper, and, thrusting my hand right through the +hole at the toe, I made a bit of play with my fingers, and shouted in his +ear: + +"'Look at this, brother. Are you not ashamed to see me? Look here! +Look at this kripple-gespiel (puppet show)! Look!' + +"Of course I was laid hold of; and here I am for another two months, for +insulting a city functionary." + +This story was received with a glee only equalled by the gusto with which +it was related. The last expression, "kripple-gespiel," was peculiarly +his own. + +Before leaving Vienna, about a month after my release, I had determined +to see the Bruhl, a wild, wooded, and mountainous district, at a short +distance from the city. We had spent a delightful day among its thick +pine woods, and on its towering heights, and in the evening made our way +to the small town of Modling, where we intended to take the railway to +Vienna. But there was a grand fete in the pleasure grounds close to the +town, accompanied by a magnificent display of fireworks. This whiled +away the time, and it was already dark, as we at length bent our steps +towards the railway station. + +Suddenly a voice that I knew too well, struck upon my ear. + +"Pity the poor blind!" it exclaimed. + +I turned, and behold! there was my one-eyed jail acquaintance, planted +against a brick wall, a stout staff, at least six feet long, in his hand, +and his apparently sightless eyes turned up to the sky. + +"Pity the poor blind!" + +In the greatest fear lest, even in his present blind condition, he might +recognise, and claim me as an acquaintance, I hurried from the spot with +all the speed of which I was capable, and, thank Heaven, never set eyes +upon him again. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI. + + +A WALK THROUGH A MOUNTAIN. + +I lately took a walk through the substance of a mountain, entering at the +top, and coming out at the bottom, after a two or three mile journey +underground. Perhaps the story of this trip is worth narrating. The +mountain was part of an extensive property belonging to the Emperor of +Austria, in his character of salt merchant, and contained the famous salt +mine of Hallein. + +The whole salt district of Upper Austria, called the Salzkammergut, forms +part of a range of rocks that extends from Halle in the Tyrol, passes +through Reichenthal in Bavaria, and continues by way of Hallein in +Salzburg, to end at Ausse in Styria. The Austrian part of the range is +now included in what is called the district of Salzburg, and that +district abounds, as might be expected, in salt springs, hot and cold, +which form in fact the baths of Gastein, Ischl, and some other places. +The names of Salzburg (Saltborough), the capital, and of the Salzack +(Saltbrook), on the left bank of which that pleasant city stands, +indicate clearly enough the character of the surrounding country. +Hallein is a small town eight miles to the south-east of Salzburg, and it +was to the mine of Hallein, as before said, that I paid my visit. + +On the way thither, we, a party of three foot-travellers, passed through +much delightful rock and water scenery. From Linz, the capital of Upper +Austria, we got through Wells and Laimbach to the river Traun, and +trudged afoot beside its winding waters till we reached the point of its +junction with the Traunsee, or Lake of Traun. At Gmunden, we stopped to +look over the Imperial Salt Warehouses. The Emperor of Austria, as most +people know, is the only dealer in salt and tobacco with whom his +subjects are allowed to trade. His salt warehouses, therefore, must +needs be extensive. They are situated at Gmunden to the left of the +landing-place, from which a little steamer plies across the lake; and +they are so built as to afford every facility for the unloading of boats +that bring salt barrels from the mine by the highway of the Traun. The +warehouses consisted simply of a large number of sheds piled with the +salt in barrels, a few offices, and a low but spacious hall, filled, in a +confused way, with dusty models. There were models of river-boats and +salt moulds, mining tools, and tram ways, hydraulic models of all kinds, +miniature furnaces, wooden troughs, and seething pans. We looked through +these until the bell from the adjacent pier warned us, at five o'clock in +the evening, to go on board the steamer that was quite ready to puff and +splash its way across the beautiful green lake. We went under the shadow +of the black and lofty Traunstien, and among pine-covered rocks, of which +the reflections were mingled in the water with a ruddy glow, that +streamed across a low shore from some fires towards which we were +steering. + +The glow proceeded from the fires of the Imperial Saltern, erected at +Ebensee. We paid a short visit to the works, which have been erected at +great cost; and display all the most recent improvements in the art of +getting the best marketable salt from saline water. We found that the +water, heavily impregnated, is conducted from the distant mines by wooden +troughs into the drying pan. The pan is a large shallow vessel of metal, +supported by small piles of brick, and a low brick wall about three feet +high, extending round two-thirds of its circumference; leaving one-third, +as the mouth of the furnace, open to the air. Among the brick columns, +and within the wall, the fire flashed and curled under the seething pan. +Ascending next into the house over the great pan, and looking down upon +the surface and its contents through sliding doors upon the floors, we +saw the white salt crusting like a coat of snow over the boiling water, +and being raked, as it is formed, by workmen stationed at each of the +trap doors. As the water evaporated, the salt was stirred and turned +from rake to rake; and finally, when quite dry, raked into the +neighbourhood of a long-handled spade, with which one workman was +shovelling among the dried salt, and filling a long row of wooden moulds, +placed ready to his hand. These moulds are sugar-loaf shaped, and +perforated at the bottom like a sugar mould, in order that any remaining +moisture may drain out of them. The moulds will be placed finally in a +heated room before the salt will be considered dry enough for storeage as +a manufactured article. + +The brine that pours with an equable flow into the seething pan at +Ebensee, is brought by wooden troughs from the salt mine at Hallein, a +distance of thirty miles in a direct line. It comes by way of mountains +and along a portion of the valley of the Traun, through which we +continued our journey the same evening from Ebensee, until the darkness +compelled us to rest for the night at a small inn on a hill side. The +next day we went through Ischl and Wolfgang, and spent three hours of +afternoon in climbing up the Scharfberg, which is more than a thousand +feet higher than Snowdon, to see the sunset and the sunrise. There was +sleeping accommodation on the top: so there is on the top of Snowdon. On +the Scharfberg we had a hay-litter in a wooden shed, and ate goat's +cheese and bread and butter. We saw neither sunset nor sunrise, but had +a night of wind and rain, and came down in the morning through white mist +within a rugged gully ploughed up by the rain, to get a wholesome +breakfast at St. Gilgen on the lake. More I need not say about the +journey than that, on the fifth day after leaving Ebensee, having rested +a little in the very beautiful city of Salzburg, we marched into the town +of Hallein, at the foot of the Durrnberg, the famous salt mountain, +called Tumal by old chroniclers, and known for a salt mountain seven +hundred and thirty years ago. + +After a night's rest in the town, we were astir by five o'clock in the +morning, and went forward on our visit to the mines. In the case of the +Durrnberg salt mine, as I have already said, the miner enters at the top +and comes out at the bottom. Our first business, therefore, was to walk +up the mountain, the approach to which is by a long slope of about four +English miles. + +We met few miners by the way, and noticed in them few peculiarities of +manners or costume. The national dress about these regions is a sort of +cross between the Swiss Alpine costume and a common peasant dress of the +lowlands. We saw indications of the sugar-loafed hat; jackets were worn +almost by all, with knee-breeches and coloured leggings. The clothing +was always neat and sound, and the clothed bodies looked reasonably +healthy, except that they had all remarkably pale faces. The miners did +not seem bodily to suffer from their occupation. + +As we approached the summit of the Durrnberg, the dry brownish limestone +showed its bare front to the morning sun. We entered the offices, partly +contained in the rock, and applied for admission into the dominion of the +gnomes. Our arrival was quite in the nick of time, for we had not to be +kept waiting, as we happened to complete the party of twelve, without +which the guides do not start. It was a Tower of London business; and, +as at the Tower, the demand upon our purses was not very heavy. One +gulden-schein--about tenpence--is the regulated fee. Our full titles +having been duly put down in the register, each of us was furnished with +a miner's costume, and, so habited, off we set. + +We started from a point that is called the Obersteinberghauptstollen; our +guides only having candles, one in advance, the other in the rear. + +We were sensible of a pleasant coldness in the air when we had gone a +little way into the sloping tunnel. The tunnel was lofty, wide, and dry. +Having walked downwards on a gentle decline for a distance of nearly +three thousand feet through the half gloom and among the echoes, we +arrived at the mouth of the first shaft, named Freudenberg. The method +of descent is called the "Rolle." It is both simple and efficacious. +Down the steep slope of the shaft, and at an angle, in this case, of +forty-one and a half degrees, runs a smooth railway consisting of two +pieces of timber, each of about the thickness of a scaffold pole; they +are twelve inches apart, and run together down the shaft like two sides +of a thick ladder without the intervening rounds. Following the +directions and example of the foremost guide, we sat astride, one behind +the other, on this wooden tramway, and slid very comfortably to the +bottom. The shaft itself was only of the width necessary to allow room +for our passage. In this way we descended to the next chamber in the +mountain, at a depth of a hundred and forty feet (perpendicular) from the +top of the long slide. + +We then stood in a low-roofed chamber, small enough to be lighted +throughout by the dusky glare of our two candles. The walls and roof +sparkled with brown and purple colours, showing the unworked stratum of +rock-salt. We stood then at the head of the Untersteinberghauptstulm, +and after a glance back at the narrow slit in the solid limestone through +which we had just descended, we pursued our way along a narrow gallery of +irregular level for a further distance of six hundred and sixty feet. A +second shaft there opened us a passage into the deeper regions of the +mine. With a boyish pleasure we all seated ourselves again upon a +"Rolle"--this time upon the Johann-Jacob-berg-rolle, which is laid at an +angle of forty-five and a half degrees--and away we slipped to the next +level, which is at the perpendicular depth of another couple of hundred +feet. + +We alighted in another chamber where our candles made the same half +gloom, with their ruddy glare into the darkness, and where there was the +same sombre glittering upon the walls and ceiling. We pursued our track +along a devious cutting, haunted by confused and giant shadows, suddenly +passing black cavernous sideways that startled us as we came upon them, +and I began to expect mummies, for I thought myself for one minute within +an old Egyptian catacomb. After traversing a further distance of two +thousand seven hundred feet we halted at the top of the third slide, the +Konigsrolle. That shot us fifty-four feet deeper into the heart of the +mountain. We had become quite expert at our exercise, and had left off +considering, amid all these descents and traverses, what might be our +real position in the bowels of the earth. Perhaps we might get down to +Aladdin's garden and find trees loaded with emerald and ruby fruits. It +was quite possible, for there was something very cabalistic, very strong +of enchantment in the word Konhauserankehrschachtricht, the name given to +the portion of the mine which we were then descending. +Konhauser-return-shaft is, I think, however, about the meaning of that +compound word. + +So far we had felt nothing like real cold, although I had been promised a +wintry atmosphere. Possibly with a miner's dress over my ordinary +clothing, and with plenty of exercise, there was enough to counteract the +effects of the chill air. But our eyes began to ache at the uncertain +light, and we all straggled irregularly along the smooth cut shaft level +for another sixty feet, and so reached the Konhauser-rolle, the fourth +slide we had encountered in our progress. + +That cheered us up a little, as it shot us down another one hundred and +eight feet perpendicular depth to the +Soolererzeugungswerk-Konhauser--surely a place nearer than ever to the +magic regions of Abracadabra. If not Aladdin's garden, something +wonderful ought surely by this time to have been reached. I was alive to +any sight or sound, and was excited by the earnest whispering of my +fellow adventurers, and the careful directions as to our progress given +by the guides and light-bearers. + +With eager rapidity we flitted among the black shadows of the cavern, +till we reached a winding flight of giant steps. We mounted them with +desperate excitement, and at the summit halted, for we felt that there +was space before our faces, and had been told that those stairs led to a +mid mountain lake, nine hundred and sixty feet below the mountain's top; +two hundred and forty feet above its base. Presently, through the +darkness, we perceived at an apparently interminable distance a few dots +of light, that shed no lustre, and could help us in no way to pierce the +pitchy gloom of the great cavern. The lights were not interminably +distant, for they were upon the other shore, and this gnome lake is but a +mere drop of water in the mountain mass, its length being three hundred +and thirty, and its breadth one hundred and sixty feet. + +Our guides lighted more candles, and we began to see their rays reflected +from the water; we could hear too the dull splashing of the boat, which +we could not see, as old Charon slowly ferried to our shore. More lights +were used; they flashed and flickered from the opposite ferry station, +and we began to have an indistinct sense of a spangled dome, and of an +undulating surface of thick, black water, through which the coming boat +loomed darkly. More candles were lighted on both sides of the Konhauser +lake, a very Styx, defying all the illuminating force of candles; dead +and dark in its dim cave, even the limits of which all our lights did not +serve to define. The boat reached the place of embarcation, and we, +wandering ghosts, half walked and were half carried into its broad clumsy +hulk, and took each his allotted seat in ghostly silence. There was +something really terrible in it all; in the slow funereal pace at which +we floated across the subterranean lake; in the dead quiet among us, only +interrupted by the slow plunge of the oar into the sickly waters. In +spite of all the lights that had been kindled we were still in a thick +vapour of darkness, and could form but a dreamy notion of the beauty and +the grandeur of the crystal dome within which we men from the upper earth +were hidden from our fellows. The lights were flared aloft as we crept +sluggishly across the lake, and now and then were flashed back from a +hanging stalactite, but that was all. The misty darkness about us +brought to the fancy at the same time fearful images, and none of us were +sorry when we reached the other shore in safety. There a rich glow of +light awaited us, and there we were told a famous tale about the last +Arch-ducal visit to these salt mines, where some thousands of lighted +tapers glittered and flashed about him, and exhibited the vaulted roof +and spangled lake in all their beauty. As we were not Archdukes, we had +our Hades lighted only by a pound of short sixteens. + +We left the lake behind us, and then, traversing a further distance of +seventy feet along the Wehrschachtricht, arrived at the mouth of the +Konhauser Stiege. Another rapid descent of forty-five feet at an angle +of fifty degrees, and we reached Rupertschachtricht, a long cavern of the +extent of five hundred and sixty feet, through which we toiled with a +growing sense of weariness. We had now come to the top of the last and +longest "slide" in the whole Durrnberg. It is called the +Wolfdietrichberg-rolle, and is four hundred and sixty-eight feet long, +carrying us two hundred and forty feet lower down into the mountain. We +went down this "slide" with the alacrity of school-boys, one after +another keeping the pot boiling, and all regulating our movements with +great circumspection, for we knew that we had far to go and we could +never see more than a few yards before us. + +Having gained the ground beneath in safety, our attention was drawn to a +fresh water well or spring, sunk in this spot at great cost by order of +the Archduke, and blessed among miners. Amid all the stone and salt and +brine, a gush of pure fresh water at our feet was very welcome to us all. +The well was sunk, however, to get water that was necessary for the +mining operations. We did not see any of those operations underground, +for they are not exhibited; the show-trip underground is only among the +ventilating shafts and galleries. Through the dark openings by which we +had passed, we should have found our way (had we been permitted) to the +miners. I have seen them working in the Tyrol, and their labours are +extremely simple. Some of the rock-salt is quarried in transparent +crystals, which undergo only the process of crushing before they are sent +into the market as an article of commerce. Very little of this grain +salt is seen in England, but on the continent it may be found in some of +the first hotels, and on the table of most families. It is cheaper than +the loaf salt, and is known in Germany under the title of _salzkorn_, and +in France, as _selle de cuisine_. In order to obtain a finer grained and +better salt, it is necessary that the original salt-crystals should be +dissolved, and for this purpose parallel galleries are run into the rock, +and there is dug in each of them a dyke or cistern. These dykes are then +flushed with water, which is allowed to remain in them undisturbed for +the space of from five to twelve months, according to the richness of the +soil; and, being then thoroughly saturated with the salt that it has +taken up, the brine is drawn off through wooden pipes from Hallein over +hill and dale into the evaporating