A wanderer's notes

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PADDAZZ

to

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of Toronto

Miss SYBIL PANTAZZI

A WANDEREK'S NOTES

A WANDERER'S NOTES

BY

W. BEATTY-KINGSTON

COMMANDER OF THE IMPERIAL ORDER OF THE MEDJIDJEH AND OF THE ROYAL ORDERS

OF THE REDEEMER, STAR OF ROUMANIA, CROWN OF ROXJMANIA AND TAKOVA

OF SERVIA : KNIGHT OF THE IMPERIAL ORDER OF FRANCIS JOSEPH

AND OF THE I.R. AUSTRIAN ORDER OF MERIT OF THE

FIRST CLASS WITH THE CROWN, ETC., ETC.

AUTHOR OF "WILLIAM i., GERMAN EMPEROR," "THE BATTLE OF BERLIN/

"MUSIC AND MANNERS," " MONARCHS I HAVE MET," ETC., ETC.

IN TWO VOLUMES
VOL. II.

LONDON: CHAPMAN AND HALL

LIMITED

1888

[All Rights reserved.]

7(18745.,

RICHARD CLAY & SONS,

BREAD STREET HILL, LONDON,

Bungdy, Suffolk.

D

\+oo

Bs

v.2.

CONTENTS OF VOL. II.

CHAPTER I.

PAGE

A Jewish Appeal — Persecution of the Israelites in Roumania —
A Mission of Inquiry — Eoumania in 1875 — A Decade of
Progress — Summer Life in Bucharest — Minstrelsy in the
Small Hours — The Government and the Jews — Turkey and
Roumanir. — A Historical Retrospect — The " Capitulations " 1

CHAPTER II.

Through Moldavia inquest of Persecution — Ismail and Tultcha —
The Jews of Bakau — Israelitish Wrongs at Roman — Jassy,
the Modern Zion — Galatz Improvements — The Roumanian
Peasant — Emancipation, Independence and Progress — Up
Danube again — A Thrilling Family Drama 33

CHAPTER III.

Berlin Antiquities — The Typical Gallows-Bird — A Historical

Outing — The German Mediaeval Drama — A Mystery Revival 72

CHAPTER IV.

The Prussian Army — Regimental Messes — Courts of Election and
of Honour — Physical Characteristics — A Landwehr Battalion
— Administrative Thrift — A Pound of Snuff and a Cowskin 91

CHAPTER V.

British Unpopularity in Germany — A Long Street — The Berlin
Zoo — High Jinks with the Corps de Ballet — A Royal
Christening — Amusements in Prussia — The Monument of
Victory 131

vi CONTENTS.

CHAPTER VI.

;—• t PAGE

A Happy Island ...175

CHAPTER VII.

Gambling in Germany — Wiesbaden 192

CHAPTER VIII.

Gambling in Germany — Homburg ... 227

CHAPTER IX.

Ems, Nassau, Schwalbach, Kronenberg and Kcenigstein ... 254

CHAPTER X.

Revolutionary Madrid — Triumphal Entry of Juan Prim — Stupen-
dous Popular Demonstration — Across the Sierra Morena —
Cordova — A Converted Mosque — Malaga — Almonds and
Raisins — Alicante 279

CHAPTER XI.

Christmas and New Year's Days in Rome — Brigandage in the
Papal States nineteen years ago — Jtoman Anomalies — The
Campagna Hunt — Blest Beasts — A Propaganda Performance
" La Befana " — The Bambins on its Rounds — A State
Funeral — The Roman Carnival — Street Racing — High Jinks
in a Jesuit College 310

A WANDEBER'S NOTES

A WANDEBER'S NOTES.

CHAPTER I.

A JEWISH APPEAL — PERSECUTION OF THE ISRAELITES IN ROUMANIA —
A MISSION OP INQUIRY — ROUMANIA IN 1875 A" DECADE OP PRO-
GRESS SUMMER LIFE IN BUCHAREST — MINSTRELSY IN THE SMALL

HOURS THE GOVERNMENT AND THE JEWS TURKEY AND ROU-
MANIA A HISTORICAL RETROSPECT THE " CAPITULATIONS."

EARLY in the month of June, 1874, one Samuel
Bergmann and five other " representatives of the Jewish
community " of Bakau, an important provincial town in
Moldavia, addressed a letter to Sir Francis A. Goldsmid,
setting forth the heavy losses caused to their co-religion-
aries by the oppressive effect of the so-called " Liquor
Law," passed by the Roumanian Chambers during the
previous winter, and enforced with extreme rigour by
Prince Charles's Government, then presided over by M.
Lascar Catargi. This letter, accusing the Roumanian
authorities of sanctioning a systematic and cruel perse-
cution of his Highness's Israelitish subjects, was trans-
mitted by its recipient to the Editor of The Daily
Telegraph, and obtained publicity in the columns of that
journal. The question of Jewish persecution, in con-
nection with the Danubian Principalities, was one to

VOL. II. B

A WANDERER'S NOTES.

which the attention of the British public had been
repeatedly called by the leading organs of the metro-
politan press, but it had theretofore never been submitted
to the personal investigation of any fully accredited
and qualified journalist, acting as the special and
recognized envoy of a great London newspaper. The
proprietors of The Daily Telegraph, being of opinion that
such an investigation was eminently desirable, paid me
the high compliment of selecting me from among the
members of their staff to carry it out. They were
aware that I was well acquainted with the Principal-
ities, tolerably familiar with the Eoumanian tongue,
and personally known to the statesmen then in power
at Bucharest. These considerations induced them to
remove me for some months from Berlin, where I was
then residing as their representative, and to grant me
a roving commission, having for its purpose the institu-
tion of a careful and minute inquiry into the alleged
grievances of the Moldavian Jews.

I was instructed to travel to the capital of Roumania ;
to place myself in personal communication with the
President of the Cabinet, and with the Minister of
Foreign Affairs, M. Boeresco ; to solicit from them such
official introductions to the chief provincial functionaries
of the State as would enable me to obtain every procur-
able facility for the discharge of my mission ; and, thus
accredited, to visit in succession every Moldavian town
and district largely populated by Jews. My employers
furthermore directed me to seek interviews with the
most respectable and trustworthy members of the
Israelitish communities inhabiting such towns and dis-

FROM BERLIN" TO BUCHAREST. 3

tricts ; to receive and, if possible, test the value of their
statements respecting the oppressive acts of which they
were believed to be the victims ; to take similar steps
with regard to the local Government officials and lead-
ing Boyars ; and, finally, to report fully to The Daily
Telegraph upon the information thus collected, frankly
expressing my own views thereanent, according to the
best of my judgment.

In obedience to the foregoing instructions I left
Berlin on July 1st, 1874, by the Nether Silesian line
of railway, bound for Bucharest, and fully resolved to
perform my appointed journey of 1700 miles tout d'ttn
trait, without break or delay. In railway trips, how-
ever, man proposes and accident disposes, as I found
to my cost ; for less than twenty miles from Berlin my
progress was disagreeably arrested by a highly compli-
cated collision, in which three trains — one of them that
in which I was too confidently slumbering — took part.
This mishap caused me to miss all the " correspond-
ences " of the different railway systems concerned in my
" through " journey, which suffered vexatious solutions of
continuity at Myslowitz, Oszviecim, and Suczava, three
of the dismallest little townships in Europe. Near the
last-named repository of dirt and headquarters of squalor,
however, I at length crossed the Roumanian frontier,
and soon had reason to admire the transformation
wrought in the aspect of men and things Dacian during
the ten years of Hohenzollern rule that had elapsed
since my last previous visit to Moldavia. Every object
that met my sight, except the face of the country itself,
had suffered a manifest change for the better. Mud

B 2

A WANDERER'S NOTES.

and thatch had been replaced by brick and tile ; the
peasants were decently clothed instead of being pictur-
esquely draped in sordid rags; even the gipsies — the
grown-up ones, at least — were considerably less naked
than they had been in the " good old days " sub Consule
Cusd. My seventeen hours' run from the Bukovina
boundary to Bucharest teemed with surprises, for the
most part of a highly gratifying character.

That States, as well as men, live faster nowadays,
and crowd their lives with more actual achievements
and adventures than they did in the " good old times,"
is so patent a fact that to state it is to lay one's self
open to the charge of platitudinarianism ; but we take
progress so much as a matter of course, that we scarcely
realize the magnitude of the wonders that have come
to pass around us in these latter days. Let any man
who had made acquaintance in the year 1865 with the
debatable Dacian lands that lie on the very frontier of
modern civilization, and who had lost sight of them
during a decade, have returned thither ten years later,
as I did ; and, supposing that he had retained a tolerably
accurate recollection of his former experiences in the
Principalities, I will engage to say that, however blase
and impervious to unexpected impressions he might be,
the changes that had taken place during his absence
could not fail to inspire him with feelings of very hearty
astonishment and admiration.

When I first visited Eou mania, just a year before
the base betrayal of John Alexander Cusa by men who
owed him everything, travelling in the Principalities was
an enterprise of infinite difficulty and of no little danger.

ROUMANIA IN 1864. 5

Whether you entered them by land or water, so soon as
you passed the Austrian frontier, or landed from the
Austrian boat, you experienced the sensation of having
quitted the modern world, and of being under some
strange spell that had turned the hand of Time's clock
several centuries backwards, and transported you, with
your nineteenth-century clothes, luggage, requirements,
and tastes, into a land of the Middle Ages, with every
characteristic of which you were at once painfully and
ludicrously out of keeping. I shall never forget the
utter hopelessness that took possession of me as soon
as I had become thoroughly penetrated by the conviction
of my utter unsuitability to a country the manners,
costumes, and customs of which, classed chronologically,
ranged between about 200 B.C. and the fourteenth
century of our era. I contemplated as in a dream
peasants whose absolute counterparts I had frequently
gazed on in the Piazza Colonna, where Trajan's Column
stands an imperishable record of Koman victories. I
beheld agricultural implements in use which would have
been deemed old-fashioned by P. V. Maro, the elegant
agricultural essayist who would have been so extremely
astounded at the Vienna Exhibition of 1873, could he
have dropped in upon the " Annexe " in which Ransome,
Sims, and Head's straw-burner, thrasher, and reversible
ploughs were exposed to view. I looked in vain for
roads ; there were none, or next to none. In a country
as large as the Prussia of Frederick William the Fourth
there were actually only thirty miles of metalled way.
Were you compelled to travel from one town to an-
other, you hired the strongest trap you could discover,

6 A WANDERERS NOTES.

from four to eight post-horses, and took the country as
it came, water-jumps and all. Luckily there were no
hedges ; but, en revanche, the face of the land was
seamed by so-called fords, the traversing of which,
during the wet and winter seasons, was an achievement
that you could never in the least reckon upon until it
was over and done with. I have seen twenty powerful
bullocks hitched on to a light carriage — in the nature
of a Victoria — vainly struggling under the most trucu-
lent punishment to drag it out of a " stodge " at such
a ford ; and whole convoys of springless transport carts
and peasants' waggons altogether abandoned by their
owners in the middle of what purported on the map
to be a river — it being impossible, faute de fond, to dig
them out even when unloaded. Except in three or four
of the very largest towns, there was no accommodation
for the foreign traveller at all ; and in those the few
inns were of a quite indescribable sort. If you stopped
in them, it was not to eat, but to be eaten. The native
Boyards, when on a journey dans le pays, stayed at
one another's houses — the peasantry slept in or under its
waggons, according to the time of year. As for the
Jcrisme, or dram-shops of the villages, which resembled
and excelled the very worst posadas of Spanish hamlets,
it was hopeless to look for sleeping-room in them. They
were all kept by Jews ; and the Jews would not take
you in — at least not in that way. Your only chance
was to " draw " the Starost, or headman of the village,
who would generally allot you a shelf let into the clay
wall of his family's common bedroom, dining-room,
kitchen, stable, and private chapel ; where you slept,

BUCHAREST UNDER CUSA. 7

or did not sleep, with the Starost and his relatives of
both sexes, house and farm-servants, ditto ditto poultry,
pigs, and domestic insects, besides half-a-dozen or so
of rampagious dogs thirsting for your foreign blood, and
dead sure to have it, too, if you were unlucky enough
to roll off your shelf in the throes of one of the " alarums
and excursions" performed by jumpers and crawlers
upon your hapless carcase all throughout the night.
Morning ablutions were transacted with exquisite sim-
plicity, the whole apparatus proffered for your accom-
modation being a tumbler-ful of water. There was
not a yard of municipal paving in either Principality.
Bucharest, an enormous straggling town, although
then owning about 90,000 inhabitants, and covering as
much ground as Paris, was as free from pavement as
a Russian steppe or a South Sea island. Its streets
were Saharas in summer, Sloughs of Despond in spring
(and, indeed, whenever it rained), and only practicable
for the shod pedestrian in the long severe winters, when
they were frozen to a Siberian hardness. The Podo
Mogoschoi, Bucharest's principal street, was at that time
scarcely wider than Chancery -lane ; but I have frequently
been compelled to take a cab in order to cross it. To
sum up the condition of Eoumania when I first made
its acquaintance in a few words, the people were all
but savages (savages, I admit, of the mildest and most
biddable description, but as essentially primitive as
people could be who wore clothes) ; governed how they
knew not nor cared : living on the wretchedest of fare

3 O

in the most miserable of manners ; owned and traded
upon by a caste of idle, uneducated, and dissolute

8 A WANDERERS NOTES..

squires, for the most part seemingly devoid of patriotism,
enterprise, and even common honesty. Foreign capital
was kept out of the country by reason of the experience
made by a few sanguine English, French, and German
men of business, who had endeavoured to "develop"
the great natural resources of the land, and had been
horribly fleeced in the process. At the time that Prince
Cusa abdicated, under circumstances over which he had
no control, and which were quite as disgraceful to those
who took part in them as had been the administration
of the realm during his reign, the Moldo-Wallachians
of United Eournariia had attained a depth of physical
degeneration and moral degradation from which it was
difficult to believe that they would ever extricate them-
selves. Over-taxed, under-waged, with scarcely any
interior means of transport for the alimentary products
with which their soil was teeming ; exploits* by the
Boyards, squeezed hard by the priests, and wrung
out completely dry by the Jews, who were absolute
masters of the Roumanian peasantry, body and soul,
nothing more melancholy or hopeless could be conceived
than the lot and prospects of the people inhabiting the
Danubian Principalities. It seemed as if it would be a
mercy^ — perhaps their only means of salvation from
gradual and rapid extinction — that they should be
annexed by Austria (it being out of the question that
any amelioration of their condition should result to them
from their connection with Turkey), and should be
vouchsafed the opportunity of sacrificing their visions
of independence and national development — of receiving
from foreign wealth and intelligence those " means to

THE BOYAES OF OLD.

the end" which they had neither the capacity nor
energy to create for themselves. They wanted well-
nigh everything. There were a few large fortunes
amongst the Boyards- — but very little education, and
less probity. Official corruption was a prevalent malady
in Roumania. Social immorality had attained its
apogee, not only amongst the higher classes, but
throughout all strata of the " formation." Divorce was
as common as the open disregard of the marriage tie.
Nine-tenths of the population did not know how to
read and write. The army was .officered in a manner
which defies description, and is much better forgotten
than recalled. Like the Ireland of fifty years ago,
Roumania suffered from the curse of absenteeism. The
money wrung from the soil by the peasant's labour was
chiefly spent out of the country. Paris, Vienna, Milan,
Rome, and all the European hells, during the gambling
season, were the favourite residences and resorts of the
Roumanian Boyards, whose agents squeezed the tiller
of the soil to within an inch of his life, enriching them-
selves by that process as well as supplying his Domnul
or Lord with the means of living en grand seigneur
abroad. Such, considerably understated, however, was
the state of Roumania when I first visited and sojourned
in that country.

There was about as much resemblance between the
Roumania of 1864 and the Roumania of 1874 as there
is between a sedan-chair and a locomotive. In the latter
year the whole country had already been opened up to
trade and enterprise by good roads, communal, vicinal,
and highway. Of the last class nearly two thousand

10 A WANDERER'S NOTES.

miles were completed and open to public traffic, against
thirty in 1864. Excellent railways traversed the most
productive districts, and connected the provincial centres
of commerce. Much had been talked and written about
the Roumanian railways which may have prejudiced
many people against them. They were, as far as
my experience of them went, excellently laid ; the
trains travelled somewhat slowly, but very smoothly
and pleasantly; the first-class carriages were infinitely
superior, as regards sleeping accommodation, to those of
either Austria or Germany. The most laudable punc-
tuality was observed. During a journey of eighteen
hours, the train in which I travelled was never more
than two minutes out, either in arriving or quitting a
station, too soon or too late.

In Bucharest itself, the innovations and improvements
fell scarcely short of the marvellous. I do not know how
long the Podo Mogoschoi is, for I never could get to the
end of it, but it was then paved for many miles with well-
laid granite blocks, over which the birjas rolled with the
most delightful ease and swiftness. Several other im-
portant streets, one of which was a brand-new boulevard,
adorned by a colossal new Grand Hotel quite on a Parisian
or a Viennese scale, were paved in this agreeable manner.
There was another excellent hostelry (also called the
Grand Hotel, and kept by the former manager of the
Archduke Charles in Vienna, a hotelier of worldwide
renown) at which I stayed — one possessing a capital
chef, civil and intelligent waiters of the polyglottian
variety, and the most charming dining-room imaginable
— a cool, bright, picturesque pavilion in a gay green

DACIAN STATESMEN. 11

garden. Living at these new hotels was very dear, but
not more so than it used to be at Hugues' or the Con-
cordia, where they used to charge you twelve francs a
day for a room ten feet by six, containing a bed of 5ft.
lOin. by 1ft. 8in., and sixteen shillings a bottle for
champagne. In those hostelries, tempore Cusa, every-
thing was bad and dear ; in these of Prince Carl's
time, everything was good and dear — that was all the
difference.

What a startling novelty, moreover, it was to an
old habitue of the Principalities, to find established in
Bucharest, solidly and enduringly, a Government three
years old — a Government that seemed to enjoy the
esteem of all classes and the respect of even its political
adversaries — to be animated by Liberal principles, and
to concern itself in earnest with the interests of the
country. The Catargi-Boerescu Ministry was one to
which the settlement of various difficult questions could
be hopefully entrusted. It was composed of men of
good character, a circumstance supremely important in
a country where looseness of morality was rather the
rule than the exception. Two or three of its members
were, moreover, persons of unusual ability, who would
have made a mark anywhere. The Cabinet in question
was essentially " national " — by which I would be under-
stood to mean that it favoured the popular aspirations
towards the achievement of Roumanian independence,
as, indeed, did the Prince himself, although neither
Prince nor Ministry was prepared to commit the least
imprudence or to violate the least engagement in order
to further the realization of the people's wish. With

12 A WANDERER'S NOTES.

regard to the Prince, I caiinot reproduce the sentiments
generally entertained towards him in the land of his
adoption in apter words than those pronounced to me
on the 7th July, 1874, by a leading member of the
Government, M. Lascar Catargi. " The Prince," said
his Excellency, "is a better Roumanian than most of
us. He has dismissed from his mind all other sym-
pathies, all other associations. He lives only to serve
his adopted country, and has given himself to us without
the least reservation. We none of us know as much
about the country, its qualities, properties, resources,
susceptibilities, and capabilities, as he does. He examines
into everything himself; he works harder than any of
his subjects. What he has done for the army is beyond
all praise. He brought us order, calmness, the possibility
of putting constitutional principles of government into
practice. Even those whose pretensions to the Hospo-
dariat have been shelved for an indefinite period of time
by his steady mastery over the obstacles thrust in his
way, have, for the most part, been won over by his ami-
ability, or fairly cowed by his straightforward honesty."
That was the official view of the Prince, who was
really a very amiable and well-meaning young gentle-
man, and had made a considerable impression on the
shifty, impulsive, Oriental-minded Boyars, by his
strict Prussian uprightness, quiet, unemotional bearing,
and steady adherence to the principles of order and
discipline. Such a Hospodar must have, at first, aroused
the passion of astonishment in the Boyar breast to no
ordinary height ; and I can well imagine that it may
have been precisely the negatively good qualities of his

BUCHAREST AT SUMMERTIDE. 13

Highness, rather than those of a more positive nature,
that may have irritated " society " against him, as
seeming to cast a reflection upon the very different
characteristics for which that society had long been
notorious. However, all hostility rapidly subsided, and
a few years after his election to the Hospodariat he
enjoyed a substantial, comfortable popularity, presenting
all the symptoms of durability.

My mission of inquiry into the grievances of Prince
Carol's Jewish subjects had taken me to Bucharest at
high summertide — a season of the year during which the
Roumanian capital is sedulously avoided by foreigners,
as well as by the wealthier members of the Dacian
aristocracy. The " City of Pleasure " is surrounded by
vast marshy plains, veritable repositories of fever-germs,
and is no less dangerous a place of sojourn, from May
to September, than Rome itself. In spite, however, of
the excessive heat and of the miasmatic vapours ex-
tracted from Wallachian swamps by the blazing sun, I
contrived to pass several weeks, very agreeably and in
perfect health, on the banks of Dumbovitsa during
one of the hottest summers on record — that of 1874.
Throughout July and August the temperature was
absolutely tropical ; but strict adherence to the daily and
nightly programme of existence prescribed to me by my
Roumanian friends guarded me against the perils of
' sunstroke and fever, and enabled me to get through my
time pleasantly enough. "We lived the most upside-
down sort of life, according to English notions, that
could possibly be imagined. Night was our day, and
vice versd. Not that we stood on staircases, and

14 A WANDEREK'S NOTES.

squeezed ourselves into garishly-lighted rooms, under
the hollow pretence of social pleasure, as all respect-
able English people did about that time of the year in
what I will take leave to describe, in parliamentary
phraseology, as " another place." No ; but we shut up
our double windows, let down our green jalousies, and
reduced our clothing to le stride necessaire immediately
after breakfast — say, about one p.m. — kept perfectly
still, in a recumbent position, till seven ; tubbed, dressed,
dined at eight upon stuffed egg-plant, pilaf, cucumber
salad, and melon, and took our park exercise between
ten p.m. and three a.m., when we supped in a green
arbour to the plaintive strains of the bull-frog, and
drove back to town in the ambrosial morning air.
There was a strange melancholy about these nuits
blanches that one passed in the wild plains round
Bucharest, under such a sky full of stars as I have
never seen spread out over dear, green old England.
You were no sooner clear of the town, and had ex-
changed brilliant gas for dim petroleum, than the
civilized prose into which the Eoumaus were so earn-
estly engaged in converting the barbaric poetry of their
national life vanished with almost startling suddenness.
A seemingly endless plain, its level unbroken, save by a
few darksome thickets, stretched away to the horizon on
every side. The tramp of your horses and the rumbling
of your carriage-wheels were all but inaudible, for you
had left the chaussee, and were rolling rapidly over the
deep soft dust that constitutes the summer surface of the
Wallachian steppes. Faint, sad sounds of minor music
seemed to be floating in the air — long-drawn fiddle

"GRADINA FERESTRECJ." 15

tones, and plaintive guitar tinklings, with every now
and then a hollow, mysterious note breathed through
a disembowelled reed. You stopped your Lipovan and
listened — the sounds were all around you, mingled in-
extricably in sweet discordance. Standing up in your
carriage, and gazing round you with an odd sort of
feeling that your name was Publius C. Lentulus, Pro-
Consul, and a nervous expectation of fauns and wood-
nymphs ready to emerge, phantom-like, out of that
azure darkness and to flash past you with a rustle of
leaf-garlands and unbound tresses, you espied, afar off,
the twinkle of some yellow, flickering lights. Pointing
with your stick towards them, you ejaculated the shib-
boleth " Heide " ; and with a crack of his whip like a
pistol-shot, and a long, high cry that seemed to drive
the horses wild, Petracchi dashed off, at the rate of fif-
teen miles an hour, towards " the distant Aidenn." As
you rushed along, a huge, undulating cloud of dust rose
in your tracks and rolled slowly after you, seemingly
suspended in the still air, and faintly luminous.

Presently, skirting a long, straggling hedge, you were
pulled up. sharp at a wooden, petroleum-lighted arch,
flanked by clumps of lauriers-roses, and the tender tink-
lings became rhythmical to your ear. Alighting, you
entered one of the many gardens to which the wealthier
class of Bucharest society repairs, during the hot summer
nights, to flirt, smoke countless cigarettes, drink iced
water flavoured by dulcliaiz, listen to the laotari, or gipsy
minstrels, and be bitten by the musquitoes that rise in
myriads from the neighbouring marshes. These gar-
dens, when I knew them, were purposely left in almost

16 A WANDERER'S NOTES.

complete darkness, which, like charity, covers a multi-
tude of sins ; but, if you required it, you could be
promptly illuminated in any corner, however recondite,
by a candle in a glass case, which was set before you in
your bower, or under your tree, or on your mossy bank,
as the case might be. Let us sit down in that bosquet
overlooking the arid plain, and call for "dulchatz cu
apa rec^e." It is a mild refreshment — cherry jam and
cold water — but somehow or other eminently suitable to
the place and its surroundings. But whose are these
dark visages with rolling eyes and flashing teeth that
glower ominously upon us through the leaves, and
gradually close round us mysteriously ? Are we about
to be the victims of some enterprising descendants of
Gianul, the heroic brigand who robbed the Boyars to
give to the poor, and whose memory is a good deal
more affectionately cherished in the country than that
of Michael Bravul ? If these be not bandits of a par-
ticularly truculent description, Nature hath surely done
them a grave injustice. We feel the situation to be
tres-tendue. All of a sudden off goes a fiddle with a
comical flourish ; tink-a-tank t wangles the double-necked
guitar ; an active tooting emanates from the Pandean
pipes ; and the first tenor — a romantic-looking young
gipsy, with a broad, low forehead, crepu black hair,
dark olive complexion, and delicate hands and feet —
steps forward, makes his bow with the ease of an ac-
complished dancing-master, and sings in the most sym-
pathetic of chants the old roundel " Am' un leu s'am
se la be ! " the words of which are not, alas ! calculated
to inspire the foreigner with blind confidence in the

ROUMANIAN MINSTRELSY. 17

integrity of the native Roumanian. They may be
freely translated thus, keeping the metre and rhythm
of the original words :

I've a piastre — 'tis not mine —

Tra-de-ra, de-ra de-ra !
Let us, however, spend it in wine !

Tra-de-ra, &c.

When I have spent it, my conscience may tell
Me whether I shall have done ill or well.
Tra-de-ra, de-ra-de-lu-de-la-de-ra — Hoop !
hi ! de-ra de-ra !

The postponement of all moral considerations until
it shall be too late for them to produce any practical
effect never fails to tickle the Roumanian sense of
humour in the most agreeable manner. " Am' un leu "
invariably raises a sympathetic smile on the Boyar's
countenance ; it contains a joke which he is perfectly
capable of appreciating.

All the performers on the above-named and other
heterogeneous instruments played in excellent time,
threw in the most dashing harmonies every now and
then, and put their very souls into their playing ; so
that it was, to a musician, one of the richest imaginable
treats to listen to them, hour after hour. Their repertoire
seemed inexhaustible, and, of course, was all got off by
heart. Such were the laotari sure of a rich reward
wherever they appeared in public, so deeply rooted in the
Roumanian character is love of the national music. Of
yore, these minstrels frequently became rich men before
they attained middle age ; for to their voices and instru-
ments were entrusted all the love declarations and com-
plimentary greetings of the Boyars, always the most

VOL. II. C

18 A WANDERER'S NOTES.

recklessly free-handed of grands seigneurs. When the
laotari sang at a Boyar's table, the leader's fez used to
be passed round, and the Roumanian gentry vied with
one another in their generosity ; it was deemed a derog-
ation to their dignity to return him his crimson cap
until it was well filled with silvern yakussars, besprinkled
with bright golden ducats. Even now, although the
laotari have foolishly foregone their gay costumes, and
the extravagance of centuries has brought Boyardian
finances down to a dismally low ebb, a " brotherhood of
minstrels, when engaged to play at a private house, can
safely reckon upon earning from five to ten pounds,
according to the means and generosity of their patron
for the time being, for two or three hours' performances.
But it is getting late, or rather early — day breaks at
high summertide in the Principalities with startling sud-
denness. Those diamond stars are paling ; an amber hue,
that deepens every moment, has pervaded the eastern
sky. But for the laotari and the birds, the profoundest
silence would prevail, for the frogs have thought better of
it, and no longer compete. Let us return to Bucharest
and bed. As we rise and stretch ourselves before starting,
the laotari form in column, two deep; and, at a respectful
distance, follow us to the garden portal, where they take
up ground to the right and left, and fairly play us into
our carriage. " Noapte bun, Domni," " Petracchi ! Heid^
la casa ! " And, at a hard canter that raises several tons
of Roumania sky-high in no time, we turn our backs
upon the Gradina Herestreti and the Laotari Romani.
During my stay at Bucharest in the blazing summer
of 1874, I took great pains to get at the views of the

JEWISH EMANCIPATION.

19

Catargi-Boeresco Government with respect to the two
questions, then agitating Koumanian minds, which
possessed peculiar interest for the Guaranteeing Powers
generally, and for Great Britain in particular. Although
it was, of course, extremely difficult to ascertain the
intentions, or even genuine thoughts, of men who were
not, politically speaking, their own masters, and who
were fully aware that any admission they might be
induced to make would probably be turned into a
weapon against them by the enemies surrounding them
on all sides, yet I believe that I was enabled to arrive
at something approaching a correct estimate of their
views regarding Eoumanian independence and Jewish
emancipation. I do not believe that, with regard to the
latter important question, they had even conceived, far
less arranged, a programme of action — or that their
political opponents were better prepared in that respect
than themselves. But the views of such enlightened
statesmen as Catargi and Boeresco, which they person-
ally imparted to me in the course of several animated
conversations upon the subject of my mission to Eou-
mania in the year above alluded to, were of sufficient
interest to justify their reproduction in this place and
at the present date.

With regard to Jewish emancipation, the Eoumanian
Government admitted the force of the arguments ad-
vanced in favour of its accomplishment, and recognized
the evils, injustice, and illogical positions incident to and
attendant upon the condition of the native-born Jew
in the Eoumanian Principalities. But it most uncom-
promisingly ascribed many of those evils to the Jews

C 2

20 A WANDERER'S NOTES.

themselves, and more particularly to the ignorance and
superstition of their Rabbin, as well as to the irijudicious-
ness of their co-religionists abroad and foreign supporters.
The Government also found itself painfully compelled to
admit that no Ministry could hope to retain office for
twenty-four hours that should at that time undertake to
bestow upon the Jews social and political rights equal to
those enjoyed by their Christian compatriots. Such, in
Moldavia at least, was the irritation of the Roumanian
peasantry against the foreign Israelite, who had invaded
that province from its Austrian and Russian frontier
territories in such numbers as to have produced the
gravest effects upon the well-being of the native popula-
tion, that the repeal of the Jewish disabilities would
have inevitably given the signal for a massacre on a
great scale of the Jews in Moldavia, and for a general
rising throughout the land — which, the Government did
not conceal from itself, would probably have led to the
overthrow of Prince Charles's sovereignty, and to his
hasty retirement from the country.

The situation was not by any means a satisfactory
one, from the patriotic Roumanian point of view. The
Catargi-Boeresco Ministry kept in as best it might, using
all the machinery at its disposition to secure a prolonged
tenure of office, but dared not be logical and consistent
to its own alleged principles, for fear of rendering itself
impossible by running counter to the prejudices of the
loi polloi. The Opposition felt itself strong enough to oust
its adversaries, but only by one means, and that one in-
compatible with love of country and the achievement of
Roumanian independence. So far as I could discover, both

PERSECUTION OF JEWS. 21

parties were well disposed to the Jews, truly, not for the
Jew's sake, but because they understood that, upon their
treatment of their own subjects, and proof of capacity
to deal with issues of grave moment, would depend the
attitude of the Great Powers towards their endeavours
to achieve independence. The two issues, as I ventured
to urge upon their Excellencies, were inextricably bound
up together. A Government confessedly not powerful
enough to protect one class of its subjects against
another, nor sufficiently advanced to comprehend that
it virtually annulled its own claims to recognition as
the instrument of an independent Power by refusing
civil liberty and political rights to the most intelligent
portion of its country's population, could not hope to
inspire lasting confidence, at home or abroad.

That there had never existed any real persecution of
the Jews on religious grounds, I was positively assured
from all quarters, including that of the Israelites them-
selves. The Kouman of 1874 was, as he had been for
many ages, essentially tolerant : he was moreover ex-
tremely irreligious, and quite indifferent to all sorts
of dogmas. The persecutions had been sometimes of
political origin, the result of party intrigues — sometimes
brought about by social phenomena such as, with relation
to the Jewish race, exist in no countries save Russia
(whence thousands of Jews were even then being driven
into Galicia and Moldavia), Austrian Poland, the Buko-
vina, and Eoumania. " If," said the Ministers, " the
Jews could be induced by their advisers and backers
abroad to assimilate themselves in appearance and habits
to their fellow-subjects (as they do in England, France,

22 A WANDERER'S NOTES.

Italy, Germany) ; to cut off their side-locks, shorten
their skirts, and renounce their peculiar head-gear; to
conform to our laws of registration and civil records ; to
educate their children, teaching them the language and
history of their native land, and imbuing them with
feelings of patriotism — more than half of our difficulties
in gradually absorbing them into the totality of the
Rouman nation would be overcome. But this their
Rabbin will not permit them to do. These Rabbin are
ignorant, superstitious, and venal to a degree of which
Western Jews can form no conception. The greatest
benefit that could possibly be conferred upon our Jews,
as well as upon an honest Roumanian Government,
would be their salvation from the greedy and too often
cruel clutches of these, their real tyrants and oppressors,
who suck their very life-blood dry, and keep them in a
wretched state of physical and moral subjection. The
next greatest benefit would be the substitution for the
present Rabbin of enlightened men from England, France,
and Germany, who would soon wipe the Jewish question
of Roumania out of the annals of contemporary history.
We do not assert that the Jews are entirely to blame for
the ills of their position here ; but, by their obstinate
isolation of themselves amongst us, persistent evasion
of the laws, unremitting practice of metiers that lead to
the deterioration, body and soul, of our peasants ; arid,
above all, by the overwhelming nature of their invasion
of our country within the last ten or twelve years, they
have rendered themselves so objectionable, and produced
such a violent irritation against them in the minds of
our ignorant, weak, ill-guided peasantry, that any pres-

SUPERFLUOUS ISRAELITES. 23

sure exercised on their behalf upon us from abroad, or
even any spontaneous endeavour of our own to augment
the number of their rights could but culminate in one
result — their indiscriminate massacre, at least in Mol-
davia, and our arraignment before the tribunal of
humanity as a tribe of bloodthirsty savages. So terrible
a consummation must be averted at any cost ; and if
the Jews will only be wise in time they may easily,
although very gradually, work out their own full eman-
cipation. Let them become Roumanian citizens to all
outward intents and purposes ; let them get rid of their
intriguing, dishonest predatory priests ; let them prove
to their Christian countrymen that, saving in the matter
of religion — about which no one in this country cares a
maize-stalk — their feelings, objects, and aspirations are
Roumanian ; and we shall be able boldly to propose
measures which, mooted now, would lead to their destruc-
tion, our overthrow, and the annihilation of the country's
hopes. Above all, let the wealthy Western Jews and
friends of Jews exert themselves to relieve us of at least
some portion of the foreign Jewish population that has
swamped Moldavia within the last decade. Let them
rid us of the Polish and Russian Jews, the dregs of
humanity, if they really wish well to the Roumanian
Jew, who is our brother, and must one day come to his
heritage ! "

The Coalition Ministry holding office in Roumania
thirteen years ago was honestly desirous to right Jewish
wrongs to the utmost of its power, and, as a matter of
fact, gave solid proofs of its sincerity in that respect
some few months after the conclusion of mv special

24 A WANDERER'S NOTES.

mission to the Principalities in connection with the
alleged persecution of Prince Carol's Israelite subjects.
But the Administration of which Lascar Catargi was
Premier and Boeresco was Foreign Secretary was chiefly
identified in popular opinion with the achievement of
Roumanian Independence, ultimately effected by its
political adversaries. On that " platform " it had obtained
a Parliamentary majority, and had acceded to power.
The desire of the country at that time, as I gathered
from several confidential communications made to me
by political party and faction leaders on both sides of
the Chamber, was mainly to exchange the nominal
suzerainty of the Porte for the real guarantee of the
five Powers, and to occupy that position on the Eastern
frontier of Europe which Belgium is so fortunate as to
hold on the North -Western coast of the Continent. What
seemed chiefly to be objected to by the Roumanian
people, whose feeling with regard to purely national
questions appeared to be represented by their Govern-
ment, was that the United Principalities should be
marked out upon the map of Europe as forming an
integral part of the Turkish Empire. Roumanians of
all party nuances were unanimous in protesting against
this assumption, and in asserting that their native land
was not, and, moreover, never had been, a Turkish
province. They based this assertion upon the so-called
" capitulations," or treaties, entered into at different
periods between Roumanian Hospodars, or Elective
Princes, and Turkish Sultans ; and, if the documentary
evidence they advanced in support of their views was
to be relied upon, their case was certainly a strong one.

THE CAPITULATIONS. 25

The ancient relations existing between Roumania
and the Ottoman Empire were obviously based upon
considerations of mutual interest and convenience. The
Roumans were a warlike nation ; their position on the
left bank of the Danube rendered their alliance highly
important to the Turks, inasmuch as it kept open for
these latter the main highway that enabled them to
effect their encroachments and onslaughts upon Hungary.
The Moldavian and Wallachian Hospodars, originally
rulers over a much larger extent of country — still
inhabited by Roumans — than that constituting King
Charles's realm, found themselves constantly attacked
by their Christian neighbours, who coveted the rich
lands that proved so irresistible a temptation to the
Roman legions of old ; and were well content, at a small
expense in money and by assuming certain military
obligations that were congenial to the martial temper
and habits of their subjects, to secure the protection of
the warlike and adventurous Turk against their enemies.
The first of the treaties concluded upon these terms, by
which the Turco-Roumanian relations were formally
regulated, was ratified at Nicopolis in the year 1393 by
Bajazet L, on the one hand, and Mircea L, Prince of
Wallachia, on the other. In it the Sultan recognized
the Prince's right to make war and peace, and to govern
his country according to its own laws, with several other
important concessions, in exchange for which the Prince
engaged himself to pay an annual tribute of five hundred
silver Turkish piastres. Three-quarters of a century
later a second treaty was concluded at Adrianople between
Mohammed II. and Vlad V., Prince of Wallachia, whereby

26 A WANDERER'S NOTES.

the former bound himself and his successors to defend
Wallachia against all its enemies, declared that the
Sublime Porte could exercise no interference with the
interior administration of the Principality, that no Turk
should be permitted to enter Wallachia without an
ostensible motive, confirmed all rights thitherto enjoyed
by the Principality, and added to them several new and
highly-important ones. In 1513 Selim I. and Bogdan,
Prince of Moldavia, contracted an alliance on the following
terms : " Art. 1. The Porte recognizes Moldavia as a free,
unconquered country. 2. The Christian religion, pro-
fessed in Moldavia, shall never be oppressed or troubled,
and the nation shall, as heretofore, have free enjoyment
of its churches. 3. The Porte undertakes to defend
Moldavia against every eventual aggression, and to
maintain it in the state it has hitherto occupied, without
suffering that the least injustice be done to it, or the
least infringement of its territory. 4. Moldavia shall
be ruled and governed by its own laws, without any
interference whatsoever from the Porte. 5. Its Princes
shall be elected for life by the nation, and confirmed in
their office by the Sublime Porte. 6. The Prince's rule
shall extend over the whole Moldavian territory ; he
may maintain in his pay an armed force up to the
strength of 20,000 men, natives or foreigners. 7. The
Moldavians may purchase and keep up a house at Con-
stantinople for the residence of their agent. They may
also have a church in that city. 8. Turks may not own
nor purchase landed property in Moldavia ; they may
not build mosques there, nor establish themselves in any
manner. 9. As a mark of submission, the Prince, con-

THE CAPITULATIONS. 27

jointly with the nation, will take care to send every year
to the Porte, by two Moldavian Boyars, 4000 Turkish
ducats or 11,000 piastres, forty falcons and forty mares
in foal, the whole to be considered as a present. 10. In
case of warlike armament, the Prince of Moldavia will
furnish to the Imperial army the contingent that shall
be required of him." This important treaty was con-
firmed in 1529 by another agreement, concluded between
Soliman the Magnificent and Pierre Hare's, Prince of
Moldavia, which added some remarkable recognitions on
the part of the Porte to those already obtaining ; as, for
instance, by Art. 2, " The laws, usages, customs, rights,
and prerogatives of the Moldavian nation shall be for
ever inviolable." By Art. 6, " The exercise of the
Mussulman religious rites is prohibited throughout the
whole Moldavian territory." By Art. 7, "No Mussul-
man may possess, as owner thereof, any land, house, or
shop in Moldavia, nor may he sojourn in that country,
upon matters of business, except he be authorized to do
so by the Prince." By Art. 9, "The title of ' independent
country ' shall be preserved to Moldavia ; it shall be re-
produced in all the writings addressed by the Ottoman
Porte to the Prince."

These "capitulations" constituted the legal found-
ations upon which the Eoumanians took their stand as
far as concerned their rights to be considered entirely
independent of the Porte. They interpreted the article
in the Treaty of Paris which decrees that " the Princi-
palities of Moldavia and Wallachia shall continue to
enjoy, under the suzerainty of the Porte and under the
guarantee of the contracting Powers, the privileges and

28 A WANDERER'S NOTES.

immunities of which the}7 are in possession," as con-
firmatory of the right secured to them by the capitu-
lations. At the same time they asserted that the
description (under the word " suzerainty ") therein con-
tained of their relations with Turkey was an erroneous
one, and that in virtue of it they were placed in a false
position, from which the guaranteeing Powers were
under a moral obligation to extricate them. They com-
plained that they were the victims of a misapprehension.
That they had been for many centuries, and even still
were, allies, under peculiar conditions (the natural results
of their geographical position), of the Turks, they did
not for a moment deny ; but they would by no means
admit that they had ever been vassals of the Porte.
One or two quaint incidents in their history go far to
prove that their Hospodars, at a time when the Turkish
military power was one much feared throughout Eastern
Europe, resisted with the utmost vehemence any attempt
on the part of the Sultans to interfere with Roumanian
independence, or to infringe any of the agreements
theretofore made between the Porte and the Princi-
palities. For instance, two years after the conclusion
by Vlad V. of the above-cited treaty with Mahom-
med II. , the latter, encouraged by his great military
successes, and relying upon the warlike prestige attached
to his name throughout Europe and Asia, conceived
the project of upsetting Vlad (pleasantly named the
" Ferocious ") and of putting his brother Dracul (The
Devil) in his place on the throne of Wallachia. Vlad, I
should mention, had already distinguished himself by
many acts of reck] ess valour, and had plainly indicated

VLAD THE FEROCIOUS.

29

the line of conduct he intended to observe towards the
Turks, in case they took any liberties with him, by his
treatment of an Ottoman embassy whose arrival in his
territory he had not authorized. The gentlemen com-
posing it imprudently demanded an audience of Vlad,
into whose presence they were ushered wearing their
turbans as their religion required them to do. They had
scarcely made their first obeisance when Vlad, regarding
them with a stern glance, exclaimed, " So you will not
pay me the respect of uncovering in my presence ! Take
them out and nail their turbans to their heads ! " There
is every reason for believing that this order was promptly
put into execution ; and I fancy that Prince Vlad de-
rived his grisly sobriquet from this particular incident.
However, when Mahommed II. had decided upon inter-
fering in Wallachian affairs he dispatched two emissaries
— one his private secretary, Catabolino, and the other
a renowned Levantine diplomatist — to Vlad's court with
instructions to invite his Highness to Stamboul, on a
visit to the Sultan, who proposed to have him strangled
immediately upon his arrival. No sooner were these
emissaries fairly within the boundaries of Hospodar
Vlad's Principality than he caused them to be arrested,
and their hands and feet to be cut off ; after which they
were impaled in front of his palace. Having performed
this highly characteristic feat, he assembled all the
armed forces at his disposition, crossed the Danube, and
ravaged the Turkish provinces on its right bank with
fire and sword, burning all the towns and villages, and
putting man, woman, and child to death. The Turkish
officers, soldiers, and officials whom he captured, he had

30 A WANDERER'S NOTES.

carefully impaled and set up, planted on the long poles
transfixing their bodies, along the banks of the Danube,
pour encourager les autres. The Sultan, in his turn,
invaded Wallachia with an enormous army and drove
Vlad into the hills, where the latter offered a long and
desperate resistance to the Turkish forces ; and it was
during this war that he exercised his rights as an inde-
pendent sovereign by appealing to the Hungarians for
aid against the invader, and offering them his alliance
against the Turk. This proceeding on the part of Vlad
served as a precedent to his successors. Michael the
Brave concluded an offensive and defensive treaty with
Rudolph II., Emperor of Germany; Constantine Serban,
in 1655, allied himself to George Racocsy, Prince of
Transylvania ; Prince Cant emir, of Moldavia, effected an
alliance with no less a potentate than Czar Peter the
Great.

All these Hospodorial acts were claimed by the
Roumanians to be convincing proofs of the uninter-
rupted independence of their country. Doubtless, the
Turks looked upon them in a very different light.
What appeared to the Roumanian patriot to be the
noble vindication of his national rights, very likely
struck the Turk as closely resembling unprincipled,
unjustifiable rebellion. I was told that the Porte was
inclined even to cast a doubt upon the authenticity of
the " capitulations," which Roumania was unfortunately
not in a position to produce, and which, if they existed
at all, were most probably in the archives of the Otto-
man Government. It was moreover unquestionable that,
almost within the memory of man, the Porte had exer-

ROUMANIAN INDEPENDENCE. 31

cised domination over the Principalities such as was
altogether incompatible with anything in the least akin
to Eoumanian independence. Admitting this, Rou-
manians shrugged their shoulders and said, " The Turks
took advantage of our weakness, and Might is not
Right." But these differences of opinion, various inter-
pretations of facts and documents, and quibbles in
general, were not essentially pertinent to the question,
which the Dacian people desired to put to Europe — Is
Roumania an independent country, or is she not ?

If one might be permitted to accept the evidence of
his senses respecting a moot point of such gravity, Rou-
mania, thirteen years ago, was every bit as independent
a State as Holland or Switzerland. She made and
administered her own laws. She coined her own money.
She had a regular army, a national flag and cockade,
and a numerous militia. She had a considerable national
debt. She had diplomatic agents at four, if not five,
of the leading European Courts, who were received by
the respective Ministries of the countries to which they
were accredited with all the consideration due to the
representatives of a foreign Power. Not the least
attempt was made by the Roumanian Government at
home, or by its representatives abroad, to beat about
the bush with respect to the line adopted towards
Turkey — that of utterly ignoring any authority or con-
trol that Power might assume to exercise over the
United Principalities. Roumania, so to speak, wrote
up over her front door in the largest of letters, " No con-
nection whatever with the House of Abdul Aziz ; " and
the Porte did nothing to restrain her presumption, if

32 A WANDERER'S NOTES.

presumption it was ; or, if the Porte did make any
effort in that direction, nobody took the least notice of
it. I saw on every side in a country which, under
Cusa's reign, had appeared to me to be rapidly going
to the bad, countless signs and tokens of vitality, of an
earnest desire for progress, of civilized tendencies, of
material prosperity, and of good, lasting work done and
appreciated. I found a Government that had been
established three years ; that, to all outward seeming,
appeared to enjoy the confidence of the country ; and
that, in many respects, had the courage of its opinions,
and was extremely desirous of effacing the stains that
then defaced the Constitution of a would-be free people.
Such was the unfortunate state of popular feeling, how-
ever, that any Government bold enough to attempt the
emancipation of the Jews would have risked its tenure
of power.

CHAPTER II.

THROUGH MOLDAVIA IN QUEST OF PERSECUTION — ISMAIL AND TULTCHA —

THE JEWS OF BAKAU ISRAELITISH WRONGS AT ROMAN JASSY, THE

MODERN ZION — GALATZ IMPROVEMENTS — THE ROUMANIAN PEASANT

EMANCIPATION, INDEPENDENCE AND PROGRESS — UP DANUBE AGAIN

A THRILLING FAMILY DRAMA.

ON July 29th, 1874, I landed at Ismail, in Roumanian
Bessarabia, the out-of-the-way Russo-Moldavian city
immortalized by Byron in Don Juan, and which had
been the scene, two years previously, of the Anti-Semitic
riots that aroused such vehement indignation throughout
the more civilized countries of Europe. These riots, the
original cause of which was a robbery of ecclesiastical
plate, and an alleged desecration of consecrated ground
said to have been committed by an Israelite in the
cathedral of Ismail (built by the Russians before the
cession of Bessarabia to Moldavia), were ascribed at the
time by the Roumanians to Russian influence, and by
the Jews to a deeply-laid a*nd extensively ramified plan
organized throughout Moldavia by its Christian inhabit-
. ants, and having for its object the expulsion of the
Israelites from the country, or, should they fail to take
the pregnant hint imparted to them by persecution of
the most violent and brutal description, their general
massacre.

VOL. II. D

34 A WANDERER'S NOTES.

I was so fortunate as to accompany Mr. (now Lord)
Vivian, H.M. Diplomatic Agent in the Roumanian Prin-
cipalities, and Mr. St. John, H.M. Consul at Jassy, the
capital of Moldavia, in a tour of inspection made by the
former gentleman through part of the country to which
he was accredited ; and the principal portion of our
journey, commenced in an absolutely tropical heat, was
most agreeably performed on board the gunboat Cocka-
trice, Captain St. Clare. One Monday morning we
became the Cockatrice s guests, and steamed away down
the Danube in her from Galatz, where she was stationed
when she received us. It was magnificent weather, and
the dark blue hills of the Lesser Balkan stood out clear
and sharp-edged against the lighter blue of the glorious
summer sky, looking as if they were within easy reach
of the Bulgarian shore, an hour or so's walk for a stout
pedestrian. These richly-coloured and fantastically-shaped
hills lend picturesqueness to the Lower Danube scenery
for some fifteen or twenty miles down river from Galatz.
The Turkish bank of the great stream, even within a
hundred miles of its vast mouths, is characterized by
considerable natural beauty, whereas the Roumanian
riva(/e is uniformly arid monotonously tame. From
Galatz to Sulina, following what is called the Sulina
Branch (thus named to distinguish it from the Kilia
and St. George arms of Father Danube), there is not a
hill twenty feet high to be seen on the left bank of the
river. Enormous, perfectly level plains, clothed in the
green of maize, of rank pasture, or of waving reeds,
stretch away from the waterside till they are lost in the
horizon. Except, at rare intervals, a herd of the little

DANUBE MOSQUITOES. 35

gray bullocks, without which no Roumanian landscape
is complete, the only living things to be espied in these
verdant wastes, half steppe, half marsh, are huge, angry-
looking brown vultures, flapping their heavy wings on
the riverposts of the Danube Commission ; or Hying
slowly over their hunting grounds in search of prey —
sleek herons, audacious gray crows, and, as you near the
Black Sea, gulls of various colours and sizes, cormorants,
pelicans, and — but very rarely — flamingoes. I almost
forgot — though certainly they gave me good cause for
remembering them — the mosquitoes. There is no diffi-
culty whatsoever in seeing these sanguinary volatilcs in
any part of the Lower Danube ; arid if you should
happen to be blind, or otherwise physically incapacitated
from perceiving them with your ocular sense, they take
care to impress the fact of their existence upon you
in an unmistakable manner. One of the Cockatrices
quartermasters, speaking of a particular tribe that con-
fers distinction upon the Turkish town of Tultcha, in
which we passed a night, by inhabiting its lower grounds,
described them, as I thought after I had made their
acquaintance, very happily. " Them there muskeeters
at Tultcha, sir, is as large as quails and as bloodthirsty
as tigers ! " Indeed, it was pitiful to see the state of the
men's feet, legs, and arms, from the venomous bites of
these enemies of the human race. When I state that
they penetrate the hides of the Turkish pigs, lean, bristly
fellows, whose tough sides look as if they were bullet-
proof, and frequently drive their victims mad, so that
they drown themselves in the river, my readers will be
able to form some idea of the sufferings they inflict upon

r> 2

36 A WANDERER'S NOTES.

human beings. They pierce your boots, your triple
defences of coat, waistcoat, and shirt, and your gloves ;
they laugh defiantly at tobacco-smoke ; like the British
soldier, they will riot be denied, and will die upon the
spot they have taken possession of rather than leave it.

As soon as we quitted what is called the " Great
Danube," and entered the Sulina Branch, the land on
both sides of us was Turkish, as far as the eye could
reach, and continued to be so down to the Black Sea.
Indeed, all three " branches " were then really in the
hands of Turkey, which kept up a goodly staff of gun-
boats to look after the Danube mouths ; and the Rou-
manians, though the left bank of the Kilia branch was
theirs down to the sea, would have been obliged to make
a canal from the spot where their water jurisdiction
ceased — just above where the huge river is split up into
three great streams — to a place of theirs on the Euxine
shore, called Gibriana, had they been bent, thirteen
years ago, upon possessing a genuine Roumanian sea-
port, free from Turkish supervision, meddling, and
muddling. As for the Sulina Branch, the only one of
the three navigable for large vessels, it is a monument
of British intelligence and perseverance. To Sir Charles
Hartley, the engineer of the Danube Commission, is due
a work of inestimable value to European commerce — a
work carried out. in its every detail, with an almost
incredible completeness. The swift, though heavily
mud-laden, river is compelled to clear out its own bed
and keep it clear by a variety of arrangements that seem
exquisitely simple when they are explained to you, but
which are the outcome of many years' unwearied study

SULINA. 37

of the Danubian Delta, and of an unusual degree of
ingenuity on the part of their contriver.

Sulina itself, with its two splendid piers, lighthouses,
and harbour, is the creation of the Danube Commission,
mutato nomine of Sir Charles Hartley. It is a desperately
ugly little place, and appallingly dull. Its population
may be backed for heterogeneousness against that of any
other town of its size in Europe, being composed of Little
Eussians, Lipovans, Turks, Greeks, Germans, Italians,
Dalmatians, Bulgarians, Roumans, English, and Jews.
It possessed in 1874 a British church, but no chaplain ;
a handsome Commission House ; a Konak eminently
characteristic of Turk ey-in- Europe, being only half built,
and that half not paid for, although ]eft with the very
scaffolding standing still round it ; Greek and Catholic
churches ; a mosque ; innumerable ship-chandlers and
work-shops ; and no place of amusement whatever. The
whole interest of the place for the visitor was concen-
trated in the Commission Works ; and the inhabitants
lived on shipping, grain, coal, and fisheries. Sulina
impressed me as being at the end of the world — a little
further Eastward, and surely we should tumble over the
edge into space. It had a forlorn, fragmentary, chaotic
aspect. True, plenty of shipping lined the river banks ;
but the smart screw steamers and handsome clippers
looked strangely out of keeping with the wretched sheds
and miserable shanties in which the Sulinese lived and
transacted their business. In a word, it was one of the
last places on earth in which one would choose to live ;
and I took leave of it filled with compassion for our
worthy and gallant Vice-Consul and the hospitable

38 A WANDERER'S NOTES.

officials of the Commission, who did all that was in
their power to make our sojourn at the Eastern Gate
agreeable to us.

Up river again we went, through the fat marshes
that shall, perhaps, one day be drained, and produce
food for millions of human beings. At eight p.m. we
reached Tultcha, our station for the night, then a Turkish
garrifoii town of some 20,000 inhabitants, chiefly in-
habited by Greeks, Eussians, and Jews, picturesquely
situate on the slopes of some leafy hills, and extremely
pretty to look at — from a distance. It is a fruit and
vegetable-growing place ; grinds corn in a number of
highly-conspicuous windmills that crown a brown bluff
overhanging the eastern part of the town ; and when I
visited it was, like most Turkish townships, infested by
an army of blatant, slinking, treacherous curs, that
rendered night hideous with their yelping, and " went "
for the legs of pedestrians with a cunning worthy of their
first cousins, the mosquitoes. If you were a local notable
or a distinguished foreigner, and chose to perambulate
the streets of Tultcha by night, you were preceded and
followed by kavasses, bearing a lantern in one hand and
a thick stick in the other, wherewith to light up the
holes in the streets, which were of grievous frequency
and depth, and to defend your nether limbs against the
abominable dogs, given to lurking in the deep shadows
of the houses, whence they cautiously emerged to bite
you, and bark afterwards. If you were an ordinary
person you had to carry your lantern and stick for
yourself, and fight your way as best you might. With-
out a lantern you ran the risk of breaking your neck,

BAKAU. 39

being eaten up by the dogs, and being arrested by the
zapties, or Turkish police. After a thrilling excursion
through the streets, I returned on board pretty late in a
procession, but not to sleep. The mosquitoes took care
of that.

We arrived at Bakau on the morning of July 31,
1874, about seven, having travelled all night through
waving fields of standing Indian corn. The local
authorities placed themselves, as usual, at the disposition
of Mr. Vivian, and rendered us every facility in the
inquiries we desired to make with respect to the con-
dition of the Jews and other matters connected with
the interests of the district. Bakau was a clean, fairly-
built, and extremely well-macadamized town of several
thousand inhabitants, about one half of whom were
Jews. At its chief hotel the Deputy-Prefect — M.
Demetri Ghika being absent " dans ses terres " — was
waiting to receive the British Diplomatic Agent, with
whose request to be placed en rapport with the most intel-
ligent and respectable Jews of the place he promptly
complied. It was highly creditable to the Roumanian
authorities that they should have displayed entire frank-
ness with regard to a question that must have been so
extremely vexatious to them as that of the Jewish
grievances, and so obliging a readiness to open up every
source of information respecting its peculiarities, as they
invariably manifested towards us throughout our tour.
Whithersoever we travelled within their jurisdiction they
met us half-way in the realization of our wishes, and
imposed no restrictions of any kind upon our researches.
In Bakau, a couple of hours after our arrival at the

40 A WANDERER'S NOTES.

hotel, they put us into communication with three of the
leading Jews of Bakau, of two of whom I may say
that I had rarely encountered more intelligent, reason-
able, and straightforward men. One, in particular, a
young merchant, of highly prepossessing exterior,
speaking fluently French and German, and extremely
well-mannered, made a most favourable impression upon
us, as well by the shrewdness with which he discussed
the question of the Jewish Disabilities, as by the
fairness that characterized his utterances respecting his
Christian fellow-countrymen. He was, indeed, the
chief spokesman of the deputation, though at times a
grave, sententious money-lender, one of the wealthiest
citizens of Bakau, ran him hard, by sheer long-winded-
ness. The third man was a short, impulsive, somewhat
incoherent tradesman, who every now and then made a
gallant effort to deliver himself of a statement, but was
each time unhesitatingly sate upon by one or other of
his companions. I will endeavour to reproduce, in as
condensed a form as possible, the views and declarations
of these persons, all three born Roumanians of the
Jewish persuasion.

They complained, of course, of the Liquor Law, but
on the very reasonable grounds that it ruined people
who had been all their lives engaged in the spirit-selling
business, and who were unable to start in another trade.
Such people, in great numbers, had been compelled to
spend the savings of years, and were reduced to utter
poverty. They admitted that Jews still carried on the
trade through Rouman Christians who lent their names
for a consideration, but averred that such Jews were

UPRIGHT ISRAELITES. 41

altogether at the mercy of their orthodox confederates,
who were absolute masters of the position as far as the
division of profits was concerned. They complained of
the disabilities inflicting upon them the great injury of
being set aside and isolated from their fellow-country-
men, as though they were foreigners, or incapable of
entertaining the feeling of patriotism. They asserted
that their sympathies were entirely Roumanian ; that
they loved their native country, and were wholly
indifferent to Palestine ; that their language en famille
was Roumanian, and that they were as ready to con-
tribute their substance as to shed their blood whenever
their Fatherland might require either sacrifice of them.
A serious cause of complaint was that the Roumanian
educational authorities forced them to organize Jewish
schools at their own expense — besides paying their share
of the expense incurred for national education — because
their children who attended the national schools were
unfairly treated, kept back, and snubbed ; however hard
they worked or intelligent they might be, they never got
a prize, and the discouragement resulting from this
unjust system led to idleness on the part of the children,
thus kept ignorant in spite of themselves. They enter-
tained the conviction that the Catargi Government
meant well to them, and seemed to think that if it just
then did nothing for them, confining itself to private
assurances and half promises, it was because any decided
Ministerial action in favour of the Jews would strengthen
the hands of the opposition so importantly as to imperil
the stability of the actual regime. They positively
assured us that persecution, in the sense of religious

42 A WANDERER'S NOTES.

persecution, did not and had never existed in Roumania.
The attacks made upon them, and the disabilities under
which they laboured, had their origin, they said, in
circumstances of partly an economic and partly a
political nature. The Boyars, whose extravagance,
indolence, and incapacity had thrown them into the
power of the Jews, would gladly have persecuted them,
and excited the peasantry against them, but on purely
economical grounds. On the other hand, the Jew had
for many years been a convenient and ready handle to
be laid hold of by party intrigues. They solemnly
asserted that the Roumanian peasant was a perfectly
amiable, honourable, and tolerant fellow, of whom they
had never had to complain, who was their best friend
in the country, and with whom they lived upon terms
of mutual regard and esteem. They complained of the
administration of the laws rather than of the laws
themselves, and asserted that some officials imported
their personal passions and prejudices into the discharge
of their functions, whilst others were grossly and shame-
lessly corrupt, and bled them, figuratively speaking, at
every vein. One of them cited to us a case of manifest
oppression committed at Bakau some six weeks before
our visit. A Jew had lent money upon a note of hand
to a peasant, whom he sued for payment. Both parties
appeared before a high official, who examined the
peasant as to the authenticity of his signature, &c.
The man acknowledged the debt, and declared his
willingness to discharge it, but asked for time. Turning
to the creditor, the official observed, " You are a Jew,
I believe ? " and, tearing the note of hand into pieces,

JEWISH DISABILITIES.

43

said to the peasant, " I will show you how to pay your
debts to a Jew." Not content with this outrageous
behaviour, he condemned the Jew to pay thirty napo-
leons (£24) for vexatiously troubling the Court.

The Bakau Jews told us that they lived upon good
terms, on the whole, with their fellow-citizens, although
a slight coldness towards them had, they said, made
itself apparent within the previous five or six years.
They complained of their exclusion from the liberal
professions, which, as they very justly and shrewdly
remarked, drove them, one and all, to trade as the only
possible means of earning a livelihood in their native
country, and aggravated the very evil — if it was an
evil — of which the adversaries of their liberties com-
plained, namely, that they get into their clutches the
whole business of the Roumanian people, and alone
profited by the labour and the productions of the
Principalities. " Let us," they urged, " have a fair
chance of competition for social prizes worth more than
mere money, and it will soon be seen that many of us
will gladly forsake sheer money-grubbing for higher
aims. At present we are tax-payers and soldiers ; but
we are not citizens, as we fain would be. Still, we
are patriots ; and those who deny it do us a cruel
injustice."

" We know very well," said one of the Bakau
representative Israelites, " that no foreign government
will come here to free us at the point of the bayonet ;
and if it did we should be worse off than ever, for
then the Rouman Christians would really hate us,
which they do not at present. The nation is a

44 A WANDERER'S NOTES.

small one, a young one, an ambitious one — conse-
quently painfully susceptible to foreign intervention.
If it is let alone it will do what is right towards
us in time. If meddled with, lectured, and bullied
from abroad, it will turn upon us as its enemies
— the worst sort of enemies, domestic ones — and we
shall suffer for its vexations and humiliations. If our
kind friends and co-religionnaires in England, France,
and Germany would only help us in other ways, how
grateful we should be to them ! Help us to get rid
of the foreign Jews who pour into and infest the Mol-
davian Principality — ignorant, superstitious, grasping
people, who care nothing for the country, get as much
as they can out of it, and never spend a para in it.
Help us to get clever, instructed clergymen of our faith,
who will aid us to extricate ourselves from the state of
semi-barbarism in which too many of us still vegetate.
Help us to conquer prejudices, to clear away impedi-
ments, to render ourselves worthier of claiming rank
with the English, French, and German Jews, our
brothers, who have enjoyed advantages denied to us.
But don't worry our Government into a real persecution
by denouncing an imaginary one. Don't damage our
cause by too much zeal. We are not like the Jews of
Central Europe. We are terribly backward — a long
way behindhand — not altogether through our fault, nor
altogether through the fault of our Christian rulers and
countrymen. " "That is quite true! " broke in another
delegate, " and we also fully admit that the stupid
prejudices of so many of our people, with regard to the
absurd costume that the Rabbin have persuaded them

THE BAKAU HEBREWS.

45

are necessary to their salvation, are the cause of many
of our troubles. As for us, whom you see before you,
gentlemen, we promise for ourselves and for others of
our congregation here who think as we do, to use our
whole influence to induce the foolish Jews at Bakau — •
only a dozen or two — who still go about in that ridicu-
lous and offensive garb to lay it aside." (The speaker
was dressed a good deal better than most of the
young Roumanian " Boyars " to be seen lurching about
Bucharest.)

Such were the sentiments of the leading Jews of
Bakau. If all the Israelites of the Principalities shared
them — which, alas ! they did not — Jewish disabilities
in Roumania would have had a short life, and by no
means a merry one. After the deputation had retired
we visited the town en detail, the first Roumanian burgh
we had therefore inspected, in which lived as many Jews
as Christians. In the Jews' quarter we certainly saw
no misery, and very little of what could be called
abject poverty, measured by an Oriental standard.
Everybody seemed busy and to have plenty to do ; the
shops were well frequented. The coachmen who drove
us, and drove us capitally, were Jews — owners of their
own vehicles. The handsomest houses in the business
part of the town pointed out to us belonged to Jews.
Comparatively little dirt was to be seen in the dwellings
—all open to the public gaze with that barbaric un-
reservedness that so quaintly impresses a Western
European in the East. There were Armenians in large
numbers in Bakau — several hundred Catholics, three
or four thousand Jews, and as many Roumanian

46 A WANDERER'S NOTES.

Orthodox Christians. As far as we could judge from
what we heard and saw with our own ears and eyes,
all these people of different religions and races lived
amicably together, and were, on the whole, not badly
governed. One thing, assuredly, Bakau could be legiti-
mately proud of : it possessed better roadways than
Bucharest, the political capital, or Galatz, the first
commercial city of Roumania.

On August 2nd, 1874, I held an interesting inter-
view with the leading Israelites of Roman at the house
of a Mr. Jacob, who was evidently the guiding spirit
of his co-religionaries there, and a man of considerable
wealth, admitted by the principal Boyars of the neigh-
bourhood to be an honest, straightforward, and trust-
worthy person. I mention this latter fact — which I
personally ascertained — because it was conspicuously
noticeable to me that the farther we penetrated into
the heart of Moldavia, the more bitterly animose to
the Jews were the sentiments openly declared to us
by the gentry of the country. In Wallachia none of
this bad feeling existed, for the whole Jewish popu-
lation of that Principality barely numbered 60,000,
and was not to be distinguished, as a general rule,
in dress or customs from the rest of the inhabitants ;
besides which, most of the Wallachian Jews were
Roumanians born (many were of Spanish extraction,
physically and intellectually far superior to the Polish
or Russian Jews), and, having for generations past
forborne all the peculiarities that the foreign Jews in
Moldavia stuck to so obstinately, were fairly merged
in the Roumanian nationality. In Northern Moldavia,

A TYPICAL MOLDAVIAN JEW. 47

however, where the proportion of Jewish to Christian
inhabitants in the town varied between one-eighth
and one-half, and in the villages sometimes rose to
seven-eighths, the landowners as well as the Christian
tradesmen, were highly exasperated against the Jews,
whose talent for business, restless activity, and extra-
ordinary sobriety had enabled them to get the whole
of the trade in produce, as well as the retail business,
into their hands ; whilst they practised usury to an
extent that was seriously prejudicial, even in those
prosperous times, to all the smaller fortunes of the
Principality. They were, moreover, inconceivably dirty
in their habits. They lived together, often fifteen or
sixteen in one room, and subsisted almost exclusively
upon bread, garlic, and raw onions. They were extremely
immoral, ignorant, and superstitious. Were any one of
the travelling Israelites I encountered in the fields about
Roman to make his appearance in a London street, I
fear he would have but a bad time of it with the more
youthful and mischievous of my country folk. Let my
readers picture to themselves a tallish man, naturally
of dark brown complexion, but ingrained with dirt,
wearing a long, ragged, two-peaked beard that was
plentifully colonized, and two long curls that hung from
either side his forehead down to his collar-bone. His
costume was a high square black cap, shiny with age
and grease ; a long alpaca gaberdine, so foul that one
glance at it might well take away your appetite for
hours afterwards ; loose, baggy breeches, about which
the less said the better, and thick, chomping, never-
cleaned boots that came half-way up the leg, outside

48 A WANDERER'S NOTES.

the trousers. Truly he was a sorry sight ; and could
some of the illustrious and enlightened Jewish gentle-
men who honour the name of Englishman by bearing
it, have seen him, or formed an idea of the ignorance
in which he was plunged, they would have been enabled
to realize the feelings with which the natives of the soil
contemplated and considered him. I am, of course,
speaking of the foreign or immigrant Jews, who then
constituted nearly three-fourths of the Hebrew population
of Moldavia.

But to return to our interview with the civilized and
intelligent Jews of Roman. As in Bakau, we wera
agreeably surprised to find that the members of the
Jewish deputation appointed to meet us were well-
dressed, well-spoken persons, mostly of the money-lender
and tradesman classes, and all speaking German fluently.
Mr. Vivian, after having explained to them that he had
undertaken his tour of inspection through the Princi-
palities at the instance of the Roumanian Government,
which had solicited him to see, hear, and judge for
himself with respect to the condition of the Jewish
populations, requested the members of the deputation
to inform him concerning the grievances alleged to have
been and to be still endured by them, with which request
they complied at considerable length. The first case
communicated to us had reference to the Jewish school-
house at Roman. Having petitioned the Government
to accord it the right of purchasinga house, for the
purpose of conversion into a school, and having received
the necessary authorization in due course, the Jewish
Committee came to terms with a Christian houseowner,

GRIEVANCES AT KOMAN. 49

who sold it a house for 800 ducats (about £380), to
be paid in instalments. When 500 ducats had been
paid on the total sum, the seller demanded the
balance en bloc, contrary to the terms of the agree-
ment. The committee stuck to its bargain, and,
confident of being in the right, went before the tribunal
to which it was summoned by its creditor. The affair
was dragged on for a long time, and came before no
less than three Presidents, or Chief Justices, who
exhibited the customary equitable behaviour towards
the Jews. At last, however, it was concluded by the
Jewish Committee being cast, losing its money, and
being condemned by the Court to pay the owner of
the house fifteen hundred ducats — the original price of
the house being 800 ducats — for deterioration of his
property inflicted upon it whilst in their occupancy.