pans. + +We had traversed the last level, and had reached what is generally called +the end of the salt-mine; but we were still a long way distant from the +pure air and the sunshine. We had travelled through seven galleries of +an aggregate length of nearly two miles; we had floated across an earthy +piece of water; had followed one another down six slides, and had +penetrated to the depth of twelve hundred feet into the substance of the +mountain limestone, gypsum, and marl. Having done all this, there we +were, in the very heart of the Durrnberg, left by our guides, and +intrusted to the care of two lank lads with haggard faces. We stood +together in a spacious cavern, poorly lighted by our candles; there was a +line of tram-rail running through the middle of it, and we soon saw the +carriage that was to take us out of the mountain emerging from a dark +nook in the distance. It was a truck with seats upon it, economically +arranged after the fashion of an Irish jaunting car. The two lads were +to be our horses, and our way lay through a black hollow in one side of +the cavern, into which the tram-rail ran. + +We took our seats, instructed to sit perfectly still, and to restrain our +legs and arms from any straggling. There was no room to spare in the +shaft we were about to traverse. Our car was run on to the tram-line, +and the two lads, with a sickly smile, and a broad hint at their expected +gratuity, began to pull, and promised us a rapid journey. In another +minute we were whirring down an incline with a rush and a rattle, through +the subterranean passage tunnelled into the solid limestone which runs to +the outer edge of the Durrnberg. The length of this tunnel is +considerably more than an English mile. + +The reverberation and the want of light were nothing, but we were +disagreeably sensible of a cloud of fine stone dust, and knew well that +we should come out not only stone deaf, but as white as millers. +Clinging to our seats with a cowardly instinct, down we went through a +hurricane of sound and dust. At length we were sensible of a diminution +in our speed, and the confusion of noises so far ceased, that we could +hear the panting of our biped cattle. Then, straight before us, shining +in the centre of the pitchy darkness, there was a bright blue star +suddenly apparent. One of the poor lads in the whisper of exhaustion, +and between his broken pantings for breath, told us that they always know +when they have got half way by the blue star, for that is the daylight +shining in. + +A little necessary rest, and we were off again, the blue star before us +growing gradually paler, and expanding and still growing whiter, till +with an uncontrollable dash, and a concussion, we are thrown within a few +feet of the broad incomparable daylight. With how much contempt of +candles did I look up at the noonday sun! The two lads, streaming with +perspiration, who had dragged us down the long incline, were made happy +by the payment we all gladly offered for their services. Then, as we +passed out of the mouth of the shaft, by a rude chamber cut out of the +rock, we were induced to pause and purchase from a family of miners who +reside there a little box of salt crystals, as a memento of our visit. +Truly we must have been among the gnomes, for when I had reached the inn +I spread the brilliant crystals I had brought home with me on my bedroom +window sill, and there they sparkled in the sun and twinkled rainbows, +changing and shifting their bright colours as though there were a living +imp at work within. But when I got up next morning and looked for my +crystals, in the place where each had stood, I found only a little slop +of brine. That fact may, I have no doubt, be accounted for by the +philosophers; but I prefer to think that it was something wondrous +strange, and that I fared marvellously like people of whom I had read in +German tales, how they received gifts from the good people who live in +the bowels of the earth, and what became of them. I have had my +experiences, and I do not choose to be sure whether those tales are +altogether founded upon fancy. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII. + + +CAUSE AND EFFECT. + +One September evening we rode into Carlsruhe. We made our entry in a +crazy hackney cab behind a lazy horse that had been dragging us for a +long time with cheerless industry between a double file of trees, along a +road without a bend in it; a long, lanky, Quaker road, heavily +drab-coated with dust; a tight-rope of a road that comes from Manheim, +and is hooked on to the capital of Baden. Out of that _allee_ we were +dragged into the square-cut capital itself, which had evidently been +planned by the genius of a ruler--not a prince, but the wooden measure. +The horse stopped at the City of Pfortzheim, and as his decision on the +subject of our halting-place appeared to be irrevocable, we got out. + +At the capital of a grand dukedom, except Weimar, it is better to sleep +(it is the only thing to be done there) and pass on; but it so happened +that on that particular evening Carlsruhe was in a ferment: there was +something brewing. I heard talk of a procession and of certain names, +particularly the names Kugelblitz and Thalermacher. Never having heard +those names before, and caring therefore nothing in the world about them, +I tumbled into bed. To my delight, when I got up in the morning, I found +the little town turned upside down. Landlord, boots, and chambermaid, +overwhelmed me with exclamations, surmises, and incoherent summaries of +the night's news. There had been an outbreak. _Lieber Herr_, a +revolution! One entire house razed to the ground. "Hep! hep!" that is +the old cry, "Down with the Jews!" All their bones would be made powder +of. Tremendous funeral of Kugelblitz. Students on their way in a body +from Heidelberg. Thalermacher the rich Jew, soldiers, the entire court, +Meinheer, all in despair; a regular sack. Not only Kugelblitz, but +Demboffsky, the Russian officer, killed. O hep! hep! a lamentable +tragedy. "For they were two such fine-looking young men," mourned the +chambermaid, "especially Demboffsky." "You had better," said the +landlord, "stay in Carlsruhe till to-morrow." + +Roused by the incoherent tidings, I hurried to the centre of the tumult. +The house of the firm of Thalermacher and Company was situated in the +High Street; and though, certainly, it had a doleful look, it was there +situated still: it held its ground. Not a brick was displaced; +but--gaunt and windowless, disfigured with great blotches of ink and +dirt, its little shop rent from the wall and split up into faggots--it +looked like a house out of which all life had been knocked; but there was +the carcase. In the street before the house, there were by that time a +few splinters of furniture remaining; the rest had been broken up or +hidden by kind and cunning neighbours. The shop had been cobbled +together with the broken shutters; and half-a-dozen soldiers, quite at +their ease, were lounging pleasantly about the broken door. + +The outbreak, I was told by the bystanders, was quite unpremeditated. A +few stragglers had halted before the house at about eight o'clock on the +preceding evening, and had been discussing there the dreadful tale +connected with its owner. One gossip, in a sudden burst of anger, hurled +a bottle of ink--then by chance in his hand--at the Jew's house. The +idea was taken up with such good will that a hard rain of stones, +bottles, and other missiles was soon pelting against Thalermacher's +walls. Where all are unanimous it is not difficult to come to a +conclusion. An hour's labour, lightened by yells and shouts of "Hep, +hep!" was enough; and, the zeal of the people burning like a fire, soon +left of the house nothing but its shell. + +The authorities in Germany, usually so watchful and so prompt to +interfere, were either taken completely off their guard, or tacitly +permitted the rude work of vengeance; for, although there was a +guard-post in the immediate vicinity, the whole efforts of the military +were confined to conducting Thalermacher and his family into a place of +safety. The protection Thalermacher received was of a peculiar kind. +Under the plea of insuring him against public attack, he was conducted +under escort, to the fortress of Rastadt, and there held a close +prisoner, until the whole affair could be investigated. + +The funeral procession of Lieutenant Kugelblitz was not a thing to be +missed. I went, therefore, to the other end of the city, whence the +procession was to start. The scene was impressive. Not merely his +brothers-in-arms of the artillery, but the general-staff--all the +officers of distinction in the Baden army, whose duties allowed them to +be present--and even the Russian companions of his antagonist Demboffsky, +acted as mourners. + +As the procession came before the house of Thalermacher, I observed that +a strong guard had been posted there for its protection. The funeral +passed by without any demonstration whatever. Presently we turned up a +narrow passage, leading from the high street towards the cemetery, and +our progress became tediously slow as we moved with the close mass of +people. At the burial-place every mound and stone was occupied. Flowers +were trampled under foot, shrubs broken or uprooted, and the grass all +stamped into the mould. The whole crowd listened to the impressive +tone--only a few could hear the words--of the funeral harangue, and to +the solemn hymn which followed. The service closed with the military +honour of musketry fired over the soldier's grave. That over, I was +sucked back by the retreating tide of citizens into the main street of +Carlsruhe. + +The crowd instantly dispersed; and, as I wandered through the side +streets, I soon saw that the authorities had come to life. My attention +was first called to an official announcement freshly posted, which warned +all persons from assembling in the public street in knots or clusters, +even of three or four, on pain of being instantly dispersed by the +military. Another placard fulminated an injunction to parents, masters, +and burghers to restrain and confine all persons under their charge--such +as workmen, servants, and children--within their respective houses; +because, for any offence committed by them against the public peace, such +masters or parents would be held responsible. I began to fancy myself in +a state of siege. Wandering again into the main street I was met by a +strong division of dusty dragoons, in full equipment of war, which came +sweeping and clashing along from adjacent parts of the country, evidently +under urgent orders. Another and another followed. Troops of infantry +tramped hastily along the side streets. The very few civilians I met in +the streets seemed to be hurrying to shelter from a coming storm. Was +there really any social tempest in the wind? Or were all these +precautions but a locking of the stable door after the steed was stolen? + +Having roamed by chance into a sequestered beer-house, I was surprised to +find myself in the midst of a large party of students; probably from +Heidelberg. They were well-grown youths, with silken blond beards; and +in their behaviour, half-swaggerers, half-gentlemen. These were, +perhaps, the enemies of order against whom the tremendous military +preparations had been made. + +As the day wore on it became evident that the authorities were ready to +brave the most overwhelming revolution that ever burst forth. Troop +after troop of cavalry galloped in; every soldier, indeed, of whatever +arm stationed within an available distance of Carlsruhe, was brought +within its walls. By eight o'clock in the evening the military +preparations were completed: a picket of infantry was stationed at every +street corner; and, from that hour to the break of day, parties of +dragoons swept the main thoroughfares, clashing and clattering over the +paved road with a din that kept me awake all night. Intercourse between +one street and another, except on urgent business, was interdicted; and +the humblest pedestrian found abroad without an urgent errand was +conducted home with drums beating, colours flying, and all the honours of +war. The display of force answered its purpose in preventing a second +attack of Christians on Jews. The pale ghost of insubordination was laid +and dared not walk abroad--especially at night. + +I must say I felt a little relieved when it was ascertained for certain +that the city was safe. I am no friend to despotism nor to political +thraldom of any kind; but really it is impossible not to feel for the +solemn aristocracies of German Grand-Duchies (who, if they be despots, +are extremely amiable) when, poor people, they are in the least put out +of their way: they are so dreadfully fussy, so fearfully piteous, so +distraught, so inconsolable. I was glad therefore that, the revolution +being put down, they could retire in peace to their coffee, their +picquet, and their metaphysics. Doubtless Thalermacher (some Hebrew +millionaire, perhaps) and Kugelblitz (a fire-eater, for certain) had +headed a frightful band of anarchists; who, but for the indomitable +energy of the authorities, would peradventure have changed the destiny of +the entire Duchy, of Germany, of Europe itself! Nothing but so +illimitable an apprehension could have been the cause of such a +siege-like effect. What else could have occasioned the entire blockade +of Carlsruhe? + +I had, however, exaggerated the cause as well as the danger; and I will +now relate the real circumstances which had led to all these awful +results; for the facts were afterwards made known in the Carlsruhe and +Baden-Baden public journals of the day. + +Early in the month of August, eighteen hundred and forty-three, the +inhabitants of Baden-Baden gave a ball in honour of the Grand-Princess +Helene of Baden, and the Duchess of Nassau. Among the names on the +subscription-list stood that of Herr Heller von Thalermacher. Some +unexplained animosity existed between this gentleman and Lieutenant +Kugelblitz, who was also one of the subscribers. + +Baron Donner von Kugelblitz, chief lieutenant of the Baden artillery, +although only in his twenty-ninth year, had already spent fourteen years +in military service, and was highly esteemed for his soldierly qualities +and straightforward bearing. He was tall, remarkably handsome, of an +impetuous temperament, and his natural strength had been well developed +by constant practice in manly and athletic exercises. Herr Heller von +Thalermacher, or rather the firm of which he was the prominent member, +was distinguished for qualities far different, but equally deserving of +goodwill. The banking-house of Thalermacher was one of the most +responsible in South Germany; and, at great expense and sacrifice, had +introduced into the grand, but by no means affluent, duchy of Baden +several branches of industry, which had enriched the ducal treasury, and +furnished employment for thousands of industrious subjects. It had +revived the almost extinguished mining interest; had introduced extensive +spinning machinery; and had established a factory for the manufacture of +beetroot sugar. + +Lieutenant Kugelblitz, to whose opinion deference was due, expressed +himself in such offensive terms with respect to Herr von Thalermacher, in +relation to the ball, that the gentlemen who had prepared the +subscription-list at once erased the objectionable name: Herr von +Thalermacher at once demanded satisfaction from his accuser, but this +Lieutenant Kugelblitz refused, on the ground that the banker was not +respectable enough for powder and shot. Hereupon two courts of honour +were formed, one composed of gentlemen civilians in Baden-Baden, and the +other of the officers in Carlsruhe. Both appeared to have been called +together at the wish of Lieutenant Kugelblitz, to inquire into and +pronounce upon the point at issue. The civilians came to no decision. +The military court of honour put the result of its deliberations in the +_Carlsruhe Zeitung_, as a public advertisement, couched in these terms: +"The Herr von Kugelblitz may not fight with the Herr von Thalermacher." +Thus posted as a scamp, Thalermacher advertised back his own defence; +and, by public circulars and bills, declared the accusation of Kugelblitz +to be false and malicious, and his behaviour dishonourable and cowardly. +At the same time, a Russian officer of good family,--Demboffsky--who had +acted throughout as negotiator and friend on the part of Thalermacher, +and who felt himself deeply compromised by the imputations put forth +against his principal, declared publicly that the military court which +had condemned the Herr von Thalermacher, after hearing only his accuser, +was a one-sided and absurd tribunal, and that it was not competent to +give any decision. + +The result of this declaration was a challenge from Lieutenant +Kugelblitz. Demboffsky said that he was quite willing to give his +challenger the satisfaction he demanded, on condition that he should +first arrange his quarrel with Herr Thalermacher, as became a gentleman. + +On the night of the first of September (at the beginning of our English +shooting season), the Russian being on a visit to his friend +Thalermacher, in his apartments, assured him in the most positive terms +that he would keep promise, and would make no hostile arrangement with +Lieutenant Kugelblitz. Prince Trubetzkoi and other friends then present +completely coincided in this mode of action. At half-past eleven at +night, Demboffsky quitted his friend, and hastened homewards. Be had +advanced only a few steps on the road, when suddenly two figures strode +up to him, and stayed his progress. He at once recognised Kugelblitz, +and a Spaniard named Manillo, who had lived for many years in Germany. + +"Will you fight with me?" shouted Kugelblitz in a passion. + +The Russian, although taken completely by surprise, replied that he would +do as he had already said. He would fight with Senor Manillo at once if +it were thought desirable; but he would engage in no hostilities with +Kugelblitz, until the quarrel with Thalermacher was adjusted. Great was +the wrath of Kugelblitz. He clenched his fist, shook it in the face of +Demboffsky, and demanded furiously that he should give his word of honour +to fight him in the morning. The Russian, who expected bodily violence, +then said that since the insult had been pushed so far, there remained no +other course open to him, than to accept the challenge; which he +accordingly did, pledging himself to meet Kugelblitz on the morrow. He +then hastened back to his friend Thalermacher, and related the occurrence +to him. + +On the following day the duel took place. It happened that Lieutenant +Kugelblitz was under orders to mark out the artillery practice-ground at +Hardwald, near Rastadt, and as he could not leave his post, the meeting +took place in its neighbourhood. The two officers stood forward in +deadly opposition with a measured distance of ten paces only. + +Nevertheless, the first fire was without result; but, at the second fire, +Kugelblitz was struck in the breast; yet he still held his weapon +undischarged. He pressed his left hand on the wound as he pulled the +trigger with his right. The pistol missed fire. Another cap was placed +upon the nipple, but it also failed. The second of Demboffsky then +handed another weapon to the dying man; who, with quiet resolution, still +closing his wound with his fingers, drew for the third time upon his +opponent, and with such effect, that, uttering a wild cry, and the words +"_Je suis mort_!" "I am dead!" the Russian leapt up into the air, and +then rolled upon the ground a corpse. Kugelblitz, exhausted by the +efforts he had made to die like a gentleman, sank into the arms of his +second, Manillo, and was carried insensible to Carlsruhe. He died at +noon on the second day after the duel. + +Thereupon the discerning and indignant public, a little biassed--as it +too often has been in Germany--against the Jews in general, gutted the +house of Herr von Thalermacher. + +The state also fell in with the common notion; and, under the plea of +sheltering an injured man, lodged him in prison for eleven days. Seals +were also placed upon his papers and apartments. The State then set +about ascertaining privately in how far the victim of mob law had been +guilty of the mischief which by general acclamation was imputed to him. + +After a hunt through the banker's desk, and an inspection of his drawers, +the decision of the court tribunal of Rastadt was delivered. It was +ordered that the Herr Heller von Thalermacher be forthwith liberated from +the fortress of Rastadt, free and untainted. Further: that the seals be +removed from his apartments and papers, seeing that nothing among them +had been found which could cast the faintest shadow upon his reputation. + +We had all been yelling at the wrong man. Kugelblitz was, after all, the +author of the tragedy. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII. + + +GREECE AND HER DELIVERER. + +Four happy tramps in company, we passed the frontiers of Austria and +Bavaria, near Berchtesgaden, in the hazy shimmering of an autumn morning +sun. We came from the lakes and mountain regions of Upper Austria, and +already yearned towards Munich, the Bavarian capital, as our next station +and brief resting place. The sun seemed to have melted into the air, for +we walked through it rather than beneath it, and sought in vain for +coolness and shelter among the plum trees which lined the public road. +Halting as the night closed in at the frontier town, Reichenhall, with +its quaint old streets, and its distant fortress, casting a lengthened +protective shadow over the place, we felt the indescribable luxury of the +foot-traveller's rest; as readily enjoyed at such times on a litter of +straw in the common room of an alehouse as between the cumbersome +comforts of two German feather beds. Both the ale and the feather beds +were at our service at Reichenhall, and we did not neglect them. + +In the morning our road lay by sombre, romantic Traunstein, and what was +better still, by the glistening waters of the lake of Chiem, whose broad +surface was so unruffled, that the wide expanse seemed to lie in a +hollow, and a delicious coolness whispered rather than blew across its +tranquil waves. The day was waning as we made a half circuit round the +edge of the lake, and the deepening night only stayed our steps and drove +us to rest, after a march of twenty-four miles, in the village of +Seebruck. At Rosenheim we were challenged by the Bavarian sentinel, who +held post on a stone bridge leading to the town, but it was rather in +kindliness than suspicion; and with some useful information as to our +route, and a cheering valediction, we pursued our way. The villages of +Weisham and Aibling lay before us, and must be passed before night; and +it was in the immediate neighbourhood of these places, although I confess +to some indistinctness as to the precise locality, that we came upon an +object which at once surprised and delighted us. + +By the side of the road, on a slight elevation, stood a beautiful stone +monument, of the purest Grecian architecture, and of the most delicate +workmanship. It was fresh and sharp from the chisel of the sculptor, and +looked so stately and graceful in the midst of the level landscape and +simple village scenery that we halted spontaneously to examine it. "Can +it be the memorial of some battle?" exclaimed one. "Or a devotional +shrine?" "Or a tomb?" Not any one of these. Its purpose was as +singular as the sentiment it expressed would have been beautiful and +touching, but for its presumption. Graven deeply into the stone were +words in the German language to this effect: "This monument is raised in +remembrance of the parting of Louis, King of Bavaria, with his second son +Otho, who here left his bereaved father to become the Deliverer of +Greece." As we stood and read these words the vision of the fond father +and proud king, taking his last farewell of the son whom he fondly +believed destined to fulfil so great a mission, floated before us, to be +replaced the next instant by the no less eloquent picture of the court of +the then King Otho, a German colony in the midst of the Greek people, +living upon its blood, and wantoning with its treasure; and of this same +Greek people, driven at length into fury by the rapacity of the hated +Tudesca, who filled every position of authority and grasped at every +office of emolument, and hunting them like a routed army out of the land. +Still there was a depth of paternal affection in the words upon the +monument, which impressed us with respect, as the miniature temple, with +its delicate columns and classical proportions, had inspired us with +admiration. + +We pursued our way along the dull road, now halting a moment to cool our +fevered feet, now restlessly shifting our knapsacks in the vain hope of +lightening the burden, when, being in the immediate neighbourhood of the +village of Aibling, we came upon a second monument equally classical in +form, though of less pretensions than the first. A twice-told tale, +uttered this time in a woman's accents; for the block of stone repeated +the same story in almost identical words. + +"Here the Queen of Bavaria parted with her beloved second son Otho, only +comforted in her affliction by the knowledge that he has left her to +become the Deliverer of Greece." + +The hopes of the King and Queen of Bavaria, thus unluckily commemorated +by these monuments, were no less at that time the hopes and the belief of +all Europe--with what little of prophetic spirit full twenty years of +experience has shown. Greece, swarming with Bavarian adventurers, till +goaded to the utmost she drove them from her bosom; Greece, bankrupt, +apathetic, and ungrateful; a Greek port blockaded by the ships of her +first defender, and her vessels held in pawn for the payment of a +miserable debt; Greece, piratical, dissembling, and rebellious, aiding in +her weak and greedy ambition the worst enemy of Europe--so runs the +story--but Greek deliverance not yet. Her joint occupation by French and +English forces, and the possible imposition of a provisional government, +may indeed lead to the unprophesied consummation--her deliverance--from +King Otho. + +No doubt, those monuments of mingled weakness and arrogance still whiten +in the air; as for us, we continued our march towards the Bavarian +capital, slept at a pilgrimage church that night, and on the following +morning made a bargain with the driver of a country cart who had +overtaken us, and seated on the rough timber which formed his load, +jolted into Munich. + +King Louis then reigned in Bavaria, but being so indifferent a prophet +could not foresee his own speedy abdication. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV. + + +THE FRENCH WORKMAN. + +The original stuff out of which a French workman is made, is a street boy +of fourteen years old, or, perhaps, twelve. That young _gamin de Paris_ +can sing as many love ditties and drinking songs as there are hairs upon +his head, before he knows how much is nine times seven. He prefers +always the agreeable to the useful: he knows how to dance all the +quadrilles: he knows how to make grimaces of ten thousand sorts one after +the other without stopping, and at the rate of twenty in a minute. Of +his other attainments, I say little. It is possible that he may have +been to one of the elementary schools set up by the Government; or, it +may be that he knows not how to read; although, by Article 10 of a law +passed in eighteen hundred and thirty-three, it was determined that no +chief town of a department, or chief place of a commune, containing more +than six thousand inhabitants, should be without at least one elementary +school for public instruction. + +Such as the boy may be, he is made an apprentice. He needs no act, or, +as you say in England, indenture. His contract has to be attested at the +Prefecture of Police, Bureau of Passports, Section of Livrets. Formerly, +it was the custom in France for the apprentice to be both fed and lodged +by his master; but, as the patron seldom received money with him, he was +mainly fed on cuffs. Apprenticeship in Paris, which is France, begins at +ages differing according to the nature of the trade. If strength be +wanted, the youth is apprenticed at eighteen, but otherwise, perhaps, at +fourteen. There are in Paris nineteen thousand apprentices dispersed +among two hundred and seventy branches of trade. + +Of all the apprentices whose number has been just named, only one in five +is bound by a written agreement with his master. The rest have a verbal +understanding. The youths commonly are restless; and, since they are apt +to change their minds, the business of the master is not so much to teach +them as to obtain value for himself as soon as he can out of their +labour. It is the apprentice who is sent out to take orders in the town, +and to play the part of messenger. In consequence of the looseness of +the tie, it often happens that a thoughtless parent, when his son is able +to earn wages, tells the youth that his master is sucking him and +fattening upon his unpaid labour; that he might earn money for the house +at home. The youth is glad to earn, and throws up his apprenticeship for +independent work. It soon occurs to him that his parents are sucking +him, and that his earnings ought to be for himself, and not for them. He +then throws up his home dependence, as he had thrown up dependence on his +master, takes a lodging, falls into careless company, and works on, a +half-skilled labourer, receiving all his life a less income than he could +have assured to himself by a few years of early perseverance. + +When I was apprentice, eight years ago, I found that to be a good +workman, it was needful to design and model. "Come with me," said my +comrade Gredinot, "I will show you a good school." It was a winter +evening; our work was over; and, with leave of the patron, we left our +shop in the Rue Saint Martin, and went by Saint Saviour to the Rue +Montorgueil. We bought as we went about twelve pounds of modelling clay. +At the upper end of the street, my friend Gredinot turned up a dark +passage. I followed him. A single lamp glimmered in the court to which +it led us. We went up a few steps to the schoolroom. "Here we are," +said Gredinot, in opening the door. We entered, carrying our caps. +There was a low room lighted by flaring oil lamps; but in it were busts +and statues of such beauty that it seemed to me to be the most delightful +chamber in the world. Boys and youths and a few men, all in blouses like +ourselves, laboured there. We threw our clay upon a public heap in a +wooden trough near the door. There was only that mud to pay, and there +were our own tools to take. Everything else was free. Gredinot +introduced me to the master, and I learnt to model from that night. +There are other schools--the school of Arts and Trades in the Rue St. +Martin, and the Special and Gratuitous School of Design in the Rue du +Tourraine, in connection, as I think, with the School of Fine Arts. I +might number the museums and the libraries, and I may make mention also +of the prizes of the Academy of Industry and of the Society for the +Encouragement of National Industry. + +The apprentice when out of his time goes to the prefecture of police. +There he must obtain a livret, which must have on the face of it the seal +of the prefecture, the full name of the admitted workman, his age, his +place of birth, and a description of his person, his trade, and the name +of the master who employs him. The French workman is taboo, until he is +registered by the police and can produce his livret. The book costs him +twopence halfpenny. Its first entry is a record of the completion of his +apprenticeship. Afterwards every fresh engagement must be set down in +it, with the dates of its beginning and its end, each stamped by the +prefecture. The employer of a workman holds his livret as a pledge. +When he receives money in advance, the sum is written in his book, and it +is a debt there chargeable as a deduction of not more than one fifth upon +all future employment, until it is paid. The workman when travelling +must have his livret _vised_; for, without that, says the law, "he is a +vagabond, and can be arrested and punished as such." + +The workman registered and livreted, how does he live, work, and sleep? +He is not a great traveller; for, unless forced into exile, the utmost +notion of travel that a French workman has, is the removal--if he be a +provincial--from his native province to Paris. We pass over the +workman's chance of falling victim to the conscription, if he has no +friends rich enough to buy for him a substitute, or if he cannot +subscribe for the same object to a Conscription Mutual Assurance Company. +When Louis Blanc had his own way in France the workmen did but ten hours' +labour in the day. Now, however, as before, twelve or thirteen hours are +regarded as a fair day's work. I and Friponnet, who are diamond +jewellers, work ten hours only. My friend Cornichon, who is a goldsmith, +works as long as a painter or a smith. Sunday labour used to be very +general in France, but extended seldom beyond the half day; which was +paid for at a higher rate. In Paris seven in eight of us used to earn +money on the Sunday morning. That necessity could not be pleaded for the +act, is proved by the fact, that often we did no work on Monday, but on +that day spent the Sunday's earnings. As for wages, calculated on an +average of several years, they are about as follows:--The average pay for +a day's labour is three shillings and twopence. The lowest day's pay +known is five pence, and the highest thirty shillings. About thirty +thousand of us receive half-a-crown a day; five or six times as many (the +majority) receive some sum between half-a-crown and four and twopence. +About ten thousand receive higher wages. The best wages are earned by +men whose work is connected with print, paper, and engraving. The +workers in jewels and gold are the next best provided for; next to them +workers in metal and in fancy ware. Workers on spun and woven fabrics +get low wages; the lowest is earned, as in London, by slop-workers and +all workers with the needle. The average receipts of Paris needlewomen +have not, however, fallen below fourteenpence a day; those of them who +work with fashionable dressmakers earn about one and eightpence. While +speaking of the ill-paid class of women, I must mention that the most +sentimental of our occupations earns the least bread. Those who make +crowns of _immortelles_ to hang upon the tombs, only earn about +sevenpence-halfpenny a day. That trade is, in very truth, funereal. To +come back to ourselves, it should be said that our wages, as a whole, +have risen rather than declined during the last quarter of a century. It +is a curious fact, however, that the pay for job-work has decreased very +decidedly. + +And how do we live? it is asked. Well enough. All of us eat two meals a +day; but what we eat depends upon our money. We three, who draw up this +account, work in one room. We begin fasting, and maintain our fast until +eleven o'clock. Then we send the apprentice out to fetch our breakfasts. +When he comes back with his stores, he disposes them neatly on a centre +table in little groups. I generally have a pennyworth of ham, which +certainly is tough, but very full of flavour; bread to the same value; a +half share with Friponnet in two-pennyworth of wine, and a +half-pennyworth of fried potatoes; thus spending in all +threepence-halfpenny. Cornichon spends the same sum generally in another +way. He has a pennyworth of cold boiled (unsalted) beef, a pennyworth of +bread, a halfpennyworth of cheese and a pennyworth of currant jam. +Friponnet is more extravagant. A common breakfast bill of fare with him +is two penny sausages, twopennyworth of bread, a pennyworth of wine, a +halfpenny _paquet de couenne_ (which is a little parcel of crisply fried +strips of bacon rind), and a baked pear. All this is sumptuous; for we +are of the aristocracy of workmen. The labourers of Paris do not live so +well. They go to the _gargottes_, where they get threepence +halfpennyworth of bouilli--soup, beef and vegetable--which includes the +title to a liberal supply of bread. Reeking, dingy dens are those +_gargottes_, where all the poorer classes of Parisian workmen save the +beef out of their breakfast bouilli, and carry it away to eat later in +the day at the wine-shop; where it will make a dinner with more bread and +a pennyworth of wine. Of bread they eat a great deal; and, reckoning +that at fourpence and the wine at a penny, we find eightpence to be the +daily cost of living to the great body of Parisian workmen. + +We aristos among workpeople dine famously. My own practice is to dine in +the street du Petit Carre upon dinners for ninepence; or, by taking +dinner-tickets for fourteen days in advance, I get one dinner a fortnight +given me gratuitously. I dine upon soup, a choice of three plates of +meat, about half-a-pint of wine, a dessert and bread at discretion. Our +dinner hour is four o'clock, and we are not likely to eat anything more +before bedtime; although one of us may win a cup of coffee or a dram of +brandy at billiards or dominoes in the evening. Cornichon and Friponnet +dine in the street Chabannais; have soup at a penny a portion, small +plates of meat at twopence each, dessert at a penny, and halfpenny slips +of bread. Each of us when he has dined rolls up a cigarette, and lounges +perhaps round the Palais Royal for half an hour. + +As for our lodging the poorest of us live by tens in one room, and sleep +by fours and fives upon one mattress; paying from twopence to tenpence a +night. The ordinary cost of such lodging as the workman in Paris +occupies is, for a whole room for one person, nine or ten shillings a +month; for more than one, six or seven shillings each; and for half a +bed, four shillings. Cornichon lives in room number thirty-six