The next case was that of Mr. David Abraham, a
licensed victualler. This person sold liquors on his
premises, to which there are two entries — one in the
front, and one (to his cellars) at the side. He had
taken out and paid for his regular licence. For his
customers of the better class he kept a separate room,
serving the peasants and artisans at his ordinary bar.
On the pretence that, as he had two entrances to his
house, and two rooms in which he supplied liquor, he
had contravened the law by not taking out two licences,
the police closed his shop, put his whole stock of wines
and liquors under seal, and inflicted upon him a fine of
250 ducats (£145), thereby ruining him. The same
oppressive and cruel procedure, upon the same pretext,
was put in force upon several other Jewish licensed

VOL. II.

50 A WANDERER'S NOTES.

victuallers, and fell the more heavily upon them
because it was inflicted during the seasion of the
great fairs, when they expected to make at least one-
third of their whole year's profits over the counter.
The third case was one of persecution perpetrated by
the Prefect, who, I am bound to say, appeared to be
equally unpopular with Boyar and Jew. He was a
person of the name of Canta, who called himself
Cantacuzene (one of the ancient Hospodarial names
of the country), without any private means of his own,
and altogether dependent upon his small prefectorial
salary and office pickings for the means wherewith to
keep up a handsome establishment, carriage, horses,
and many other luxuries indispensable to the chief
personage of a Roumanian town. The results of these
anomalies in his position did not seem to be beneficial
to the inhabitants, particularly to the Jewish ones, of
his district. The deputation assured us that (to use its
own expression) he was always " knocking " for money,
and that when he did not get it the Jews were sure to
suffer. In a small village near Roman, called Valeni,
under Mr. Canta's j urisdiction, lived a retired Roumano-
Jewish sergeant of infantry, called Baruch Rinzler.
The law of the land declared that any Israelite, having
taken the degree of doctor in any of the learned pro-
fessions, or attained the rank of sergeant in the
Roumanian Army, should have the right to share in
municipal elections, &c. Accordingly, to the mayor of
his village Sergeant Baruch applied for the necessary
authorization empowering him to exercise his civic
rights, and duly received the same. As soon as Mr.

SUNDAY CLOSING IN MOLDAVIA.

51

Canta heard of this he sent for the Mayor of Valeni,
rated him soundly for having presumed to accord
municipal rights to a Jew, and rescinded his decision,
thereby deliberately breaking the law.

A very grave cause of complaint on the part of
the Roman Jews was supplied by the conduct of the
police towards them on Sundays. It was against the
Roumanian law that a Jew should open his shop or
place of business on Sunday. Most Roumanian houses,
however, have but one door, and when the Roman Jew
opened that door on a Sunday for the purpose of going
out into the street, the police, steadily on the look-out
for him, were down upon him for preparing to open his
shop, and fined him one pound sterling. About £240
had been extorted from Roman Jews in this manner.
They therefore had the choice on Sundays of stopping
shut up in their houses aH day, or of paying one pound
for the pleasure of going out. This arrangement did
great credit to the ingenuity of the police. One of our
interlocutors, however, informed us that only a few days
previously the chief of the police in person had made
him open his shop on Sunday to sell that august per-
sonage a pair of gloves, and that he was afterwards
fined by the police for doing so. This was a case,
I imagine, that could hardly have been beaten in
Russia. Another member of the deputation — a licensed
victualler — told us that, having a small house and a
rapidly-increasing family, he that year found himself
unable to spare any room in his dwelling for his retail
trade ; whereupon he petitioned the Municipality and
police for permission to build a little wooden shanty in

E 2

52 A WANDERER'S NOTES.

his own yard, wherein to dispense his wares. The per-
mission was accorded, but no sooner had he run up his
shanty and commenced trading in it than the police
swooped down upon him, put their seals on his stock,
and fined him 250 ducats, on the ground that he had
not taken out a second license for the shanty, which was
on the ground belonging to his house, and actually the
only building in which he sold wines and spirits.

Few cities in Europe are more picturesquely situated
than the ancient capital of Moldavia. It is built on the
slopes of two lofty hills, the avant-postes of a chain of
boldly-outlined mountains. Its white, villa-like houses
form irregular terraces on the hillsides, and nestle
snugly in acacia thickets and pear orchards. Along
the valley, formed by the junction of these two hill-
slopes, a small stream, crossed by quaint little wooden
bridges, meanders along with all desirable crookedness
— in summer time a mere thread of water ; in the
spring, when the mountain snows dissolve with extra-
ordinary rapidity, a roaring, furious torrent that sweeps
everything before it, and, when it gets fairly out of
town, floods the fields adjacent to its bed for hundreds
of feet on either bank. Jassy was formerly, and not so
very many years ago, an aristocratic, feudal sort of city,
the entire population of which was composed of Boyars
and their retinues and the humble purveyors to their
wants and pleasures. In 1874 it was the head-quarters
of the foreign Jews who had immigrated into Moldavia,
and no more appropriate name could be imagined for it
than the New Jerusalem. Out of about 100,000 human
beings inhabiting it, nearly 60,000 were Jews, and over

JASSY. 53

30,000 of these were Austrian subjects. Jews, whose
garments were the supreme expression of squalor, filled
the streets, the shops, the markets, and public places.
They monopolized all the trades, from banker to butcher,
from broker to baker. You could not take a stroll
through any part of the town without seeing more of
them than (if you were an Englishman) you had ever
seen together before throughout the whole of your life.
Caftaned, gaberdined, booted, bearded, there they were
in hundreds, in thousands, wherever you went, as
thoroughly masters of the place, and conscious of
their masterdom, as though they had been Prussians
' i occupying " a conquered province. The Christian
element was completely submerged. Except at the
garden of Madame Alecsandri, where the band of the
2nd Roumanian Hussars played nightly, I did not see
a dozen Christians in Jassy, although I drove about the
town in every direction, and visited even its remoter
suburbs. There were two or three large urban districts,
called the Jewish quarters ; but, as far as I could judge,
the whole city had a perfect claim to that appellation.
During my wanderings through Jassy the thought could
scarcely fail to occur to me, " If, out of our three and a
half millions of Londoners, two millions were foreigners
of objectionable habits, who had got the whole trade of
the metropolis into their hands, I wonder how the other
million and a half would like it ? " Mutatis mutandis,
that was the Moldavian case ; and one could not help
pitying the subjugated Roumans, although the fact that
they were subjugated was clearly their own fault. They
had not chosen to compete with the Jew, and he had

54 A WANDERER'S NOTES.

beaten them all along the line. They could not work as
hard as he — could not live on bread, garlic, and water —
could not endure to be huddled up with a dozen fellow-
sleepers in a room ten feet by eight — could not do
altogether without holidays, amusements, drams, and
other expensive luxuries which the Jew never dreams
of indulging in ; and so they had by degrees been
eliminated from every bread-earning metier, and had
seen their indomitable competitor step into their shoes,
which he so dexterously whipped off their feet whilst
they were staring open-mouthed at him and marvelling
at bis activity. The brains and the volition of the
Eoumanian Principalities were assuredly Jewish a dozen
years syne ; but from the sentimental point of view it
seemed perhaps a little hard that because people were
stupid and pliable they should be so very much sate
upon as were the Eoumanians in Moldavia.

On August 4th, 1874, although the thermometer
stood at 119 degrees in the shade, my companions
and myself resolved, codte que cotite, to visit the Jewish
quarters, extending over both the huge slopes above
described, and reaching both hill-tops ; indeed, I should
find it very difficult to give you a topographical idea of
the Christian quarter, for that part of the town pointed
out to us as Koumanian only differed from the rest in
the respect that it exhibited Christian dwellings in the
proportion of one to two Jewish abodes ; whereas, in
the quarters to which our attention was particularly
directed as bearing the Hebrew stamp somewhat con-
spicuously, there was not a hut seven feet high that
was not teeming with the dark-eyed daughters and sons

THE GHETTO OF JASSY. 55

of Israel. Of the condition of the streets in the Jewish
quarters I must renounce the notion of attempting to
give my readers any idea. I had not thought there was
so much dirt in the world as I saw in the course of a
couple of hours' tour through these districts. A London
bye-street — say in Camden Town — is the sort of place
that is calculated to make an elderly bachelor wonder
where all the children come from ; but in respect to its
resources in the matter of infantile population, it is a
Trappist monastery compared to any thoroughfare in
the Jewish quarters of Jassy. Children by thousands,
from bald babies to unkempt, frizzy -headed, wild-eyed
striplings and lasses of eleven and twelve, who seemed
to wear their scanty rags, as it were, on sufferance,
sprawled, ran, crouched, and jumped all about the road-
way, sometimes in apparently inextricable masses of
sienna-coloured legs and arms wriggling like a basketful
of eels, sometimes in irregular lines or rows, ranged
along the dried-up gutters, investigating, with the
profoundest interest and most lively emulation of one
another, the heterogeneous contents of those reposi-
tories. As we were slowly driving down the Calea
Cucu, there came out of a house towards us a great
handsome girl of about eighteen, five feet eight in
height, and as broad-shouldered as a Serjeant in the
Guards, with nothing on but one garment hanging
completely off her shoulder and half way down her
arm. As she was passing us she bestowed upon us
a fierce stare. Her coarse black hair floated over her
bare brown shoulders, and sturdy legs, of which any
Highlander might have been proud. No Congo negress

56 A WANDERER'S NOTES.

could have displayed a more absolute, barbarous in-
difference to her semi-nudity than did this comely
daughter of Zion, who scowled at us because we were
Christians and foreigners, but manifestly did not vouch-
safe a thought to the bareness of her superb bosom, or
to the fact that, in the bright sunlight, every detail of
her statuesque form could be plainly discerned through
the slight texture of her loose shift.

The activity, bustle, and busy hum of the Jewish
quarters were something positively astounding. Every-
body, except the uncounted children, was hard at some
trade, craft, or occupation — most of the artisans working
in the very streets themselves, for want of room in the
crowded, reeking little houses, painted blue, red, or
green, according to the whim of their occupants. Cob-
blers, locksmiths, tailors, coppersmiths, carpenters,
money-lenders, with their little movable bureaux and
stools, scriveners with their desks, industriously writing
backwards, all were knocking, hammering, sewing, scrib-
bling, chaffering, jabbering, and making the most
remarkable din that can be imagined. We went into
one or two of the houses ; but I must crave permission
to pass over those interiors in silence. We visited the
market — all the butchers in Jassy were Jews, whilst in
Bucharest that trade was carried on exclusively by
Koumans — a fine, well- ventilated building, with magnifi-
cent cellarage, but which we were obliged speedily to
quit on account of the flies, of which some forty millions
or so rose at us with one accord, and drove us ignomi-
niously from the premises. We are amply rewarded,
however, for our minute's sojourn in the hall, by catching.

GALATZ.

57

a glimpse of a wonderfully picturesque group standing
round a piece of raw beef, of the sort known to Clare
market as " seconds," the value of which they were
settling with passionate earnestness. Any industrious
Biblical student who desires to realize the personages
he has so often read of should visit Jassy. Types of
prophets and high priests abound at every street corner.
Some of the older men are amazingly picturesque, with
a wealth of beard and a richness of colour that Bem-
brandt would have revelled in. Very few of the women,
at least of those whom we saw, are remarkably good
looking ; but, en revanche, the children of both sexes
are extraordinarily comely and well built. We came
across more than one " Infant Samuel," a well-executed
portrait of whom would gather crowds at any Academy
Exhibition.

From Jassy we travelled by easy stages to the
commercial capital of Moldavia, where we arrived
towards the close of the second week in August.

Few changes had supervened in the inner town of
Galatz since my previous visit to that city, in the year
1865. The acquisition of a railway station, built down
in the valley at some considerable distance from the
offices of the business men and the shops of the Israelites,
who monopolized the retail trade of the place, had
stimulated the municipality to make a few excellent
roads, more especially one, the approach to the upper
town from the terminus ; but this fine thoroughfare,
broad, even, admirably macadamized, was, after all,
outside Galatz ; and many of the streets of the aristocratic
as well as of the commercial quarters remained in the

58 A WANDERER'S NOTES.

same backward, hardly civilized condition that charac-
terized them when I first made their acquaintance. The
trees in the public garden had grown — gas lamps had
been put up in readiness for the gas that was yet to
come, and meanwhile were excellently well illumined
with petroleum provisional burners ; a great sewer had
been made, into which the houses of a few privileged
streets distributed their refuse ; waterworks were in
rapid course of construction, and have in later years
revolutionized the sanitary statistics of Galatz. Most
of these good things were due to the energy and per-
severance of Prince Morousi — whilom Mayor of the city
—whose determination to make certain steps forward
on the path of civilization actually vanquished the
indolence and defeated the greediness of the other
influential Boyars who had a word to say in the affairs
Galatz. Morousi screwed up the taxes, raised the money
to pay, pro raid, for the improvements, and managed
that it should be devoted to that purpose, instead of,
as is customary in Eoumanian municipal administration,
sticking to the fingers of the civic officials. Meanwhile
Galatz had grown and prospered amazingly. Its popula-
tion in 1874 numbered over a hundred thousand souls,
a very large proportion of which was composed of
foreigners ; and it possessed a well-to-do, active, and
highly respectable English colony, constituting the elite
of its society.

In Cusa's birthplace, as in all the larger Eoumanian
towns, with the exception of Bucharest, the Jews
transacted all the retail trade of the city. There was
but one shop of any real importance in all Galatz kept

THE DACIAN PEASANT.

59

by a Christian Moldavian. The export grain business
was chiefly carried on by Greeks ; the import trade,
ship-broking, ship-chandlery, &c., by Englishmen, Greeks,
and other foreigners ; the native Moldavian was, if a
Boyar, a seller of natural products, or a house-owner ;
if a proletary, a hewer of wood and drawer of water.
Before the war of 1877 it really seemed as if any means
of bread-earning not immediately connected with his
native soil and its agronomic produce had been invincibly
repugnant to the true-bred Eoumanian. He wsafnigea
consumer e natus, and apt to manipulate that fruitful earth
from which he drew wealth for his masters and
sustenance for himself; but he appeared incapable of
learning any other avocation than that which exacted
from him the minimum of intellectual and the maximum
of physical effort. He earned less, and contributed
more, in proportion to the gross amount of his income,
to the public treasury, than any other class of his fellow-
subjects. He was the milch-cow of the State, as well
as of the Boyar ; and I am bound to say that neither
the one nor the other did much for him in return for
his patient productiveness. The Jews in Moldo-Wal-
lachia, unquestionably, had special, definite, and serious
grievances, which cried aloud for prompt remedy; but
it seemed to me that the Roumanian peasant's life was
one long grievance, and that, by reason of his being
utterly inarticulate, in the Carlylian sense of the word,
the chances of justice being done to him were lamentably
small. His condition would have been an insufferable
one to any less enduring, amiable, and humble-minded
being than himself. Ignorance, of course, was the root

60 A WANDERER'S NOTES.

of his many evils ; and it behoved his " pastors and
masters " to dig it up and destroy it for him, those being
tasks he was not constituted by nature for executing
proprio motu. He was as superstitious as a Red Indian,
and as improvident as an Australian savage. He let
his children, his own and his under-populated country's
main hope, die for want of the commonest cares that
one might fancy instinct would have dictated. When
he himself lay ill, he would see no doctor and take
no medicine, unless it were raid, or some devil's broth
brewed for him by a village sorceress ; he laid him down
to die, with much of the Turkish fatalism lurking at the
bottom of his conviction that nothing could avail to
help him through his illness.

The Roumanian peasant woman was as hard-working
as she was prolific ; but she rarely reared her children,
whose lives she sacrificed to the performance of her daily
avocations. She was the servant, not the equal or com-
panion, of her husband. The staple of both their food
was mamaliga, or maize-flour, moistened with water into
a sort of porridge, and eaten with a little salt. They
but rarely ate meat, and were consequently unable to
resist illness or even severe fatigue. Children succumbed

o

in hosts to maladies that prove in Western Europe by no
means necessarily fatal to the infantine population. In
a village between Ruginoasa and Roman, belonging to a
friend of mine, who maintained a medical man at his
own expense for the benefit of his peasants, out of sixty
children under seven years of age, fifty-seven died in 1874
of diphtheria. The parents would not let the doctor into
their houses, nor even prevent their neighbours' children

A HARDLY-USED PEOPLE. 61

from clustering round the pallets of the little sufferers.
The most they would do was to hire a professional witch
to mutter a charm or pronounce an incantation from time
to time. Whilst the Roumanian Jew — I do not speak of
the Polish or Russian Israelite immigrant, who was too
frequently as ignorant and superstitious as the Christian
native of the soil — eagerly availed himself of the dis-
coveries and resources of medical science, the Wallachian
or Moldavian utterly and obstinately rejected them.

In other respects, the contrast between the races was
as striking as in that relating to sanitary conditions.
The Roumanian would not mend a window, tile a roof,
nor make a pair of breeches. All these trades, and a
legion of others of the plainer, more merely mechanical
order, were exercised by the Jew and the German. The
Rouman worked hard, from childhood to the tomb ; his
sole pleasures or amusements were the /tor a, or the
raki-flask ; his theatre, lecture-room, picture-gallery,
museum, and club was the roadside krisma, kept by the
Jew who was his confidant, adviser, news-purveyor,
agent, tradesman, money-lender, matchmaker, and, in
a word, sole manager of his affairs and arbiter of his
fate. He was, I verily believe, the hardest-used, as he
was the easiest-going, man in Christendom. Everybody
else in the country, Boyar, Jew, priest, and foreigner,
lived upon him. Others danced, and he paid the music.
Not that he was a fool ; on the contrary, his natural
gifts were by no means despicable, but they had never
been cultivated, and indifference to his fate had become
an integral part of his character.

With the achievement of Roumanian Independence,

62 A WANDERER'S NOTES.

however, the terranuslot changed for the better, morally,
intellectually and physically. Enforced military service
and compulsory education worked wonders in the way
of raising his standard of self-respect and opening his
eyes to the expediency of improving the conditions of
his existence. From a mere drudge of the glebe he has,
in many thousands of instances, become a skilled handi-
craftsman, operative, journeyman, and even petty trades-
man. In the towns, sanitary science has done much
to render life possible, if not enjoyable, to the poorer
classes of Daciaus, whilst railways and village-schools
have carried with them a certain measure of civilization
into the vast majority of the country districts. Of all
the countries in Europe, Roumania has during the last
decade effected the most rapid development of her
internal resources and of her people's well-being. Along
the highroad of progress she has shown the way, not
only to her petty .neighbours, Servia and Bulgaria,
whose political emancipation is coeval with her own,
but to great Russia, who lags far behind her in all the
essentials of material advancement. Roumania's chief
provincial towns, to a few of which particular reference
has been made in this chapter, are now better paved,
lighted, drained and administered than are St. Peters-
burg and Moscow ; her peasantry are better taught,
clothed and fed than are the Russian moujiks ; her army,
as far as its discipline, equipments, mobility and military
spirit are concerned, is infinitely superior to that of
Muscovy, with the solitary exception of the Guard-Corps,
the high efficiency of which is due to the personal
supervision of Czar Alexander Alexandreivich.

UP DANUBE AGAIN. f>3

My special mission in Roumania having terminated,
I was recalled to Berlin, late in August, 1874, arid
embarked on board one of the acceleres steamers at
Galatz, gladly leaving the Jewish question behind me,
and rejoicing in the prospect of enjoying one of the
most luxurious and picturesque holiday-trips available
to the Continental traveller. When the good ship
Rctdetzky, Captain Baron de Kasinsky, left her moorings
off Galatz one fine Sunday morning, and started on her
six-hundred-mile voyage up Danube, her officers and
passengers little dreamt that they were destined to be
witnesses, within the next twenty-four hours, of one of
those " thrilling dramas of private life " which most
people have read of in novels, but few, at least in these
somewhat prosaic times of ours, have assisted at in
propria persond. It was a glorious day, and the plated
domes of the picturesque Galatz churches glittered with
an almost painful sheen, so that, long after we had lost
sight of the hilly town, we could still, ever and anon,
see them flashing in the far distance. On either side
the huge river, as we steamed gallantly up against the
mighty stream, the Roumanian and Turkish guards
stood to their arms and saluted the Imperial flag.

At our departure from Galatz, I was the only first-
class passenger on board the Hadetzky. The fore-cabins
were occupied by a motley crew of Bulgarian reapers,
bound for the Banat harvest, Greek loafers, Roumanian
peasants, and 3&wish pedlars ; but the great saloon was
dismally empty, and, owing to the lateness of the season
— so Captain von Kasinsky informed me — likely to
remain so. However, at Braila an elderly lady of

G4 A WANDERER'S NOTES.

highly-respectable appearance, accompanied by her maid,
came on board, and established herself solidly in the
after cajute. She belonged to the ancien regime of
Eoumanian Boyarins, and spoke not a word of any
language save her own, so that her advent made but
little difference, from a social point of view, to the
officers of the ship and myself, with whom, moreover,
she manifested no desire whatever to enter into the
least communication. All that day we steamed onwards,
between flat, muddy river shores and amongst reedy
islands inhabited by stately buffaloes, long-legged cranes,
and schools of snow-white pelicans ; stopping at rare
intervals for a few minutes at some wild Bulgarian or
"Wallachian village, to pick up a few more wandering
harvesters of marvellously savage aspect, or to drop
a travelling trader or two with his humble stock. All
night, too, we worked our way upwards, harassed by
mosquitoes ; and about ten a.m. on Monday morning
arrived at Giurgiu, where the train from Bucharest
awaited our coming. Here it was that the life-drama
I have referred to came off in a highly-sensational
manner.

While standing by the side-rail I observed, tripping
gaily along the broad planking that reached from the
shore to our vessel's gangway, an exceedingly pretty
and fashionably- dressed young lady, followed closely by
a gentleman in accurate travelling costume, who, as
soon as they were both fairly upon the Radetzky's deck,
put his arm round her waist and embraced her. "A
leave-taking," thought I ; but no such thing — they
walked aft, arm-in-arm, and entered the state-saloon.

A FAMILY DRAMA. 65

Scarcely had they disappeared from my sight, when a
loud shriek startled all on board, and was immediately
followed by the sound of hysterical weeping. The
gentleman promptly reappeared, emerging from the
saloon with a highly-scared expression of countenance
and strode hurriedly aft to the comptroller's cabin ;
meanwhile the sobs and cries waxed louder and more
pitiful to hear. Presently, the old lady's servant came
out in search of the captain, who, being engaged with
the shipment of passengers and goods, could not comply
with her request that he should go aft. Shortly after-
wards the pretty young lady rushed forth, like Niobe,
dissolved in tears, and wildly sought her male com-
panion, whom she at length discovered in the comp-
troller's state-room, and who forthwith conducted her
to a private deck-cabin, in which he locked her and
himself up. All this time the old lady's cries never
ceased for a minute. By and by, a fresh start having
been effected, Baron von Kasinsky vanished in the
saloon, and remained for some minutes in close conference
with the old lady, his reappearance being watched for
with the deepest interest by the newly-embarked after-
cabin passengers, who, out of consideration for the
feelings of the actors in what was evidently a family
imbroglio of the gravest character, had hitherto remained
on deck, instead of looking after their berths. When
Kasinsky came forth, we at length were made acquainted
with the fin mot of the situation. The pretty young
lady, it appeared, was the daughter of wealthy parents,
Krajova Boyars, and an heiress besides in her own
right ; the carefully got-up gentleman a scion of a good

VOL. II. F

66 A WANDERER S NOTES.

family. The pair had eloped from Bucharest, where
the young lady had been on a visit to some material
relatives, and were off to Vienna. Arriving on board
the Radetzky at Giurgiu, and entering that vessel's
saloon, what must have been their astonishment and
dismay at finding therein installed the young lady's
paternal aunt ! Their embrace on treading the
Eadetzkys deck was one of mutual congratulation at
being safe from pursuit and detection — and a minute
later they rushed into the arms, so to speak, of
the fugitive damsel's relative. Imagine the coup de
the&tre. As soon as the elderly lady was able to com-
prehend the position she broke into pathetic exhort-
ations, imploring her niece to return to her family, and
bewailing the disgrace she had brought upon her name
and character. When she found her entreaties fruitless
she gave utterance to vehement maledictions, and cursed
the runaways with all the exuberance of figurative
language for which the Roumanian tongue is justly
renowned. But neither to prayers nor curses would the
young lady, although she wept abundantly, yield ; and
presently she sought refuge with her companion, who
meanwhile had, with a readiness of expedient that one
could scarcely help admiring, hired a deck-cabin of the
ship's comptroller, in which he and his fair friend were
perfectly secure from all further molestation. The dis-
consolate aunt solicited Captain de Kasinsky to arrest
the hero of the adventure, and deliver her refractory
niece to her ; but this he was, of course, unable to do,
and he could only advise her to telegraph from the next
station to the Prefect of Turno-Severin, who might deem

TOUCHING TABLEAU. 67

himself — although the young lady was over eighteen
years of age — empowered to interfere, and to separate
forcibly the wandering pair. Some sympathetic soul,
however, must have found means to hint the probability
of such a measure being taken to the fugitives in their
reclusion ; for, sacrificing their tickets for Vienna, they
left the Radetzky at Nicopolis, there either to make
their way across the Balkan to Constantinople, or — still
more probably — to await another Austrian boat, in
which no implacable aunt should menace their happi-
ness, and in it prosecute their voyage to Vienna. When
they issued from their cabin to go ashore there was
another scene. The old lady rushed upon deck with
the most tragical gestures, her face blurred with tears,
and besought her niece to forego future misery ; the
niece went down on her knees, and entreated permission
to kiss her aunt's hand before quitting her for ever ;
and the gentleman, despite an unusual share of self-
possession, looked amazingly foolish. Finally — time
and tide waiting for no man, as the saying is — the lady
and gentleman hurried to the ship's gangway, and the
aunt solemnly cursed them from the poop-deck. Thus
ended the first act of a very sensational drama — the
Radetzky steamed onwards, and we soon lost sight of
the impenitent fugitives.

At Widdin we took in a numerous company of True
Believers, mostly ladies, huddled up in the inconceivably
hideous garments worn by Turkish women of all classes
on a journey, their features imperfectly veiled by
transparent white muslin yashmaks. The chief person-
age of this ghostly-looking assembly was an enormously

F 2

68 A WANDERER'S NOTES.

fat old Turkish lady, raddled with red and white paint,
her finger-tips aud palms deeply stained with henna
(as indeed were those of all her companions), and her
feet flapping about in huge yellow slippers, which, to-
gether with the embarrassments of the multifarious
swaddling clothes in which she was enveloped, materially
impeded her progress from one part of the deck to
another. This ponderous female was attended by a
numerous cortege of slaves, two of whom were her
body musicians ; and as soon as she and her suite were
fairly squatted down hard by the steerage, she sent a
kavass as ambassador to the captain, craving the latter' s
permission to " make a little music." Her request being
granted, two of the younger slaves — one extremely
pretty, although disfigured by paint and henna — pro-
duced, to our profound astonishment, two fiddle-cases
from the shapeless bundles that constituted their lug-
gage, and, extracting therefrom a couple of highly-
polished violins, proceeded to tune them. A few of us
had gathered together at a respectable distance, attracted
by the quaintness of the episode, and the corpulent
mistress of these fiddling houris beckoned us, with a
jovial smile and friendly wave of the stained hand, to
draw near and participate in the musical recreation she
had provided herself with for her journey. In the
matter of veiling, I am bound to say that the slaves,
encouraged, probably, by their mistress's example, were
as lax as could be. The tuning, which itself bore a
marked family resemblance to some Turkish " music"
with which I am acquainted, being ended, the two
Mahometan minstrels grasped their instruments in a

TURKISH MUSIC. 69

determined manner, crossed their right legs over their
left knees, commenced beating time with their left feet,
and began to play, the one executing what I presume
she was pleased to call an air, the other accompanying
with a sort of drone inj major fifths. It would be a
farce to assert that what they played was music in the
cultivated sense of the word ; but some of the morceaux
were rhythmical and expressive of an odd alternation of
wild pathos and saturnine joviality. The jig character
predominated in the majority of the pieces — some
twenty in number — the sort of jig that ghouls might
be supposed to dance round a freshly-plundered grave.
The chief performer kept her time admirably, and
changed from one key to another without the least
embarrassment ; she also displayed considerable dexterity
of finger. The second fiddle merely droned and
marked the rhythm, its manipulator wagging her head
and grunting in an ogglesome manner. The whole group
was incomparably grotesque. Round the corpulent lady
were huddled, squatting on their heels, four or five
spectral figures devouring water-melon and smoking
cigarettes ; on the form behind her were seated the
two muffled-up fiddlers ; to her right, outside the circle,
crouched a witch-like old woman, reciting charms and
every now and then uttering a dismal squall that was,
I fancy, intended to chime in with the instrumental
part of the entertainment ; one or two chubby Mussul-
man children were staring, round-eyed, with all their
might at the Giaours who presumed to approach the
society of the Faithful ; and a couple of stalwart kavasses,
armed to the teeth, hovered near us with lowering

70 A WANDERER'S NOTES.

glances, looking as though they were eagerly awaiting
the signal to fall on and smite us hip and thigh. The
fat lady was, however, in a jovial temper, and evidently
far above all the small prejudices and traditions of her
kind. Twice she addressed me at considerable length,
with a broad grin upon her capacious countenance, and
once she offered me a huge chunk of water-melon.

That part of the voyage up the Danube commencing
at Orsova and terminating at Moldova, comprising the
famous passage through the Iron Gates, has been too
often described already; but it will ever remain the
grandest and most impressive river scenery in Europe.
The beauties of the Ehine are tame and insignificant
in comparison with those of this marvellous water-way
through the grim Carpathians, flanked by the stately
remains of the noble Eoman road, cut in the living rock
by the Trajan's legions, and by the wonderfully pre-
served ruins of Byzantine and Eoman fortresses, majes-
tically rising from gray granite cliffs that tower aloft,
hundreds of feet high, and frequently seem to block up
the mighty stream rushing impetuously seawards under
their mighty shadows. Sometimes they trend suddenly
away from the river bed, and the Danube assumes the
appearance of a deep, unruffled mountain lake from two
to three miles broad, and from ten to twelve long.
Sometimes they converge until they seem to meet, and
the steamer winds its tortuous way along a narrow
channel beset with pointed, angry-looking, grisly rocks.
Enormous eagles soar, in pairs, above your head, on the
watch for the big fish that recklessly leap from the
river's bosom, unconscious of the bright fierce eyes

A CARPATHIAN WATERWAY.

71

watching them from aloft. Close to Drenkovar, on the
Servian side, we caught sight of a bear carefully coming
down the cliff backwards, hand over hand, to his den
in a black cave, penetrating the mountain's perpendicular
side. The natives, greatly dependent upon fish for their
nourishment, float about in rudimentary canoes — mere
trunks of trees, hollowed out and roughly-shaped off at
either end — carefully avoiding the wash of the steamers,
which would inevitably upset their ill-balanced skiffs.
Every five minutes a fresh scene, teeming with pic-
turesqueness, is presented to the eye, and the passage
through the mountains lasts, at full speed, nearly eight
hours !

CHAPTEE III.

BERLIN ANTIQUITIES — THE TYPICAL GALLOWS-BIRD — A HISTORICAL
OUTING THE GERMAN MEDLEVAL DRAMA — A MYSTERY REVIVAL.

A LITTLE more than six centuries ago, during the
decade of 1265-75 — German antiquaries have not suc-
ceeded in fixing the exact date to a year — a building
of considerable importance was erected in the town of
Berlin. The administration of justice, even at that
period of rough-and-ready penal codes, required a local
habitation ; and a Gerichtslaube, or law-court, of con-
siderable architectural pretensions — quite a grand affair,
considering the period of its construction and the
poverty of the city to which it belonged — was built in
a central spot of the old Markish capital, close to the
site of the present town-hall, or Rathhaus. The exterior
was ornamented with fantastic sculptures, having grim
reference to the punishments destined to be inflicted
upon those whom evil doing or bad luck should subject
to trial and sentence within its walls. One can fancy
what a cheering effect the contemplation of these works
of art must have produced upon the spirits of the
prisoners, guilty or innocent, awaiting their turn for
admission to the ungentle tribunal, and strongly guarded
outside the door of the Gerichtslaube. Until a peculiarly

THE GALLOWS-BIRD. 73

dismal stone figure was pointed out to me one day by
a learned member of the Berlin Historical Society, who
explained to me its signification, I had believed that the
word "gallows-bird" admitted but of two interpreta-
tions or rather applications — the one metaphorical, used
to designate a rather bad fellow ; the other personal,
having reference to carrion crows, ravens, and other
ugsome fowls, reputed to entertain a decided predilection
for human meat that has been well hung — or hanged,
to speak academically. I learned, however, that the
yalgenvopel, or gallows-bird, was a distinct entity that
had been recognized in its counterfeit presentment for
many centuries. I have seen it, and therefore I believe.
Truly, it belongs to the same ornithological class as the
harpy, griffin, and cockatrice, and owes the comparative
obscurity in which its " life and times " have been
shrouded doubtless to the fact that the vileness of its
associations has kept it out of all escutcheons, and pre-
cluded heralds from utilizing it even as a supporter or
crest. But there it is, a bird-man, of inconceivably
melancholy aspect, whose beak is almost a nose, whose
claws are overgrown toes, whose wings have a ghastly
resemblance to arms amputated at the elbow, while the
expression of its whole impersonation indicates a limp
despair, resulting from an inner consciousness that he,
or it, the gallows-bird, is the victim of an inevitable
fatality not altogether unconnected with hempen manu-
factures. It seems to be saying to itself, " If I were
really a bird, now, I could fly away and wag my tail
scornfully at the ominous beam ; or if I were altogether
a man there might be some chance of my escape from

74 A WANDERER'S NOTES.

prison, by violence, agility, or bribery. But look at
me ! Did you ever see such a poor miserable devil ?
I cannot fly a foot nor walk a yard. I am at once
loathsome, contemptible, and helpless. String me up,
for goodness' sake, and have done with me ! " This
mournful monster, according to my informant, occupied
a niche just above the place allotted to a prisoner
" under examination ; " which prisoner, to the end that
he should preserve a proper attitude of attention and
deference to his judges, was fixed up in a corner with
his neck in a tight iron collar, the pressure of which
must, I should fancy, have unpleasantly suggested the
probable result of his trial. It was no joke, five or six
hundred years ago, to get into a little trouble and be
" pulled up " before the magistrate. Dungeons were
dungeons in those days, and police-courts were accom-
modated with handy torture-chambers — as in the base-
ment of the Gerichtslaube — in which witnesses were
cross-examined with a severity painfully trying to their
nerves. Whether you were hung up on a hook, like
a leg of mutton in a butcher's shop, or pulled out to
twice your natural length, or converted for the nonce
into a cistern, or squeezed into a tight-fitting mummy
case full of spikes, was simply an event dependent upon
the whim of the learned gentleman engaged in looking
into the case. Once in the dock, the prisoner was under
the wing of the gallows-bird ; and, being there, his skin
was in sore peril.

Amongst the other sculptures adorning the Gerichts-
laube are one or two evidently intended by their authors
to point a moral. With a ferocious disregard to the

THE " GEBIOHTSLAUBE. 75

feelings of the unfortunate individuals compelled to
attend the Court, nolentes volentes, one artist took the
opportunity of a pillar just opposite the dock to exe-
cute upon its massive base a group of scurvy-looking,
grovelling swine — typical, I suppose, of the vices that
in those times characterized the poorer classes in general.
Altogether the decoration of this venerable edifice was
of the grisliest description. The building itself, empty
and unused for many a long year, had been suffered to
fall into decay ; and yet was allowed to stand, although
greatly in the way of certain municipal improvements,
because it was the oldest relic of civic architecture
extant in the Prussian capital — the only visible link
connecting the busy, commercial, enlightened present
with the gloomy, feudal, and cruel past. Year after
year the Town Council was divided against itself upon
the question of demolition or non-demolition : utili-
tarians urged its annihilation ; antiquarians passionately
advocated its preservation. At length, public opinion
having decreed it to be an eyesore and an offence, the
municipal fiat went forth, and the Gerichtslaube was
doomed to destruction. This iconoclastic decision, how-
ever, no sooner reached the King's ears than his Majesty
resolved that so ancient and respectable a relic of the
Middle Ages should not perish. He signified to the
civic authorities his intention to move the quasi-ruin,
and rebuild it in his own private park at Babelsberg,
requesting them to state their price for the materials.
Even Berlin thrift could not stoop so low as to exact an
indemnity for an old tumble-down building, of which
the debris must have been carted away as rubbish, from

76 A WANDERER'S NOTES.

a monarch who generously offered to restore it at the
expense of his private purse ; and so the Btirgerschaft
presented its most venerable monument to the King,
who had it set up on one of the artificial mounds — the
Lenne-Hohe, I think it is called — in the picturesque
grounds surrounding his favourite chateau. Although
the walls were nearly completed by the end of October,
1871, oddly enough the foundation-stone was only laid
on November 6th of the same year ; and to the cere-
mony of its deposition I had the honour of being
invited by the President of the Historical Society.

From Berlin to Potsdam we travelled by train — a
compartment full of archaeologists, bar one, with never
a foot-warmer to keep their toes from freezing, though
the day was " cold and dark and dreary " enough to
induce Mariana herself to have all the fires lighted at
the Moated Grange, and sit toasting her feet at the bars
of the biggest range in that doleful establishment. All
the other railway companies in Prussia warm their
carriages in the winter ; not so the Potsdamer line, which
is ultra-Spartan in its treatment of passengers. From
Potsdam to Babelsberg we proceeded by carriage — that
is, as far as the park-gates, where we alighted, and
strolled through healthy young plantations, past forcing
houses and flower gardens, till we reached a solitary
tower, surrounded by a moat, where we obtained a really
magnificent view of Potsdam, the Hafel, and all the
palaces and parks conjured up out of a sand desert
by the iron will of Frederick the Great and of his suc-
cessors— faithful inheritors of his fancies as well as of
his policy. " Der alte Fritz " said, one fine morning

LAYING A FOUXDATION-SIWE.

77

(with Versailles in his mind's eye), " Here I will have
a town ; here I will have a Royal settlement, with
chateaux, lakes, waterworks, statues, groves, clipped
attees, all complete ; " arid straightway Potsdam was
created. It ought to have been christened Frederica.
The tower from which we gazed upon these marvels of
industry and perseverance is an exact copy of the Eschen-
heimer Thurm at Frankfort, doubtless familiar to many
of my readers. Skirting its mimic moat, the water in
which is raised by powerful pumping machinery to the
top of the hill crowned by the tower, we wandered
through a fir wood until we reached another hillock, on
the summit of which the Gerichtslaube stood in a semi-
complete condition that gave it quite a ruinous and
picturesque air. Here were gathered together some
three hundred persons, awaiting our arrival ; for the
talented antiquarian presiding over the " function " was
the leader of the party to which I was attached. A
couple of Royal carriages had toiled up the steep road
leading to the Lenne-Hohe ; all the rest of the invites
were on foot. Nothing could be more simple than the
ceremony itself. After the Royal order had been read
aloud, and an interesting address pronounced by Privy
Councillor Schneider, giving a short resume of the
building's history and of the circumstances leading to
its re-erection in the King's Park, the protocol of the
" Grundlegung " was enclosed in a metal case, the cover-
ing of which was soldered on, laid to rest in a little
stone grave prepared for its reception, and hidden out of
sight with a stone slab, upon which everybody entitled to
that privilege solemnly inflicted three raps with a bright

78 A WANDERER'S NOTES.

steel hammer. A novel feature in the cheering for the
King, hearty as ever in that loyal province, was the sub-
stitution of the word " Lange " for " Hoch " — the latter
being the customary sound of goodwill uttered in honour
of his Majesty. It is certainly more sensible to express a
desire that the King should live "long" than he should
live " high " ; indeed, it would be somewhat difficult to
define exactly what is meant by the words " Er lebe hoch ! "
The innovation was in every way happy ; what could be
more desirable, for the good of Germany and the peace
of Europe, than that King William should be preserved
to his subjects for many a long year to come ?

So soon as the ceremony was concluded we drove
back to Potsdam, where an excellent dinner awaited us,
some fifty members of the two Historical Societies (Berlin
and Potsdam) sitting down to table. After the speeches
— few and to the purpose — had been duly disposed of,
the convives were resolved by the President into an extra
working meeting of the local association, and one of the
members favoured us with an interesting disquisition
upon the sculptures of the Gerichtslaube. With this
discourse the meeting separated. I should advise any
Englishman visiting the Mark Brandenburg to make a
point of including Babelsberg in his list of " sights to
be seen." Permission may readily be obtained to go
over the grounds and castle. Whenever the King is
" not at home " there is no difficulty in procuring a card
of admission. Once his Majesty happened to be in his
library when a party of visitors, let in by mistake, was
being shown through the state-rooms ; and, in order not
to interfere with their pleasure or cause them any em-

SHAKESPEARE IN GERMANY. 79

barrassment, he actually concealed himself in a dark
china closet behind a set of " dummy " bookshelves,
whence he could hear the comments of the holiday-
makers upon his pictures, china, and bronzes.

It is a favourite boast of German literati, that the
works of William Shakespeare are more generally read,
more frequently acted, and more profoundly appreciated
in the Fatherland than in the island which gave him
birth, where, but for Henry Irving's great genius and
enterprising spirit, his superb plays would ere now have
fallen into desuetude ; and no Englishman who has lived
long enough in Germany to acquire a real acquaintance
with the literary tastes and intellectual tendencies of the
great middle class of Germans — in which are developed
an individually higher degree and a collectively larger
amount of mental culture than belong to the same order
in any other country of the world — can conscientiously
refuse to admit that the vaunt in question is founded on
fact ; humiliating as that confession cannot but be to a
countryman of the Swan of Avon. The Germans do
know all about Shakespeare's plays, made familiar to
them by translations that are triumphs of human intel-
lect ; some of the noblest contributions to a Shakespeare
literature have flowed from German pens ; and not only
in the chief centres of thought, art, and criticism — as
Vienna, Berlin, Munich, Diisseldorf, and so on — but in
the small provincial towns, where life is still a quiet
unemotional routine of small duties, troubles, and
pleasures, Hamlet, Othello, and Richard the Third
are played ten times in the year for once that they
obtain possession of the boards of a first-class London or

80 A WANDEREK'S NOTES.

provincial theatre, and draw more numerous audiences,
as a rule, than the second-rate German classical plays
themselves. Nearly two centuries have elapsed since
several of Shakespeare's tragedies and historical dramas
were first performed in Berlin by an English company ;
and it is a fact worthy of record that, in the course of
the 1873-4 winter season, the list of theatrical entertain-
ments published daily in the morning papers more than
once recorded the circumstance that no fewer than three
out of Berlin's eighteen theatres were occupied on the
same evening by Shakespearian plays.

Germans are steadier and more assiduous playgoers
than Englishmen ; indeed, a considerable portion of the
well-to-do bourgeois life in the Fatherland is passed in
the theatre. The love and enjoyment of dramatic per-
formances have come to the German much later than
they were imparted to the Englishman, the Spaniard,
Frenchman, or Italian ; but they are none the less
genuine and earnest for that, nor for the fact that he
depends chiefly upon foreign sources for their grati-
fication. Great original German dramatists may be
numbered on the fingers of one hand. But the Teuton
is the prince of translators ; his patience is inexhaustible,
his conscientiousness almost Quixotic, his lust of study
unappeasable ; besides which, his nature is essentially
assimilative, and the language at his disposal wherein to
render with photographic fidelity the idioms of ^Eschylus,
of Horace, of Shakespeare, Dante, or Cervantes, is so
wealthy, .elastic, and full of varied colour, that his
achievements in the way of translations, or rather repro-
ductions, may well rank amongst the most remarkable

THE GERMAN DRAMA. 81

efforts of modern literature. The repertoires of the
" subventioned " or Court theatres throughout Germany
are incredibly large, and the demands made upon the
sparsely- salaried actors are correspondingly heavy. These
repertoires contain little but translations, excepting the
works of Goethe, Schiller, Lessing, Kotzebue ; and are
slenderly recruited by German authors of the day, save
in the lighter branches of the drama, adorned with arti-
ficial fruit of brilliant hues but somewhat insipid flavour
by Bauernfeld, Lindau, Von Moser, and Mosenthal.

Considering the generality and sincerity of the
interest taken in the drama throughout Germany, one
is somewhat at a loss to account for the comparative
recentness of its acclimatization in the Fatherland, as
well as for the sterility displayed by the German intellect
with respect to the increase of dramatic literature ; just
as it is difficult to understand why, in a country num-
bering more possible readers among its inhabitants than
any other European realm, works of fiction should be so
inferior in quality and few in number, compared with
those produced in England and France. It appears at
least plausible to attribute the late introduction of the
drama into Germany to the check to civilized progress
caused by the long and disastrous internal struggles that
attended and followed the Eeformation, during an epoch
when the religious plays or mysteries that had hitherto
constituted the theatrical pabulum of the English public
were undergoing transformation into secular dramas.
German shortcomings in the matter of dramatic and
romantic authorship can only be ascribed to the character
of the German mind, which is critical rather than

VOL. II.

82 A WANDERER'S NOTES.

creative — analytical rather than imaginative. The in-
tellectual temper of this people disposes it to dispute all
assertions, however authoritative or solemn — and is,
consequently, unsympathetic towards fiction.

These natural dispositions and antipathies are in all
probability responsible for the curious circumstance that
Ralph Eoyster-Doyster, Gammer Gurtoris Needle, and The
Seven Champions of Christendom, absolutely secular plays,
had well-nigh passed out of fashion on the British stage
some time before the first religious play, founded on
a much older Mystery of foreign extraction, was per-
formed by the Berlin scholars in the town-hall of the
capital of the Brandenburg Electorate on the 6th of
January, 1539. It was "arranged" in rhymed verse,
by Henry Knaust — who, after the fashion of the time,
signed his works " Henricus Chnustinus " ; he was an
eminent jurist, who left behind him over sixty published
works, the majority of which were legal essays. Amongst
his lighter productions were a pamphlet on brewing,
another on geometry and the spheres, an attack upon
Mahomedanism, the tragedies of Cain and Abel and
Dido, and the comedy Pecuparumpius. The religious
play above mentioned was published at Berlin in 1541,
under the title A very beautiful and useful Play of the
lovely Birth of Our Lord Jesus Christ. I saw it performed
in January, 1873, by members of the Berlin Historical
Society, on the occasion of a festivity held in com-
memoration of that association's foundation day ; and I
am persuaded that a short account of so exceptional an
entertainment cannot fail to prove interesting to many
English lovers of the drama. For those who understand

A VIGOKOUS PROLOGUE. 83

German I venture to transcribe the Prologue in its quaint
original spelling ; its brevity, manliness of tone, and
sturdy defiance of the critics, are extremely refreshing.

So Jemand nicht wird gfallen das,
Derselbig mir dies bleibeii lasz,
Und mach ihm selbst etwas fuer sich
Und lasz hie ungetadelt mich.
Ich hab's gemacht, wie mir's gefalln,
Dem's nicht gfaellt, der lasz es ihm main !
Was gehet mich Dasselbig an 1
Ich hab hiebey mein Bestes gthan ;
Ein Ander mag auch thun so viel !
Gotts Ehr ist hier gwesen mein Ziel.

Few authors of the nineteenth century would have the
courage to preface their publications by so daring a
challenge to the good nature of their readers. " He
who is not pleased with this, let him let it alone, and
compose something for himself, and leave me here
unblamed. I have made it in the manner that pleased
myself; he who does not like it had better have it
painted for him ! What care I ? I have hereby done
my level best ; another may do as well ! To honour
God has been my purpose here ! " The metre of the
above lines is the same observed throughout the whole
of the five-act play.

The dramatis persona are : Gabriel, cum suis Angelis ;
Maria, Joseph, Elisabeth ; Tres Magi — Caspar, Melchior,
Balthasar; Herodes Rex, cum suis Militibus et Con-
siliariis ; Haubtman (a Captain), Cantzler (a Chancellor),
Prseco ; Nickel on Gelt et Hans Knebelbart (two sub-
ordinate devils or imps, the comic characters of the
piece); Annas, cum suis Scribis et Phariseis ; Decem,
vel ultra, Muliercule, cum pueris ; Novem Pastores ;

G 2

84 A WANDERER'S NOTES.

Beltzebub, curn suis Diabolis. A simple platform, covered
with green cloth, represented the stage ; the actors being
collected K., ascending the platform when " called/' and
making their exit L., whence they walked round behind
the stage to their original station in full sight of the
audience. The performance was conducted as closely as
possible in conformity with the traditions handed down
from the sixteenth century respecting the Playing* of
the -Scholars. Knaust, who was master of the school by
which his play was rendered, acted as call-boy, prologue-
speaker, herald, chorus, and prompter, besides filling up,
on the spur of the moment, any small part the boy
" cast " for which proved incapable of sustaining it at
the eleventh hour. He was admirably personified by
the President of the Historical Society, Privy-Councillor
Schneider, whose sallies of dry humour, accenting his
frequent changes of function, and couched in the quaint
phraseology current three centuries ago, more than once
elicited a roar of laughter from an exceptionally grave
and learned audience, composed exclusively of gentlemen
claiming some degree of proficiency in antiquarian lore.
There were, of course, no scenery and no decorations
whatever. Nothing could be more grotesque than the
effect produced by the appearance of a middle-aged
and luxuriantly bearded gentleman on the stage when
"Mary" was "called"; and Ashtaroth himself might
have failed to recognize Beelzebub, God of Flies, in the
very mild little savant with fair beard and spectacles,
who pleasantly declaimed the ferocious "lengths" as-
signed to that Demon Lord in the fourth act of the
play. The first scene opened with a short monologue

A MYSTERY-PLAY. 85

spoken by the Angel Gabriel — Bernhard Schulz, an
eminent historical painter of this capital — who, charged
with communicating a very sensational piece of intelli-
gence to Mary, is hovering outside her cottage, con-
sidering the terms in which he shall fulfil his mission
without unduly alarming her. To him enters Mary ;
then, after announcing his celestial character, he plunges
at once in mediae res, and, with a plainness of language
only rivalled by her own when she hears what is going
to happen, informs her that she has been selected as the
medium through which a miracle, having for its ulterior
object the redemption of human kind, is presently to
be performed. After expressing her extreme surprise at
the nature of the task prescribed to her, Mary declares
her readiness to comply with the Archangel's instructions,
extraordinary and unprecedented as they appear to be.

Several months are supposed to elapse between the
first act and the second — in the first scene of which
Joseph is much troubled and exercised in his mind with
respect to an unexpected family event that has just
come to his knowledge. He turns out of his workshop
to soliloquize comfortably over the difficulty in the cool
of the evening, and revolves with considerable exhaustive-
ness the question in his inner self, looking at it carefully
from every mundane and metaphysical point of view.
What line of conduct had he better adopt ? Should he,
as his wounded feelings suggest, thrust his wife out of
doors ; or should he put a good face on the " accident,"
and trust to time for oblivion ? Just as he is decidedly
inclining to the former course, and faces about homewards
with the intention of turning the house out of windows,

86 A WANDERER'S NOTES.

Gabriel makes himself manifest, and, in the cheerfullest
of conversational tones, lets Joseph into the secret of
the phenomena that had so astonished and vexed him ;
whereupon that worthy artisan casts away his cares, and
professes himself and his family to be entirely at the
disposition of the celestial authorities.

The next scene is inexpressibly funny, although its
humour is of the coarsest description. Enter the two
retainer Devils, Nickel on Gelt and Hans Knebelbart, in
sore tribulation as to the prospects of devildom on earth
by reason of what is going on in Nazareth. They
vociferate their conviction that " if the child shall be
born there will be left to honest, hard-working devils
like themselves no upright means of earning a respectable
livelihood. Nobody will be d— — d any more — why
should they? — and poor devils, forlorn of private property,
but eager for employment, will have positively nothing
whatever to do ! " Talking over this painful subject
makes them quite desperate. They are especially in-
dignant at the ingeniousness of the trick by which
their overthrow is about to be accomplished, and which
they regard as a subterfuge unworthy of such exalted
personages as their chief adversaries. They consult
together at great length respecting the means it may
be expedient to adopt in order to avert the calamity
threatening them ; but, not being able to make up their
minds to a definite plan of action, they agree to refer
their several projects to their illustrious master, Beelze-
bub. Before doing so, however, as a preliminary measure
of offence calculated to annoy the human race in general,
they resolve to inflict some terrible stenches upon society

A ROYAL STAR. 87

at large. Portentous sounds are heard, and, after an
interchange of compliments anent their respective capa-
bilities in the sulphur and brimstone line, Nickel on
Gelt and Hans Knebelbart skip off, bellowing horribly
their determination to do or die in " the good cause."

The third act introduces us to the shepherds (Novem
Pastores), who, whilst tending their flocks, have been
disturbed in their meditations by strange voices in the
air, singing Latin hymns, — which, to be sure, these
simple Syrian swains could scarcely be expected to
understand. Whilst they are deliberating over these
mysterious manifestations, singers in the wing (Quatuor
Cantores) interrupt their consultation by the most dismal
' Gloria in excelsis ' that ever shepherd or any other man
listened to. This determines them — by no means to the
astonishment of the audience, which betrayed signs of
considerable uneasiness during the quartet — to leave at
once for Bethlehem ; so exeunt Pastores. To them suc-
ceed the Three Kings, or Magi, who are much put about
by the unusual conduct of a star, which persists in
beckoning them onwards in a particular direction. They
seek to account for this, and speedily come to the con-
clusion that the star is a " Eoyal star," betokening the
proximate birth of a powerful monarch, to whom it is
their evident duty to pay their respects, not unaccom-
panied by goodly tribute of jewels and specie. Just as
they have settled the question, the star comes on, and
performs some devious vagaries that carry conviction to
the most incredulous mind. Exeunt Tres Magi. King
Herod now enters, attended by his Chancellor and High
Priest. This character was brilliantly rendered by a

88 A WANDERER'S NOTES.

gentleman of truculent appearance and sonorous voice,
in every way qualified to play the " villain " of the
piece. His Majesty has heard of something irregular
going on in connection with a baby, a star, and some
shepherds in an obscure corner of his dominions, and is
naturally desirous to get to the bottom of what appears
to be a decidedly illegal transaction. He is informed
by his Chancellor that three foreign monarchs have just
arrived, on their way to pay homage to the new-born
Prince, and at once requests the favour of their visit,
en passant. Melchior, Caspar, and Balthazar come in
and bqw ; he asks them to oblige him by obtaining all
the authentic information they can procure upon the
subject that is disquieting him, as they are "going that
way ; " and they promise, on their words of honour, to
call on their return journey and let him know all about
it. This promise, however, they do not mean to keep.

In the fourth act the Magi approach the stable,
guided by the star, and are quite overwhelmed with
surprise that such a wretched building should have been
chosen as the birthplace of a mighty Sovereign. They
pay their respects, however, to the family ; whereupon
Gabriel descends, warns them energetically — in strong
language, too — against Herod, and, turning to Joseph
and Mary, gives them a friendly hint to retire for a few
days into Egypt, as something very unpleasant may
shortly be expected to occur in the neighbourhood of
their present abode. The second scene takes us back to
Herod's palace, where we find that monarch in a violent
passion because of the Magi's failure to fulfil their word.
He has heard all about the proceedings at Bethlehem

MASSACRE OF THE INNOCENTS. 89

from other sources, and is determined to deal with the
possible usurper unmercifully, on the principle that " pre-
vention is better than cure." He accordingly instructs
a herald to summon all the mothers of male children
under two years of age to the palace, where they will
"hear of something to their advantage." Here appear
" Decem, vel ultra, Muliercule, cum pueris " — parts, as
Privy-Councillor Schneider informs us, formerly sustained
by the little boys of the fifth and sixth classes, who
were brought on naked and soundly thrashed by their
seniors, the representatives of Herod's soldiery. The
massacre scene was truly thrilling, Herod taking an
active part in the slaughter, and enjoying himself to
his heart's content. Alas ! his recreation is untimely
curtailed by Gabriel, who, after roundly abusing him in
old German slang which will not bear translation, stabs
him and vanishes. Herod's death-scene is a masterpiece
of bad language and impotent fury. He dies at last,
and the massacre ceases.

The fifth act opens with another comic scene between
Beelzebub and his fiendish Mamelukes. He is seriously
depressed in spirits — quite " played out," in fact — and
can see no way out of his troubles. Lamenting and
vituperating, he and his go their way. The whole winds
up with a recognition of the miracle, and more ' Glorias '
from the Cantores, if anything a trifle more lugubrious
than before. The play, acted "right away," without
any hitches or stoppages, lasted exactly an hour and
forty minutes ; the interest, admirably sustained, never
flagged for an instant, and many of the " points,"
especially the comic ones, were enthusiastically applauded.

90 A WANDERER'S NOTES.

The soliloquy spoken by Joseph, Herod's oily demeanour
to the Magi and gloating ferocity during the massacre,
the naive chat of the Three Kings about the star, and all
the "business" of the devils, were particularly telling
bits of composition ; and Gabriel's homely gossiping
manner of discharging his several missions — save where
he lost his temper with Herod, and used language that
would have done credit to either Hans Knebelbart or
Nickel on Gelt — proved invariably irresistible to the
risible proclivities of the audience. The " Stiftungs-
Fest" terminated with a splendid supper, at which
toast and song went round in good old style, as
became a company of jolly antiquarians, historians,
and archaeologists.

CHAPTER IV.

THE PRUSSIAN ARMY — REGIMENTAL MESSES — COURTS OF ELECTION AND

OF HONOUR PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS — A LANDWEHR BATTALION

ADMINISTRATIVE THRIFT A POUND OF SNUFF AND A COW8KIN.

IN the Prussian service, as in ours, the words " officer "
and "gentleman" are synonymous, or at least convert-
ible terms. Indeed, the large majority of the North
German officers are gentlemen by birth, entitled to
armorial bearings ; whilst the minority, of humbler
origin, are gentlemen in virtue of the uniform they
wear, and of the liberal education which it is imperative
that they should have received ere they could be ad-
mitted to the Offizierskorps. In Prussia, as in England,
it is all but physically impossible that an officer holding
subaltern rank should live on his pay ; unless he possess
a small private income he cannot avoid running into
debt ; and if he become involved in pecuniary embar-
rassments his military career very soon comes to a close.
The stern fact that the pay of a Second Lieutenant in
the German army is a fraction under £36 a year — about
the wages of a first-class coachman in a noble family,
without counting Jehu's perquisites — which does not
suffice to defray the expenses of uniforms, mess, and
band, excludes a vast number of young men belonging

92 A WANDERER'S NOTES.

to the middle classes from the adoption of the officer's
profession ; and these youths may be divided into two
categories — one consisting of those whose parents cannot
afford to allow them a Zulage, or annual stipend suffi-
ciently considerable to enable them to hold their own
with their comrades ; the other, of those to whom com-
merce, the arts, or the sciences offer prospects more
lucrative than those held out to them by the career
of arms. The officers' mess, an institution common to
Prussia and England only, of all the countries in which
standing armies are maintained, is established upon
principles of the strictest economy. The average price
of the dinner throughout the Guard — officered chiefly by
men of family and comparative wealth — is Is. 6d. ; and
I can vouch for the excellence of the meal supplied by
the mess stewards at that very moderate figure. In
country quarters and garrison towns the tariff varies
between 9d. and Is. Most messes import their own
claret and champagne — the former costs them '2s. a
bottle, the latter 5s. ; whilst beer is cheap and good in
every part of North Germany. Every officer, on joining,
is expected to contribute a silvern "Besteck" to the
regimental plate, which, of course, becomes the property
of the corps when he leaves it. In short, the same
spirit of association and camaraderie pervades the Prus-
sian service that has for so long been a leading cha-
racteristic of the British army, and that can hardly be
said to exist in the armies of France, Italy, Spain, or
even Austria. The officers of these four services do
not, as a rule, mess together. Captains associate with
Captains, Lieutenants with Lieutenants, et ainsi de suite ;

THE PIEDMONTESE CAVALRY. 93

whilst the gros bonnets of a regiment — the Colonel,
Lieutenant-Colonel, and Majors — are beings far too
grand and sublime to tolerate in their subordinate

o

officers the necessary equality of a dinner-table to
which every convive, from the junior subaltern to the
commander of the regiment, contributes an equal share
of the expenses incurred by the mess-steward.

This equality, however, though the very essence of
comradeship, and in no way interfering with discipline,
lends a charm to regimental society in Prussia and
England which, I do not hesitate to say, contributes mate-
rially to the esprit de corps animating the officers of both
those countries. Years ago, before Piedmont was merged
into Italy, ere its gallant and admirably trained little
army, the nucleus of the national host that has since
1870 assumed such enormous dimensions, was spread
out en modele over the Peninsula, the officers of its six
magnificent cavalry regiments had their messes organized
upon the English pattern with certain thrifty modifica-
tions, and lived together as brethren of arms should, in
friendship and loving kindness. Now all that is over ;
Neapolitans, Tuscans, ^Emilians, and Lombards have been
drafted into the regiments in question — which have even
been deprived of their distinctive names — replacing Pied-
montese nobles, sent down south to leaven the officers'
corps of the provincial armies, successively amalgamated
with the old Royal legions ; the first result of which
blending operation was that, as the officers thus jumbled
up together from different parts of the kingdom did not
" know one another at home," the regimental messes
were broken up, and every man took to living on his

94 A WANDERER'S NOTES.

own hook. Thus was a deathblow struck at hearty
good-fellowship amongst the officers of the ex-Pied-
montese cavalry.

It will readily be understood that, by reason of the
strong resemblance existing between the English and
Prussian services, in respect to the social class from
which the officers of both armies are recruited, as well as
to the inner regimental life of gentlemen holding com-
missions, the English Eoyal and Ministerial enactments
issued seventeen or eighteen years ago were perused
by military men throughout the German Empire with
the deepest interest, and were subjected to a close and
searching criticism. On the whole, they were considered
to be wholesome, intelligent, and calculated to increase
the efficiency of the British army ; but individual
regulations were freely censured ; and the absence of
others, found to work surprisingly well in this service,
was as freely deplored. In the Prussian army itself —
I speak, of course, of the Offizierskorps — a strong party,
numbering amongst its members some of the most
eminent soldiers of the age, existed, at the time to which
I refer, the feeling prevalent in which was decidedly
favourable to the introduction of the purchase system.
Several reasons appeared to render it desirable that a
sliding scale of purchase, not dissimilar to our much-
reviled system — minus the extra-regulation prices —
should be adopted. Those reasons were sufficiently
plausible to be deemed worthy of serious consideration
in the highest quarters ; and, in fact, towards the close
of the year 1869, were carefully tested and sifted by
those in authority. Eventually it was resolved to

PRUSSIAN OFFICERS. 95

adhere to the praxis already established, and, the
1870-1 campaign having triumphantly demonstrated
the efficiency of that praxis, it is highly improbable
that purchase will ever take place in German soil ; unless,
indeed, a long-protracted peace should bring about an
insufferable block in promotion. But purchase has
never been contemned in Prussia as it has been in
countries where democratic tendencies bloom and
flourish. The doctrine that "one man is as good as
another, aye, and a great deal better," has failed to
obtain a hearing in the Prussian army, whose chiefs,
whilst exacting from aspirants to commissioned rank
proficiency in all the branches of knowledge essential to
the education of a professional soldier, by no means
despise or undervalue the pecuniary qualification that,
with us, was formerly virtually a sine qud non, if not
to entrance into the service, certainly to promotion
therein. They hold that to serve King and Fatherland
in arms is the greatest honour to which a man of birth,
education, and spirit can aspire ; and that, to obtain it,
such a man should be prepared to make some slight
pecuniary sacrifice, besides that of his time, and, if need
be, of his blood. They opine that the man who devotes
his private means, or a part of them, to keeping up the
standard of respectability in the higher grades of the
national army is likely to turn out a more useful
member of that army than the man who is unable to
fulfil those conditions ; and, by inference, that therefore
the man who possesses a certain amount of money will
make a better officer than he who is wholly dependent
upon his pay. Were this not so, that pay would, long

06 A WANDERER'S NOTES.

ere now, have been raised, despite the natural and
necessary parsimoniousness of the Prussian administra-
tion. But the very exiguity of the remuneration
allotted by the State to its military officers acts at
once as a powerful stimulus to patriotism, and as an
eliminator of many social incongruities that could
scarcely be kept out of the army were that army a
profession offering reasonable competency to candidates
for a military career. If I may be permitted to say
so, the starvation scale on which the Prussian officers'
pay is settled has succeeded in establishing a sort of
negative purchase system. There is no money, of
course, paid over the counter for a commission or a
promotion at any time whatsoever; but the State as
good as says to the cadet or avantageur, " To make sure
of having my army officered by persons of a certain
standing, I give my subalterns a sum upon which they
cannot maintain themselves as gentlemen, and punish
them severely if they get into debt ; so that, if you have
not so much a year, your admission to the officers' corps
will merely entail upon you certain misery and possible
shame." The money qualification, therefore, is just as
urgently though not so clumsily exacted as of yore with
us, and, as supplemented as it is in Prussia by strict
examinations and officers' courts of election, there is no
doubt that it succeeds in barring out duffers and snobs.
I was dining one evening in August 1871 at the mess
of a crack cavalry regiment of the Guard, quartered at
Potsdam — and a better dinner I never sat down to at
any British mess-table — and as soon as coffee and cigars
had set in with their usual severity the British Royal

COURTS OF ELECTION. 97

Warrant and the "War-office Eegulations became the
topics of general conversation. There were optimists
and pessimists, of course. " What I am afraid of," said
one of the latter — whose name, by the way, is well
known at Aldershot — " is that, for the next ten years,
you will have an army officered by colonels and subal-
terns. Your captains, majors, and lieutenant-colonels,
especially in the cavalry, who have paid swinging
' extras ' for their commissions, will retire en masse —
and how are you going to fill up their vacancies ? God
forbid that you should have to fight for a dozen or
so years to come ! " " But can it be really intended/'
broke in Graf von Beust, "that the army shall be
thrown open to the public, so that anybody with most
marks to his name, won in competitive examination,
shall have the right to obtain a commission ? I don't
see how your fellows are to live together if men are to
be forced into their company to whose manners or
antecedents they may reasonably object ; besides which
it would be deuced hard lines upon the incoming man
if, because he dropped his h's or picked his teeth with
his fork — which habits he may have learned at home,
and yet be an excellent military theorist — he found
himself avoided and left out in the cold by his com-
rades. We, as you know, constitute a Court of Election
and a Court of Honour in our own regiment, and this
is the case in every regiment of the Prussian army ;
when a fellow has passed his examination all right, and
is put down for a commission in our corps, we assemble
in plenum and sit on him, a certain time having been
allowed for inquiry into his character, social standing,

VOL. II. H

98 A WANDERER'S NOTES.

means, &c. If any officer have an objection to his admis-
sion amongst us, that officer is obliged, upon honour, to
substantiate his said objection ; if it be found valid, we
endorse it, and our decision is accepted as final at head-
quarters. Either the youngster is quietly got rid of,
or another regiment is tried. As all the proceedings are
strictly confidential, the candidate's prospects in any
other line are not damaged, nor are his feelings wounded.
And we, for our part, are able to make sure that no
person of ungentlemanly habits or unpleasant disposi-
tion is admitted to our intimacy ; for, once in the
regiment, the Newcome is one of ourselves, and treated
as a comrade in whom unlimited confidence may be
placed. Nor, in our Court, do we allow any trivial or
purely personal objection to stand in his way. He has
thoroughly fair play in the matter of his entrance, as he
has ever afterwards, according to his behaviour in the
regiment — and no man has a right to ask for more.
Any officer misconducting himself in such manner — not
in his service, of course, for that concerns a court-
martial — that notice must be taken of his action by
his brother-chips, is tried by our Court of Honour, and
its verdict, if unfavourable, is accepted by the superior
authorities as a ground for his removal from the army,
or transfer to another corps, as the case may be. The
protocols, which are likewise confidential, are duly drawn
up, and eventually submitted to his Majesty, who per-
sonally looks into each case with the greatest care,
deciding what is to be done with the offender." This
last fact is a proof of the fatherly interest taken
by William I. in his army. When one reflects upon

PRUSSIAN PHYSIQUE. 99

the infinite variety of his occupations, one cannot but
wonder how he finds time to keep so strict — and so
kindly, for the King ever inclines towards a lenient
course, and can with difficulty be induced to sign a
death-warrant — a watch over the career of his officers.

Of late years it has more than once been justly
observed that, despite the fondness for and aptitude in
athletic sports characterizing the English people, Britons
of the present generation cannot boast of greater size,
width, weight, and endurance than were attained by their
forefathers. This statement, which I have no doubt is
well founded, suggested to me an inquiry with respect.
to the actual state of physical standards in Prussia as
compared with their conditions half a century ago,
shortly after the conclusion of the War of Emancipa-
tion, which left Germany impoverished and enfeebled,
though victorious. The few trustworthy data I have
been able to glean upon this subject may not be without
interest for my readers.