on the +third floor of a furnished lodging house in the street du Petit Lion. +You must ring for the porter if you would go in to Cornichon; and the +porter must, by a jerk at a string, unlatch the street door if Cornichon +wishes to come out to you. In a little court at the back are two flights +of dirty stairs of red tile edged with wood. They lead to distinct +portions of the house. Cornichon's room is paved with red tiles, +polished now and then with beeswax. It is furnished with the bed and a +few inches of bedside carpet, forming a small island on the floor, with +two chairs, a commode with a black marble top, a washing-basin and a +water-bottle. Cornichon has also a cupboard there in which he stores his +wood for winter, paying twenty-pence per hundred pounds for logs; and as +the room contains no grate, he rents a German stove from his landlord, +paying four-and-two-pence for his use of it during the season. + +Friponnet rents two unfurnished rooms up four pair of stairs, at the back +of a house in the street d'Argenteuil. He pays ten shillings a month. +They are furnished in mahogany and black marble bought of a broker, and I +think not paid for yet. Fidette visits him there. She is a gold and +silver polisher, his _bonne amie_. She has her own lodging; but she and +Friponnet divide their earnings. They belong to one another: although no +priest has blessed their voluntary contract. It is so, I am pained to +say, with very many of us. + +I have a half-bed in a little street, with a man who is a good fellow, +considering he is a square-head--a German. The red tiles of my staircase +are very clean, and slippery with beeswax. My landlord rents a portion +of the third floor of the house, and under-lets it fearfully. One +apartment has been penned off into four, and mine is the fourth section +at the end. To reach me one must pass through the first pen, which is +occupied by Monsieur and Madame. There they work, eat, and sleep; as for +Madame, she never leaves it. Monsieur only goes away to wait upon the +_griffe_, his master, when he wants more work; his _griffe_ is a slop +tailor. Monsieur and Madame sleep in a recess, which looks like a +sarcophagus. A little Italian tailor also sleeps in the same pen; but +whereabouts I know not--his bed is a mystery. The next pen is occupied +by two carpenters, seldom at home. When they come home, all of us know +it; for they are extremely musical. In the third pen live three more +tailors, through whose territory I must pass to my own cabinet. But how +snug that is! Although only eight feet by ten, it has two corner +windows; and, if there is little furniture and but a scanty bed, there is +a looking-glass fit for a baron, and some remains of violet-coloured +hangings and long muslin curtains; either white or brown, I am not sure. +I and the German pay for this apartment fifteen shillings monthly. + +There is a kind of lodgers worth especial mention. The men working in +the yards of masons, carpenters, and others--masons +especially--frequently come from the provinces. They are not part of the +fixed population; but are men who have left their wives and families to +come up to the town and earn a sum of money. For this they work most +energetically; living in the most abstemious manner, in order that they +may not break into their hoard. They occupy furnished lodgings, flocking +very much together. Thus the masons from the departments of la Creuse +and la Haute Vienne occupy houses let out in furnished rooms exclusively +to themselves, in the quarters of the Hotel de Ville, the Arsenal, Saint +Marcel, and in other parts of Paris. The rigid parsimony of these men is +disappointed terribly when any crisis happens. They are forced to eat +their savings, to turn their clothing and their tools into food, and, by +the revolution of eighteen hundred and forty-eight, were reduced to such +great destitution, that in some of the houses occupied by them one dress +was all that remained to all the lodgers. They wore it in turn, one +going out in it to seek for work while all the rest remained at home in +bed. The poor fellows thanked the want of exercise for helping them to +want of appetite--the only kind of want that poverty desires. + +These men, however, working in the great yards, eating their meals near +them in an irregular and restless way, form clubs and associations which +lead not seldom to strikes--blunders which we call placing ourselves _en +Greve_. They take the name _en Greve_ from the place in which one class +of builders' workmen assemble when waiting to be hired. Various places +are chosen by sundry workmen and workwomen for this practice of waiting +to be hired. Laundresses, for example, are to be found near the church +of our Lady of Lorette, where they endure, and too often enjoy, coarse +words from passers-by. + +Except in the case of the masons and labourers from the departments, it +is to be regarded as no good sign when a workman makes a residence of +furnished lodgings. The orderly workman marries, and acquires the +property of furniture. The mason from the departments lives cheaply, and +saves, to go home with money to his family, and acquire in his own +village the property of land. The workman bound to Paris, who dwells +only in furnished lodgings, and has bought no furniture, has rarely +saved, and has rarely made an honest marriage. In most cases he is a +lover of pleasure, frequents the theatre and the wine shop. From wine he +runs on to the stronger stimulus of brandy; but these leave to him some +gleams of his national vivacity. The most degraded does not get so +lumpish as the English workman, whose brains have become sodden in the +public-houses by long trains of pots of beer. By far the largest portion +of the Paris workmen possess furniture: only twenty-one in a hundred--and +that includes, of course, the mobile population, the masons, etc.--live +in furnished lodgings. + +For clothing we spend, according to our means, from four to fourteen +pounds a year. Half of us have no coat in addition to the blouse. +Before the crisis of eighteen hundred and forty-eight, one sixth of us +had money in savings' banks, and one man in every two was a member of +some benefit society. The benefit societies were numerous, each +generally containing some two or three hundred members; but even our +singing clubs are now suppressed, and we must not meet even to transact +the business of a benefit society without giving notice of our design to +the police, and receiving into our party at least two of its agents as +lookers-on. The result has been the decay of all such societies, and the +extinction of most of them. Where they remain, the average monthly +subscription is fifteen-pence, which insures the payment of twenty-pence +a day during sickness, with gratuitous advice and medicine from the +doctor. The funds of such societies are lodged either in savings' banks, +or in the _Mont de Piete_; which, though properly a pawnbroking +establishment, has also its uses as a bank. The imperial fist presses +everywhere down upon us. It has forced us out of sick clubs, because we +sometimes talked in them about the state of the nation: it would build us +huge barracks to live in, so that we may be had continually under watch +and ward; and it has lately thrust in upon us a president of its own at +the head of our _Conseil de Prud'hommes_, the only tribunal we possess +for the adjustment of our internal trade disputes. + +Of our pleasures on a Sunday afternoon the world has heard. We devote +that to our families, if we have any; Monday, too often, to our friends. +There are on Sundays our feats of gymnastics at open-air balls beyond the +barriers, and our dancing saloons in the city; such as the Prado, the Bal +Montesquieu, and the Dogs' Ball. There are our pleasant country rambles, +and our pleasant little dinners in the fields. There are our games at +poule, and dominoes, and piquet; and our pipes with dexterously blackened +bowls. There are our theatres, the Funambule and the Porte St. Martin. +Gamblers among us play at bowls in the Elysian fields, or they stay at +home losing and winning more than they can properly afford to risk at +_ecarte_. + +Then there are our holidays. The best used to be "the three days of +July," but they were lost in the last scramble. Yet we still have no +lack of holiday amusement; our puppets to admire, and greasy poles to +climb for prizes by men who have been prudently required first to declare +and register their ambition at the Bureau of Police. Government so gets +something like a list of the men who aspire; who wish to mount. It must +be very useful. There are our water tournaments at St. Cloud and at +Boulogne-sur-Seine; where they who have informed the police of their +combative propensities, may thrust at each other with long-padded poles +from boats which are being rowed forcibly into collision. We are not +much of water-birds, but when we do undertake boating, we engage in the +work like Algerine pirates. We must have a red sash round the waist or +not a man of us will pull a stroke. + +To go back to our homes and to our wives. When we do marry, we prefer a +wife who can support herself by her own labour. If we have children, it +is in our power to apply--and very many of us do apply--to the Bureau of +Nurses; and, soon after an infant's birth, it can be sent down into the +country at the monthly cost of about ten shillings and two pounds of lump +sugar. That prevents the child from hindering our work or pleasure; and, +as it is the interest of the nurse to protect the child for which she +receives payment, why should we disturb our consciences with qualm or +fear? + +In Paris there are few factories; some that have existed were removed +into the provinces for the sole purpose of avoiding the dictation of the +workmen in the town. The Parisian fancy work employs a large number of +people who can work at their own homes. In this, and in the whole +industry of Paris, the division of labour is very great; but the fancy +work offers a good deal of scope for originality and taste, and the +workman of Paris is glad to furnish both. He will delight himself by +working night and day to execute a sudden order, to be equal to some +great occasion; but he cannot so well be depended upon when the work +falls again into its even, humdrum pace. On the whole, however, they who +receive good wages, and are trusted--as the men working for jewellers are +trusted--become raised by the responsibility of their position, shun the +wine-shop, live contented with the pleasures of their homes, dress with +neatness, and would die rather than betray the confidence reposed in +them. With all his faults and oddities, the workman of Paris is +essentially a thoroughly good fellow. The solitary work of tailors and +of shoemakers causes them of course to brood and think, and to turn out +of their body a great number of men who take a foremost place in all +political discussions. But the French workman always is a loser by +political disturbance. The crisis of eighteen hundred and forty-eight--a +workman's triumph--reduced the value of industry in Paris from sixty to +twenty-eight millions of pounds. Fifty-four men in every hundred were at +the same time thrown out of employ, or nearly two hundred thousand people +in all. + +But there are some callings, indeed, wholly untouched by a crisis. The +manufacture of street gas goes on, for example, without any change. +There are others that are even benefited by a revolution. After the last +revolution, while other trades were turning away men to whom there was no +longer work to give, the trades concerned in providing military equipment +were taking on fresh hands. To that class in Paris, and to that only, +there was an increase of business in eighteen hundred and forty-eight to +the extent of twenty-nine per cent. The decrease of business among the +printers, although few books were printed, did not amount to more than +twenty-seven per cent., in consequence of the increased demand for +proclamations, handbills, and manifestoes. + +Without any extra crisis, men working in all trades have trouble enough +to get over the mere natural checks upon industry, which come to most +tradesmen twice a year in the shape of the dead seasons. Every month is +a dead season to some trade; but the dead seasons which prevail over the +largest number of workmen in Paris are the two months, July and August, +in summer, and the two months, January and February, in winter. The dead +season of summer is the more decided of the two. The periods of greatest +activity, on the other hand, are the two months, April and May, and next +to those the months, October and November. Printers are busiest in +winter, builders are busiest in summer--so there are exceptions to the +rule; but, except those who provide certain requisites for eating and +drinking which are in continual demand, there are few workmen in Paris or +elsewhere in France, who have not every year quite enough slack time to +perplex them. They can ill afford the interference of any small crisis +in the shape of a strike, or large crisis in the shape of a national +tumult. + +Finally, let me say that the French workman, take him all in all, is +certainly a clever fellow. He is fond of Saint Monday, "solidarity," and +shows; but is quickwitted at his work, and furiously energetic when there +is any strong call made upon his industry. In the most debased form he +has much more vigour and vivacity than the most debased of English +operatives. He may be more immoral; but he is less brutish. If we are a +little vain, and very fond of gaiety; and if we are improvident, we are +not idle; and, with all our street fighting, we are not a discontented +race. Except an Arab, who can be so happy as we know how to make +ourselves, upon the smallest possible resources? + + + + +CHAPTER XXV. + + +LICENSED TO JUGGLE. + +Some years ago a short iron-built man used to balance a scaffold pole +upon his chin; to whizz a slop-basin round upon the end of it; and to +imitate fire-works with golden balls and gleaming knives, in the public +streets of London. I am afraid his genius was not rewarded in his own +country; for not long ago I saw him starring it in Paris. As I stood by +to watch his evolutions, in the Champs Elysees, I felt a patriotic glow +when they were rewarded with the enthusiastic applause of a very wide and +thick ring of French spectators. + +There was one peculiarity in his performance which distinguished him from +French open-air artistes--he never spoke. Possibly he was diffident of +his French accent. He simply uttered a grunt when he wished to call +attention to any extraordinary perfection in his performance; in +imitation, perhaps, of the "La!--la!" of the prince of French acrobats, +Auriol. Whatever he attempted he did well; that is to say, in a solid, +deliberate, thorough manner. His style of chin-balancing, +knife-catching, ball-throwing, and ground and lofty tumbling, was not so +agile or flippant as that of his French competitors, but he never failed. +On the circulation of his hat, the French halfpence were dropped in with +great liberality. + +As the fall of the curtain denotes the close of a play, so the raising of +the square of carpet signifies the end of a juggler's performance; and, +when my old acquaintance had rolled up his little bit of tapestry, and +had pocketed his sous, I accosted him--"You are," I said, "an +Englishman?" + +"That's right!" he observed, familiarly. + +"What say you to a glass of something, and a chat?" + +"Say?" he repeated, with a very broad grin, "why, yes, to be sure!" + +The tumbler, with his tools done up in a carpet-bag closed at the mouth +with a bit of rope, and your humble servant were speedily seated in a +neighbouring wine-shop. + +"What do you prefer to drink?" I inquired. + +"Cure-a-sore," he modestly answered. + +The epicure! Quality and not quantity was evidently his taste; a sign +of, at least, a sober fellow. + +"You find yourself tolerably well off in Paris?" + +"I should think I did," he answered, smacking his lips, "for I wos a +wagabon in London; but here I am an artiste!" + +"A distinction only in name, I suspect." + +"P'raps it is; but there's a good deal of difference, mind you. In +England (I have been a'most all over it) a feller in my line is a +wagabon. He don't take no standing in society. He may be quiet, never +get into no trouble, and never give nobody else none; but that don't help +him. 'He gits his livin' in the streets,' they say, and that's enough. +Well, 'spose he does? he 'as to work tremenjus hard for it." + +"His certainly cannot be an idle life." + +"It just ain't, if they'd only let us alone; but they won't--them blessed +Peelers I mean. How would you like it?" he continued, appealing to me +with as hard a look in the face as if I had been his most implacable +enemy, "how would you like it, if you had looked up a jolly good pitch, +and a reg'lar good comp'ny was a looking on--at the west end, in a slap +up street, where there ain't no thoroughfare--and jist as you're a doin' +the basin, and the browns is a droppin' into the 'at, up comes a Peeler. +Then it's 'Move on!' You must go;" he stared harder than ever, and +thumped his hand on the table; "I say you _must_ go, and lose p'raps a +pick up as 'u'd keep you for a week. How would you like that?" + +"I should expostulate." + +"Spostallate!--would you?" a slight curl of the lip, expressive of +contempt at my ignorance of the general behaviour of policemen. "Ah! if +you say 'bo!' to a Peeler he pulls you, and what's the consequence? Why, +a month at the Steel!"--which hard name I understood to be given to the +House of Correction. + +"But the police are not unreasonable," I suggested. + +"Well, p'raps some of 'em ain't," he remarked, "but you can't pick out +your policemen, that's where it is." + +"Do the police never interfere with you here?" I asked. + +"They used to it; and I've had to beg back my traps more than once from +the borough of the Police Correctionell, as they call it; but then that +was 'cause I was hignorant of the law. When they see that I could git a +'onest living, an old cove in a cocked hat ses he to me, ses he, 'You're +a saltimbanc, you are. Wery good. You go to the borough of police for +public morals, and the minister (not a parson, mind you, but the 'ed +hinspector), if he's satisfied with your character he'll give you a +ticket." + +"And did he?" + +"Course he did; and I'm now one of the reg'lar perfession. I aint to be +hinterfered with; leastways, without I'm donkey enough to go on the cross +and be took up. _That's_ the ticket," he exclaimed triumphantly, pulling +out a bronze badge, "I'm number thirty-five, I am." + +"And can you perform anywhere?" + +"No; the police picked out thirteen good places--'pitches,' we calls +'em--where we can play. Ther's the list--thirteen on 'em all of a +row--beginning on the Boulevards at the Place de la Colonne de Juilliet, +and ending in the Champs Elysees." He unfolded a neatly written document +that plainly defined the limits of Paris within which he, in common with +his co-professors, was allowed to display his abilities. + +With a small gratuity for the new light thrown upon the subject of street +performances, I parted from my enterprising countryman, wishing him every +success. + +I have sometimes wondered whether--considering that we have all sorts of +licensed people about us; people who are licensed to cram us upon +steam-boats; to crowd us into omnibuses; to jolt us in ramshackle cabs; +to supply us with bad brandy and other adulterated drinks; licentiates +for practising physic; licentiates for carrying parcels; licentiates for +taking money at their own doors for the diversions of singing and +dancing; licentiates for killing game with gunpowder, which other people +have been licensed to make--whether, I say, it would not be wise to +license in England out-of-door as well as in-door amusements. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI. + + +PERE PANPAN. + +"Monsieur Panpan lives in the Place Valois," said my friend, newly +arrived from London on a visit to Paris, "and as I am under a promise to +his brother Victor to deliver a message on his behalf, I must keep my +word even if I go alone, and execute my mission in pantomime. Will you +be my interpreter?" + +The Place Valois is a dreamy little square formed by tall houses: graced +by an elegant fountain in its centre; guarded by a red-legged sentinel; +and is chiefly remarkable in Parisian annals as the scene of the +assassination of the Duc de Berri. There is a quiet, melancholy air +about the place which accords well with its traditions; and even the +little children who make it their playground on account of the absence of +both vehicles and equestrians, pursue their sports in a subdued, tranquil +way, hanging about the fountain's edge, and dabbling in the water with +their little fingers. Monsieur Panpan's residence was not difficult to +find. We entered by a handsome porte-cochere into a paved court-yard, +and, having duly accounted for our presence to the watchful concierge who +sat sedulously peering out of a green sentry-box, commenced our ascent to +the upper regions. Seeing that Monsieur lived on the fourth floor, and +that the steps of the spacious staircase were of that shallow description +which disappoint the tread by falling short of its expectations, it was +no wonder that we were rather out of breath when we reached the necessary +elevation; and that we paused a moment to collect our thoughts, and calm +our respiration, before knocking at the little backroom door, which we +knew to be that of Monsieur Panpan. + +Madame Panpan received us most graciously, setting chairs for us, and +apologising for her husband, who, poor man, was sitting up in his bed, +with a wan countenance, and hollow glistening eyes. We were in the close +heavy air of a sick chamber. The room was very small, and the bedstead +occupied a large portion of its space. It was lighted by one little +window only, and that looked down a sort of square shaft which served as +a ventilator to the house. A pale child, with large wandering eyes, +watched us intently from behind the end of the little French bedstead, +while the few toys he had been playing with lay scattered upon the floor. +The room was very neat, although its furniture was poor and scanty; and +by the brown saucepan perched upon the top of the diminutive German +stove, which had strayed, as it were, from its chimney corner into the +middle of the room, we knew that the pot-au-feu was in preparation. +Madame, before whom was a small table covered with the unfinished +portions of a corset, was very agreeable--rather coquettish, indeed, we +should have said in England. Her eyes were bright and cheerful, and her +hair drawn back from her forehead a la Chinoise. In a graceful, but +decided way, she apologised for continuing her labours, which were +evidently works of necessity rather than of choice. + +"And Victor, that good boy," she exclaimed, when we had further explained +the object of our visit, "was quite well! I am charmed! And he had +found work, and succeeding so well in his affairs? I am enchanted! It +is so amiable of him to send me this little cadeau!" + +Monsieur Panpan, with his strange lustrous eyes, if not enchanted, rubbed +his thin bony hands together as he sat up in the bed, and chuckled in an +unearthly way at the good news. Having executed our commission, we felt +it would be intrusive to prolong our stay, and therefore rose to depart, +but received so pressing an invitation to repeat the visit, that, on the +part of myself and friend, who was to leave Paris in a few days, I could +not refuse to comply with a wish so cordially expressed, and evidently +sincere. And thus commenced my acquaintance with the Panpans. + +I cannot trace the course of our acquaintance, or tell how, from an +occasional call, my visits became those of a bosom friend; but certain it +is, that soon each returning Sunday saw me a guest at the table of +Monsieur Panpan, where my couvert and serviette became sacred to my use; +and, after the meal, were carefully cleaned and laid apart for the next +occasion. This, I afterwards learned, was a customary mark of +consideration towards an esteemed friend among the poorer class of +Parisians. I soon learned their history. Their every-day existence was +a simple, easily read story, and not the less simple and touching because +it is the every-day story of thousands of poor French families. Madame +was a stay-maker; and the whole care and responsibility of providing for +the wants and comforts of a sick husband; for her little Victor, her +eldest born; and the monthly stipend of her infant Henri, out at nurse +some hundred leagues from Paris, hung upon the unaided exertions of her +single hands, and the scrupulous and wonderful economy of her management. + +One day I found Madame in tears. Panpan himself lay with rigid features, +and his wiry hands spread out upon the counterpane. Madame was at first +inconsolable and inexplicable, but at length, amid sobs, half suppressed, +related the nature of their new misfortune. Would Monsieur believe that +those miserable nurse-people, insulting as they were, had sent from the +country to say, that unless the three months nursing of little Henri, +together with the six pounds of lump sugar, which formed part of the +original bargain, were immediately paid, cette pauvre bete (Henri that +was), would be instantly dispatched to Paris, and proceedings taken for +the recovery of the debt? Ces miserables! + +Here poor Madame Panpan could not contain herself, but gave way to her +affliction in a violent outburst of tears. And yet the poor child, the +cause of all this sorrow, was almost as great stranger to his mother as +he was to me, who had never seen him in my life. With scarcely a week's +existence to boast of, he had been swaddled up in strange clothes; +intrusted to strange hands; and hurried away some hundred leagues from +the capital, to scramble about the clay floor of an unwholesome cottage, +in company perhaps with some half-dozen atomies like himself, as strange +to each other as they were to their own parents, to pass those famous +mois de nourrice which form so important and momentous a period in the +lives of most French people. Madame Panpan was however in no way +responsible for this state of things; the system was there, not only +recognised, but encouraged; become indeed a part of the social habits of +the people, and it was no wonder if her poverty should have driven her to +so popular and ready a means of meeting a great difficulty. How she +extricated herself from this dilemma, it is not necessary to state; +suffice it to say, that a few weeks saw cette petite bete Henri, happily +domiciled in the Place Valois; and, if not overburdened with apparel, at +least released from the terrible debt of six and thirty francs, and six +pounds of lump-sugar. + +It naturally happened, that on the pleasant Sunday afternoons, when we +had disposed of our small, but often sumptuous dinner; perhaps a gigot de +mouton with a clove of garlic in the knuckle; a fricassee de lapins with +onions, or a fricandeau, Panpan himself would tell me part of his +history; and in the course of our salad; of our little dessert of fresh +fruit, or currant jelly; or perhaps, stimulated by the tiniest glass of +brandy, would grow warm in the recital of his early experiences, and the +unhappy chance which had brought him into his present condition. + +"Ah, Monsieur!" he said one day, "little would you think, to see me +cribbed up in this miserable bed, that I had been a soldier, or that the +happiest days of my life had been passed in the woods of Fontainebleau, +following the chase in the retinue of King Charles the Tenth of France. +I was a wild young fellow in my boyhood; and, when at the age of eighteen +I drew for the conscription and found it was my fate to serve, I believe +I never was so happy in my life. I entered the cavalry; and, in spite of +the heavy duties and strict discipline, it was a glorious time. It makes +me mad, Monsieur, when I think of the happy days I have spent on the +road, in barracks, and in snug country quarters, where there was cider or +wine for the asking; to find myself in a solitary corner of great, +thoughtless Paris, sick and helpless. It would be something to die out +in the open fields like a worn-out horse, or to be shot like a wounded +one. But this is terrible!--and I am but thirty-eight." + +We comforted him in the best way we could with sage axioms of antique +date, or more lively stories of passing events; but I saw a solitary tear +creeping down the cheek of Madame Panpan, even in the midst of a quaint +sally; and, under pretence of arranging his pillow, she bent over his +head and kissed him gently on the forehead. + +Pere Panpan--I had come by degrees to call him "Pere," although he was +still young; for it sounded natural and kindly--continued his narrative +in his rambling, gossiping way. He had been chosen, he said, to serve in +the Garde Royale, of whom fifteen thousand sabres were stationed in and +about the capital at this period; and in the royal forest of +Fontainebleau, in the enjoyment of a sort of indolent activity, he passed +his happiest days; now employed in the chase, now in the palace +immediately about the person of the king, in a succession of active +pleasures, or easy, varied duties. Panpan was no republican. Indeed, I +question whether any very deep political principles governed his +sentiments; which naturally allied themselves with those things that +yielded the greatest amount of pleasure. + +The misfortunes of Pere Panpan dated from the revolution of eighteen +hundred and thirty. Then the glittering pageantry in the palace of +Fontainebleau vanished like a dream. The wild clatter of military +preparation; the rattling of steel and the trampling of horses; and away +swept troop after troop, with sword-belt braced and carabine in hand, to +plunge into the mad uproar of the streets of Paris, risen, stones and +all, in revolution. The Garde Royale did their duty in those three +terrible days, and if their gallant charges through the encumbered +streets, or their patient endurance amid the merciless showers of +indescribable missiles, were all in vain, it was because their foe was +animated by an enthusiasm of which they knew nothing, save in the +endurance of its effects. Panpan's individual fate, amid all this +turmoil, was lamentable enough. + +A few hours amid the dust; the sweltering heat; the yellings of the +excited populace; the roaring of cannon and the pattering of musketry; +saw the troop in which he served, broken and scattered, and Panpan +himself rolling in the dust, with a thousand lights flashing in his eyes, +and a brass button lodged in his side! + +"Those villains of Parisians!" he exclaimed, "not content with showering +their whole garde meuble upon our heads, fired upon us a diabolical +collection of missiles, such as no mortal ever thought of before:--bits +of broken brass; little plates of tin and iron rolled into sugar-loaves; +crushed brace-buckles; crooked nails and wads of metal wire;--anything, +indeed, that in their extremity they could lay their hands on, and ram +into the muzzle of a gun! These things inflicted fearful gashes, and, in +many cases, a mere flesh-wound turned out a death-stroke. Few that got +hurt in our own troop lived to tell the tale." + +A few more days and the whole royal cavalcade was scattered like chaff +before the wind, and Charles the Tenth a fugitive on his way to England; +a few more days and the wily Louis Philippe was taking the oath to a new +constitution, and our friend, Panpan, lay carefully packed, brass button +and all, in the Hotel-Dieu. The brass button was difficult to find, and +when found the ugly fissure it had made grew gangrened, and would not +heal; and thus it happened that many a bed became vacant, and got filled, +and was vacant again, as their occupants either walked out, or were borne +out, of the hospital gates, before Panpan was declared convalescent, and +finally dismissed from the Hotel-Dieu as "cured." + +The proud trooper was, however, an altered man; his health and spirits +were gone; the whole corps of which he had so often boasted was broken up +and dispersed; his means of livelihood were at an end, and, what was +worse, he knew of no other in the exercise of which he could gain his +daily bread. There were very many such helpless, tradeless men pacing +the streets of Paris, when the fever of the revolution was cooled down, +and ordinary business ways began to take their course. Nor was it those +alone who were uninstructed in any useful occupation, but there were also +the turbulent, dissatisfied spirits; builders of barricades, and leaders +of club-sections, whom the late excitement, and their temporary elevation +above their fellow workmen, had left restless and ambitious, and whose +awakened energies, if not directed to some useful and congenial +employment, would infallibly lead to mischief. + +Panpan chuckled over the fate which awaited some of these ardent youths: +"Ces gaillards la!" he said, "had become too proud and troublesome to be +left long in the streets of Paris; they would have fomented another +revolution; so Louis Philippe, under pretence of rewarding his brave +'soldats laboureurs,' whom he was ready to shake by the hand in the +public streets in the first flush of success, enrolled them in the army, +and sent them to the commanding officers with medals of honour round +their necks, and special recommendations to promotion in their hands. +They hoped to become Marshals of France in no time. Pauvres diables! +they were soon glad to hide their decorations, and cease bragging about +street-fighting and barricades, for the regulars relished neither their +swaggering stories nor the notion of being set aside by such parvenus; +and they got so quizzed, snubbed, and tormented, that they were happy at +last to slide into their places as simple soldats, and trust to the +ordinary course for promotion." + + * * * * * + +As for Panpan, his street wanderings terminated in his finding employment +in a lace manufactory, and it soon became evident that his natural talent +here found a congenial occupation. He came by degrees to be happy in his +new position of a workman. Then occurred the serious love passage of his +life--his meeting with Louise, now Madame Panpan. It was the simplest +matter in the world: Panpan, to whom life was nothing without the Sunday +quadrille at the barriere, having resolved to figure on the next occasion +in a pair of bottes vernis, waited upon his bootmaker--every Parisian has +his bootmaker--to issue his mandates concerning their length, shape, and +general construction. He entered the boutique of Mons. Cuire, when, lo! +he beheld in the little back parlour, the most delicate little foot that +ever graced a shoe, or tripped to measure on the grass. He would say +nothing of the owner of this miracle; of her face--which was full of +intelligence; of her figure--which was gentille toute a fait--but for +that dear, chaste, ravishing model of a foot! so modestly pose upon the +cushion. Heaven!--and Panpan unconsciously heaved a long sigh, and +brought with it from the very bottom of his heart a vow to become its +possessor. There was no necessity for anything very rash or very +desperate in the case, as it happened, for the evident admiration of +Panpan had inspired Louise with an impromptu interest in his favour, and +he being besides gentil garcon, their chance rencontre was but the +commencement of a friendship which ripened into love,--and so the old +story over again, with marriage at the end of it. + +Well! said M. Panpan, time rolled on, and little Louis was born. This +might have been a blessing, but while family cares and expenses were +growing upon them, Panpan's strength and energies were withering away. +He suffered little pain, but what there was seemed to spring from the old +wound; and there were whole days when he lay a mere wreck, without the +power or will to move; and when his feeble breath seemed passing away for +ever. Happily, these relapses occurred only at intervals, but by slow +degrees they became more frequent and more overwhelming. Madame Panpan's +skill and untiring perseverance grew to be, as other resources failed, +the main, and for many, many months, the whole support of the family. +Then came a time when the winter had passed away, and the spring was +already in its full, and still Panpan lay helpless in bed with shrunken +limbs and hollow, pallid cheeks,--and then little Henri was born. + +Pere Panpan having arrived at this crisis in his history, drew a long +breath, and stretched himself back in his bed. I knew the rest. It was +soon after the event last named that I made his acquaintance, and the +remainder of his simple story, therefore, devolves upon me. + +The debility of the once dashing soldier increased daily, and as it could +be traced to no definite cause, he gradually became a physiological +enigma; and thence naturally a pet of the medical profession. Not that +he was a profitable patient, for the necessities of the family were too +great to allow of so expensive a luxury as a doctor's bill; but urged, +partly by commiseration, and partly by professional curiosity, both +ardent students and methodical practitioners would crowd round his simple +bed, probing him with instruments, poking him with their fingers, and +punching him with their fists; each with a new theory to propound and +establish; and the more they were baffled and contradicted in their +preconceived notions, the more obstinate they became in their +enforcement. Panpan's own thoughts upon the subject always reverted to +the brass button, although he found few to listen to or encourage him in +his idea. His medical patrons were a constant source of suffering to +him, but he bore with them patiently; sometimes reviving from his +prostration as if inspired, then lapsing as suddenly into his old state +of semi-pain and total feebleness. As a last hope, he was removed from +his fourth floor in the Place Valois, to become an inmate of the Bicetre, +and a domiciled subject of contention and experiment to its medical +staff. + +The Bicetre is a large, melancholy-looking building, half hospital half +madhouse, situated a few leagues from Paris. I took a distaste to it on +my very first visit. It always struck me as a sort of menagerie, I +suppose from the circumstance of there having been pointed out to me, +immediately on my entrance, a railed and fenced portion of the building, +where the fiercer sort of inhabitants were imprisoned. Moreover, I met +with such strange looks and grimaces; such bewildering side-glances or +moping stares, as I traversed the open court-yards, with their open +corridors, or the long arched passages of the interior, that the whole of +the inmates came before me as creatures in human shape indeed, but as +possessed by the cunning or the ferocity of the mere animal. Yet it was +a public hospital, and in the performance of its duties there was an +infinite deal of kindly attention, consummate skill, and unwearying +labour. Its associations were certainly unhappy, and had, I am sure, a +depressing effect upon at least the physically disordered patients. It +may be that as the Bicetre is a sort of forlorn hope of hospitals, where +the more desperate or inexplicable cases only are admitted, it naturally +acquires a sombre and ominous character; but in no establishment of a +similar kind (and I have seen many) did I meet with such depressing +influences. + +Panpan was at first in high spirits at the change. He was to be restored +to health in a brief period, and he really did in the first few weeks +make rapid progress towards convalescence. Already a sort of gymnasium +had been arranged over his bed, so that he might, by simple muscular +exercises, regain his lost strength; and more than once I have guided his +tottering steps along the arched corridors, as, clad in the gray uniform +of the hospital, and supported by a stick, he took a brief mid-day +promenade. + +We made him cheering Sunday visits, Madame Panpan, Louis, the little +Henri, and I, and infringed many a rule of the hospital in regard to his +regimen. There was a charcutier living close to the outer walks, and +when nothing else could be had, we purchased some of his curiously +prepared delicacies, and smuggled them in under various guises. To him +they were delicious morsels amid the uniform soup and bouillon of the +hospital, and I dare say did him neither good nor harm. + +Poor Madame Panpan! apart from the unceasing exertions which her +difficult position demanded of her; apart from the harassing days, the +sleepless nights, and pecuniary deficiencies which somehow never were +made up; apart from the shadow of death which hovered ever near her; and +the unvarying labours which pulled at her fingers, and strained at her +eyes, so that her efforts seemed still devoted to one ever unfinished +corset,--there arose another trouble where it was least expected; and +alas! I was the unconscious cause of a new embarrassment. I was accused +of being her lover. Numberless accusations rose up against us. Had I +not played at pat-ball with Madame in the Bois de Boulogne? Yes, pardi! +while Panpan lay stretched upon the grass a laughing spectator of the +game; and which was brought to an untimely conclusion by my breaking my +head against the branch of a tree. But had I not accompanied Madame +alone to the Champs Elysees to witness the jeu-de-feu on the last fete of +July? My good woman, did I not carry Louis pick-a-back the whole way? +and was not the crowd so dense and fearful, that our progress to the +Champs Elysees was barred at its very mouth by the fierce tornado of the +multitude, and the trampling to death of three unhappy mortals, whose +shrieks and groans still echo in my ear? and was it not at the risk of +life or limb that I fought my way along the Rue de la Madeleine, with +little Louis clinging round my neck, and Madame hanging on to my +coat-tail? Amid the swaying and eddying of the crowd, the mounted Garde +Municipale came dashing into the thickest of the press, to snatch little +children, and even women, from impending death, and bear them to a place +of safety. And if we did take a bottle of Strassburger beer on the +Boulevards, when at length we found a freer place to breathe in, faint +and reeling as we were, pray where was the harm, and who would not have +done as much? Ah, Madame! if you had seen, as I did, that when we +reached home the first thing poor Madame Panpan came to do, was to fall +upon her husband's neck, and in a voice broken with sobs, and as though +her heart would break, to thank that merciful God who had spared her in +her trouble, that she might still work for him and his children! you +would not be so ready with your blame. + +But there was a heavier accusation still. Did you not, sir, entertain +Madame to supper in the Rue de Roule? with the utmost extravagance too, +not to mention the omelette soufflee with which you must needs tickle +your appetites, and expressly order for the occasion? And more than +that: did you not then take coffee in the Rue St. Honore, and play at +dominoes with Madame in the salon? Alas, yes! all this is true, and the +cause still more true and more sad; for it was under the terrible +impression that Madame Panpan and her two children--for they were both +with us, you will remember, even little Henri--had not eaten of one +tolerable meal throughout a whole week, that these unpardonable acts were +committed on the Sunday. An omelette soufflee, you know, must he +ordered; but as for the dominoes, I admit that that was an indiscretion. + +Pere Panpan drooped and drooped. The cord of his gymnasium swung +uselessly above his head; he tottered no more along the corridors of the +hospital. He had ceased to be the pet of the medical profession. His +malady was obstinate and impertinent; it could neither be explained nor +driven away; and as all the deep theories propounded respecting it, or +carried into practical operation for its removal, proved to be mere +elaborate fancies, or useless experiments, the medical +profession--happily for Panpan--retired from the field in disgust. + +"I do believe it was the button!" exclaimed Panpan, one Sunday afternoon, +with a strange light gleaming in his eyes. Madame replied only with a +sob. "You have seen many of them?" he abruptly demanded of me. + +"Of what?" + +"Buttons." + +"There are a great many of them made in England," I replied. Where were +we wandering? + +Panpan took my hand in his, and, with a gentle pressure that went to my +very heart, exclaimed: "I do believe it was the brass button after all. +I hope to God it was not an English button!" + +I can't say whether it was or not. But, as to poor Pere Panpan, we +buried him at Bicetre. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII. + + +SOME GERMAN SUNDAYS. + +Of how Sunday is really spent by the labouring classes in some towns in +Germany, I claim, as an English workman who has worked and played on +German ground, some right to speak. It is possible that I may relate +matters which some do not suspect, and concerning which others have +already made up their minds; but, as I shall tell nothing but truths, I +trust I may not very much disconcert the former, nor put the latter +completely out of patience; nor offend anybody. + +To begin with Hamburg. I spent seven months in this free, commercial +port. I came into Hamburg on a Sunday morning; and, although everything +was new and strange to me, and a number of things passed before my eyes +which could never be seen in decorous London, yet there were unmistakable +signs of Sunday in them all--only it was not the Sunday to which I had +been born and bred. The shops were closed, and there was stillness in +the houses, if not in the streets. I passed by the fore-courted entrance +to a theatre, and its doors were shut; but one could easily guess by the +bills at the door-posts that it offered histrionic entertainment for the +evening. Wandering through some beautifully-wooded walks which encircle +the city, I met many promenaders, trim, well-dressed, and chatty; and +when I turned back into the city, was once or twice absorbed in the +streams of people which flowed from the church doors. One thing was +certain; the people were not at work. It struck me at once; for I met +them at every turn in their clean faces and spruce clothes--the veritable +mechanic may be known in every country--and there was the happy look and +the lounging gait in all, which told that they had laid down their +implements of trade for that day, and were thoroughly at leisure. When I +came to be domiciled and fairly at work, I learned to discriminate more +clearly between many apparently irreconcilable things; and will here +roughly set down what we did, or did not, on Sundays, in the emporium and +outlet of Northern Germany; which, it will be well to remember, is +thoroughly Lutheran-Protestant in its faith. + +There was a church not far from our workshop--I think the +Jacobi-Kirche--which had the sweetest set of Dutch bells that ever rung +to measure, and these played at six o'clock in the morning on every day +in the week; but, to our minds, they never played so beautiful a melody +as when they woke us on the Sunday morning, to the delightful +consciousness of being able to listen to them awhile, through the drowsy +medium of our upper feather bed. Once fairly roused, properly attired, +and breakfasted with the Herr, what did we next? Sometimes we worked +till mid-day, but that was a rarity; for our ordinary day's labour was +thirteen hours, with scarcely a blink of rest at meal-times, and often we +had not stirred from the house during the whole week, but had worn out +the monotonous hours between bed and workboard. When, however, orders +pressed, we did work; but this again was no new thing to me, for I had +done the same thing in London; had toiled deep into the Saturday night, +and had been up again to work on the Sunday morning, because some +gentleman or lady who was engaged, I dare say, in their morning +devotions, could not bide the ordinary time for their trinkets. If we +did work, which as I have said was a rarity, our ordinary pay of two +schillinge, scarcely twopence per hour, was increased to three. + +Sometimes we went to church; and we always found a goodly congregation +there. The service was in good honest German; and the preacher--quaintly +conspicuous to an English eye by his velvet skull-cap, and a wonderfully +plaited frill which bristled round his neck--was always earnest and +impressive, and often eloquent. Among other religious services, I well +remember that of the Busse and Bet-Tag (day of Repentance and Prayer); +the anniversary of the battle of Leipsic; and a remarkable sermon +preached on St. Michael's Day, and of which I bought a copy after the +service of a poor widow who stood at the church door. If the weather +were fine, we strolled along the banks of the beautiful Alster, or made +short excursions into the country; and here again all was repose, for I +recollect having once had pointed out to me as a matter of wonder a woman +who was toiling in the field. Or, if the weather were stormy and wet, we +stayed in the workshop and read, or made drawings, or worked in the +manufacture of some favourite tool. Often, again, we had especial duties +to perform on that day in the shape of visiting some sick craftsman in +the hospital, to pay him his weekly allowance, or convey him a book, or +some little creature comforts. The Sunday morning was an authorised +visiting time, and the hospital was usually crowded--too crowded with +patients, as we thought--and each had his cluster of cheering friends. +Or we paid friendly visits to fellow workmen; smoked quiet pipes, and +told travellers' stories; or listened to the uncertain essays of our +brethren of the Mannergesangverein as they practised their part music. +There was one piece of business transacted on the Sunday morning which +may have been sinful, although we did not view it in that light. We paid +our tailors' bills on the Sunday morning if we had the money, or ordered +new garments if we had credit; and I believe it is a practice more +generally prevalent even in England than gentlefolks are apt to imagine. + +We dined with the Herr at noon, and at one o'clock were at liberty for +the day. I have seen a Danish harvest-home on a Sunday afternoon in the +pretty village of Altona; watching its merry mummers as they passed by +the old church-yard wall, where Klopstock lies buried. I have attended a +funeral as a real mourner, followed by the mourning professionals in the +theatrical trappings with which the custom of Hamburg usually adorns +them. If we bent our steps, as we sometimes did, through the Altona gate +to Hamburger Berg, we came upon a scene of hubbub and animation which was +something between Clare Market on Saturday night, and High Street, +Greenwich, at fair time. Stalls, booths, and baskets lined the way; +flowers, fruit, and pastry disputed possession of the side-paths with +sugar-plums, sticks and tobacco-pipes; and, although Franconi's Circus +was not open yet, it gave every promise of being so; and the air already +rang with voices of showmen, and the clangour of instruments. In the +Summer there were gay boats on the Alster, and nautical holiday-makers +were busy with oar and sail; while, in the Winter months, if the ice held +well, there was no end of skating and sledging; and then we had a +pleasant winter-garden near the Tivoli, with orange-trees in tubs, the +mould so covered over as to form extemporary tables, and the green leaves +and pale fruit shining above our heads. At the upper end was a +conservatory of choice plants, which was more particularly appropriated +to the ladies and children. The cafe pavilions on the Alster steamed +odoriferously; punch and hot coffee were in the ascendant; and there were +more cigars smoked in an afternoon on the Jungfern Stieg (the Maiden's +Walk) than would have stored the cases of a London suburban tobacconist. + +These may, perhaps, be reckoned mere idlings, but there were occasionally +official doings on the Sunday, which might have been national, if Hamburg +had been a nation, and which no doubt were eminently popular. Two such, +I remember; one a grand review of the Burger Militar; the other the +public confirmation of the apprentices and others, and the conscription +of the youth of the city. The former was a trying affair. Some twelve +thousand citizen-soldiers had to turn out, fully rigged and equipped, by +early dawn, ready for any amount of drill and evolution. Many were the +stories--more witty than generous--of the whereabout of their uniforms +and accoutrements; as to their being deposited in Lombardian hands, or +wholly used up since the last grand field-day some three years before. +Such furbishing as there was of brass ornaments and metal-buttons; such +an oiling and sand-papering of brown muskets, and such a rearrangement of +blue tunics which, after all, did not match in colour, length, nor +appointments! Fortunately our warriors did not burn powder; and there +was enough of military ardour among them to carry them through the +fatigue of the day. It required a great deal; for, like other military +bodies of a late day, the commissariat department totally broke down, and +citizens were kept hungering and thirsting upon the blank, dusty plain, +within half-a-mile of stored-up abundance. The confirmation of the +apprentices and the conscription of the young men was a more serious +matter. It took place in the great square, where a stage and pavilion +were erected; all the authority of the senate, and the services of the +church were united to render it solemn and impressive. It was a source +of deep interest to many of my own acquaintances, more especially to the +young cooper who worked underground at our house, and who, just released +from his apprenticeship, had the good or ill fortune to be drawn for the +next year's levy. + +There was one institution, not precisely of Hamburg, but at the very +doors of it, which exercised considerable influence upon its habits and +morals, and that of no beneficial kind. This was the Danish State +Lottery, the office of which was at Altona, where the prizes were +periodically drawn upon Sunday. The Hamburgers were supposed to receive +certain pecuniary advantages from this lottery in the shape of benefits +bestowed upon the Waisenkinder of the town, who, like our own blue-coat +boys of the old time, were the drawers of the numbers; but the advantages +were very questionable, seeing that the bulk of speculators were the +Hamburgers themselves, and the great prizes of the undertaking went to +swell the Danish Royal Treasury. Portions of shares could be purchased +for as low a sum as fourpence, and the Hamburg Senate, in self-defence, +and with a great show of propriety, prohibited the traffic of them among +servants and apprentices: which prohibition passed, of course, for next +to nothing, seeing that the temptation was very strong, and the +injunction very weak. It was a curious sight to witness the crowd upon +the occasion of a public drawing in the quaint old square of Altona; a +pebble-dotted space with a dark box in the centre, not unlike the +basement of a gallows. On this stood the wheel, bright in colours and +gold, and by its side two orphan boys in school-costume, who officiated +at the ceremony. One boy turned the wheel, the other drew the numbers, +and called them aloud as he held them before the spectators; while the +blast of a trumpet heralded the announcement. What feverish anxiety, +what restless cupidity might be fostering among that crowd no man could +calculate, and certainly, to my mind, there was no worse thing done on +the Sunday in all Hamburg than this exhibition of legalised gambling. + +Of course the theatres were open, and we of the working people were not +unfrequent visitors there. But let us thoroughly understand the nature +of a German theatrical entertainment. There is rarely more than one +piece, and the whole performance is usually included in the period of two +hours--from seven till nine. The parterre, or pit, is a mere promenade +or standing place, in which the few seats are let at a higher price than +the rest of the space. The whole of the arrangements are conducted with +the utmost decorum: so much so, that they would probably disappoint some +people who look upon the shouting, drovers' whistling, and "hooroar" and +hissing of some of our theatres as part of the legitimate drama. On the +Christmas day, when I had the option of getting gloriously fuddled with a +select party of English friends, or of entertaining myself in some less +orthodox way, I preferred to witness the opera of "Norma" at the Stadt +Theatre, and think I was the better for the choice. "Hamlet" was the +source of another Sunday evening's gratification (an anniversary play of +the Hamburgers, and intensely popular with the Danes), although with +unpardonable barbarity the German