Nothing strikes a foreigner, especially if he be a mili-
tary man, so forcibly upon entering Prussia, either from
France or Belgium, as the size of the soldiers compared
with that of the dapper but undersized legionaries he has
encountered in the last-named countries. The Prussian
liner is not only a taller fellow than the French or Bel-
gian pioupiou, but he is stouter, heavier, and stronger than
either. On an average, five Prussian liners weigh as
much as six French lignards ; this fact was satisfactorily
established during the last war, when the presence of some
300,000 French soldiers in Germany enabled military
ethnologists to ascertain with considerable accuracy the

H 2

100 A WANDERER'S NOTES.

main differences in the physical materials of which the
hostile armies were composed. The eleven-stone man may
be said to predominate throughout the Prussian army,
putting the Guards' corps out of the question ; and in
one or two of the provincial corps — as, for instance, the
2nd (Pomeranian), the Brandenburg and Westphalian
Corps — there are often as many twelve-stone as ten-stone
men. The Infantry of the Guard and Guard Landwehr
presents a body of men numbering between forty and
fifty thousand, whose average height is 5 ft. 9| in., and
weight 11 stone 8 Ibs. From six to seven thousand of
these range from 6 ft. to 6 ft. G in. in height. All the
Cuirassiers (there are fifteen or sixteen regiments of
them) are huge fellows, those of the Guard being giants
in size, breadth, and strength, riding nearly twenty-one
stone with their accoutrements, &c. The Foot Artillery
is composed of picked men, ranging between 5 ft. 8 in.
and 6 ft. high. Even in the Polish and East Prussian
Infantry regiments, recruited in districts the well-being
of which stands at a much lower average than that of
the other Prussian provinces (I have been assured on
indisputable authority that a large proportion of the
annual contingent from Prussian Poland, Lithuania, and
the barren lands on the Russian frontier, consists of youths
who have never tasted meat or wine until they j oined the
ranks of the army), a man standing under 5 ft. 5 in. in
his regimental boots is a rare and exceptional sight.

In Germany, above all other countries, the army and
the male population are convertible terms. The army
is more than the pick of the nation ; it is the nation
itself. All the male adults of Prussia, save cripples,

THE GERMAN SERVICE SYSTEM. 101

dwarfs, or those afflicted by constitutional debilities,
have been, are, or will be soldiers. Youths are, as
it were, taken bodily out of the way of temptation,
at the most dangerous period of their lives, when
their passions are at a maximum and their judgment
at a minimum, and sequestered from the world for
nearly three years, during which their muscles are
developed and their intelligence is supplied with the
means of development. They are taught to practise an
absolute and blind obedience ; they are fed wholesomely
and sufficiently, but in such sort as to render them com-
paratively indifferent to good cheer ; they are made to
work harder than they would have had to labour at any
calling whatsoever in private life ; their morals are looked
after with extreme strictness ; and when they have com-
pleted their term of service, if they manifest no desire
to " capitulate " or re-enlist, they are dismissed to their
respective civil avocations, as a rule, in high health,
bodily and mental, well set up, hard and tough, sound
in wind and limb, with habits of order, sobriety, and
economy, and in every respect better men than they
would have been had they spent the three years in
question at the plough, the forge, or the desk. The
large majority of these emancipes return at once to the
groove from which their summons to the Prussian
standards plucked them in their twenty-first year, and,
as soon as they have recovered the ground lost to them
during their absence, marry and beget large vigorous
children. Prussia is the country par excellence for early
marriages and large families — of course I mean amongst
the lower classes. The throngs of sturdy, hardy children

102 A WANDERER'S NOTES.

pervading the streets of Prussian towns and villages
would cause a disciple of Malthus to shudder with horror
and disgust at every step he took in localities so philo-
progenitively defiant of his principles. These riotous
and masterful youngsters are, in a great measure, the
practical results of the general military service system.
Generation upon generation of them, for the last seventy
years, have been making their appearance upon this
worldly stage, each a trifle bigger or stronger than its
predecessor — a very trifle, possibly, but still something.

And so it is that the army measures have waxed and
increased since 1813, until they have reached dimensions
that, could the Prussian hosts of the Befreiungskrieg be
summoned from their rest and paraded for inspection
by the side of the present army, would astonish those
veterans very considerably. The uniforms of the 1887
levies would hang like draperies on the limbs of Bliicher's
" babes " and Ltitzow's Wild Huntsmen ; and the sinewy
young troops that in vadedj France eighteen years ago
could not have got into the breeches and tunics of the
heroes who struggled against Napoleon's legions at Ligny
and Gemappes. Judging from the data I was able to
get at, I should say that the average Prussian adult of
1872 was three inches bigger round the chest and two
inches taller than was his grandfather or great-grand-
father in 1822. Nor must this be attributed to an
increment in general bien-etre ; for that has been also the
case, and to a greater extent, in Great Britain, and yet it
appears to be admitted that Great Britons are not larger
or stronger men than their progenitors. No ; it is not
because the Prussians of now-a-days eat more meat,

ADVANTAGES OF POVERTY. 103

drink more wine and beer, and work fewer hours daily
than did those other Prussians with whom our troops
fought side by side in Belgian plains and forests, that
their stature and girth have increased, whilst ours have
remained " as they were ; " it is because half a century
and more of compulsory military service has coerced
Prussian men, from father to son, into improving the
condition of their bodies, with the limited object, truly,
of attaining the highest possible degree of fighting power,
but also with the magnificent effect of ameliorating in
an extraordinary measure the physical force of a whole
nation.

Moreover, the Prussians, as a people, have enjoyed
the inestimable advantage of poverty. They have
been more sober, more chaste, more thrifty, more inured
to privations, harder worked than any other great
European people — not because they are of their nature
paragons of the virtues, far from it, but because hard
necessity has been their master, as well as the shrewd,
sagacious Hohenzollern. Wealth brings with it comforts
and luxuries, and is followed hard at heel by degener-
ation. It makes life easier and happier, and, like the
pursuit of the arts, softens the manners, but also softens
the muscles. Thirty years of almost unexampled pros-
perity delivered great France, courageous but impotent,
into the hands of her foes, whose bodies and souls had
been tempered the while to the hardness of steel by
poverty, hard work, and frugality. And yet who — not
being of either nationality — does not prefer a French-
man to a Prussian as a companion ? For poverty does
not make people amiable, nor, to tell the truth, does

104 A WANDERER'S NOTES.

hard work, whilst there is but a step from thrifti-
ness to meanness ; and amenity of feeling, courtesy of
demeanour, even common civility, are unfortunately
incompatible with the mental and physical habits incul-
cated in the people by a military regime like that which
obtains in Germany at the present day. In a word,
nations have to choose, as matters stand, between im-
proving their bodies and improving their manners.
Prussia made her choice long ago ; she has widened and
deepened her chest, added considerably to her stature,
put on an astonishing amount of muscle, and hardened
her frame to every sort of trial, effort, and exposure ;
consequently, she has doubled up, humiliated, and
mulcted her more wealthy, easy- going, and amiable
neighbours. She is at the top of the tree ; everybody
is afraid of her. People do not, of course, experience
any extravagant degree of affection for those of whom
they stand in grievous bodily fear. So she is not loved
— at least, not fervently. But what does that matter to
her ? She is Sir Oracle ; and when she opens her mouth
all men punctually hold their peace. Her military
system has made her what she is, and nothing but
prosperity or revolution can unmake her military system.
As far as English physical modifications are concerned, I
must leave my readers to draw their own inferences from
the facts detailed above.

In the pleasant early summer-time, towards the end
of the London season, may frequently be seen, packed
away in odd corners of daily papers, or haply squeezed
into the Naval and Military column, festive announce-
ments recording that " the annual dinner of the 40th

ANNIVERSARY BANQUETS. 105

Bombardiers was held last night at Limmers' Hotel/' or
" The officers of the Royal Horse Guards Russet dined
together on Wednesday evening, the glorious anniversary
of Bergen-op-Zoom." These regimental dinners are
pleasant meetings enough, at which military magnates,
collared and starred, sit down under their old colours,
with youngsters fresh from Sandhurst and Addiscombe ;
and country squires, members of Parliament, and Lords-
Lieutenant, long since retired from the service, don the
familiar uniform of their youth again for one night to
testify their regard for the regiment in which, may be,
they passed some of the happiest years of their lives.
At such banquets, besides the regimental officers actually
on the cadres de service, are to be found G.C. B/s, M.P/s,
J.P.'s, and half the letters of the honorific alphabet —
good comrades for the nonce, bound together by the
freemasonry of the flag under which, at one time or
another, all have served. But it is seldom that a
hundred convives can be got together for such an occa-
sion, however energetically the Mess-president may whip
the West-end and the counties ; fifty is considered a
good " meet/' although I suppose there is scarcely a
regiment in her Majesty's land forces that cannot count
on its roster over a hundred names of living men who

c5

belong, or have belonged, to its officers' corps. The
exception to the rule of half-a-hundred or fewer diners
at a " Military Annual " is, of course, afforded by her
Majesty's Regiment of Royal Artillery. I do not venture
to conjecture what the strength of the "gunners' " mess
would be on such an occasion — probably something in
three figures ; but the non-active element would certainly

106 A WANDERER'S NOTES.

be less numerously represented than in the case of a
Guard, Line, or Cavalry regiment, since voluntary retire-
ments from the R.A. are rare occurrences, and nobody
ever yet sold out of that distinguished corps.

Strange as it will doubtless appear to some of my
readers, I can positively assure them that the officers of
a Prussian battalion with whom I supped one evening
in the winter of 1872 — a battalion, not a regiment —
actually outnumbered our gallant Artillerists holding
the Queen's commission, were the latter gathered together
from all parts of the British Empire, and paraded, from
the Colonel Commandant-in-Chief down to the last joined
Second Lieutenant, on Woolwich-common, there to
undergo a complimentary inspection before they went
in to dinner. What will English soldiers and volunteers
say to a battalion to which more officers belong than
are possessed by the Brigade of British Guards ? A
battalion ! Why the officers themselves might con-
stitute a battalion at need, and one numerically stronger
than any in our service, unless I am much mistaken.
We are on a peace footing; and the battalions I saw
march past the Duke of Cambridge a few months ago
could not have mustered more than from 450 to 550
strong. I doubt whether any battalion of the House-
hold Brigade at the present moment can boast of more
than 700 bayonets ; whereas to the Berlin battalion, No.
35, of the Landwehr, at whose mess I was a guest on
the occasion referred to, belonged no fewer than seven
hundred and fifty-eight commissioned officers ! Every
nuance of upper and middle class society was, and I
doubt not still is, represented in this extraordinary

LANDWEHR OFFICERS. 107

Offizierskorps — the middle, however, predominating;
there were nobles, gentry, lawyers, doctors, professors
of sciences and the learned faculties, and tradesmen of
all sorts, undistingirshable in every outward respect save
one from their comrades of the regulars, many of them
profusely decorated for gallantry in the last three wars
— all of them as smart and " tires aux quatre epingles "
as the gayest Guardsman that ever promenaded the
Linden or rode in the Thiergarten. But for the tiny
cross in the cockade, you would have taken them for
" actives," and would, in all probability, have said to
yourself, as I did upon entering the magnificent ban-
queting-hall of the ' Englisches Haus,' "How is it, I
wonder, that the officers of the Prussian army are bigger,
handsomer, and better set-up men than the officers of
any other Continental army, not even excepting the
Austrian s ? "

One of the first acquaintances I came across —
the last time I had seen him was at Versailles, just
after the affair of Montretout, in which the Garde
Landwehr made acquaintance with the Parisian National
Guard, very much to the latter's discomfiture — was an
eminent Berlin bookseller, whose establishment Unter
den Linden was an " institution" of the capital, so far as
foreign visitors were concerned. Though only a Lieu-
tenant, and a young man, he had been honoured with
the Iron Cross for valour in the field ; indeed, he won
his grade in France " at point of fox." This gentleman,
like his seven hundred and fifty-seven fellow officers, had
returned to his peaceful and profitable avocations. To
see him in his quiet office, surrounded by books and

108 A WANDERER'S NOTES.

prints, and looking after his business with the greatest
care and activity, nobody would have imagined that he
had ever girded up his loins to fight the French, and
had been a leader of men in battle. But in his uniform,
with the hard-earned cross of honour glittering on his
breast, he looked the very type of the Prussian officer,
to whom Wellington's phrase — that he will " go any-
where and do anything " — is eminently applicable. In
war-time Prussia freely utilizes her Eeserve forces ; there
is virtually no difference whatever between the Landwehr
and the Line, save that the former, if anything, are the
finer troops of the two. But in peace time the officer of
regulars falls back into his old groove of hard and tire-
some duty ; whereas the Landwehr officer doffs his
uniform and puts it away in a cupboard, thence only
to be extracted for a few weeks' annual drill, or for
attendance at a meeting such as that to which this para-
graph refers. He is always, however, at the disposal of
his country ; and a political complication may at any
moment reconvert him into a combatant, subject to
exactly the same conditions, as regards service abroad,
promotion, pensioning, &c., as those binding the officers
of the standing army.

Casting his eyes over the brilliant throng that filled
the reception room, the Lieutenant-Colonel commanding
the battalion called my attention to the number of
decor es present. " There is not such another body in
Prussia," said he, " as that which is now before your
eyes. In most of our provincial Landwehr battalions
the officers are county gentlemen, members of noble
houses who frequently have retired from active service

A REMARKABLE BATTALION. 109

in the army, and, living on their estates or in small
country towns, are glad to occupy a part of their leisure
with militia duties. From father to son the ' well-born.'
in the provinces become officers in the army ; and those
who quit the .active career after a few years' service — as
many do on their marriage, or because they find regi-
mental life too expensive, or because they come into
their property — in short, for a variety of reasons —
apply, almost without exception, for commissions in the
Landwehr. But our Berlin battalion is officered from
altogether different sources. Look around you ; almost
all the gentlemen you see here belong to the professional
or commercial hard workers of this capital. They are
men whose occupations are, for the most part, highly
remunerative ; to whom the interruption of those occu-
pations means serious pecuniary loss ; to whom peace
brings prosperity, war certain calamity and possible
ruin, without counting risks of lead, steel, and sickness ;
and yet it is of their own free-will that they are Land-
wehr officers, and there is not one of them who would
not, should another war break out, leave his study,
counting-house, or shop, to march against the enemies
of his country, mit Gott far Kb'nig und Vaterlandl
Prussia has reason to be proud of such patriotism in
her bourgeoisie. In other countries the merchant and
tradesman limit their share of the national defences to
the payment of taxes, and grumble if these are raised
to meet the demands of a war-budget. Here we burghers
contribute our money, our interests, and our blood. And
this is why war is so much more terrible for us than
for any other people. In England, the soldier is a

110 A WANDERER'S NOTES.

mercenary. You employ him to fight your battles as you
employ a coachman to drive your horses, or a postman
to carry your letters. If he be killed, your investment
in him turns out a dead loss, and you are obliged to
replace him, possibly at an advanced price ; but when
your war is over, you pay the bill, and commerce, trade,
science, art — society at large, in fact — are little the
worse for the loss of life sustained by your rank and
file. With us, however, war, however successful, inflicts
irreparable damage upon the social mechanism that
regulates the national well-being. Every victory anni-
hilates some productive power, or dries up a source of
wealth. Can any triumphs or war indemnities com-
pensate us for the sacrifice of men upon whose lives
hundreds of bread-earners were dependent for their
employment — for the paralysing of industry, commerce,
and manufactures that results from the withdrawal of
forces operative and intellectual, en masse, from our
country for the best part of a year ? "

On the truly Prussian principle of combining in-
struction with recreation, the officers of the 35th had
persuaded one of the greatest heraldic authorities in
Germany, Privy Councillor Louis Schneider, to deliver
a lecture at their soire'e, before supper, upon the " Staats-
Wappen," or Eoyal Arms of Prussia, which, if I remember
aright, are composed of no fewer than sixty-two different
coats. The grand saloon, in which a tribune had been
erected for the accommodation of the learned lecturer — •
well known to the heralds of all countries as the historian
of the several orders of Prussian chivalry — was tastefully
decorated with the banners of all the coats in question,

THE HOHENZOLLERN COAT. Ill

correctly blazoned, and serving to illustrate Herr Schnei-
der's chronological account of the additions made suc-
cessively by the Hohenzollerns to their ancient family
bearings. These to this day occupy the fundamental
place in the Prussian arms, the shields holding the next
most important positions (from an heraldic point of
view) to that given to the plain black and white squares
— whence the national colours — being those of Branden-
burg and Prussia Proper. Herr Schneider prefaced the
historical part of his discourse with a short sketch of the
origin of heraldry, the transition from mathematical
figures — of which the earliest coats chiefly consist — to
devices of various descriptions, borrowed by enterprising
heralds from the great natural kingdoms, but purposely
travestied into presentments that could by no means be
mistaken for mere servile copies of the original models.
It is not accidentally, or through the graphic incapacity
— reproduced through fidelity to tradition — of their first
designers, that heraldic lions, leopards, and other beasts,
resemble not, in colour or in form, the living carnivora
whose names they bear. The founders of the "noble
and joyous science," deeming that fidelity to nature was
inconsistent with the loftiness of the purposes aimed at
in the establishment of heraldry, evolved from the
depths of their inner consciousness perfectly new species
of lions and leopards, fantastically unreal, and living
only en blason. Nobody ever yet saw a lion au naturel
depicted upon a coat of arms ; he is or, argent, azure,
gules, or sable in colour as the case may be — there are
even green lions, and in highly respectable ecussons, too ;
his tongue is as the tongue of a serpent, and he not

112 A WANDERER'S NOTES.

infrequently is furnished with two tails — a caudal exu-
berance that would have astonished Ge'rard or Cumming,
had those remorseless enemies of the desert monarch
ever come across a lion heraldically constituted. Herr
Schneider had got about half through the shields of the
Prussian monarchy, when supper-time, to which all
other attractions are subordinate in Germany, arrived,
and cut short his most interesting lecture. In ten
minutes tribune and seats had been cleared away, to
make room for long tables, at which, by word of com-
mand from the Colonel, we took our seats, and promptly
commenced a Homeric repast. As is customary in the
Fatherland, the toasts of the evening, " The Emperor,"
and " The 35th Battalion," were given between the first
and second and third courses respectively, and greeted
with thundering " hochs." The party broke up early,
about eleven p.m., after as sensible an evening's amuse-
ment as could possibly be desired. No deep drinking,
no cards, no after-supper inflictions in the way of song-
singing or any nonsense of that sort ; but an admirable
lecture, a good solid meal, an hour's chat over tobacco—
and then to bed, like decent, steady-going Landwehr
officers.

The longer I lived in Prussia, the stronger grew
my persuasion that — thanks to the peculiar institutions
established upon its soil by Scharnhorst, Von Boy en, Von
Kleist, Von Hake, and the rest of the stern old warriors
who turned Prussia into a permanent camp more than half
a century ago — it is quite impossible for any man within
its limits, however well-born, wealthy, accomplished,
and amiable, to be looked upon as a gentleman, and be

MILITARY BRAHMINS. 113

received into good society, unless he is or has been an
officer in the Army or Navy — unless he has a right to
attire himself in a uniform which indicates that it is, or
has been at some period of his existence, his especial
province to slay his fellow-creatures, or, at least, to
compass their destruction. A civilian, socially speaking,
is nowhere ; he does not count ; he cannot be " anybody "
because he does not hold some Majesty's commission.
In that Prussian social stratum which corresponds to
our Upper Ten Thousand, a second lieutenant of cavalry
stands higher than the most learned professor, eloquent
advocate, or skilful physician — unless, haply, those gentle-
men should hold military rank outside their respective
professions, as many of them do. If you, being a
civilian, are in some public place insulted by an officer,
in however outrageous a manner, and if in the heat of
your anger you strike him, he has no choice but to draw
and cut you down. That you are unarmed and defence-
less is nothing to the purpose ; he must use the cold
steel to punish your outrecuidance , for, did he spare you,
he would expose himself to the risk of being tried by
a court-martial and broken. He must not sit in the
opera- stalls ; he is too great, too sublime a personage for
that ; the stalls are for such inferior beings as civilians.
Be his birth noble or plebeian, he is " Court- worthy," in
virtue of his silver sword-knot. There is no mistake
about him. It is settled, not only by the law of the
land, but by social enactment, that, being an officer, he
is a gentleman ; no matter to what station of life his
family may belong.

And, if it be granted that the maintenance of an

VOL. II.

114 A WANDERER'S NOTES.

enormous army is a wholesome and desirable con-
dition of national house-keeping, it is doubtless highly
expedient for the preservation of the public peace, and
for the avoidance of countless trifling complications in
the relations between soldiers and civilians, that the
position of the officer should be elevated to such a
pinnacle of honour, distinction, and advantage, that it
virtually disqualifies him from the committal of any
misconduct. A man to whom is conceded the undoubted
pas of every other man, his equal or superior in birth or
fortune, who does not wear a uniform, has no excuse
whatever for behaving badly ; he looks down upon the
pekin from so lofty an eminence, he is taught to enter-
tain such a large self-respect, that everybody outside his
own caste is safe from him ; he cannot molest civilians
— it would be too great a condescension for him to do
so. Being, then, a Brahmin, he behaves as such ; is a
model of propriety in his demeanour to all sorts and con-
ditions of men — affable and friendly to brother-soldiers,
of whatsoever nationality — politely reserved towards
civilians, sternly civil towards hoi polloi. He is punc-
tilious in his courtesy, scrupulously honourable in his
dealings, unrelaxing in his self-control. Honour is the
mainspring of his life. He practises assiduously the
virtue of hospitality, which lies practically in abeyance
so far as his civilian-countrymen are concerned. He is
ever deferential to ladies. It is in military society that
the amenities of life may be best enjoyed by the resident
foreigner, provided that he is admitted to it in virtue of
an unquestionable qualification. After the tie of blood,
that of comradeship is the strongest of all social bonds

THE BERLIN " RESERVES." 115

which connect Prussian with Prussian, Prussian with alien.
Many Englishmen believe the Prussian army to be a close
borough for the scions of Prussian nobility. This is by
no means the case. The Guard is almost exclusively
officered by men of title ; but fully one-half of the com-
missions held by Line officers bear the names of men who,
from a Heralds' College point of view, are " not born."
These, however, are on terms of perfect equality with
their " born " comrades. Tuft-hunting is unknown in the
Prussian " officers-corps," whose members are united in
that closest of camaraderie which may best be described
as " one for all, and all for one."

The 35th (Berlin) Reserve Battalion affords a remark-
able exemplification of this perfect and lasting good-
fellowship. Its officers-corps, as I have already pointed
out, is the most numerous possessed by any battalion,
regiment or brigade in the armies of the universe. A
battalion of the Prussian Guard on a peace footing does
not yield so many men as there are officers in the 35th.
They outnumber the rank and file of an average British
line regiment. There are over eight hundred of them.
Every nuance of the middle and upper classes is repre-
sented amongst them, from bourgeois to prince, from
tradesman to Lord High Chamberlain. Rich and poor,
gentle and simple, young and old, they are 'all Ions
camarades ; the " Kaiserkleid " is an absolute leveller of
all private class distinctions, only it levels upwards, not
downwards. I formerly owned many friends in the
" Offizierskorps " of the 35th, and have been repeatedly
bidden to its festivities, intellectual as well as material
— for in winter the battalion regales itself often before

I 2

116 A WANDERER'S NOTES.

mess with interesting lectures upon subjects professional

and scientific ; and, in the course of a considerable

experience, I have never known a more united body

of men in any service. It is a happy family, and as

hospitable as it is happy. In summer time as in winter

time, the officers combine in the arrangement of a variety

of entertainments, to which a certain number of guests

are invited by the committee ; nor do they exclude the

fair sex from their amusements — loyal to the good old

axiom, " Kein Vergnligen ohne Dam en." So strong a

corps, as may well be imagined, is able to organize its

fetes upon a grand scale. Let me attempt to describe a

specimen excursion in which I was fortunate enough to

take part one fine autumn day. In the invitation, I

should premise, was enclosed a return railway ticket and

a separate card for an at fresco banquet. About five

hundred ladies and gentlemen, the latter in uniform,

assembled at the Potsdam railway station, where a

special train awaited them to convey them to the

Prussian Versailles. Arrived at Potsdam, they were

embarked in two pretty little steamers — to one of which

was attached a huge barge, containing the full band

of the Guard Rifles — and taken down the Havel, past

Babelsberg, Glienicke, the Isle of Peacocks, and many

other charming spots, to a cosy little wooded nook

called Morlake, where they were regaled with a copious

luncheon. Re-embarking after having partaken of this

welcome refreshment, the 35th, its "better half/' and

its guests, proceeded to the Wannsee, and thence to the

Royal country-seat, Sacrow, where the band was landed.

Speedily a fine smooth piece of green sward was selected,

A MILITARY PICNIC.

117

and the battalion addressed itself, obeying the strains
of Strauss and Gung'l, to demonstrating its proficiency
in a branch of gymnastics that is arduously cultivated
throughout Germany — while mammas, escorted by the
older officers, explored the grounds and shrubberies, and
visited the river-side church, built by order of the late
King on an Italian model, with the campanile standing
alone at some distance from the body of the edifice.

At eight o'clock sharp all sat down to an excellent
dinner under the trees, on the branches of which were
suspended Chinese lanterns. When the second course
had been removed, Colonel von Witten proposed the
Emperor's health in a short and stirring speech ; a
brilliant display of fireworks enlivened our dessert ; and
as we steamed from the friendly scene of our bal cham-
petre and banquet, the hostelry and church of Sacrow
were brilliantly illuminated with Bengal lights, their
reflected images glowing on the glassy surface of the
water with redoubled splendour. Once we had fairly
started, the orchestra in the barge struck up Mendels-
sohn's delicious ' Oh ! hills, oh ! vales/ in which a
hundred tuneful voices joined with excellent intonation ;
so we floated gently towards Potsdam to sweet strains
— bright moonbeams flickering the river-breast with
millions of liquid diamonds, and the balmiest of breezes
fanning our cheeks. As we passed Babelsberg the Eifles
sounded a flourish of trumpets, and we gave three ring-
ing cheers for the King. How homely to English ears
sounded the National Hymn that closed our little ova-
tion ! The whole expedition was so delightful, so utterly
unmarred by mishap or contretemps, that we all felt it

118 A WANDERER'S NOTES.

was too soon over ; and yet we did not reach Berlin
till midnight. In such a manner did the 35th Keserve
Battalion take its summer pleasure. Nobody quarrelled ;
nobody drank too much wine ; and when the ladies were
seated in the homeward-bound train, a bouquet of fresh
roses was brought to each as a last greeting.

A few nights after the picnic at Sacrow I was again
the guest of the 35th Reserve Battalion ; that elastic
corps from which in war time a dozen regiments could
be fitted out anew with officers, supposing them to have
incurred losses so heavy as to render such extraordinary
recruitment necessary. A few extracts from the " Ver-
zeichniss," or roll, will serve to give my readers an idea
of the olla podrida of nobles, officials, professional and
scientific men, and tradespeople, that constituted the
officers' corps of this renowned battalion in the year
1872. For instance, Count Eulenburg, Lord High
Chamberlain to the Crown Prince, and Count Goetz
von Seckendorff, one of H.I. and R.H. Chamberlains —
who is as well known on the " shady side " of Pall-mall
as he is under the Linden — were Captains in the 35th.
But so were Messieurs Uebe, Schmidthals, and Zuther,
officers of the Berlin police ; Mr. Collas, a book-keeper
in the Finance Department ; and Messieurs Pescatore
and Holtz, city magistrates. Both the young Princes
de Radziwill, Counts von Eedern, von Donhoff, von
Hohenthal, von Piickler, von Konigsmark ; MM. von
Tumpling, Charge* d' Affaires at Stuttgart ; von Brandt,
Charge* d' Affaires in Japan ; von Keudell, Privy Coun-
cillor and Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs ;
and Prince Handjery, were Lieutenants in the battalion :

A GROUP OF LANDWEHR OFFICERS. 119

so were Messieurs Bock, bookseller; Brauer, builder;
Wiehoff, chemist; Anschtitz, student of philosophy;
Evler, clerk in the Post Office; Erhardt, wine mer-
chant ; Stoedtner, carpenter; Jancke, the Royal gardener
at Monbijou ; Bussler, Head Master of the Sophia Gym-
nasium ; Stoewesand, mason ; Rasche, manager of the
Continental Telegraph Company; Zimmermann, D.C.L.;
and Mendelssohn- Bart holdy, banker. Besides these
representatives of the bourgeoisie, the " Verzeichniss "
contained the names of railway clerks, law students,
medical men, grocers, Government employes of all grades,
foresters, district judges, doctors of philosophy, civil
engineers, commission agents, professors, secretaries of
insurance companies, architects, rough-riders, and consuls.
Of the 800 officers, or so, attached to the 35th, at
least one-fourth were at the time I refer to men of
means, comparatively wealthy for that part of the world
— that is to say, enjoying incomes that ranged from
£400 to £3000 a year ; yet so deeply were they imbued
with the principles of thrift imparted to every Prussian
almost with his mother's milk, and with the determin-
ation to preserve, so far as regimental matters were
concerned, that equality amongst comrades which is to
Englishmen one of the most attractive features of the
Prussian service, that they did not possess a club-house
or even a mess-room of their own, but met to sup or
dine together at hotels or restaurants. Eight hundred
English officers belonging to the same regimental corps
would certainly have " a place of their own," especially
if their corps were a metropolitan force like the gallant
35th. The " place " would probably be a splendid mansion,

120 A WANDERER'S NOTES.

luxuriously furnished, and provided with all the com-
forts of modern life ; the expense of it would be greater
than the majority of the officers could honestly afford to
defray ; and the consequence would be that, to avoid an
esclandre, the richer officers would put their hands in
their pockets and pay for the poorer. Now that is what
Prussian officers — the poor among them, I mean — will
not have at any price. No man does more than another
in the way of contributing to expenses the character of
which is corporate ; and, the large majority of officers
being really poor, the small wealthy minority is kept
within bounds and forced to be economical " im
kameradschaftlichem Leben," whether it likes or not.
In the Guard, especially in two or three regiments such
as the Gardes du Corps, the Cuirassiers, and the Garde
Uhlans, most of the officers, all of whom are noblemen,
are pretty well off ; while some of them are in receipt
of large private incomes — from £2000 to £5000 a year.
But even the latter would not venture to present a few
cases of champagne to their mess, knowing very well
that those among their comrades who did not consider
themselves wealthy enough to follow their example
would refuse to partake of the liquor, and would feel
offended that it should be offered to them as a gift.
Every man for himself, where paying for anything is
concerned, is the principle strictly observed in the
Prussian army ; and all expenses incurred in common
by officers of all ranks have been carefully reduced to
a minimum, so that no poor man may have a pretext
for saying to his comrades, "You lead me into outlay
which I cannot afford, and so I cannot continue to live

THE PRUSSIAN MESS SYSTEM. 121

with you." The same feeling governs the 35th in its
abstinence from building a casino wherein to hold its
meetings, lectures, suppers, and balls. Three-fourths
of its officers could not contribute the share of such
an institution's cost that would fall to the lot of each
gentleman belonging to the " Offizierskorps " ; and they
would sooner swallow their sword-knots than permit
their wealthier comrades to pay up for them. So the
casino remains in nubibus, and everybody agrees to be
just a little uncomfortable, in order that nobody's
feelings may be hurt or susceptibilities ruffled. Such
self-abnegation, especially when exhibited on the part
of the richer for the sake of the poorer, is worthy of
admiration — and of imitation !

My readers will doubtless by this time have appre-
hended what I am driving at ; and why I have dragged
in by the neck and heels my friends of the 35th — whose
frequent and splendid hospitality gave me some years
ago repeated occasion to discuss the Prussian Army
system, as contrasted with our own, with men of
experience who had taken refuge in the battalion from
the cadres of the standing army — to illustrate two or
three of the "ways out" of difficulties permanently
threatening our own gallant soldiers from reorganiz-
ations in our military forces. Such information re-
specting mess systems and other regimental expenses
incurred by officers in foreign services as I can give
is derived from official sources, as well as from careful
and somewhat extensive personal observation. For
instance, in the matter of officers' "proviant" outlay
I can speak with some authority ; for there are few

122 A WANDERER'S NOTES.

of the Guard regiments — in which living is, for fifty
reasons, much more costly than in the Line, indeed,
nearly twice as dear — at whose messes I have not been
a guest, and there is scarcely a detail of outgiving or
incoming which has not been communicated to me by
members of mess committees, &c. Statistics of this
sort are only useful or even interesting for purposes
of comparison ; so, before stating a single figure, I
premise that the prices of all sorts of provisions, taken
one with another, are as high in Berlin as they are in
London. Some comestibles, such as sea-fish of all sorts,
oysters (3s. 6d. a dozen), poultry and game, eggs and
butter, are dearer in the German than in the British
capital ; while beef, mutton, and veal, vegetables, and
bread, are a little, but a very little, cheaper. Keeping
this fact steadily in view, it will probably surprise a
good many Englishmen to hear that there is not an
officers' mess in the whole of the Guard — constituting
an army corps of 31.000 men, and garrisoning Berlin
and its neighbourhood — at which a member pays more
than sixteen/pence for his dinner ; and, still more, that
the dinner served up to him for that astonishing low
figure is an incomparably better meal than can be
eaten at Killer's, the ' Europe,' or the 'Rome' for
four shillings, exclusive of ' Trinkgelder.' If he will
drink champagne or claret he can do so, at two-fifths
of the cost at which he must consume those liquids else-
where ; but he is by no means obliged, or even expected,
to drink wine ; and I have seen many a gallant officer
work his way steadily through a decanter of water while
makino- an excellent repast for thirteen silbergroschen.

OFFICERS' PAY. 123

By the way, the average price of champagne at a
Guards' mess is 5s. 6d. — at a restaurant, 9s. ; of good
claret at the mess, Is. §d. — at the restaurant, 4s. 6d.
The mess committees import their liquors direct from
the producers in France, and enjoy certain small
privileges with respect to dues, and so forth. Why
should they not ? In such trifling advantages, who
shall grudge precedence to the members of a profession
that is, with a single exception, the only one in which
gentlemen voluntarily risk their lives, as well as their
health and comfort, for their country ? I do not see
why English officers should not be encouraged in the
endeavour to live upon their pay by similar favours —
if favours they be, considering the per contra already
alluded to. Their pay is better than that of my
Prussian friends — in some instances twice as good. A
sub-lieutenant in our army gets £78 ; in that of Prussia,
he only receives a little over £40. And yet there are
hundreds of young officers in Prussia, who, having no
subsidies from home, live upon that amount, and do not
get into debt ! In cavalry regiments, especially of the
Guard, it is not a bit more possible in Prussia than in
England for a subaltern to live upon his " screw ; " in
the Hussars, for instance, or the Gardes du Corps, his
uniforms and horse furniture, accoutrements, and so on
— I mean those he must have, not those he may have if
he be a swell — cost him between £300 and £400 ; and
he cannot live with his comrades, even at the modest
rate prescribed as the minimum of " kameradschaftliche "
expenditure, for less than £5 a month over and above
the slender dole of thalers handed over to him by the

124 A WANDERER'S NOTES.

regimental paymaster twelve times a year. But men
who have no private means need not choose the cavalry
in England, any more than in Germany ; nor is it likely
that they will do so because purchase has been abolished.
If English officers choose to copy their Prussian com-
rades in the inner organization of officers' corps — which
they can do without the least sacrifice of dignity, aided
by the Government in certain directions, one of which
I have hinted at above, while another is the absolute
and total relief of officers from any participation in
" band " expenses — I am convinced that they will be
able to live, not meanly nor uncomfortably either, upon
their pay as it stands now. It should not be forgotten
that it is already much larger than that of the officers
belonging to any Continental army. A Prussian Lieu-
tenant-General is not so well off as a British infantry
Colonel; and his widow's pension is about £100
a year.