censors entirely blotted out the +gravediggers, and never buried the hapless, "sweet Ophelia." In the +gallery of the Imperial Opera House at Vienna, liveried servants hand +sweetmeats, ices, and coffee about between the acts; and although the +Hamburger theatricals have not yet reached this stage of refinement, +there is much in the shape of social convenience in their arrangement, +which even we might copy. + +Sometimes, we workmen spent a pleasant hour or two in the concert-rooms, +of which there were several admirably conducted; or pored hours long over +the papers, chiefly literary, in the Alster Halle; sipping our coffee, +and listening in the pauses of our reading to the band of choice +musicians, who played occasionally through the evening. Sometimes we +dived into snug cellars, where they sold good beer, or mixed odoriferous +punch; and here again music would come, though in a more questionable +shape, her attendant priestesses being the wandering harp-players, who +sang sentimental ditties to the twanging of their instruments. Other +places there were, some in the city, and some outside the walls, where an +abominable medley of waltz, smoke, wine, and lotto made up the evening's +entertainment. The larger of these establishments had some pretensions +to gentility, seeing that they did not allow gentlemen to dance with +their hats on; but whatever other claims they set up to the respect of +the community may be briefly set down as worth very little. It will not +unnaturally follow that where there is much liberty there will be some +licence, and with respect to Hamburg, it is in her dance-houses that this +excess is to be found. But where is the wonder? The Hamburger +authorities in this, and some other cases, set up a sort of excise +officer, and grant permits for this frivolity, and that vice, at a +regular scale of charges. + +In spite of these half-incentives and whole encouragements to laxity of +behaviour, what is the general character of the Hamburger population? I +venture to call them provident, temperate, and industrious. Let it be +remembered that we speak of a mercantile port, in some parts a little +like Wapping, and into and out of which there is a perpetual ebb and flow +of seamen of all nations, full of boisterous humour, of strong life, and +wilful in their recent escape from ship restraint. The worst of the +dance-houses are situated near the water's edge, and are almost wholly +frequented by sailors; while the other resorts which are open to the +charge of licentiousness, have also a strong proportion of maritime +frequenters, and the rest is mostly made up of the wandering workmen of +Germany, to many of whom Hamburg is a culminating point, and who are, as +it were, out on leave. But, after all, these cancer spots are few +indeed, when compared with the great proportion of the means of amusement +thrown open, or, rather never closed to the people. Wander on the Sunday +when and where you will; in theatre, concert-room, or coffee-house; in +public garden or beer-cellar; you will find them joyous indeed, sometimes +loud in song or conversation, and taking generally a sort of pride in a +dash of rudeness, calling it independence, but you will never find them +sottish; nowhere cumbering the footway with their prostrate carcases; +nowhere reeling zigzag, blear-eyed and stupid, to a miserable home. + +On tramp towards the South, we rested on the Sunday in Schwerin, the +capital of Mecklenburg; but there was public mourning in the city for a +death in the ducal family, and the usual Sunday festivities were +forbidden. On attending church in the evening I found a large +congregation, and the service similar to that of Hamburg. In the +afternoon, as there was no military parade or music, over the absence of +which the chambermaids of Der Gross-Herzog moaned dolorously, we rambled +through the ducal garden, admiring the quaintly-shaped basin in its +centre, its numerous statues, and fresh grass. The town was dull and +methodical enough, but would have been rejoicing, if it had not been +respectfully mournful. + +Our next resting-place was Berlin, where we stayed two months; and here, +according to our experience, the Sunday afternoon recreations differed +only in tone from those of Hamburg, being less boisterous in their gaiety +than in the former seaman's paradise. We never worked on Sunday in +Berlin, nor did any of our artizan friends, although there were very +pressing orders in the shape of those unvarying German court douceurs, +diamond-circled snuff boxes, and insignia of the Red and Black Eagle. +Once, we accompanied our principal, by special invitation, to the +Hasenheide, to witness the rifle practice, civil and military, among its +heather and sandy hollows. Officers and rank and file alike were there; +the officer practising with the private's heavy gewehr, and the private +in his turn with the light weapon of his superior in grade. There were +some capital shots among them. Thence, on the same day, we waded through +the sand to Tegel, to visit the residence and private grounds of Baron +Humboldt; and from a mound in his garden beheld the beautifully +picturesque view of Lake Tegel, and the distant towers of Spandau. I +have been present on the Sunday at a review of the Royal Guard in their +striking uniform of black and dazzling white. + +Once, we made a river voyage in a huge tub of a boat along the weedy +banks of the Spree, under the command of a female captain--a jolly +matron, weighing I am afraid to guess how many stone. I am told it was a +very plebeian piece of business, but we were very happy notwithstanding. +We had a Tafel-lieder party on board, with a due proportion of guitars, +and they played and sang all the way to Treptow and back again. Once +arrived at our destination, we sat upon the grass, and watched the merry +groups around, or sauntered along the margin of the stream, sipping +occasionally very inconsiderable quantities of feeble cordials; and when +the evening drew near, we re-embarked, and, under the safe conduct of our +female commodore--who was skilled in the difficult navigation of the +shallow river--returned soberly home. The environs of Berlin are of no +great beauty, the city being built on a sandy plain, with the single +eminence of the Kreutzberg, from which it can be viewed with advantage; +but in and about the city there are beautiful gardens, private and of +royal foundation, and these are invariably open to the public. One happy +Sunday afternoon we spent in Charlottenburg, the pleasure-palace of the +king; and one other in the noble botanical gardens in the city; while on +a fine day the avenue of lime trees, Unter-den-Linden, in its crowd of +promenaders, and social groups at the refreshment tables, presented an +animated, and, to my mind, a recreative and humanising spectacle. Music +was everywhere; and in the theatres, in the display of pyrotechnic +eccentricities, or perhaps in ballooning--but that was English--the +evening was variously spent. There may be dance-houses and other +abominations in Berlin, as in Hamburg, but I never heard of them, and if +they existed, more was the pity. For my own part, I was happy in +enjoying the moderate pleasures of life in company with the majority of +my fellow-workmen, who, I must again say, and insist upon, were not at +work, but at rest, on the Sunday. It is true that here, as elsewhere, +tailors and boot-makers (master-men) were content to take measures, and +receive orders from the workmen, for very little other opportunity +presented itself for such necessary service. + +A few hours' whirl on the railway on a Sunday saw us in Leipsic. This +was at the Easter festival; and we stayed two months in this Saxon market +of the world, embracing in their course the most important of the three +great markets in the year. If ever there was a fair opportunity of +judging the question of Sunday labour and Sunday rest, it was in Leipsic, +at this period. If Sunday work be a necessary consequence of Sunday +recreation--an absurd paradox, surely--it would have been exhibited in a +commercial town, at a period when all the elements of frivolity, as +gathered together at a fair; and all the wants of commerce compressed +into a few brief weeks, were brought into co-existence. Yet in no town +in Germany did I witness so complete a cessation from labour on the +Sunday. There was no question of working. Early in the morning there +was, it is true, a domestic market in the great square, highly +interesting to a stranger from the number of curious costumes collected +together; the ringletted Polish Jew, old Germans from Altenburg, seeming +masqueraders from the mining districts of the Erzgeberge, and country +folks from every neighbouring village, who flocked to Leipsic with their +wares and edibles. But all this was at an end long before the church +service commenced. I have been in the Nicolai-Kirche (remarkable for its +lofty roof, upheld by columns in the form of palm trees), and the +congregation thronged the whole edifice. And at a smaller church, I was +completely wedged in by the standing crowd of unmistakable working +people, whose congregational singing was particularly effective. The +German Protestant church service is not so long as our own. There are +only a few pews in the body of the building; and the major part of the +audience stand during the service. I was not so well pleased with one +sermon I heard in the English church, for it happened to be the effort of +a German preacher; a student in our tongue, whose discourse was indeed +intrinsically good, and would have been solemn, if the pauses and +emphases had only been in the right places. + +I never worked on Sunday in Leipsic, nor was I acquainted with any one +who did. The warehouses were strictly closed; and a few booths, with +trifling gewgaws, were alone to be seen. The city was at rest. Leipsic +has but one theatre, and to this the prices of admission are doubled in +fair-time, which placed it out of our reach. Thus we were forced to be +content with humbler sources of amusement, and to find recreation, which +we readily did, in the beautiful promenades round the city, laid out by +Dr. Muller; in country rambles to Breitenfeld, and other old +battle-fields; in tracing the winding paths of a thin wood, near the +town, wonderful to us from the flakes of wool (baumwolle) which whitened +the ground. Or again, among the bands of music and happy crowds which +dotted the Rosenthal--a title, by the bye, more fanciful than just, +seeing that the vale in question is only a grassy undulating plain. Here +we sometimes met the "Herr," with wife on arm, and exchanged due +salutations. + +The fair, such as we understand by the name, commenced in the afternoon, +and was a scene of much noise and some drollery. The whole town teemed +with itinerant musicians, whose violent strains would sometimes burst +from the very ground under your feet, as it appeared, issuing as they did +from the open mouths of beer and wine-cellars. Quiet coffee-houses there +were, in which grave citizens smoked and read; and admirable concerts in +saloons, and in the open air. To one of these latter I was seduced by +the mendacious announcement of a certain Wagner of Berlin, that a whole +troop of real Moors would perform fantastic tricks before high heaven; +and on paying the price of admission, I had to run the gauntlet through a +score of black-headed Teutons, who salaamed and grinned as they ushered +me into the blank space beyond, containing nothing more interesting than +a few tables and chairs, a dumb brass band, and a swarm of hungry +waiters. I saw no dance-houses, such as there were in Hamburg; and by +nine o'clock the festivities of the day were at an end. The Easter fair +lasted some five or six weeks, and at its termination its merriment +disappeared. The wandering minstrels wailed their last notes as they +departed, and the quiet city was left to its students and the pigeons. + +So much for my experiences of Protestant Germany as regards Sunday +occupation. I have, however, said nothing of museums or picture +galleries. I should be sorry to misrepresent the kindred commercial +cities of Hamburg and Leipsic; but I think they may shake hands on this +question, seeing that, at the period of my visit, they possessed neither +the one nor the other. I do not say that there were no stored-up +curiosities, dignified with the title of museums. But, as far as the +public instruction was concerned, they were nearly useless, being little +known and less visited, and certainly not accessible on the Sunday. +Schwerin, in Mecklenburg, possesses a noble ducal museum of arts and +sciences, but this also was closed on the weekly holiday; and in Berlin, +where the museum, par excellence, may vie with any in Europe, and which +city is otherwise rich in natural and art collections, the doors of all +such places were, on the Sunday, strictly closed against the people. Of +the good taste which authorises the display of stage scenery and +decorations (and that not of the best), and yet forbids the inspection of +the masterpieces of painting; of the judgment which patronises beer and +tobacco, yet virtually condemns as unholy the sight of the best evidences +of nature's grandeur, and the beautiful results of human efforts in art, +it is not necessary to treat here. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII. + + +MORE SUNDAYS ABROAD. + +Still on tramp toward the south, we came to Dresden, and there rested +five days; but as they were week-days their experiences gave us no +insight into the Sunday usages of the place, and I only allude to them +because it would seem unbecoming to pass the capital of Saxony without a +word; and because I feel morally convinced that of all the art-wonders +collected in the Zwinger, Das Grune Gewolbe, and in the picture gallery, +all of which we visited, not any of them are visible to the public on +Sunday. {173} On a sultry day in August we struggled, dusty and athirst, +into Vienna. It is said that the first impressions of a traveller are +the most faithful, and I therefore transcribe from a diary of that time +some of my recollections of the first Sunday spent in the capital of +Austria. It is not flattering. + +"Yesterday (Sunday), we rambled through a part of the city known as +Lerchenfeld, in the suburb of St. Joseph, where the low life of Vienna is +exhibited. It was a kind of fair. The way was lined with petty booths +and stalls, furnished with fruit, pipes, and common pastry. Here were +sold live rabbits and birds; there, paper clock-faces, engravings, songs, +and figures of saints. In one part was a succession of places of public +resort, like our tea-gardens in appearance, but devoted to the sale of +other beverages; tea being here almost unknown, except as a medicine. +From each of them there streamed the mingled sounds of obstreperous music +and human voices, while in several there appeared to be a sort of +conjuring exhibition in course of performance. Further on, there came +from the opposite side of the way the screaming of a flageolet, heard far +above its accompaniment of a violin and a couple of horns, to all of +which the shuffling and scraping of many feet formed a sort of dull bass, +as the dancers whirled round in their interminable waltz. Looking into +the window of the building thus outrageously conspicuous, we saw a motley +crowd of persons of both sexes, and in such a variety of costumes as +scarcely any other city but Vienna could furnish; some of them careering +round in the excitement of the dance; others impatiently awaiting their +turn, or quizzing the dancers; while a third party sat gravely at the +side-tables, smoking their pipes, playing at cards, and sipping their +wine and beer. Passing onward, we came upon a diminutive merryman, +screaming from the platform of his mountebank theatre, the nature of the +entertainment and the lowness of the price of admission--'Only four +kreutzers for the first place!' + +"Continuing our course, we were attracted into a side-street by a crowd, +among whom stood conspicuous a brass musical band, and an old man in a +semi-religious costume of black and white, bearing a large wooden +crucifix in his hand. In anticipation of some religious ceremony, we +waited awhile to watch its development. It was a funeral, and the whole +procession soon formed itself in the following order:--First came the +large crucifix, then a boy bearing a banner on which was painted the +figure of the Virgin; then came six other boys, followed by the same +number of girls, all neatly and cleanly dressed; and then the coffin, +hung with scarlet drapery, adorned with flowers, and having a small +silver crucifix at its head. We were told it was the funeral of a girl +of thirteen. Close upon the coffin came the minister, or priest, clad in +a black, loosish gown, and wearing a curiously crown-shaped cap, also +black. Every head was uncovered as he and the coffin passed. Then came, +as we imagined, the real mourners of the dead, followed by six +exceedingly old women, mourners by profession, and immediately behind +them the brass band which had first attracted our attention. The latter, +as soon as the procession was fairly in motion, burst forth into a noisy, +and by no means melancholy strain, and continued to play for some time; +they suddenly ceased, and there was heard from some one at the head of +the procession a Latin prayer, which was immediately echoed by the old +women in the rear, in the same drowsy, monotonous tone in which the +church responses are usually made. The scene was altogether curious and +striking; the progress of the procession was everywhere marked by +uncovered heads and signs of sympathy and respect; but in spite of its +attempted solemnity, there was a holiday appearance about it which jarred +sadly with its real character of grief and death." + +I have given this description a front place because it is the worst thing +I can say of Vienna, and in no other part of the city did I ever see its +like. During a stay of twelve months, I lost no opportunity of enjoying +all that the Viennese enjoyed, or of witnessing whatever was part of the +national customs in festival, holiday, or religious ceremonial. In +addition to the Sundays, which were all, to a certain extent, days of +rejoicing--there were nine distinct festivals in the year enjoined by the +church, and on which, if they fell on week-days, the working people +rested from their labours. Of course each of these days had its special +religious reference and obligations, and these were in general faithfully +observed; but, apart from this, they were essentially holidays, and, as +no deduction of wages was made by the employers on their account, they +did not fall as a burden upon the working classes. These days were: New +Year's Day, the Annunciation, Good Friday, Easter and Whit Sunday, Corpus +Christi Day, All Saints' Day, the Birth of the Virgin, Christmas Day, and +the festival of St. Leopold, the patron saint of Vienna. On the strictly +church festivals, with the exception of All