" Thrift, thrift, Horatio ! " The words ejaculated by
Hamlet in the bitterness of his heart, might fitly serve
as a motto for the Prussian Army, or indeed for the
whole administration, civil and military, of the Hohen-
zollern realm. The " sparing habit " pervades every
department of the State, and is enforced, without the
least favour or respect for persons, upon every one
connected actively or passively with the spending of
public monies. The comptrol of accounts is carried
out with the utmost rigour by every Prussian official
functionary, from the Emperor himself, who carefully
checks the books, so to speak, of his Household, land-
stewards, and financial intendants, down to the humblest

PRUSSIAN THRIFT. 125

Deputy- Assistant-Tax-Collector or Probationary- Adjunct-
Under-Customs-Officer. It is scarcely too much to
say that no unnecessary outlay is ever incurred by
the Prussian State, which invariably, when a purchaser,
has its money's worth, and remunerates its employes so
sparingly that it is a wonder how the great majority
of them contrives to keep body and soul together.
As for the toleration of any irregularity, where
expenditure is concerned, however trifling the sum
involved, such a thing is unknown in Governmental
regions. Somebody is always responsible for every
pfennig due to or laid out on behalf of the Fiscus — a
dread impersonality of which every right-minded
Prussian stands in permanent awe — and is compelled
to discharge his obligations, no matter how exalted his
official rank or distinguished his social station. I
could narrate a hundred incidents illustrative of the
inflexible comptrol exercised over items of administra-
tive outlay, which have come within the range of my
personal cognizance during my eight years' residence
in Prussia ; but will restrict myself to the following
two true stories, to which the element of unconscious
humour imparts a somewhat exceptional interest, height-
ened by the circumstance that their respective heroes
were men of high position and European renown,
whose names are household words in the gallant
German army.

Count von Moltke, temporarily resident at Versailles
during the winter of 1870-71, one day ran short of
snuff, and, failing to find any " sneeshin'," of the brand
he especially affects, in the local bureaux de tabac.

126 A WANDERER'S NOTES.

instructed one of his subordinates at the War Office
in Berlin to forward to him a packet of his " own
peculiar " rappee without delay. The snuff was bought,
paid for, and sent on to Versailles with military prompti-
tude, and was duly charged to the account of the
nation. When, peace having been concluded, the time
came for examining the books of all the different
departments that had been spending money with
horrible prodigality for nearly three-quarters of a
year — when the indemnity began to drop in, by small
instalments of £20,000,000 apiece or so, which were
at once appropriated to the defrayal of the actual war
expenses — one of the officials entrusted with the revision
of all the petty cash transactions of the War Office
came one day upon the following startling and noclmicht-
dagewesenes item : " For one pound of extra fine, with-
of-Tonquin-bean-perfume-highly-impregnated, snuff, by
his Excellency the Count von Moltke commanded, three
thalers seven and a half silbergroschen." The rigid
conscience of the accountant did not allow of his
" passing " this irregular, unprecedented item ; so he
made a memorandum of the entry, and referred it up
to his immediate official superior, with an explanatory
essay, learned, parenthetical, and exhaustive, going a
good deal into the origins of things, and logically
demonstrating that snuff could not be held to be a
material or munition of war — ergo, that outlays incurred
for its purchase could not in equity be saddled upon
the national exchequer, or defrayed from the incoming
property of the State purchased by the lives of
Germany's sons — and so forth. The demurrer thus

MOLTKE'S SNUFF. 127

raised was submitted by one authority to another,
enriched with annotations and " opinions," the official
manipulation of the question lasting some sixteen
months. Eventually the Crown lawyers having con-
sidered the whole case, and pronounced the snuff-claim
to be one that the State could not admit, Yon Moltke
was officially addressed upon the subject, and requested,
with peremptory politeness, to pay for his snuff — a
demand with which he at once complied.

No country in Europe is so much and at the same
time so cheaply governed as Prussia. Economy is as
integral a part of the national character as incredulity
itself. The Administration wastes nothing except time ;
and Government employes are so badly paid that their
time represents a much smaller money value than that
of officials in other countries. It is true that there
are more of them, perhaps, relatively to the number
of the population, than in neighbouring States ; but
they are cheap — very cheap — hardworking, and, as a
rule, honest. It is in the army administration, par
excellence, that the infinitesimal economy of which the
above anecdote contains so striking an example is shown
off to the greatest advantage. The War Department
has succeeded in attaining a maximum of effectiveness
and a minimum of expense. It can and does spend
money lavishly when an enemy requires smashing ; but,
'when the day of reckoning comes, woe to the official
who may have exceeded the exact limits of his instruc-
tions, or neglected to account fully for every pfennig of
the moneys committed to him for outlay on behalf of
the Government ! No allowances are made, no margin

128 A WANDERER'S NOTES.

is tolerated. Such an item as " general expenses" is
not known in any Prussian bureau ; no sum is so small
that a detail of its expenditure is not required.

My second story sets forth an authentic instance of
military administrative thrift, as practised in Prussia,
for the truth of which I can personally vouch. It is a
Story of a Cow-Hide ; and it may serve as fit pendant
to the tale of " A Pound of Snuff and its Consequences."
On the morning of the 29th June, 1866, having fought
the successful action of Soor — about half-way between
Nachod and Trautenau — on the previous day, the Guards
were breakfasting solidly, though hurriedly. They had
been on the march for nine days, and had some sharp
fighting, with the immediate prospect of more — realized
a few hours later by the battle of Koniginhof, at which
they overthrew the Austrians in splendid style. To
each regiment had been allotted a certain number of
requisitioned bullocks. The whole had been slaughtered,
skinned, butchered, and relegated to the mess-tins, in
due course. Whilst the men were discussing their
rations, scouts came in with the intelligence that the
Austrians were hard at hand ; the men were at once got
into marching order ; and in a few minutes the corps
were in rapid advance towards the enemy. The Kaiser
Alexander Grenadier Guards were, as usual, conspicuous
for their smartness, and " hurried up " with such ener-
getic rapidity, that they omitted to secure the skin of a
defunct cow which had been made over to them by the
commissariat for conversion into rations. The cow had
already disappeared down the throats of the gallant
Grenadiers. So far everything was in order ; but

THE MISSING COWHIDE. 129

when the regimental official directly responsible to the
Colonel for the value of the hide came to inquire for
that integument, it was not forthcoming. The non-
commissioned officer whose duty it was to have the
hide placed in security, with a view to its ulterior sale,
had probably, in the hurry of breaking up the bivouac,
neglected to fulfil that particular function, and an
Austrian bullet had put it out of his power to account
for his dereliction. Any way, the hide was missing ;
and that fact was duly reported upwards and upwards,
according to the regulations made and provided in such
cases, until it reached the highest authority in whose
province missing hides were comprehended. Protocols
were taken in abundance ; evidence was collected ; in-
quiries were set on foot ; the greatest possible exertions
were made to account in an equitable manner for the dis-
appearance of the skin. A voluminous correspondence,
extending over a period of fourteen or fifteen months,
was originated by the circumstance. There had been a
cow ; for the cow's consignment there was a voucher ;
when she was made over to the Kaiser Alexander Guards,
she had a hide ; that hide was Government property,
representing a certain sum, fixed by official tariff; the
Government must be credited with that sum ; the hide
was not forthcoming ; that fact being undeniable, who
was responsible for its cash value ? It was decided that
the Colonel of the regiment — alas ! that good soldier
and upright gentleman, who told me the whole affair
one evening after I had dined at mess, lies buried in
French soil — must be held accountable; and, about a
year and a half after the conclusion of the Seven Days'

VOL. II. K

130 A WANDERER'S NOTES.

"War, he received a communication from the War Office
signifying the desire of that department that he should
forthwith remit the sum of, I think, three thalers, regu-
lation value for one cow-hide, not accounted for on the
29th June, 1866, by the Administration of the Kaiser
Alexander Guard Grenadiers. If I remember aright (it
is nearly twenty years since the anecdote was related to
me), the Colonel resisted the claim, alleging that the
loss of the skin was an accident of war, for which a
regimental commander could not be answerable ; but
this line of defence availed him nothing. The three
thalers were wanting to make up the true tale on the
credit side of the Prussian war accounts ; and eventually,
after some further correspondence on the subject, he paid
the money.

CHAPTER V.

BRITISH UNPOPULARITY IN GERMANY — A LONG STREET — THB BERLIN
ZOO — HIGH JINKS WITH THE CORPS DE BALLET — A ROYAL CHRISTEN-
ING— AMUSEMENTS IN PRUSSIA THE MONUMENT OF VICTORY.

IT is a depressing fact that of late years we English have
been falling into disfavour with our German kinsmen.
There was a time, and not so very long ago, when men
and things British were extremely popular in the Father-
land. Our Constitution was immensely admired, although
its indefiniteness was altogether un- German ; English
racing, English novels, English governesses, were all the
fashion. People of the highest social distinction had
their children christened by English " front names ; "
and those whose offspring had already been fitted with
German Fbrnamen converted and abbreviated these
latter into English for family use. Thus, Heinrich, in
many a noble German house, became Harry; Wilhelm,
Bill — a notorious example of this particular transform-
ation may be cited in the person of the Kealm-Ohancel-
lor's second son, to whom the King, when Prince Wilhelm
of Prussia, stood godfather, and who has never been
called anything but Bill since he could walk. Similarly
Marie became Polly; and Emilie, Lily. Even the
British morning tub was slowly finding its way, with
other domestic institutions of a sanitary nature, into

K 2

132 A WANDERER'S NOTES.

the Fatherland. Alas ! as Prussia grew in strength and
territorially expanded — as she turned Austria out of the
Fatherland's doors, trampled France under foot, and
engaged in the tremendous enterprise of absorbing
Germany into the Mark Brandenburg — her fondness for
England and the English sensibly diminished. She has,
for some time past, been undergoing a Teutonic relapse.
Time was when English and French were freely spoken
in Berlin salons ; now you hear nothing but German,
and of the sternest. The Highwellborns who are
favoured with children, call them by such names as
Chlodwig, Berchthold, and Ekkehard — Brunhilde, Thus-
nelda, and Sieglinde. The days of Harry and Lily are
past. Even the hotels manifest a linguistic patriotism
that is at once funny and singularly at variance with
the principles upon which hotel-keeping is based.
French, as well as English, is rigidly banished from the
bills of fare of many of these establishments. Dessert
is become "Nachtisch," which really does not sound
quite nice, even to a German ear ; Hors d'oeuvres,
" Vorspeise " ; Entremets, " Mittelspeise " ; Beefsteak,
"Gebratenes Rindfleisch " ; Omelette, " Eierkuchen " ;
and so forth ad infinitum. "Welsh rarebit has been
spared, and remains, in the pure hotel English of
Germany, " Wales rabitz " ; but this, I am told, is
because the local philologists can make out no perfect
German synonym for the title expressed by those two
triumphantly British words. These patriotic reforms
have not, I am bound to say, extended to the Ehine,
where we are still tolerated ; but in more northern
jjarages, the Briton is at a discount.

SHAKESPEARE'S CRITICS. 133

All this is no less disagreeable than strange. But

o o

worse remains behind. Hitherto, whatever increment
the German dislike to us, our institutions, habits,
manners, policy, and language may have suffered within
the last ten years, one Englishman continued to hold
his own in German heads and hearts — one merit was
never denied to the "land of tradesmen and hypocrites/'
as a leading Berlin journal recently described Great
Britain — that of having produced one Englishman whose
name was quite as much reverenced in Germany as in his
own country ; whilst his works were, and are, undoubtedly,
far more generally and accurately known to the German
than to the English people. It is true that the wonder-
ful translations of Schlegel, his talented wife, and Tieck
had transmogrified Mr. William Shakespeare's Plays
into German classics ; whilst Oelenschlager's adaptations
of them to the modern stage had enabled the managers
of every German Court Theatre to afford the public
ample opportunity of becoming thoroughly acquainted
with them behind the footlights as well as in the study.
During the winter season of 1874, for instance, Shake-
speare was being performed simultaneously at four Berlin
theatres; and "Twelfth Night" was announced at the
two leading houses for the same night of one week.
But even Shakespeare cannot 'scape scot-free from the
anger and disapprobation of eccentric Germans. Two
German authors some years ago created quite a sensation
in literary circles by the vehemence of their efforts to
drag him down from the pinnacle upon which such
minds like those of Goethe, Schiller, Lessing, Herder,
and Schlegel had set him up, and to prove that the

134 A WANDERER'S NOTES.

admiration entertained for his works in Germany and
elsewhere had no substantial basis of sound, healthy
judgment to stand upon. The first of these writers —
himself a poet and playwright of European celebrity —
was Roderick Benedix, whose pleasant and genial
" Aschenbrodel " furnished the late Mr. Robertson with
the skeleton of his delightful " School." Mr. Benedix,
whose voluminous work " Shakespearomanie " is, I regret
to say, a posthumous one, roundly abuses Shakespeare
upon every imaginable ground ; accusing him of want
of consistency, frivolity, ignorance of the rules of
dramatic construction, guiltiness of false concords in
the delineation of character, of bombast, barbarism,
coarseness, and, above all, of immorality. " ' The
Merchant of Venice/" says Mr. Benedix's book, "is
the most immoral piece that exists." The character of
Othello "is drawn with the greatest possible incon-
sistency ; for in the first acts Othello is altogether free
from jealousy, and yet see how he raves under its
influence later on !" "Hamlet "is castigated with ex-
treme severity ; " Romeo and Juliet," which Lessing
characterized as " having been written by Love himself,"
is slashed and torn by an unsparing scourge.

The second modern German man of letters, who has
been at great pains to prove that the " divine Williams "
is a most overrated man, is no less a personage than the
metaphysical philosopher Von Hartmann, author of the
" Philosophy of Things Unconscious," and of many other
works more iconoclastic than aught of Strauss or Schopen-
hauer. For the present, Herr v. Hartmann confines him-
self to the entire extinguishment of " Romeo and Juliet "

ROMEO AND JULIET. 135

as a play, a poem, and an idyll. The civilized world will
probably feel deeply grateful to him for his moderation.
He denies that it deserves to be spoken of as the first of
all love-tragedies, and asserts that the causes of its popu-
larity are " that it is full of affectation, which aims at dra-
matic effect ; and the public is content for the most part
to accept this effect, without advancing any profound
aesthetic demands." Romeo is "an objectless, deedless
(thatlos) weakling ; Juliet ungovernably sensual, heart-
less, and inconsiderate towards her parents." With
respect to their first rencontre at the ball, Hartmann
observes, " This kissing at the ball is for all the world
as though it were intended that we should aesthetically
relish the dramatic representation upon the stage of the
manners current in a harem;" and expresses his over-
whelming disgust with Juliet's exclamation to the effect
that if Borneo be wed, the grave shall be her bridal bed.
This he condemns as hideously indelicate, saying, "This
thoroughgoing, downright confession, made to such a
vile creature as is the Nurse, would be regarded by any
German girl as a coarse self-prostitution, than give
utterance to which she had rather bite her tongue off."
Anent Juliet's soliloquy on the balcony, before Romeo's
revelation of his presence, this philosopher remarks that
" A girl of any tenderness of feeling would be ashamed
to confide the sweet, sad secret of her heart even to the
night breezes ; and it is melancholy, shocking, that
Shakespeare should not have apprehended the coarseness
and un womanliness of such a confession." Mr. Hart-
mann is so good as to show us how Juliet ought to have
behaved herself, and moralizes respecting her in the

136 A WANDERER'S NOTES.

following instructive strain : " She was a half- grown,
immature child; this may excuse her demeanour, but
not the poet. How widely the views of our people
differ from those presented by this poem to the audience
may best be proved by the circumstances that, witli us,
marriage is only permitted to girls who have completed
their sixteenth year, and that Romeo's union with Juliet,
who was not quite fourteen, would have brought them
both into collision with Art. 176 of the Realm-Penal-
Code." Mr. Hartmann also fails to understand how
the young couple, in taking leave of one another, could
possibly confuse the " lark and nightingale, or the sun
and moon." Such are some of an eminent modern
German philosopher's appreciations of " Romeo and
Juliet."

The longest street in Berlin — perhaps in the " wide,
wide world " — is the Friedrichstrasse. It bisects the
German capital, in fact, dividing the eastern or city
moiety from the western or fashionable half of the
Kaiserstadt. It is a shoppy, busy, dissipated sort of
street, fairly paved, and reeking of ill odours. It begins
at one imaginary gate of the town and finishes at
another — that is, it finishes being the Friedrichstrasse,
and goes on for other three or four miles under another
name, or rather other names ; for, before it even reaches
the quaint old village and artillery practising ground of
Tegel, at a distance of about nine miles from the Donhoff
Platz — Berlin's equivalent to our Hyde Park corner — it
undergoes several changes of nomenclature. It is con-
siderably longer than the Strada Cavour in Turin, or the
Rue de Lafayette in Paris. When you ask a Prussian

THE FRIEDRICHSTRASSE. 137

how long it is and where it debouches, he replies, with
characteristic curtness, " Weiss nicht ! " How, therefore,
should a mere foreigner be expected to be more accurately
informed ? My private impression is that the Friedrich-
strasse leads straight into the Baltic, and that nothing
short of the sea could put a stop to it. Cheminfaisant,
it presents no architectural features of interest. For
about a mile from the Halle Gate, where it commences,
the houses on its either side are old-fashioned two-
storied buildings, made to look shabbier than they really
are by the intrusion among them every here and there
of a brand-new palatial lodging-house in ever so many
flats, run up in a few months, and adorned with plaster
caryatides, balconied loggie, ornamental roofs, chimneys,
and porticoes — a brick-and-mortar incorporation, in fact,
of Young Germany. About this endless street's centre
—that is, the centre of its officially recognized Berlin
length — is situate, between the Leipzigerstrasse and
Under the Linden, its claim to be reckoned one of the
" Streets of the World." For nearly a third of a mile
there is, on either side of the way, a pavement that
would be considered excellent in any English county
town, and from which you may contemplate a consider-
able number of well and gaily-filled etalages. There are
sweetstuff shops with groups of figures, size of life,
seated in the windows, to illustrate the excellence of the
saccharine combinations sold within ; groups that look
like caravan wax-works, that profess to be sugar, and
really are chalk. One of them, owing its conception to
the Franco- Prussian war, consists of a Landwehrmarm
and an Alsatian peasantess, seated in close proximity —

138 A WANDERER'S NOTES.

he, self-satisfied, sure of conquest, and stiff, according
to his national pattern ; she, coy, reluctant, but evidently
subdued. The Landwehr Lothario tempts his buxom
foe with a lump of mimic " pate de joujoub" ; you can
see by her plaster-of -Paris smirk that she will succumb
presently. In another of these toffy-shop fronts is
exhibited a whole juvenile family, indulging in the
pleasures of the Kindergarten, and attended by a strong
force of domestic animals. The proprietors of these
establishments are wealthy citizens, for the " sweetie
trade " is a highly profitable business. Everybody goes
in more or less for " goodies " in the Friedrichstrasse—
which may account for so many Berlinese being dyspeptic
and having bad teeth.

After it has crossed the Linden in a northerly direc-
tion, the glories of the Friedrichstrasse sensibly diminish.
It becomes narrow and frowsy for a spell ; its shops tell
you, as plainly as if they could speak, " We belong to a
cheap-bargaining neighbourhood ! " Some of the oldest
one-storied houses in Berlin may be seen in this section,
extending from the Linden to the Spree — houses with
roofs sloped and coloured on the toy Noah's Ark model.
Crossing the Spree by a ramshackle bridge that is just
up to the development and requirements of Servian
civilization, the street again widens ; but it has no
longer an urban physiognomy, although, strange to say,
it is from this point better paved than it was through-
out its fashionable and commercial divisions. Trees
make their appearance at irregular intervals, soon to
assume the order and continuity of an extramural
avenue. The rows of tall houses to our right and left

A BERLIN SUBURB. 139

are frequently broken by gigantic manufactories, deliver-
ing volumes of dusky smoke from their lofty chimneys.
Presently we come to a long and imposing series of
barracks, better built and cared for, as is but natural in
a military State, than most of the private houses in
their vicinity. The domicile of the Second Foot Guards,
conveniently near a cemetery, looks like a monastery
that has been secularized ; but the triple abode of the
" Cockchafers," as Berlin has christened the Fusiliers of
the Guard, is a very handsome modern affair, built in
the solid, forbidding style that is so appropriate to the
residence of men whose professional privilege it is to
slay their fellow-creatures "for the enhanced glory of
their fatherland." Borsig's engine factories are here-
abouts, in which are employed over 1900 hands. The
proprietor of this colossal concern turned out his 2000th
locomotive in August, 1872, and distinguished himself
during the strike mania by issuing a homely appeal to
his workmen that effectually checkmated the trades
unioDs, and saved him an unknown number of millions
of thalers. A little farther on, and we pass a couple of
splendid round towers which, but for their brand-new
" pointing," might easily be taken for the keeps of twin
baronial castles, relics of the " good old times." They
belong, however, to the gasworks, and betray their
specialty to every discriminating nose. Hard by is the
circular railway which connects the various termini of
Berlin one with another, and runs round that city at
such an unconscionable distance from its centre that, for
all purposes of facilitating local passenger traffic, it
might as well have been opened in the interior of

140 A WANDERER'S NOTES.

Kamschatka. Its shortcomings have within the past
decade been more than atoned for by the construction of
the superb Stadtbahn, which traverses the very heart of
Berlin from the Thiergarten to the Alexander Platz, and
owns a gorgeous station, flanked by two colossal hotels,
in the northern section of the Friedrichstrasse itself.

The Eiskeller, which is situate in the continuation of
that unconscionably lengthy street, about a mile and a
half from the Linden Avenue, has been named on the lucm
a non lucendo principle, for it is by no means a cellar,
and the most urgent entreaty will not procure an ice
within its precincts. Ere I visited it I had pictured it
in my mind's eye as a vast subterraneous vault, bril-
liantly lighted up with gas-burners whose rays were
prismatically reflected from massive blocks of crystalline
ice that disseminated a refreshing coolness around. I
found it to be a large brewery of modern aspect, at-
tached to a spacious garden fitted up with the stereo-
typed wooden tables and chairs that are common to all
German al fresco places of entertainment, and with a
roomy timber orchestra, many gas-lamps, a revolving
fountain, and side arbours d la Vauxhall for small
supper-parties. In this, the summer department of the
Eiskeller, about a thousand guests can be accommodated
with seats and victuals of all sorts, from sausage and
beer to crawfish mayonnaise and champagne. The
winter department occupies the ground floor of the
brewery, and contains, amongst others, a magnificent
hall copied from the Romersaal in Frankfort-on-the-
Maine. Every now and anon is given in the garden an
" Extra-Fest " or " Great Attraction " in the shape of

BATTLE-MUSIC. 141

" Battle Music ; " and I wish I could give my readers
an idea of these bloody-minded concerts. The only
" Schlaeht-musik " of which I had had any experience in
time of peace until I visited the above-mentioned estab-
lishment was the "Battle of Prague." The "Battle
Music of the Eiskeller was, however, infinitely more ter-
rific than that lugubrious composition. An introductory
pot-pourri of national airs, spiritedly executed by a mili-
tary band, had not prepared me for the report of cannon
fired not a dozen yards from my beer-glass, nor for the
harsh sputter of musketry delivered in the most approved
method of " Schnellfeuer " by an infantry detachment
close to my ear. Between the fast and frequent explo-
sions of large and small arms might be heard bugles and
trumpets, sounding signals only too familiar to one who
had followed the campaign of 1870-71. Presently the
rub-a-dub-dub of the Prussian flat drum supplied a new
element to the din ; and a complete band of drummers
and fifers, beating the quick march, entered the garden,
and took up ground facing the orchestra. More cannon
— a long rattle of " Schnellfeuer " — and, at a given
signal, whilst lurid red fire lit up the whole entourage of
the enclosure into the grim mockery of a conflagration,
the drummers struck up the angry, clamorous " Sturm,"
or " assault " which was beaten at Dtippel, Spicheren,
and many another scene of desperate emprise ; where-
upon the men of both bands burst out into that fierce
shout, the " Hurrah, Preussen ! " which he who hath
heard it on a battle-field never will forget until the day
of his death. What with the firing, the drumming, and
the cheering, the illusion was strong for a few seconds,

142 A WANDERER'S NOTES.

and I could have almost fancied myself back again with
the Guard Landwehr at Bougival, or amongst the stub-
born Saxons in blood-stained Brie and Villers. To
heighten the deception, some of the buglers told off to
remote nooks of the garden sounded, from time to time,
French infantry calls — while a section of the brass band,
also hidden in a distant corner, interpolated a few bars
of the " Marseillaise."

There are several of these suburban open-air supper
and concert localities in the neighbourhood of Berlin ;
but none organized on so large a scale as the Eiskeller.
At one big beer-garden near the Kreuzberg was held
during my sojourn in the German capital a Sangerfest
by all the choral societies of the Mark Brandenburg.
The attendance was enormous, and in the middle of the
programme performers and public fell out. Such a row
ensued as is seldom seen in these degenerate days.
About six thousand people were engaged in a savage
affray, to which strong bodies of police, horse and foot,
utterly failed to put a stop ; so that at length a body of
the Guards was brought up with fixed bayonets, and,
although received with showers of stones, soon dispersed
the rioters. The results were two killed, several hundred
wounded or bruised, and some fifty or sixty arrests.
Music hath not always charms to soothe the savage
breast ! at least, not in Berlin.

'Early in the month of May, 1874, F.M. von Winter,
after an honourable and obstinate resistance, had at
length been routed, and was in full retreat — the rear-
guard of his defeated host gallantly endeavouring to
cover his flight by scattering volleys of hailstones and

HARDY NORTHMEN. 143

valorous charges of hard-hitting frost-winds. His old
enemy, that experienced strategist, Excellenz von
Sommer, had outmanoeuvred him again, and the surly
veteran retired grimly to his Northern fastnesses, there
to recruit his forces and prepare his plans for another
campaign later in the year. Meanwhile, the victor took
possession of Berlin as of a conquered country, and
levied tribute right and left in the most unsparing and
imperious manner. He scarcely permitted us to take
a meal under the shelter of a roof, compelled us to an
al fresco course of life even in locomotion, by plucking
all the tops off our cabs, and ordained that the normal
condition of existence should be to sit in a thorough
draught. This sudden change of masters, being rather
of the from frying-pan to fire order, was a little trying
to our constitutions. The longer I lived in Germany,
the greater waxed my wonder at the natural hardiness
of the German people. The Prussians, in particular,
are a most enduring race. As a rule, they are badly
fed, sparing in the external use of cold water, and
chronically overworked. During winter they eat, work?
and sleep in an atmosphere of frowsiness distilled from
every conceivable ingredient by the heat of huge stoves
of such tremendous Plutonian power that they would
make short work of the juiciest Scotch mist, could that
moist institution be imported into a Prussian " Woh-
nung." Come the May days, with their sweltering
afternoons of sunshine, and their shivering evenings of
cool, breezy moonlight, and these very frileux, whom a
breath of air at Christmas time made to shake in their
shoes, take at Whitsuntide to the open like ducklings

144 A WANDERER'S NOTES.

to a pond. Not content with walking or driving about
in the lightest of garments, sub Jove frigido, they actually
insist upon eating, drinking, courting, arguing, and
even transacting business under the open canopy of
heaven. Though the Prussian is the hardest- working
being with which I am acquainted, as well as the most
frugal and abhorrent of draughts, yet he will have his
holiday, and he will not have it in a building if he can
help it. A park, a beer-garden with a few coloured
lamps in it, or a Zoological demesne, will " fetch " him
much in the same way that a pint of train-oil will bias
the moral sense of an Esquimaux. The blue vault over
his head — refreshment hard at hand, plentiful and in-
expensive— an acquaintance to argue with, and a copious
provision of tobacco, constitute the Prussian middle-
class man's festival. If the contemplation of the lower
animals and the performance of a brass band be added
to the above elements of his enjoyment, he will be as
nearly happy during his allotted period of recreation as
it is in the nature of a North-German to be at any time
of his life.

The Berlin " Zoo " almost realizes my idea of a
German Paradise ; a good deal more so, at any rate,
than Wagner's descriptive strains in his Nibelungen
music. Moreover, it is full of such " excellent differ-
ences" that it would, I feel certain, hold its own
triumphantly against any local Eden in any latitude as
a "place to spend a happy day." Words could not
express my admiration for the beauty and " fitness " of
its laying out, or my respect for the high intelligence
and estimable common sense with which all the arrange-

THE BERLIN " ZOO." 145

ments for the health and comfort of the feros natures, as
well as for the accommodation of the public, have been
made by its committee of management. In more than
one respect it can give points to our happy hunting-
grounds in the Eegent's Park. Its dwelling-places for
all sorts of animals, furred and feathered, are constructed
upon a duplex principle — namely, that the physical well-
being and happiness of a wild beast under restraint are
mainly dependent upon a minimum of confinement and
a maximum of air and light. Accordingly, the large
carnivora in the Berlin " Zoo " are all provided with
double cages, connected by a sliding iron panel. The
smaller of these cages has its frontage inside a hand-
some building, and serves its denizens for a sleeping-
chamber in summer ; the larger, extending from the
back of the said building, is merely roofed in with thick
glass and faced with strong iron bars, to protect the
featherless bipeds who love to look at lions from the
appetites of the objects of their admiration. But these
projecting constructions exhibit nothing characteristic
of a cage, save the bars. They are rather spacious
pleasaunces, adorned with massive rockwork, so roomy
that in them a full-grown tiger can enjoy a good run,
and need not trouble himself to turn sharp round in
the course of his " constitutional." One of these vast
saloons served some years ago as a " Kindergarten " for
no less than four young lions, which were all nearly of
the same age, although not related to one another, and
lived together on terms of the utmost good fellowship and
joviality. Another was, for the time being, converted
into a feline nursery, in which Mrs. B. Tiger, a comely

VOL. II.

146 A WANDERER'S NOTES.

and cheerful matron, put her twins through their facings
daily with due gravity, rewarding them for their atten-
tion and obedience during lesson and toilette times with
many a rollicking game of play. All the animals were
treated with the same liberality in point of elbow-room.
The cassowary was allowed so much space wherein to
roam that he could not have been better off for opportun-
ities of locomotion " on the plains of Timbuctoo." The
kangaroos — there were a dozen or so, old and young-
were endowed with a spacious track of hop-grounds.
The big elephant — rather an ugly customer, who had
killed his man, and consequently stood very high in
public consideration — was monarch over an enormous
paved yard, in which he could take quite as much
exercise as was good for him. Among the birds nothing
had been left undone that could further their happiness
and secure them the maximum of comfort. All the
aviaries were handsomely planted, provided with the
prettiest little fountains and bathing basins imaginable,
lofty, and abounding in those rocky niches and cunning
nooks in which the "fowl of the air" love secretly to
deposit the hopes of their families. Some of the larger
birds were allowed the run of the gardens on parole ;
nothing was more common, whilst strolling through the
grounds, than to meet a huge white peacock, gaudy
golden pheasant, or cynical, rickety crane lounging
about the paths with all the lazy pococurantism of a
Guardsman who had paid his ten silbergroschen at the
wicket, and felt that the whole place belonged to him.
I have enjoyed some interesting interviews with these
paroled birds, during my repeated wanderings within

A "HAPPY FAMILY." 147

the precincts of the " Zoo on the Spree ; " they are
mostly distinguished foreigners, and I confess to having
found their society more entertaining than that of the
aborigines. The aquatic fowl, too, have to a remarkable
degree what Americans call " a good time " in those
gardens, if productiveness be accepted as evidence of a
contented spirit ; the lake islets, as well as the garden
cages, are studded with their eggs, nested and nestless ;
and many rare birds are reared in Berlin ab ovo that have
come to grief at Amsterdam, or even in the Regent's
Park. Among the special curiosities of the gardens are
two magnificent specimens of the rhinoceros bird, several
fine lion-monkeys, and some of the most astounding
toucans I have ever had the honour of becoming ac-
quainted with. There are lions, tigers, leopards, pumas,
camels, kangaroos, antelopes, ostriches, bisons, and more
strange birds than I can count, all born on the premises ;
whilst the imported animals look as well and as jolly as
those that are regular Prussian subjects, liable to the
" allgemeine wehrpfiicht," and all the rest of the glorious
institutions that have magnified the glory of Germany
until it has become so bright that one can hardly bear
to contemplate it.

On Tuesdays and Fridays the beau monde and
wealthy middle classes flock to the " Zoo " by thousands ;
for the animal attractions are supplemented on those
afternoons by the strains of a military orchestra. There
is an excellent restaurant (it dined 30,000 guests one
Sunday in 1874!) just opposite the wooden shell in
which the bandsmen are put up to play; and between
the two edifices runs the main promenade, crowded with

L 2

148 A WANDERER'S NOTES.

the rank and fashion of Berlin. It would be hard, at
least in North Germany, to find a pleasanter place on
which to eat one's dinner than the terrace fronting the

o

great dining-hall, and overlooking band, loungers, bears
moaning in their dens for schwarzbrod, Neptune empty-
ing out his water-can over a four-storied rock, a spray
fountain " silver-footed, diamond-crowned, rainbow-
scarfed," upspringing from the lustrous bosom of a tiny
lake, thickly populated with quaint water-fowl, a legion
of wooden tables, glistening with glass beer-mugs,
countless gas-lamps sparkling amongst the green leaves,
smart uniforms, and gay- coloured dresses. How sensible
it is to dine or sup where you have had your day's
pleasure, instead of breaking up your holiday, more
anylicanO) to rush home, famished, and dine secundmn
artem within four walls ! A good dining-room would
be an inestimable boon to the frequenters of both
gardens in Regent's Park (for flower-shows are scarcely
less exhausting to the vital forces than menageries), and,
what is more, it would pay. Prussians are far more
thrifty than Englishmen in their personal commissariat
arrangements ; but there were ice-pails on well-nigh
every table round and near me whenever I dined on
the terrace of the " Zoo " Restaurateur, and that func-
tionary's wine-card offered between thirty and forty
vintages to his customers.

o

In such a matter as this, where common sense
decides what is most convenient, the Germans have the
pull of us. Their table furniture is strangely deficient
in objects that are as naturally appurtenant to English
dinner-tables as are knives and forks ; the material of

GERMAN PRACTICALITY. 149

their repasts is in most respects of inferior quality ; and
their cookery is peculiarly distasteful to the Anglo-
Saxon palate. But, having found out how agreeable
and reasonable it is, during the summer months, to take
meals out of doors, they have compelled the purveyors
of edibles and potables to provide them with ample
accommodation for so doing, whereby they give proof
of their resolution of character, and of their contempt
for conventionalities. When I saw, as I could any day
of the week in Berlin, ladies and gentlemen of noble
birth and high fashion sitting at wooden tables in a
garden, listening to good music, and drinking beer, or
anything else they fancied, with quiet complacency,
because they knew that their doing so did not in the
least detract from their prestige as members of the best
society, or from their reputations as professors of the
art " de savoir vivre," I took my hat off to people
of such unassuming and sensible habits, and reflected
with no little mortification on the exaggerated refinement
of a society that shall be nameless, which condemns
all sorts of small pleasures as " bad form," because they
are natural, within the reach of almost everybody by
reason of their inexpensiveness, and consequently, in
the opinion of fashion-makers, "vulgar."