Saints' Day, theatrical +performances, and public amusements generally, were interdicted, but rest +and quiet recreation, in addition to the religious observances, were +their great characteristics. Easter and Whit Monday were among the Volks +Feste (people's feasts), as well as one known as that of the Brigittenau, +from the place in which it is held; and another on the first of May, when +the laufer (running footmen) have their races in the Prater, and the +emperor permits himself to be mobbed--at least the Emperor Francis +did--as he strolls for a half-hour or so among his people in their own +park. Then the Bohemians have a special religious festival, when one is +astonished to see, in out-of-the-way niches and corners, a perhaps +hitherto-unobserved figure of an amiable-looking priest, with a star on +his forehead, now hung about and conspicuous with wreaths and festoons of +flowers, and bright with the glittering of tiny lamps. This is the Holy +St. John of Nepomuk. I have, however, nothing to do with the religious +ceremonies of the Catholic Church. It is sufficient for my purpose to +know that I watched the solemn and splendid procession of mingled +royalty, priest, and people, on Corpus Christi Day, from the open door of +a coffee and wine-house in the Kohl-market; and that, at the Easter +festival, after ascending and descending the Mount Calvary, near Vienna, +or rather having been borne up and down its semicircular flight of steps, +and past the modelled groups of painted figures to represent the life of +Christ, from the birth to the crowning act of the crucifixion on the +summit, I then sauntered away with my landlord (a cabinet-maker) and his +family to Weinhaus, to drink of the new wine called heueriger. It is +enough that, on All Saints' Day, after wandering awhile about a swampy +churchyard in the suburb of Maria Hilf, to see the melancholy spot of +light which glimmered at each grave-head, I went to the Burg Theatre, and +witnessed Shakespeare's play of "King Lear" (and the best actor in Vienna +played the Fool); and further, that I spent the evening of Christmas Day +in Daum's coffee-house in reading _Galignani's Messenger_, in order to +bring myself, in imagination at least, as near home as possible. + +The jewellers in Vienna are not such elderly apprentices as they are in +Hamburg, Leipsic, and the majority of small towns in Germany. They dine +at gast hause, and sleep in the independence of a separate lodging. They +have, therefore, more liberty; but there are many trades in Vienna among +whom the old usages still exist, by which they become a kind of vassals, +living and sleeping under the patriarchal roof. All worked twelve hours +a-day alike, from six till seven, including one hour for dinner. Various +licences were, however, allowed; quarter-of-day or half-hour deductions +were scarcely known; and I have myself spent the morning at a public +execution, without suffering any loss in wages. This brings me to the +Sunday work; and I say, unhesitatingly that, as a system, it does not +exist. I never worked on the Sunday myself during my whole twelve +months' stay. I do not know that there was any law against it; but rest +was felt to be a necessity after a week of seventy-two hours' labour. It +is not unusual, both in Germany and France, to engage new hands on the +Sunday morning, because it is a leisure time, convenient to both master +and workman; and I have sought for work at this time, and found the Herr +in a silk dressing-gown, and white satin slippers with pink bows. I +recollect visiting a working cabinet-maker's on one Sunday morning, whose +men slept on the premises, and found the workshop a perfect model of +cleanliness and order: every tool in its place, and the whole swept and +polished up; and was once invited, under the impression that, as an +Englishman, I ought to know something of newspaper presses, to inspect +those of the Imperial Printing Office, with the last number of the Wiener +Zeitung in type; and this was on a Sunday morning--a time especially +chosen on account of the absence of the workmen. My landlord, a +master-man, would sometimes work in the Sunday morning when hard pressed; +but, if he did, he took his revenge in the week. + +As we did not work, at what did we play? Perhaps there was a sick +comrade to visit in the great hospital; and we paced the long corridors, +and stepped lightly through the lofty wards to his bedside. Or, if he +were convalescent, we sought him out, among many others, in the open +square, with its broad grass-plots and young trees, where, in his grey +loose gown, he smoked a morning pipe. Or we went to church, I, with +others, to the Evangelical Chapel near the Augustine Platz. There, among +a closely-pressed throng, we heard admirable discourses (and not too +long, the whole service being concluded in an hour), and heard much +beautiful music; but, to my mind, there were too many tawdry ornaments in +this place of worship--too many lamps about the altar; and the +altar-piece itself--a gigantic figure of the Saviour on the Cross, said +to be by Albert Durer--seemed to be out of place. + +It was lawful in Vienna to bathe on Sunday; and this we did, with great +delight, in the public baths upon the Danube. Or we strolled about the +Glacis; attended the miniature review in the Hof-Burg; wandered out as +far as Am-Spitz, by the long wooden bridge over the broad and melancholy +river; or, what was better, sauntered in some one of the beautiful +gardens of the Austrian nobility,--those of Schwargenberg, Lichtenstein, +or in the Belvidere--thrown open to the public, not only on Sunday, but +on every day in the week. + +As the day waned, music burst forth in many strains at once. There was a +knot of artisans in our back room, who were learning the entire "Czar and +Zimmerman," and who were very vigorous about this hour. At seven, the +theatres opened their doors, with something of our own rush and press, +although there was a guard-house, and a whole company of grenadiers in +the ante-room; but, once in the interior, all was order and decorum. +There was, of course, a difference in tone and character between the city +and the suburban theatres, inasmuch as the ices and coffee of the court +playhouses found their parallel in the beer and hot sausages of the +Joseph Stadt and An-der-Wieden; but the performances of all rarely +occupied more than two, and never exceeded three hours; and there was an +amount of quiet and propriety manifested during the entertainment, which +said something for the authorities, but more for the people. + +As the night deepened, the ball-rooms and dancing-booths of Vienna,--the +Sperl's, Das Tanz Salon beim Schaf, and so downward to the dens of +Lerchenfeld--grew furious in music, and hysterical in waltz. It was +something fearful. It made your eyes twinkle, and your head dizzy, to +see that eternal whirling of so many human teetotums. They seemed to see +nothing, to feel nothing, to know nothing; there was no animation in +their looks; no speculation in their eyes; nothing but a dead stare, as +if the dancers were under a spell, only to be released when the music was +at an end. Generally speaking, I think the ball-rooms of continental +cities are the curses and abominations of the Sunday. My landlord, who +was no moralist, but played faro, draughts, and billiards on the Sunday +evening, would not hear of his daughter attending a public ballroom. +There is a curious anomaly in connection with places of public +entertainment which strikes a stranger at once, and which is equally true +of Berlin as of Vienna; it is this: that, while private houses are closed +at nine and ten o'clock, according to the season of the year, +coffee-houses, taverns, dancing and concert-rooms, are open till +midnight. Up to the former hours you may gain admission to your own +house by feeing the porter to the extent of twopence; but, later than +this, it is dangerous to try the experiment. + +To return to out-of-door amusements. A visit to Schoenbrun was business +for a whole afternoon; for we must perforce each time unravel the +windings to the pure spring in the maze, with vague and mysterious ideas +of some time or other falling upon the grave of the Duc de Reichstadt, +there secretly buried, according to popular tradition. On rare occasions +we spent the whole of Sunday in some more distant palatial domain, or +suburban retreat. In Klosterneuburgh, with its good wine: in the Bruhl, +with its rugged steeps, its military memorials, and ruined castles; at +the village of Bertholdsdorf, with its Turkish traditions; among the viny +slopes of the Leopoldiberg, or the more distant and wilder tract of +mingled rock and forest which encircle the Vale of Helen. Above all, +there was Laxenberg,--an imperial pleasure-palace and garden, and a whole +fairy-land in itself, peopled by the spirits of ancient knights and +courtly dames. Some one of the Hapsburgs had built, many years ago, a +knightly castle on a lake, and in it were stored dim suits of armour of +Maximilian; a cabinet of Wallenstein; grim portraits of kings and +warriors; swords, halbards, jewelled daggers, and antique curiosities +innumerable; only rather prosaically completed by the exhibition of the +every-day suit of the last Emperor of Austria, which, however affecting a +spectacle for a simple-hearted Viennese--and they are mere babies in +matters of royalty--irresistibly reminded one of Holywell Street, London, +and cast-off regimentals. Laxenberg is distant less than a shilling +ride, and about two hours' walk from Vienna; and, like our Hampton Court +Palace, is thrown unreservedly open to the public. There were no end to +its wonders: fishing-grounds, and boats upon the lake; waterfalls, and +rustic bridges were there; and one little elegant pavilion, perched on +the water, dedicated to the beauties of Windsor, illustrating its scenery +in transparent porcelain. There was a list for knightly riders; a dais +for the Queen of Beauty; and places for belted nobles, saintly abbots, +and Wambas in motley; an Ashby-de-la-Zouch in miniature, which a little +imagination could people. Then, for the plebeians, there were +leaping-bars and turning-posts, skittle-alleys, and the quintain; and, +for all alike, clusters of noble trees, broad grassy meads, and flowers +unnumbered. There was even a farm-house, homely and substantial, with a +dairy and poultry-yard, sheep in the paddocks, and cattle in the stalls. + +We started from Vienna on a Sunday morning on board the steamboat Karl +for Linz; and trudging thence on foot came on the following Saturday +night into Salzburg, the queen of the Salzack. We rested here one happy +Sunday: not so much in the town, which had its abundant curiosities, as +in the pleasure gardens of the old Archbishops of Salzburg, at an easy +stroll from it. This garden is pleasant enough in itself, but there are +besides a number of water eccentricities in it such as I should think +were in their peculiar fashion unequalled. Here blooms a cluster of +beautiful flowers, covered as it were by a glass shade, but which turns +out to be only water. There a miniature palace is in course of erection, +with crowds of workmen in its different storeys, each man at his +avocation with hammer and chisel, pulley and wheel, and the grave +architect himself directing their labour. All this is set in motion by +water, and is not a mere doll's house, but a symmetrical model. Then we +enter a subterranean grotto, with a roof of pendant stalactites, where +the pleasant sound of falling waters and the melodious piping of birds +fill all the air. There is a sly drollery too in some of the water +performances, invented years ago by the grave Archbishops of Salzburg; +for suddenly the stalactites are set dripping like a modern shower bath: +and the gigantic stags at its entrance spout water from the very tips of +their horns. The garden is not a Versailles, for there is nothing grand +in any of its hydraulic arrangements; but in the beauty with which are +clothed such trifles, the artistic spirit which has suggested its +objects, and the humour which spirts up tiny jets of water by seats where +lovers sit, and in unsuspected places where the public congregate, even +in the middle of a walk, it is a wonderful and delightful exhibition. +This garden was thronged by the holiday folks of Salzburg. There was an +official to explain the curious display, and nothing but innocent gaiety +was to be seen. + +The Sunday we spent in Munich was passed in the Kirche Unserer Lieben +Frauen, with its self-supporting roof; in the English Garden; and at a +lovely spot on a hill-side, in the environs of the city. During the week +we were escorted by a friend to a sort of tea-gardens of some notoriety, +but found it silent and deserted. Our friend apologised for its dulness, +but exclaimed, in part explanation, "You should see it on Sunday!" It +was evident that Sunday was a day of rest and enjoyment, and not a +working day in Munich. My own impression of the Munichers was, that they +drank too much beer every day in the week. + +Still tramping towards France, we passed one Sunday in Heidelberg, among +all its romantic wonders; but as everybody knows, or ought to know, all +about Heidelberg, I will not allow my enthusiasm to lead me into a +description which would not be novel, and might probably be tedious. +This was the last Sunday we spent on German ground. So far as Germany is +concerned, you may look upon everything but museums, picture galleries, +and the like, on Sunday; you may, as Luther says you ought, "dance on it, +ride on it, play on it,--do anything"--but see that which is most likely +to instruct you. You may visit tawdry shows, and inspect badly painted +scenery; you may let off fireworks; gamble to your ruin; smoke the eyes +out of your head, and dance the head off your shoulders; but you shall +not, with few exceptions, look upon works of art, or the results of +science in museums and picture galleries. Let it be said, however, that +the general opportunities for acquiring correct and elevated taste are, +on the whole, greater in Germany than in England; and that in many cities +there is a profusion of exterior ornament, more especially in Munich, in +the shape of the fresco paintings of the Palace Garden, on Isar Thor, and +in the Basilica and churches generally, so that the eye is better +educated in artistic combinations; and the same necessity does not exist +for special art instruction with them as with us. Then, let us never +forget that their public and other gardens are as free to them as the air +they breathe, and that music is almost as universal. + +The remembrances I have of Paris Sundays decidedly possess a character of +rest and recreation; of waking in the morning to a grateful sense of +repose; of clean shirts and trimmed beards; and of delicious breakfasts +at our Cafe aux Quatres Mendiants, of coffee and white bread, instead of +the bouillon and confiture of the atelier. Did we not work, then? +Assuredly we did sometimes, when hard pressed; but the recollection of +those few occasions is drowned in that of a flood of happy, tranquil +Sundays. When we did work it was from eight till twelve, which made half +a day, and this was the rate at which all overtime was reckoned. One +hard taskmaster I remember, who, instead of paying us our dues, as is the +custom on Saturday night, at the end of quinze jours, cajoled us to come +and work under the promise of their payment on the Sunday morning. He +failed us like a rogue; and we drudged on for another quinzaine, Sunday +mornings included, in hopeful anticipation of the receipt of our wages. +When we found that he slunk out of the way, without paying us a sou, we +rebelled, sang the Marseillaise, demanded our wages, and never worked +another Sunday. + +I am lost in my endeavours to define the mingled recollections of Sunday +tranquillity, enjoyment, and frivolity during a stay of eighteen months +in Paris. My thoughts run from the Madelaine to Minu-montant; from +Versailles to the Funambule; from Diogenes' lantern at St. Cloud to the +blind man's concert in the Palais Royal. Sometimes I wander over the +plains of Auteuil and Passy; then suddenly find myself examining a +paper-making machine in the Museum of Arts and Trades. Or I look over +the vine fields from the heights of Montmorency at one moment, and the +next am pacing the long galleries of the Louvre, or the classic chambers +of the Palais des Beaux Arts. I have passed a Whitsunday morning at +Versailles among the paintings; the afternoon at Sevres among glass and +porcelain; have won a game at dominoes after dinner in Paris; and have +heard the last polka at the Salle Vivienne in the evening. Paris is a +city of extremes; the young Theophile who works by my side, and is an +ingenious fellow and a clever workman, you will meet next Sunday in the +Louvre discoursing energetically on the comparative merits of the French +and Italian schools of painting; yet this same Theophile shall be the +Titi of the gallery of the Porte St. Martin in the evening, who yells +slang at his friend on the opposite side; and the Pierrot or Debardeur of +the next opera masquerade. + +With the vivid impressions of many Sundays abroad upon my mind, I have +been wondering whether, after all, the practices of the continental +Sunday have anything to do with the opening of a museum or +picture-gallery in London; and, after profound study, in the laborious +course of which I have several times fallen asleep, I have come to the +deliberate conclusion that there is no connection between the two things. +In the first case, as regards Germany, seeing that they there almost +sedulously close all that relates to art or science, and give full +licence only to beer and tobacco, to music and dancing on the +Sunday--where is the parallel? In the second, as regards France or +Paris, although it must be admitted that there is unfortunately no +comparison between the Louvre and the National Gallery, it can at least +be claimed that there is no resemblance between the British Museum and +the Bal des Chiens in the Rue St. Honore. I take it that to preserve the +English Sunday as a day of greater rest than French or German Sundays +ever were, and to add to it such rational and instructive recreation, as +a Museum or a Picture-Gallery, or a place of innocent recreation could +supply, might be a good thing in the eyes of religious men; and I have +not yet heard of any society or association in any part of the United +Kingdom, which proposes to open a Sunday evening ball at the Pig and +Tinderbox, or to grant licences to the theatrical performances at the +Penny Gaff in the New Cut. + + + + +NOTE. + + +{173} This is incorrect; the Picture Gallery is open during the mid-day +hours on Sunday. + + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A TRAMP'S WALLET*** + + +******* This file should be named 28320.txt or 28320.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/8/3/2/28320 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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