It is the seasonable custom of the Eoyal Prussian
Corps de Ballet to arrange, during each successive
Carnival, two masked balls ; entertainments which are
regarded, by common consent in Berlin, as the rollicking
events par excellence of the season. Masked balls are,
so to speak, exotic joys of recent importation into the
German capital ; they are undergoing the process of

150 A WANDERER'S NOTES.

acclimatization, and I am bound to declare that it does
not agree with them. Indeed, the Carnival itself — which
has been at home in Southern Germany for ages, and is
feted, not only in Catholic Austria and Bavaria, but in
the great cities of Prussian Rhineland, with a pomp and
splendour scarcely outdone even in Milan and Turin — is
an institution which, being deemed by the rising gener-
ation of Berlinese indispensable to a city claiming metro-
politan rank, has been in a manner crammed down the
throats of a curiously grave and suspicious population
by an influential body of enthusiasts. But it has failed
altogether to assimilate itself to the social system and
recreative temper obtained in the cool, commonplace
regions of Northern Germany. The spirit of Carnival is
a light, careless, and frisky spirit ; a joyous sprite, the
issue of Puck and Ariel ; mischief-loving, yet kindly in
the main, with little of the angelic, but nothing of the
demoniac, in its merry, frivolous nature. The essential
characteristics of a Carnival-loving and practising people
are gregariousness, natural amiability, mercuriality of
temperament, and what I will crave leave to entitle the
" give-and-take quality." To amuse others, as well as
yourself, is a Carnivalesque attribute of the first degree.
Another is, to bear with practical jokes good-humouredly ;
one scarcely less indispensable is, not to mind appearing
in a ridiculous light, if by doing so you can in any way
contribute to the general diversion.

All these amenities, or weaknesses, if you like, are
foreign to the nature of the Brandenburger. He is
reserved, censorious, and exceedingly formal ; as in-
capable of allowing a liberty to be taken with him as

PRUSSIAN CHARACTERISTICS.

151

of understanding a practical joke. The " chaff" so freely
interchanged between Englishmen of liberal education and
good breeding is to him incomprehensible, shocking — I
will even say painful. I am referring, of course, to the
well-born North Prussian, whose demeanour is not less
cold and correct, as a rule, than his life is blameless
and unsympathetic. I count many such amongst my
acquaintances — in any other country I should venture
to say friends ; men of the highest honour and most
spotless conduct, accomplished, erudite, and perfectly
wide-awake. I should as soon think of addressing a
phrase of the very mildest, cold-drawn chaff to any one
of them, as I should think of wondering — which they do,
one and all, with the greatest sincerity — why the French
are still angry with the Germans, instead of loving those
who have chastened them. As for the lower middle
class, the persons belonging to it are ready enough to
take liberties with one another and with their superiors.
They are strongly imbued with democratic tendencies,
and have all sufficient instruction to enable them to
believe themselves as good as their betters ; while their
education, in the English sense of the word, is so incom-
plete as to be scarcely worth mentioning. A certain
film of formality still clings to them, a relic of simpler
times in which class frontiers were more strictly defined
than they are now, and the bourgeois was constrained in
a thousand ways to observe certain conventions of
respect and even deference to the noble, the officer, and
the Government employe. But they are not polite — far
from it ; and their sportiveness, when it is developed,
generally takes the form of roughness, if not of violence.

152 A WANDERER'S NOTES.

A Prussian gentleman would rather risk his life in
twenty duels than be made a laughing-stock for a
minute ; a Prussian tradesman, clerk, or professional
man will readily quarrel with any one who attempts to
jest with him ; a Prussian working-man will hew away
(hauen) upon any pretext whatsoever, at any time and in
any place. It may readily be imagined that Carnival
joys are curiously unsusceptible of being appreciated by
a population composed of these elements ; and that is
why a masked ball, which in Paris teems with uproarious
gaiety, in Vienna sparkles with sly local humour, and in
Milan, Venice, or Turin is at once a labyrinth studded
with charming surprises and a tribunal in which the
minor vices — such as meanness, cowardice, vanity, and
untruthfulness — are spiritually but mercilessly castigated,
is in Berlin a lamentable combination of dulness, rude-
ness, and vulgarity.

The Corps de Ballet, in arranging the two mas-
querades in question — one of which I was once per-
suaded to attend — is animated by a laudable desire to
augment its fund, the purpose of which is a charitable
one. The members of the corps, it is true, are Royal
officials, endowed with a predicate or title, and enjoying
the right to receive a pension in their extreme old age,
after a long term of service. As in Vienna, this system
has the effect of filling the Court stage with elderly
persons, admirably " up " in all their " business," but
somewhat unsatisfactory, considered as objects for con-
templation. Veterans in salmon tights, grandmammas
in spangles and little else, are sights over which a cynic
alone may rejoice. Eighty or a hundred pounds a year,

THE BALLET AT BERLIN. 153

however, after thirty years' toil constitute a competency
such as many virtuous and erudite men yearn for all their
lives long — and frequently, alas ! in vain — in Prussia ;
and it may readily be believed that the " Eoyal
Court Opera Dancers," who are not generally recruited
in the well-to-do class, stick with resolute tenacity to
their posts until they become eligible for a pension —
that guiding star of every German employe. To those
whom failing health or accident incapacitates from
attaining the goal of their ambition, the fund furnishes
the means of eking out a modest existence. The ballet,
despite its many shortcomiDgs, is immensely popular in
Berlin; and I have seldom seen rooms more densely
crowded than were Kroll's noble " Lokale" on the night
to which I allude. I arrived during the " Zwischen-
stunde," or Supper-Truce, and found all the vast salons,
except the theatre itself, filled with supper-tables closely
wedged together, at which champagne was, apparently,
" your only liquor." There was a furious heat and a
tremendous clamour, but not the least gaiety. The first
peculiarity that struck me was. the entire absence of
uniforms from the assemblage ; the second, the paucity
of "costumes" amongst the "ladies" present. These
balls are stricken, in common with the night dancing-
houses for which Berlin is renowned, with the sumptuary
proscription, " No officers admitted save in plain clothes,"
and thereby the pleasantest element of male society in
the capital is excluded from them, or nearly so ; for few
Prussian officers keep a dress-coat, or care to appear in
it if they happen to have one. I carne across two or
three of my acquaintances in the Guard, whilst making

154 A WANDERER'S NOTES.

the tour of the rooms, disguised en pekin — and very stiff
and uncomfortable they looked, poor fellows.

The only costumes noticeable, as contrasting gro-
tesquely with the dismal agglomeration of black coats
and dominoes that filled the ball-room, were those worn
by the stewards, or " dance-regulators ; " a dozen or so
of tall, fine-looking men, clad in a handsome sixteenth
century squire-garb of yellow and white, and carrying
batons. At least half of the women present were in
plain evening dress. There was not a Pierrot, a Devil,
or even a dramatic character. The fair sex exhibited
a tall Troubadour with very slim legs, in blue and
silver ; and a short Page, whose development of calf
would have done honour to a person eight times her
size, in scarlet and gold. These were the only " traves-
ties" I came across during a three hours' stay. The
rest of the gentle maskers were simply en domino ; most
of them appeared to be quite astonished that they should
be spoken to, and the familiar " thou," which is the
sacred privilege of the mask, both addressing and ad-
dressed, was, in more than one case within my hearing,
replied to by an indignant " Sie " that denoted a just
wrath at such gross informality of speech. Soon after
the conclusion of the supper interval, a great rush took
place to the chief ball-room, in which I happened to be
panting out commonplaces to a young Prussian diploma-
tist, who directed my attention to the ceiling, from the
middle of which was hanging a skeletonian sort of
machine, apparently composed of poles and rope. Under
this some hundreds of black coats were hustling one
another. I thought of the mechanical monkey trapezist

THE " PEACE-CHILD." 155

I had seen at a Narrenabend in Pesth years previously,
and gazed upwards like the rest, in expectant hope. At
a signal somebody in the roof pulled a string, and a
few paper caps, such as are crammed into after-dinner
crackers, became detached from the framework and
floated downwards. It was a sight to see the young
Berliners jump for them, struggle for them, tumble
about for them, or a tatter of them ! This was the great
comic event of the evening, and it sent me away almost
in tears, for a heavy Prussian, leaping wildly backwards
after a paper cap, came down to the tune of two hundred-
weight or so on corns already wrought to agony. I
thought he might have apologized, but he did not ; so
my first and last experience of a Berlin masquerade
terminated in an eminently unsatisfactory manner.

The " Friedenskiud," or Peace Child, as she had been
poetically christened by a local bard — a strong and lusty
little Princess, the latest born of their Imperial and
Koyal Highnesses the Crown-Prince and Princess of
Germany and Prussia — was received into the bosom of
the Evangelical Church on June 4, 1872, in the presence
of as brilliant a gathering of princes, nobles, diplomatists,
and warriors, as could well be assembled within the pre-
cincts of any Eoyal Palace in Europe. The only well-
known face that I missed was one once as familiar to
the habitues of Pall-mall as to the afternoon loungers in
the Thiergarten— that of Count Alois Karolyi, whom the
grief in which the Court of the Hofburg was plunged
sixteen years ago precluded from being present at the
pretty ceremony to which, with his colleagues, he had
been bidden. Our Ambassador, although in mourning

156 A WANDERER'S NOTES.

for his cousin, the whilom head of the house of Eussell,
complied with the Imperial invitation, as it was his duty
to represent the Royal grandmother of the tiny Princess
on so important an occasion in H.R.H.'s short life. He
was accompanied by his estimable consort and the
members of the Embassy, including the military attache
and Mr. Saumarez, who had then recently joined.

It is not every day — even in the country par excel-
lence of uniforms, where civilians, to all social intents
and purposes, do not count — that a special train is so
brilliantly peopled, or contains so many Excellencies, as
the " zug " which conveyed us from Berlin to Wildpark
and back on Princess Marguerite's christening-day.
There were Botschafter of the first water, glittering like
burnished beetles, and heroically bearing up with a
smile against the ponderous gold embroidery cuirassing
their chests. There were mighty men of war : Moltke,
who for once, and assuredly not to the increase of his
personal enjoyment, was arrayed in the full glories of a
Field Marshal, with grand cordons, collars, crachats, and
crosses enough to bring half a dozen venerable generals'
gray hairs in joy to the grave ; Kutusoff, sternest of
Sclaves, his enormous breadth of shoulder enhanced by
epaulettes of a size calculated to strike the most intrepid
soul with dismay ; Wrangel, a gay Colonel of Plungers
at Waterloo, in 1872 the doyen of the German army, his
breast hidden under the honours bestowed upon him by
every Continental Sovereign, the golden lucky horse-shoe
that was an august lady's birthday gift lurking amongst
stars of all the greatest orders, save the Garter, that
exist — any one of which, flashing behind the buttons of

MAESHAL WRANGEL. 157

a gentleman's coat, marks its wearer as a personage of
the highest distinction. This venerable warrior, who
held a commission in the Army of the German Emperor's
father before Bismarck and Moltke were born, and when
his Majesty was just learning to spell words of one
syllable, was one of the most interesting sights at the
Prussian Court as lately as a decade ago. Almost im-
perceptibly bent beneath the weight of years exceeding
the " vorschriftsrnassiger " span by more than three
lustres, he still preserved the bearing and look of a
dashing cavalry officer, who is equally at home charging
the enemy of his country a-fond, or making war upon
the susceptible hearts of those fair foes who fight under
that international flag, le cotillon. He rode almost daily
— not, truly, the " great horse " as of old, but a sufficiently
spirited hack with showy action, which he bestrode with
as debonnaire a seat as though he had been a youngster
fresh from the Eoyal Eiding School. When he strolled
down the central avenue of the Linden, much affected
by nursemaids with their juvenile charges, he chucked
the pretty ones under the chin, and paid them vigorously
idiomatical compliments upon the freshness of their
charms.

But a truce to digression. When we arrived at
Wildpark, we found carriages awaiting us sufficiently
numerous to convey all the invites, about a hundred in
number, to the New Palace, where the guests belonging
to the Potsdam garrison were already assembled in the
Hall of Mussels — so called from the adornment of its
walls with countless polished " shells of the ocean "-
and the Marmorsaal, in which a temporary altar had been

158 A WANDERER'S NOTES.

erected for the performance of the religious ceremony.
Shortly after we had joined the main body of statesmen,
soldiers, and courtiers, gay with kaleidoscopically ever-
shifting colours, a series of sharp raps on the marble
floor of the adjacent hall warned us that the Imperial
family and its Royal guests were approaching. A double
line, or living avenue, was at once formed, through
which the august party advanced, bowing on either side
to the altar end of the room ; the Emperor conducting
the Princess of Piedmont, and Prince Humbert escorting
the Princess Charles of Prussia. No time was lost in
proceeding to the business of the day. As soon as the
" hohe Herrschaften " had taken their places in front of
the altar, Dr. Heym — the Imperial baby having been
introduced in a small procession of its own, attended by
maids of honour and scarlet-and- silver pages — after a
short chorale, admirably sung by the cathedral choir,
commenced a somewhat lengthy exhortation, the later
periods of which were copiously punctuated by her
Royal Highnesses shrill cries ; then, having delivered
his soul of many lofty and appropriate sentiments, he
proceeded to baptize the protesting infant in the names
of Margaret Beatrice Feodora. One of the assistant
clergymen was so deeply impressed by the eloquence of
the reverend officiator, that as soon as the ceremony was
concluded he went up to him, and throwing his arms
round his neck, bestowed upon him two loud-sounding
brotherly kisses, which would have made the welkin
ring had there been such a thing in their immediate
neighbourhood. There were about this osculation an

o

unsophisticated energy and oblivion of conventionali-

A CHRISTENING-BREAKFAST. 159

ties that afforded to some of the younger guests who
happened to witness it a solitary and refreshing relief
from the somewhat overpowering formality of the pro-
ceedings. A Court was then held by the Crown Princess
in the saloon adjoining the Marmorsaal ; and, after pay-
ing our respects to her Imperial and Eoyal Highness,
who looked the picture of good health, high spirits, and
amiability, we passed through a bewildering series of
drawing-rooms, staircases, and galleries, all adorned with
pictures representing beauty a good deal more unadorned
than less, to the banqueting-hall — where the christening
breakfast was spread and partaken of to military music.
If the venerable chronicler who, in days long past,
delivered an epigrammatic verdict upon the English
national character in the memorable words, " Les
Anglais s'amusent moult tristement," could come to
life again in this our nineteenth century, and would
take the trouble to compare the holiday manners and
customs of other nations with those of the brumous
insulated descendants of the dismal Britons who bored
themselves so unconscionably a few centuries ago, I
think he would soon come to the conclusion that there
is at least one continental people that amuses itself
more sadly still than the English. Beside the North
Germans, we are a nation of light-hearted rollickers.
Despite the rabies of money-making which is spreading
epidemically over all classes of Englishmen, and poison-
ing their national joyfulness, there is more of the
"life-gladness," or Lebensgluckseligkeit , in the sons of
the Island Queen than in the offspring of the Father-
land. Grown-up men in England do what, during

160 A WANDERER'S NOTES.

several years' residence in Germany, I have never seen
a German boy do — namely, play. Even the Italians,
who dislike physical exertion unless something is to
be gained by it, cultivate an exaggerated sort of tennis
with the keenest enjoyment, and an Italian gentleman
who is unable to pay pallone is well-nigh as rare as an
English public-school boy who is not a cricketer. But
the German youth of the middle and upper classes does
not play at any manly game that I know of, except
the Kriegspiel ; for I do not reckon cards, dominoes, or
even billiards, under the heading of manly sports. Their
two great universities, Bonn and Heidelberg, are situate
on the banks of rivers ; but you may look in vain from
one year's end to the other upon the waters of Rhine and
Neckar for a couple of rival " eights," or even " fours,"
manned by German students. In Berlin, there is a river
also, and a university with I don't know how many
youngsters entered on its books ; but not one of the
Burschenschaften has its " ship " on the Spree, although
our Embassy manages to keep up a " four," and to man
it all through the season, year after year, even when it
happens that there are more married men than single
amongst the Secretaries of Legation. I cannot look
upon the duelling that is practised in the Berlin Hoch-
schule as well as in other German universities as a
manly sport. If you walk past Alma Mater at the hour
(one p.m.) when the alumni are pouring forth through
her portals into the Linden Avenue, you cannot fail to
notice that one face out of every four or five you meet
is gashed and scarred, frequently in a ghastly and repul-
sive manner. The swish with the trenchant schlager-

"ALL WORK AND NO PLAY." 161

point, prescribed, by the students' code of honour, for
delivery only on the countenance, divides muscles and
splits eyeballs, frequently leaving its victim's features
set for life in a hideous, involuntary grin, and, at best,
furrowing his physiognomy with purple, unsightly seams
that give a sinister expression to the most insignificant
lineaments. And yet the practice which results in such
disfigurement is the nearest thing to a game indulged
in by the youth of North Germany ; for by no means
do they play at drinking beer. That is one of the chief
businesses of their lives.

The children do not play in the parks or squares. I
have never seen a boy trundling a hoop, tossing a ball,
knuckling down at ma.rbles, running a race, or even wrest-
ling with a chum, in Germany. Excellent gymnasia for
adults abound in every large city of the Empire ; but
standing on your head on the end of a pole, or hanging
by your chin to the bar of a trapeze, although achieve-
ments requiring strength and skill for their fulfilment,
have nothing in common with playing at a game — which
is what I contend the Germans never do. All such acro-
batic feats as are learned — and admirably performed — in
the Turn-vereine are essentially selfish ; they may excite
wonder in spectators, but can afford no enjoyment to any-
body but the acrobat. In the circus it is different ; there
the Bounding Brothers tie themselves into knots so intri-
cate that it must be hard for one brother to know his legs
from another brother's extremities, and the success of
each combination is dependent upon the exactitude of
each individual's contribution to the ensemble. But no
such corporate interest binds together the frequenters of

VOL. II. M

162 A WANDERER'S NOTES.

a gymnasium ; no feeling like that inspiring a cricketing
eleven or a boat's crew, or even a " side " at rounders,
animates the lithesome athletes who turn back somer-
saults, or walk up ladders on their hands with such
magnificent precision, in the " Turner " schools of the
Kaiserstadt. It is " every man for himself " with each in-
dividual German, be it even in a matter of recreation, just
as it is with Germany herself in political affairs. To speak
more plainly, the small German does not care for his
neighbour any more than great Germany cares for hers.
Catch her, like France, drawing her sword to redress
another people's wrongs, or, like England, putting her
hand in her pocket, to relieve the wants of those who
are strangers to her soil and alien to her in speech and
race ! It is this grand and massive egotism, in little
things as in large, that has won her such triumphant
success in the world ; but selfish people are not playful.
There are, indeed, few games at which the most sport-
ively-inclined person can play by him or herself, and I
incline to believe that the real cause of the extraordinary
dulness characterizing existence in Northern Germany is
the entire and engrossing devotion manifested by every
native to his or her personal interests, the furtherance
of which utterly absorbs each individual's attention and
occupies his energies. In peace the Prussian strives as
constantly to make money as he exerts himself in war
to vanquish his enemy for the time being. Now, he who
pursues amusement is a money-spender, as a rule, and
represents a class that absolutely does not exist in that
part of Europe. There are, I verily believe, fewer idle
men in Prussia than there are " loafers " in the New

THE PRUSSIAN NOBILITY. 163

England States of North America. There are but a few
wealthy nobles in the whole kingdom, while there are
hundreds of titled gentlemen who are as poor as rats.
Only one profession of any importance is open to men
of rank, whether rich or poor — for diplomacy and the
Navy are so limited in their capacity for affording em-
ployment as to be scarcely worth mentioning — a profes-
sion which, for the very reason that it has been made
the labour outlet of a class of men whose birth is sup-
posed to unfit them for trade, commerce, or the liberal
professions, has become a caste — and, for very shame,
the wealthy minority cannot keep out of it merely be-
cause they are better off in worldly goods than the
equally noble but impecunious majority. Once in har-
ness, these few men of means have to work as hard as
the most hopelessly penniless young Count, eighth son
of a Count (himself only managing to exist with painful
frugality upon a younger son's portion and his retiring
pension), that ever wore a blue frock coat with red
facings and brass buttons. After a few years of such
hard work, during which he has lost the habit of want-
ing to be amused, if ever he possessed it, the exception-
ally wealthy Prussian nobleman, when he feels justified
in leaving the army, cares no longer for what is con-
ventionally called pleasure, and passes the remainder of
his life in looking closely after his own interests. Thus
it comes to pass that, there being no class of men in
Prussia, as in England, France, and even Italy, who
have no other business save amusement, and whose
natural function it is, on the one hand, to stimulate
the public taste for all sorts of recreation, and, on the

M 2

164 A WANDERER'S NOTES.

other, to keep the purveyors of such recreation up to
the mark with respect to the quality of the commodity
they furnish, the people of Northern Germany " s'amusent
moult tristement," as we said to have done in the " good
old days."

All ye my countrymen who are dissatisfied with Eng-
lish actors and actresses, who mourn the decline of the
dramatic art in England, who aver with moving groans
that London theatres rank but one degree higher in the
Tchinn of Art than music-halls, go to Berlin, visit the
theatres of the German capital, and, if you survive the
discomforts and annoyances you will have to endure,
even in the Royal theatres, richly subventioned and man-
aged by Court officials of high rank, you shall go back
to the banks of the Thames rejoicing that the places of
amusement provided for you in your native land are
ventilated, furnished, and conducted on principles entirely
different to those which govern the owners and lessees of
such establishments in Prussia. There is not a trans-
pontine London house — nay, but few provincial English
theatres of anything like respectable reputation — in
which far more is not done for the comfort and amuse-
ment of the public than the first theatre of Berlin can
offer. And as for actors and actresses, let London
console itself for certain undeniable shortcomings by the
reflection that aesthetic, pragmatical, refined Berlin —
"die Hauptstadt der Intelligenz" — is content, although
it criticizes contemptuously the dramatic capabilities of
every other European capital, and particularly of our
own, to do without any great actors at all. There were
a dozen theatres in the German Kaiserstadt when I

POPULAR EDUCATION. 165

lived in it, and several hundreds of performers attached
to them ; but, with two exceptions — Helmerding, an
admirable buffoon, and Jendersky, a tragedian of great
power and high poetical intelligence — I was not for-
tunate enough to discover an eminent actor. As for
scenery and accessories, they were generally such as
no London manager would venture to set before his
audiences.

Next to the total lack of aptitude for manly games,
and to the wretched quality of public entertainments,
with the exception of a few concerts d' elite given during
the winter season, few things strike an Englishman
temporarily residing in Prussia more forcibly, or affords
a more absolute contrast to his home experiences, than
the fact that every person belonging to the lower classes
of either sex, whom he employs or with whom he has
any dealings, can read, write, and reckon in a serviceable
manner. His man-servant and his maid-servant, his
cabman, his butcher boy, the sempstress who makes his
wife's dresses at a shilling a day, the carman who trans-
ports his beer from a suburban brewery, the orderly
who brings him a message from his friend Count von
Schwerenoth of .the Gardes du Corps — all these persons
of humble station have enjoyed an education in every
respect equal to that imparted to the majority of English
tradesmen, clerks, and shopmen. It by no means fol-
lows that these " gifts," as Leatherstocking would have
called them, render the servants more biddable, the
cabmen more civil, the sempstresses more industrious,
than if they were, one and all, wallowing in a slough
of the densest ignorance. On the contrary, the extreme

166 A WANDERER'S NOTES.

incivility of the " hewers of wood and drawers of water "
in Prussia is chiefly to be attributed to the feeling of
equality with their betters aroused in them by the con-
sciousness that, so far as " the elements " are concerned,
one Prussian is as good as another — not, truly, from any
choice in the matter on his part, but because he must
be. There is no mistake about one little circumstance ; a
Prussian girl or boy, having arrived at a certain age, has
got to go to school, else his or her Vaterland will know
the reason why. Defaulters are punished vicariously,
being of tender age, in the persons of their parents or
guardians. If Schulz, Eoyal Privileged Master Pork-
butcher, however respectable and well to do, should not
send his offspring to school, in compliance with the
statute in that case made and provided, he will be fined
once, twice, and thrice ; and afterwards, should his
recalcitrancy endure, Schulz will be sent to prison
without benefit of clergy.

Liberty of the subject does not mean quite the same
thing in German as in English. A Prussian subject is
laid hold of, so soon as he is out of frocks, by his native
authorities, and compelled to indoctrinate himself into
the mysteries of the " three R V ; and when he has
painfully conquered the access to Parnassus, his country
is just about ready to put him into a tight-fitting
coloured coat and brass buttons, and teach him to
scatter her enemies and make them fall. From the
age of seventeen to that of forty-two he is liable to
be deprived of his individuality, and turned into mere
"Number So-and-so" of a company, squadron, or
battery; and an attempt to escape from the fulfilment

A NOTABLE ANNIVERSARY. 167

of these obligations may cost him not only his liberty,
but his life — as it did only a few years ago to a private
guardsman at Koln, who, for some small offence, was
conveyed by a sergeant's guard across the bridge of
boats to Deutz, and who, not liking the prospect of
stronger arrest in the military prison there, jumped
into the Rhine and swam up the river. The non-
commissioned officer commanding the party instantly
ordered his men to " Make ready ! " and, when the poor
devil came up to the surface, at the word " Fire ! " his
comrades shot him dead in the water.

It was amid glorious weather that the anniversary
of the capitulation of Sedan dawned on the capital of
Germany on September 2nd, 1873. The city was in full
holiday trim, prepared for a celebration that had been
long looked forward to, abundantly beflagged, and
crowded with visitors from all parts of the Empire,
and indeed of Europe — the military element, of course,
predominating.

At eight o'clock a.m. precisely the trumpeters of the
Imperial Garde du Corps, stationed on the roof of the
Royal Castle, sounded forth a chorale, " Honour alone to
God on High " — Allein Gott in der Hoh' sei Ehr' — thus
characteristically, and in keeping with Prussian de-
votional feeling, beginning the day with a kind of
religious act. At a quarter-past ten the whole garrison
of Berlin was marched to the Konigsplatz, with bands
playing and colours displayed, to take up positions
round the Victory Monument — das Siegesdenkmal —
about which they formed two sides of a hollow square.
The Grenadiers, Chasseurs, and Light Cavalry composed

168 A WANDERER'S NOTES.

the force to the right ; the Infantry and Heavy Cavalry
on the left. The third side of the square was occupied
by the tribunes, and the fourth left open for the general
public.

For the information of those among my readers who
may not be familiar with the topography of Berlin, I
may mention that the Konigsplatz is a huge square, about
a quarter of a mile in measurement either way, opening
upon the Thiergarten ; and it is in the centre of this
square that stands the Siegesdenkmal, the lower portion
of which, when I took up the station assigned to me on
the occasion referred to, was still shrouded by scarlet
and drab hangings. Fronting the column, about fifty
yards in advance of the figure of Victory, and in the
centre of the Victory Avenue, was erected an Imperial
Pavilion, in purple, white, and gold, above which wan-
toned the standard of the realm. The Pavilion was in
the form of an octagon, and a Prussian banner, decorated
with laurels, floated at each angle. The floor of the
Pavilion was raised several feet above the level of the
ground, and the whole structure was lavishly adorned
with exotics and evergreens. To the right and left of
the magnificent erection were two other large inclosures.
That to the right of the Imperial Pavilion was filled
with Generals, Admirals, Staff-Surgeons, Knights of
Malta and St. John ; that to the left with Ministers
of State, Privy Councillors, University Dons, Speakers
of both Houses of the Reichstag, representatives of the
Municipalities, and other dignitaries. Adjoining these
were two estrades, devoted to Imperial guests, Court
officials, the Diplomatic Body, foreign Princes, and

A GOODLY COMPANY. 169

ladies of the Order of Louisa. Officers of the active
army and deputations from the army and navy occupied
the open spaces fronting these estrades, and round the
lofty hedge of Venetian masts, fluttering with pennons,
which encircled the monument.

The troops had just taken their ground, and were
standing at ease, when the Eoyal spectators and
participators in the day's solemnity began to arrive
at the Pavilion. They drove in open carriages, pre-
ceded by outriders, in grand gala. The first to reach
the ground was the Princess Alexandrine, Grand Duchess
of Mecklenburg, in a dress of pale blue, and carrying a
bouquet of white roses. Her Highness was followed at
brief intervals by all the other Princesses of the Hohen-
zollern family, the last but two to appear being the
Queen-Dowager Elizabeth, widow of Frederic William
IV. Her Majesty was lifted from her landau into a
litter, and carried into the Pavilion. The last of all the
Royal ladies to arrive were the Empress and the Crown-
Princess Victoria. Her Majesty was dressed in white
embroidered silk, and bore a bouquet of the Red Cross,
composed of scarlet geraniums on a ground of white
camellias — representing the badge of the Geneva Con-
vention. The Princess Imperial, who accompanied her
mother-in-law, wore a lilac white bonnet, and carried a
bouquet of red camellias. Following them came Princes
Frederic William and Henry, sons of the Crown Prince,
wearing the uniform and sugar-loaf head-dress, tempore
Frederic the Great, of the First Eegiment of Guards,
in which both the Royal lads then held commissions.-
Young Prince Frederick Leopold was in sailor's dress.

170 A WANDERER'S NOTES.

As the Pavilion filled, the clergy and the Cathedral choir
assembled on the platform fronting it, with their backs
to the monument, their velvet caps and black robes
adding much to the picturesqueness of the whole
scene.

At 10.35 thunders of cheering from the Thiergarten
behind us, followed by hoarse commands of officers and
the clashing of muskets and sabres as the troops came
to " attention," signalled the approach of the Emperor,
who immediately afterwards rode up the Victory Avenue
to the Pavilion, attended by a brilliant staff, and was
received with the Prussian Anthem and a general salute.
His Majesty bestrode a noble black charger with the grace
and ease of a youthful sabreur, and looked the picture
of health and vigour. He was much browned by the
sun, and in splendid condition. Immediately behind
him, on a bright bay of great power and beauty, rode
the Crown Prince, carrying his baton of Field Marshal ;
whilst slightly to the rear of the present and the future
Emperor rode the Princes Frederick Charles, Albrecht,
and Karl, all admirably mounted. During a full half-
hour's wait for the arrival of all these Royalties, Prince
von Bismarck, who was in the uniform of his Cuirassier
regiment, and bestrode a huge brown charger, had been
sitting alone outside the enclosure and estrade set aside
for statesmen and diplomatists, taking no notice of the
august advents, only from time to time exchanging a
few words with Herr Camphausen, the Minister of
Finance, across the back of the estrade. When the
Emperor arrived, however, the Imperial Chancellor
touched his horse lightly with his heel, and, riding

THE VICTORY MONUMENT. 171

forward, received his Sovereign's hearty greeting, and
took his place in the Emperor's immediate following.

After saluting the Koyal ladies on the purple da'is,
his Majesty rode round the Pavilion, and halted his
charger a little to its right, immediately opposite to
the clergy ; then, raising his sword, he gave the signal
for the trumpet to sound and the drums to beat to
prayers. This done, the choir sang two verses of the
hymn commencing " Praise and honour to the Highest."
Directly afterwards the Koyal body chaplain pronounced
a short prayer, the Emperor's staff and the whole garri-
son remaining uncovered ; and then, though the sun was
shining fiercely at the time, Dr. Thielen, the Chaplain
of the Forces, preached a short sermon, having for its
subject the glorious military achievements in honour
of which the monument had been erected. Again the
trumpets sounded and drums rolled. Field-Marshal
Count von Koon doffed his plumed casque, and, bowing
down to his saddle-bow, requested the Emperor to author-
ize the unveiling of the memorial. His Majesty bent his
head, waved his sword, and the mantles enveloping the
pedestal and the pillared hall from which the column
springs dropped to the earth, and revealed the whole
structure. -

A few words may not be out of place here with
regard to the memorial itself. The square base of the
monument is sixty-two feet on each side by twenty-
two high, and stands on a gray Silesian granite terrace
four feet in height, and consisting of four massive
steps. This base is composed of red Swedish granite.
Into its four sides are inserted reliefs 41 feet by 6|,

172 A WANDERER'S NOTES.

illustrating the episodes of the three great wars which

the Siegesdenkmal is intended to commemorate. These

illustrative scenes are as follow : On the east side —

Preparations for war and the storming of Diippel ;

on the north side — the battle of Koniggratz and the

meeting on the battle-field of the King and the Crown

Prince ; on the west side — the battle of Sedan and the

entry into Paris ; on the south side — the entry of troops

into Berlin. From this huge base arises an enormous

pillar a hundred feet high, surmounted by the statue

of Victory, which is 40 feet in height ; the altitude

of the whole monument being 195 feet. Immediately

above the pedestal the column is surrounded by granite

pillars, and forms a hall fifty feet in diameter. Each

of these pillars consists of a single block of Pomeranian

granite, sixteen feet long and three feet in diameter.

The capitals are composed of gun metal, and each one

of them cost £500 sterling. Within this pillared hall

the whole surface of the column is covered by mosaics,

illustrative of the military achievements of the Prussian

army and the German people. Above the hall the

column is ornamented by three collars of captured

cannon, highly gilded, and connected by gilt links.

These trophies are respectively Danish, Austrian, and

French guns, captured in the three great campaigns of

1864, 1866, and 1870. The statue of Victory, which

surmounts the whole, stands upon eight Prussian eagles,

and holds out a laurel wreath with the right hand, while

grasping in the left a spear, into the blade of which

is inserted an iron cross. The statue is winged and

gorgeously gilded. The monument contains represent-

BISMARCK'S OVATION. 173

ations in all of one hundred and ninety-four Prussian
and German victories in the three campaigns. I should
add that the figure of Germany in the mosaic of the
pillared hall of which I have spoken is the portrait of
Queen Louise, the Emperor's mother.

At the moment when the draperies fell all the bands
struck up the National Anthem ; the troops presented
arms, and gave out three ringing cheers ; while the
Artillery of the Guard fired a salute of a hundred and
one guns, and all the church bells in Berlin rang out
a joyous peal. The cathedral choir then, accompanied
by the bands of the Imperial Guard and the Grenadiers,
sang the chorale, " Nun danket alle Gott." While these
devotional words were being sung, the Emperor, the
troops, and the immense multitude of spectators present
listened bare-headed, in profound silence, and presented
the most impressive spectacle I have ever witnessed.
His Majesty next proceeded to minutely inspect the
troops, greeting each regiment, as he rode up its front
rank, with a hearty " Good morning ! " to which the
men replied with thousand- voiced power, " Good morn-
ing, your Majesty!" In and out of the triple lines
rode the heroic old Monarch, cheered enthusiastically
as he passed each tribune in turn, or approached the
dense masses of the populace hedging on the Konigs-
platz. But the most electrifying popular ovation of
the day was that accorded to Prince von Bismarck, who,
as he cantered round in the suite, his hand to his
helmet's brim, and his face lighted up by a stern smile,
was greeted with such cheering as was never before
heard in Germany. Ladies sprang up on the benches,

174 A WANDERER'S NOTES.

waved their handkerchiefs, blending a shrill, piercing
upward note with the tenor shout and bass roar of a
frantic chorus of cheers that burst from two hundred
thousand throats as the author of Germany's unity and
the champion of her State rights rode proudly by, the
greatest man of his age, the mighty servant of a noble
master, the living and acknowledged leader of the
whole German race. It was a great day for Germany ;
a greater for Prussia ; but greatest of all for Otto von
Bismarck, whose title to his country's gratitude, rever-
ence and love was proclaimed unmistakably by German
lips from the very depths of the German heart.

CHAPTEE VI.

A HAPPY ISLAND.

THE venerable Northern Saga, in an all but unadulterated
Frisian dialect— the tongue which, slightly diluted with
modern English, is spoken by some fifteen hundred
loyal subjects of our gracious Queen in the quaint,
unreal little island of Heligoland — thus describes the
physical features of the place :

" Road es deet Lunn,

Groen es de Kant,

Witt es de Sunn :

Deet es de Woapen van 't Hillige Land."

A red rock, capped with meadow-green and fringed with
tidy, cosy houses ; an oblong square lump of the North
Devonshire coast, transported to the North Sea by
some potent magician ; viewed from afar, a triumph of
artistic confectionery, or an exceptionally well-executed
excerpt from the Model Department of a Geographical
Museum. That such a mere scrap of coloured stone
can be a serious British possession, swayed by a Lieu-
tenant-Governor, endowed with a full-grown Constitu-
tion, an army, a navy, universal suffrage, compulsory
education, and a variety of other civilized institutions
such as more than one nation of the first class still
longs for in vain, is difficult to realize from the deck

176 A WANDERER'S NOTES.

of a Hamburg steamer ; but twenty-four hours' sojourn
under the red, white, and green banner sufficed to con-
vince me that the northern Holy Land is all this, and
a good deal besides. It is one of the most picturesque
little spots it has ever been my good fortune to light
upon in the course of many years' wanderings ; its
health and morals are so far above the average, that
Heligolanders dying at fourscore are considered by their
relations and friends to have been prematurely snatched
away ; its criminal calendar would keep a party-going
Judge in white gloves ; and its bathing arrangements,
commissariat, and cleanliness of lodgings, are, in all
respects, unexceptionable. I strove for hours to find
out the oldest inhabitant, but in vain. It appeared
that he was out at sea in his boat, in charge of a cargo
of tourists. But, as I was ascending to the Oberland
from the beach, I met a sprightly young fellow of
eighty-nine, clad chiefly in a bureaucratic chimney-pot
hat — in Heligoland, as in-the Sandwich Islands, a symbol
of high local rank and dignity — who entered into con-
versation with me, and, upon being questioned as to
his English-speaking capacities — for Frisian is stiff stuff
to reduce into either English or High German — told me
cheerily that Anglo-Saxon was not his forte, but that
" his oldest brudder, he speaks her goot ! " As to crime,
if I might estimate its frequency of occurrence by the
purport of a colloquy accidentally overheard in the
breakfast-room on the sand spit devoted to bathing
purposes, it must have been at a ruinous discount.
One of my Prussian friends was putting the restaurateur
through his facings with respect to the Heligoland

HOLY ISLAND. 177

administration of justice. " How," asked he, " would
your Supreme Court act in a case of murder ? " "Murder ! "
answered our host ; " how can one even imagine such a
thing? Why, sir, that would be a sin.7' "So it is,"
observed the Prussian, dryly ; " but in Berlin you can
have a man murdered any day for one and ninepence,
and get sixpence change out, if you drive a bargain."

Heligoland is a miniature home of the virtues, a terres-
trial Paradise on a reduced scale, a maximum of morality
to a minimum of territory. Such a meritorious little
place deserves to be encouraged. Every Briton should
pay it a visit who can spare the time. Most of the Con-
tinental watering-places are " played out " for well-to-do
Englishmen. Why should not a few thousands of our
autumn holiday-makers give this delightful island—-
which, be it remembered, is our own property — a turn,
and help its hard-working, thrifty, and loyal sons to
pay off the balance of their National Debt, already
reduced from £9000 to £2000, despite the temporary
falling-off in their income that resulted from the abolition
of the gaming-tables and the repression of certain pre-
datory propensities that, down to the time of Colonel
Maxse's accession to power, had been hallowed by long
custom, and had become a lex non scripta of traditional
" rights and privileges ? " Heligoland is, it may be said,
somewhat out of the way. I grant it — but not so much
as many Englishmen fancy. Thirty hours or so from
London to Hamburg, and seven more from that gayest
of North German cities to the " Witte Sunn," or white
sand of " Hillige Land " — the latter part of the journey
effected in a most agreeable manner, on board of a swift

VOL. II.

178 A WANDERER'S NOTES.

and comfortable steamer that puts to shame our Channel
service between Dover and Calais. The distance from
Hamburg to the island is about a hundred miles, sixty
of which are traversed on the broad bosom of the Elbe.
The " Ked Rock " is only forty miles from Cuxhaven,
at the mouth of the great German river ; and the
steamers, in anything like fair weather, make the sea
passage in less than three hours.

Everything about Heligoland is fresh, and quaint,
and unconventional. The rocky plateau, from which it
springs sheer up to an average height of a hundred and
sixty feet, spreads away from the base of its cliffs for
many hundred yards at so slight an angle of declivity,
that no vessel drawing eight feet of water can safely
approach its coast within a distance of half a mile ; and
the financial resources of the island, although they
achieved an almost magical development under the wise
and beneficent rule of Colonel Maxse, are not equal to
defraying the cost of construction of a pier or landing
stage, a thousand yards long, which could hold its own
against the terrific storms that frequently assail the
ancient Frisian settlement. Consequently passengers
are fain to be conveyed ashore in row-boats, of which
a small flotilla starts from the Unterland so soon as the
battery fronting Government House signals the arrival
of a Hamburg or Bremen packet. The "Hardy Norse-
men" land you safely on the beach ; and then, as there
is not a horse or donkey on the island — there is but one
cow, and she is the Governor's private property ! — the
same sturdy arms that have pulled you o'er the "stormy
wave " sling your trunks to a stout pole, and, if you are

BATHING AT HELIGOLAND. 179

for the Oberland, carry them up the one hundred and
ninety-three steps that connect the summit of the rock
with the lower town. The morning after your arrival
you get up early, eager for a bathe in the sparkling blue
sea that seems to be rippled over with a million smiles
of salutation. If you fancy that, to gratify your longing,
all you have to do is to stroll down to the beach, and
get into a bathing machine, your illusion will soon be
dispelled. Into a boat must you jump, from a movable
stage on wheels ; nor can you reach the Dime, where
rows of gaily-painted green and white machines await
you, under half an hour's sail in the most favourable
weather, or forty minutes' row on a dead calm day.
Lazy and squeamish people regard this compulsory
voyage with horror and consternation ; but it is, to more
healthily constituted natures, a real boon to be obliged
to make a couple of tiny sea- voyages daily, in order to
enjoy the most glorious of sea-baths and the most
succulent of breakfasts, washed down by such English
stout and bitter beer as I have never elsewhere tasted
out of my native land.

The bathing arrangements are based upon principles
of strict decorum and propriety. There is none of the
agreeable but reckless communion with respect to the
two sexes that obtains at Ostend, Biarritz, Trouville,
&c. The men's bathing ground is half a mile distant
from that assigned to the ladies ; and not even the
presence of neutrals, such as little boys of tender age,
is tolerated within the precincts of the latter. Oddly
enough, " costumes " are conspicuous by their absence
from either division of the Dime ; and one of Heligo-

N 2

180 A WANDERER'S NOTES.

land's many peculiarities appears to be, that whereas
some few of the male bathers wear the light dress
recognized as appropriate to the use of the swimming
bath, Otaheite fashions have been almost unanimously
adopted by the fair habit aees of the sands. My authority
for this statement is an English lady, who was not a
little surprised, one fine morning, to find herself the only
person, among a dozen or two of adult female bathers,
who was clothed in aught save her own charms. I
must not forbear to mention that ninety-nine out of a
hundred ladies who visit Heligoland are Germans.

Twice a-year does Heligoland treat itself and its
foreign visitors to a spectacle unique of the kind — one
which those who have been lucky enough to witness it
are not likely ever to forget, so fantastically lovely, so
weirdly picturesque, are the effects it presents to the
eye. The huge flanks of the ruddy rock are riddled in
all directions with caves of various shapes and dimen-
sions, many of them piercing the rock to such a depth
that their exploration is a work of time and of difficulty.
These caves, contrary to the belief which I found some
years ago firmly established in the breasts of many
" well-informed people " in England, have not been
excavated by the rabbits — which, it has been asserted,
so persistently threatened the very existence of the
island that the Heligolanders, but for the deplorable
sporting propensities of a tyrannical and unyielding
Governor, would long ere now have declared wrar against
their natural enemies, and averted the diminution of
her Majesty's dominions by several square yards. There
are twenty-seven valid and indisputable reasons why

THE RABBIT MYTH. 181

the rabbits cannot behave in the way ascribed to them.
The first is, that there are no rabbits in Heligoland.
The second is, that, if there were, they could not bite
or scratch their way through red sandstone. The third
is, that if they did, they would all be drowned every
time the tide rose : for at his;h water the caves are

' O

inundated, and as rabbits are not amphibious animals,
nor provided by Nature with the means of climbing
perpendicular rocks a couple of hundred feet high, the
odds against their escaping from Neptune's pitiless
trident would be about a nunnery to a nutmeg. I
forbear detailing the other twenty-four reasons, each
of which, I can assure my readers, is as impregnable to
criticism as any of the three I have set down.

There were once seven rabbits on the Dune, a sand-
bank separated from the island by more than a mile of
sea. They were happy and well-to-do. Fortune seemed
to smile upon them ; the climatic and dietary conditions
by which they were surrounded promised them abund-
ance of family joys and a duration of life as abnormal
in rabbits as that of their neighbours, the Heligolanders,
is in men. But they fell victims to public opinion.
Stimulated to a paroxysm of action by the apprehensions
suggested by some mischievous German journalists, the
natives fell upon the Seven, put them to the sword, and
consummated the sanguinary deed by devouring the
corpses of the slain. Since the termination of this
stirring chapter in the history of " Hillige Land," no
attempt has been made, even by the minions of the
oppressive Government that put down wrecking,
abolished public gambling, and arbitrarily reduced the

182 A WANDERER'S NOTES.

national debt by three-fourths of its total within ten
years, to reintroduce the fierce and masterful coney, foe
to the commonwealth, into any part of the island realm
— even in a hutch. You cannot get a gibelotte de lapin
for breakfast in Heligoland for love or money ; a rabbit
would create as lively a sensation there as a horse in
Venice or a mongoose in Tipperary.

The caves, not excavated of rabbits, were illuminated
in the most gorgeous manner one night during my sojourn
on the " Eock," and afforded some thousands of holiday-
makers an opportunity of making a delightful sea- trip
round the island, under circumstances invested with a
splendour that defies description. The whole flotilla of the
island was put at the disposal of the public — an unusually
large public for such a mite of a place, as it had been
recruited to the tune of several hundreds by the arrival,
during the afternoon, of two large excursion steamers
from Bremen and Hamburg. At nine o'clock precisely
we embarked from the Government landing-stage in a
roomy, comfortable row-boat, " something larger than a
gig, a little smaller than a launch." The surface of the
tiny bay round which the Lower Town is built was
well-nigh covered by small craft of all descriptions,
from the smart embarkations to which his Excellency
the Governor had invited a large party of friends, to
the humble coble or dismasted smack of the fisherman,
as broad in the beam and as sun-baked as its sturdy
Frisian master. Some of the larger boats were rigged
out with Chinese lanterns, glowing mildly like uncut
jewels, and reflected back in countless miniature pre-
sentments from the thousand dancing facets of the

AX ILLUMINATED ISLE.

183

lightly-rippled sea. A gun was fired, a leash of hissing
rockets shot upwards from a pyrotechnical store-boat into
the dark-blue summer sky, and the whole convoy,
headed by Colonel Maxse's command, started on circuit
of the island to the strains of " God save the Queen."
We had scarcely lost sight of the duplex town and its
brightly-illuminated windows, when the rocks on our
left began to glow with lights of unearthly hue — with
sullen red, ghastly green, and that faint livid blue
which most Dante-readers are wont to associate with
the passage of the Stygian ferry. These tints, imparted
to cliff, to sea, and hundreds of floating spectators,
invested the whole scene with a mystical, almost a
supernatural, character, that was in the highest degree
impressive. But for the merry music, the joyous shout-
ing, and humming chatter that imperatively vitalized
the picture, we might have fancied ourselves to be
sorrowful companies of condemned ghosts, slowly but
irrevocably gliding towards the goal appointed for our
torments, and dismally warned of the horrors awaiting
us by the lurid mists that shimmer and gleam over
Acheron. Every nook and cranny of the cliff's scarred
and crumpled face stood revealed to us, searched to its
innermost interstice by quivering flames ; while every
now and then a dark unsubstantial spectre — shaped
sometimes like a huge cat, sometimes like a rampant
bear, and again taking the semblance of a giant monkey,
peering around him in search of his own special cavern
—hovered up and down the rock-side, as though en-
deavouring to escape from his prison of stone, with the
seeming restlessness of endless and supreme suffering.

184 A WANDERER'S NOTES.

These apparitions were, after all, but shadows east by
the stout islanders told off by Colonel Maxse to
administer the Bengal fire that was the factor chiefly
employed in producing these oglesome eye-delusions ;
but, for temporary fearsomeness, I would back them
against the most appalling ghost that ever was conjured
up from Tartarus by a diseased imagination, a guilty
conscience, or a supper of hot lobster. So soon as we
had rounded the long spit of rock that protrudes like a
spur from the rugged heel of Heligoland, the resources
of pyrotechny were liberally added to the stationary
illumination with which the whole coast was engirded.
Flights of rockets bespangled the sky with thousands
of falling starlets ; enormous Catherine wheels whirled
round dizzily, spitting forth showers of golden sparks ;
fountains of fire gushed from apparently inaccessible
heights, and burning emeralds, rubies, and sapphires
floated gracefully through the air, as though hesitating
upon whom to bestow themselves. Cave after cave
gaped upon us with fiery jaws ; gun after gun bellowed
its greeting from the summit of the rock ; cheer after
cheer rang out from the crowded boats, as each new
wonder burst upon their delighted occupants. Presently
we reached the Monk, a huge detached rock fashioned
by Nature's hand to the image of a long-robed, seated
figure ; and, creeping round the base of his throne, we
came* suddenly in sight of our Royal Mistress's mono-
gram, cleaving to the rock half-way up the cliff, in
colossal letters of fire some twelve feet high. There-
upon the band again struck up the National Anthem,
and the Governor's battery fired a crashing, rattling

GOVERNOR MAXSE.

185

salute — while from boat and shore, from steamer at
anchor and rocky height, broke forth a final eruption
of fireworks that must, I fancy, have been visible at
Cuxhaven. This was the " bouquet ; " and five minutes
later we were standing safely on the beach, congratulating
one another upon having seen the prettiest sight of our
lives.

It was the first time (July 1872) that the manage-
ment of this renowned Heligoland spectacle had been
undertaken exclusively by the Governor of the island ;
and never before had it been so magnificently organized,
or turned out so splendid a success. Under the conduct
of the former bathing direction, the institution had
fallen off considerably from whatever grandeur it may
have originally possessed, and failed to prove such an
attraction for the inhabitants of the mainland as could
prove to be remunerative to the islanders, out of whose
pockets the outlay — speculative, of course — had to be
defrayed. But the rumour having somehow spread
about the ex-Free Towns that this year's exhibition
would be of unprecedented brilliancy, so many excursion-
ists arrived in the island that there was positively not
enough of boat accommodation to enable all the ticket-
holders to share the pleasures of the water-party. The
worthy Heligolanders were enchanted with the results
of the Governor's enterprise, and were neither stupid
nor pig-headed enough to withhold their acknowledg-
ment of the advantages that had accrued to them since
the administration of the island was confided to a gentle-
man who devoted all his energy and talent to the
improvement of their circumstances, moral as well as

186 A WANDERER'S NOTES.

physical. Indeed, Heligoland has solid reason to be
grateful to Colonel Maxse ; and so has England — for he
purified one of her outlying possessions of its sins, which
were crying sins when he assumed the reins of govern-
ment ; and he turned what was a mighty wicked little
spot, living disreputably on the profits of wrecking and
of gambling-table concessions, into the most respectable
watering-place in Europe. This I assert confidently.
Loose characters of either sex do not come to Heligoland ;
there is no encouragement for male sharks or female
vampires. Even the most unprotected of ladies may
sojourn there without danger of the least molestation.
The seafaring population is given neither to drunken-
ness nor to bad language ; it does not fight — it does
not seek to impose upon the foreigners — it does not
grumble even if paid no more than its due. There are
a capital theatre, a spacious public ball-room, a good
concert-hall, English billiard-tables in the Conversation-
haus, a glorious sea, and sands upon which it is a treat
to bathe.

A strong westerly wind, freighted with rain-clouds,
afforded me an opportunity of making myself acquainted
with the inner recreative resources of the island, all
communication with the Dime having been virtually
cut off throughout. I entertain a cordial regard for
Heligoland ; should the illustrious Order of the Lobster,
founded by my lamented friend Maxse, ever be conferred
upon me, I shall wear its insignia with the greatest
pride ; but, despite my predilections, I must admit that
the island is not a lively place of sojourn during a
gale of wind. To be weather-bound among the worthy

HELIGOLAND RECREATIONS. 187

but uninteresting Frisians for any length of time would
be a circumstance having as little in common with a joke
as any condition of things that I can call to mind. For
one having no acquaintances amongst the " Badegaste "
there is really, when the stormy winds do blow, nothing
to do but to eat, drink, srnoke, and buy shells. The three
first-named occupations present no exceptional features
of interest in Heligoland ; one can, so to speak, do them
anywhere. The last is essentially and of its nature
episodical ; you cannot continuously buy shells, at least
not for many hours running — besides, it would be too
expensive. The island is divided into two parts, con-
nected by a sinuous system of steps. The Lower Town
is too small to walk about in. It is built in a small
bight of the rock, no larger than Eaton-square ; and the
streets average from twelve to fifteen feet in breadth.
The most you can manage in them is to lounge — walk-
ing is out of the question. There is a boarded path,
facing the sea, from a quaint old wooden breakwater
to the cliff, some hundreds of yards long ; but this is
the fashionable parade, upon which toilettes have to be
displayed ; the only exercise it is devoted to is that of
the eye. In the Upper Town, and over the broad green
shoulders of the rock, pedestrianism is perforce at a
discount when ^Eolus unlocks the doors of his cavern.
By lying down flat and digging your fingers into the
stiff red earth, you can just save yourself from being
wafted to other climes ; and, if you are gifted with
extraordinary muscular strength, it is possible that you
may manage, in that attitude, to crawl about, a few
yards at a time, between the gusts. But this sort of

188 A WANDERER'S NOTES.

exercise is not suited to ladies ; and even men get tired
of it whenever its first novelty is worn off. Thus,
locomotion being, as it were, paralyzed by the sinking of
the mercury in the barometers, visitors to Heligoland are
liable to have rather a dull time of it when the national
colours have been hauled down from the flagstaff near
the Pavilion — a sign that the weather is considered
to be unfavourable to the short sea passage between the
island and the Dune. Not that you are obliged to fore-
go your dip by reason of such climatic interruptions ; for
Heligoland can boast of a covered salt-water swimming
bath containing 15,000 cubic feet of the North Sea,
which flows steadily through it all day long. No other
Continental watering-place with which I am acquainted
possesses this advantage. Through the yawning jaws
of a colossal lion's head in bronze rushes the cool green
sea- water incessantly into the basin, just where the bath
is at its shallowest, about three feet deep — at the other
end there are nine feet of water, and by squatting under
this mighty tap you can enjoy a magnificent douche.

Whilst staying on the island I took especial pains to
inquire into the state of feeling prevalent among the
Heligolanders with regard to the vexed question of
nationality. According to the fervent apostles of
Pan-Germanism, the Heligolanders are miserable victims
of the 1815 Treaty, whom a caitiff and insidious Govern -
ment basely endeavours to render happy in order to
annihilate within their breasts the national sympathies
and aspirations which Nature has there implanted.
Such patriots are hard to please. When wrecking and
gambling were put down — although their suppression

THE NATIONALITY QUESTION. 189

was the voluntary act of a Legislative Council composed
of natives to the soil — the German journalists filled the
heavens with indignant protests against the foreign
tyranny that was despoiling the islanders of their
ancient " rights and privileges." When, in consequence
of the abolition of these abuses, a healthy and equitable
prosperity dawned upon the island, and, waxing from
year to year, enabled its inhabitants to pay off four-
fifths of their debt and to devote comparatively large
sums to national education, sanitary reform, and the
increase of the attractions offered to visitors from
abroad, Berlin leader writers wept floods of ink because
the development of the island's well-being did not take
place under the fostering influences of German culture
and patriotism. Now the Heligolanders are, in some
respects, unsophisticated and simple folk enough ; but
there are few people more keenly alive to their own
interests. Their politics are strictly local, and are
regulated by the condition of their breeches pockets.
The very mention of compulsory service makes their
knees knock together ; and a sickly hue o'erspreads their
bronzed cheeks at the thought of taxation. They are all
well-to-do ; and, as they manage their own finances for
their own benefit, contributing nothing to the Imperial
Exchequer, and spending their money judiciously upon
themselves, it may be imagined how violently repugnant
to their feelings is the mere idea that by any mischance
they might pass out of the hands of a Power that asks
nothing from them but moderately decent behaviour,
while according them an intelligent and benevolent
protection. The island enjoys at the present moment

190 A WANDERER'S NOTES.

the t\vo modern institutions of which Germany and
France are so proud, and only one of which is as yet
established in Great Britain — compulsory education and
universal suffrage. It pays a small poll-tax on its
visitors, and an insignificant Excise duty on spirits. The
Heligolander is probably, of all her Majesty's subjects,
the one whose civil and political liberties are the most
absolutely unfettered. What has he to gain by transfer
to German domination ? If the island were polled on
the question of England v. Germany not one man out
of twenty would vote for the annexation to the Father-
land. I am speaking in virtue of data for the correctness
of which I have unquestionable authority. The people
of the Ked Kock are thoroughly loyal to the British
Crown ; not, of course, with the same sort of loyalty
that animates a born Briton, strongly leavened as is the
latter with the sentiment that grows out of early associ-
ations, local ties, and the glories of his national history ;
but loyal by interest, loyal because Heligoland has
become rich under British rule, and because there is
strong presumptive reason to believe that it would find
itself constrained to sacrifice part of its present and
prospective prosperity were it incorporated in the huge
Teutonic body politic.

Such loyalty, unromantic and materialistic as it may
appear to an enthusiastic temperament — if there be any
such about in this matter-of-fact age — is a good, stout,
work-a-day article that " will wash." There are States
in the Fatherland a good deal more discontented with
Prussian rule than is Heligoland with the all but
nominal control of the British Colonial Office. Discon-

LOYAL HELIGOLAND. 191

tented ! — why, all they seem to desire is, that English-
men should demonstrate some interest in them, instead
of leaving them completely to themselves. The rising
generation is carefully taught the English tongue, as
well as French and German ; and were it not for the
proximity of the German coast, rendering access to the
island easier for our cousins, English would be now the
predominant language of the population. Dozens of
Heligolanders have asked me why so few Englishmen
come to the island — laying stress upon the fact that
they like us much better than the Germans, for many
reasons which I need not detail. " We know," they
say, " that you Englishmen travel more than any other
people in the world ; you go everywhere, and you spend
your money liberally on foreigners of all speeches and
colours. Why don't you give us a turn ? We belong
to you — we are British subjects, and hope ever to
remain so. Come to us, and assure yourselves that
we are virtuous, happy, and . contented." Avis aux
lecteurs !

CHAPTER VII.

GAMBLING IN GERMANY — WIESBADEN.

IT was in 1867, nearly a year after the conclusion of the
German civil war through which the Duchies of Nassau
and Homburg and the Free City of Frankfurt-am-
Main were annexed by victorious Prussia, that the fiat
condemning the German hells to extinction at the expir-
ation of a five years' reprieve went forth from the Berlin
Home Office. I was taking stock of those amusing
haunts at the time ; and it struck me that, of the four
chefs-lieux of the Demon Play thus conclusively doomed
to lose their chief attraction by the suppression of the
red and black, Wiesbaden enjoyed the most hopeful
chance of surviving the heavy blow, which was about to
be struck at its prosperity. It possessed elements of
vitality with which Homburg and Ems, for instance,
were by no means endowed. It was a full-grown town,
not a few rows of lodging-houses built on to a Kursaal ;
it was provided with a gorgeous synagogue and the
prettiest of Greek churches ; its waters, which I have
never seen or tasted — although I fervently believe in
their virtues — were considered an almost universal sove-
reign cure for rheumatism, and were sedulously imbibed
by a great number of its annual visitors ; whereas those

WTESBADEN.

193

of Homburg and Baden-Baden were, to the best of my
knowledge, pleasant fictions under the cover of which
perfectly healthy people gathered round the revolving
wheel of fortune, and persuaded themselves that they
were becoming cured of ills they never had by residing
within a bow-shot of mineral springs they never drank.
When the dread decree, assigning 1872 as the term at
which Messrs. Le Blanc and Benazet should quit for
ever the Edens they themselves had made, should be
put into execution, Ems might, perhaps, for hygienic
reasons, retain its hold upon a large and well-to-do
clientele ; but, whilst Baden-Baden and Homburg seemed
likely to dwindle, peak and pine, desolate and forsaken,
Wiesbaden was certain to do a very comfortable business
in invalids and in autumn tourists to boot. For the
once gay and wicked little place — destined to become
cheerful and virtuous — is so charmingly situated in the
very heart of a romantic, picturesque country — it is so
clean, well-built, and cosy — the air is so soft and balmy,
the promenades so shady and cool, the neighbourhood so
rich in excursions, and the means of locomotion so cheap,
good, and abundant, that, as a resting-place from the
toil of the year, it is scarcely to be matched in Europe.

That time of quiet holiday and peaceful prosperity
was, however, not yet come to Wiesbaden in 1867;
champagne still wielded the sceptre which he subse-
quently had to resign to that more placid monarch, toast
and water ; there were still revels in the hall where the
beards wagged all ; and, cynically conscious of their fate,
the petits creves played round those seductive green
tables — played with a persistence worthy of a better

VOL. II.

194 A WANDERER'S NOTES.

game — at that long match that was daily arranged
between the two elevens — a.m. and p.m. There were
no fewer than five tables, all in full activity for twelve
hours out of the twenty-four, surrounded by crowds of
players three and four deep ; it was a work of ingenuity
and perseverance to obtain a glimpse of the grass-green
cloth, spangled with real golden and silvern flowers ;
the number of croupiers laid on would have furnished a
complete military force to more than one German Prin-
cipality, and the profits of the enterprise amounted to
sums so fabulous that I forbear specifying them, lest
my readers should deem me guilty of exaggeration.
Yet there occurred a few individual cases, longo inter -
vatto, in which heavy sums were won — and, what was
still more rare, taken away — by lucky players. An
American gentleman, beginning with a large stake,
and backing red seventeen times running on the
moitie a la masse principle, carried off 240,000
francs. Prince Galitzin, who was so unlucky in 1866
at Homburg, won £10,000 at five o'clock one
afternoon, and started for the East by the 9 p.m.
train in the evening. A well-known member of that
corps of good fellows, the Queen's Messengers, Captain
Ball, was passing through Wiesbaden on his way to
London about the beginning of August, strolled into
the Kursaal to look round him between trains, and,
through a happy run on black, picked up £900
with which he promptly went his way rejoicing. The
play ran very high that year, and kept so all the time ;
whereas at Ems, where the maximum stake was very
small — I think only £240 — you might haunt the tables

FORTUNE'S FLUCTUATIONS. 195

for a week without once seeing it set. Now the coup du,
maximum was not only an event of hourly occurrence
in Wiesbaden, but occasionally you might see it played
ten and twelve times in succession ; and it is a curious
illustration of the force of example that one high player
makes many. The tables shall have been jogging on
steadily for an hour or so at a game of double florins,
interlarded here and there by an isolated speck of gold,
when suddenly a big fish flounders in with half-a-dozen
thousand-franc notes or a couple of big rouleaux ; imme-
diately, and as if by magic, an auriferous shower descends
upon the green cloth, precious bits of paper flutter down
to the red or black, and the business of the company is
done at the rate of thousands of pounds per minute,
until an " apres " or a fresh deal breaks the charm.

The ways of the table are inscrutable. One night, for
instance, as if the music of the weekly ball had confused
the cards and upset their wonted equanimity of purpose,
they chopped and changed about the whole evening in
the most inconsistent and puzzling manner — two reds,
then a black, then a red, then two blacks, then red and
black alternately for a dozen coups, and so on, to the
despair of the veinards and the general consternation of
the small adventurers — chiefly belonging to the fair sex
— who miserably suffered from a proclivity to one or the
other colour. This state of things continued until the
last deal of all, a few minutes before eleven o'clock, when
Fate decreed that compensation should be made to some
of the petty losers who had had courage and endurance
to hang on, in spite of the dispiriting fluctuations that
had nearly emptied their pockets. Red set in with

o 2

196 A WANDERER'S NOTES.

unusual severity ; eighteen times in succession was the
formula " Rouye yayne" enunciated by the presiding
croupier at the " table in the cellar/' and, as if by general
inspiration, nearly every player followed up the run, till
the red compartment was covered with glittering spoil,
while " noir " remained utterly barren and deserted.
One lady of my acquaintance began the "suite" with
a louis, and retired complacently with 4800 francs at
the end of the deal ; others were still more fortunate,
and I should think that that deal cost the company
eight or nine thousand pounds.

The race-meeting of the 1867 season was about the
least sporting series of events I have ever attended ; but
in all other respects deserves the most honourable men-
tion. It was held in a lovely valley about two miles
and a half from the town ; the weighing and saddling
took place under a large tree in the middle of a field of
stubble ; there was no grand or any other sort of stand,
no perceptible starter's box, winning-post, ring, clerk of
the course, or judge. Warriors in spiked helmets held
the ground, and regulated the sport with unbending
severity. At the entrance to the field set apart for
carriages, an elaborate chart of the course and the adja-
cent country, evidently prepared by the Topographical
Society of Berlin, under the supervision of the Quarter-
master-General's Department, was delivered to you on
payment of forty kreuzers. This beautiful and scientific
work contained so much and such exact information,
graphic as well as tabular, that the human intellect
staggered under its weight and quantity. In one corner,
the points of the compass met your eye ; over against

A " CORRECT CARD." 197

these a long and circumstantial glossary of the "ob-
stacles," with numeral references to the map, duly
impressed upon your mind the terrible difficulties to be
encountered by the horse and his rider ; on the back
was printed the " correct card " of colours, weights,
names, and ages, besides a host of mysterious symbols
hitherto unknown in the annals of sport. I met a dozen
Englishmen at least, in the course of the afternoon,
wandering about with dazed looks and disordered
apparel, striving to make something out of this astonish-
ing document, at once so replete and so exhaustive as
to require hours of study ere it might be mastered.
" Here ! you know German ; what in God's name do
they mean by L. W. and blm, about this chestnut
mare ? " " What's ' Hecke ' and ' Graben/ and where's
this Fasanerei they've got marked down near that potato
patch ? Pheasantry, eh ? why you don't mean to say
they're going to make 'em jump over the pheasants!"
Such were the despairing appeals made to me by my
mystified countrymen — appeals made, alas ! in vain.

As soon as we had passed the admission gate, we
were delivered over, hip and thigh, to the armed author-
ities, who caused us to execute manoeuvres of great
intricacy with loud command and martial fury. The
first movement we witnessed was " by the right, columns
of fiakers," and subsequent evolutions furnished us with
ample evidence that the conquerors of Sadowa had not
forgotten their strategical cunning. Only one thing was
wanting to render the day's proceedings wholly military
and sublimely ridiculous ; and that was, that a Prussian
military band should have preceded the horses through-

198 A WANDERER'S NOTES.

out each race at the double, playing " Heil Dir im
Siegeskranz," which they might very well have done,
considering the average pace of the running. How
soothing it would have been to see the big drum pounded
at the water-jump, and the serpent taking his fences in
three-quarter time ; fancy the ophicleide, blowing a fifth
above his part, in a frantic effort to surmount the double
bank " in his stride ! " This great joy was denied us ;
but much remained to atone for our privation. As for
the so-called " obstacles," there was nothing over the
whole course to stop a cow, aged and full of infirmities.
I was told that the meek little ditch, promoted to the
high-sounding title of " Wassersprung " in the topo-
graphico-statistical work before mentioned, had been
filled with healing mineral waters, obtained from Wies-
baden, with the philanthropic view of curing on the
spot the bruises of any jockey who might haply be
precipitated into its twelve-inch depths ; but this I did
not altogether believe. Despite the utter absence of
any pretext for getting a fall, two of the equestrians
engaged in the second steeplechase came to grief. One
of them had guarded himself against Destiny by tying
his trousers down to his boots with a string before
starting, and I fancy that the twine must have made his
bosom's lord sit heavily, for he came down upon his head
in a gentle hollow without any apparent cause whatever ;
whereupon his horse, after looking at him in a pensive
and inquiring manner, sate down upon him with great
calmness and promptitude, as if it had been for many
years accustomed to do so upon similar occasions. If
that noble animal, in the course of its education, had

A GERMAN RACE-MEETING. 199

not fired many a pistol and uncorked many a bottle of
fine old crusty port at one-and-three, may I never go to a
Circus again ! After resting thus for a moment or two,
he rose, shook himself, and ambled off at a quick step,
timing himself by the well-remembered strains of an
imaginary hornpipe.

The betting was not the least humorous part of the
day's sport, which was indeed a screaming joke from
beginning to end. It invariably took place, with the
greatest ardour and keenness, after the conclusion of
each race — you could get seven to four about anything
as soon as the horses were " home," and " Done with
you in ponies " resounded o'er the lea whilst the winner
was being rubbed down. Once we watched a German
jockey freshening up his steed before starting for the
dread struggle. I suppose it was his idea of " washing
out his mouth ; " and this is how he did it. He led the
unresisting quadruped up to a green ditch, seized him
by the ears, and thrust his nose down into the unsavoury
fluid till he gasped again. Everybody seemed to think
it was all right, and the jockey looked round him with the
air of a man who has done a kindly and timely deed.
The only refreshments provided, in a small booth about
twenty feet by twelve, were beer with a curious sub-
taste of senna, still seltzer and hock of unparalleled
sourness, pale, spotty cigars, and highly-glazed brown
rolls, cut in two, and containing a treasure, hidden to
the eye, but hideously evident to the nose, of marbled
sausage, compounded of donkey's haunch and heads of
garlic. One mouthful of this comestible was warranted
to impart a raging and unquenchable thirst to its

200 A WANDEKER'S NOTES.

consumer for the space of a calendar month. Truly
it caused the medicated beer to go off with incredible
swiftness, and paved the way for floods of unutterably
mawkish seltzer. Presently all was over ; and, aching
with laughter, tanned by the burning sun, and carrying
away a large portion of Ehenish Prussia with us on our
coats, hats, and boots, we submitted ourselves to the
stern disciplinarians whose duty it was to control the
order of our going ; and, after executing a fresh series
of cavalry evolutions, a trifle more intricate than the
first, we succeeded in getting back to the Kursaal.
There, with pickled salmon and Etidesheimer, filets
sautes and champagne, we gathered up our exhausted
energies for the ball, become, for the nonce, that liveliest
of all Terpsichorean assemblies, a race ball. Of the
Wiesbaden autumn meeting, and its systematic adven-
tures, I may truly say, et hoec olim meminisse juvabit !
There never was, and surely never will be again, any-
thing half so funny !

" Faites le jeu, Messieurs! Le jeu estfait, rien ne va
plus ! " These two pithy sentences used to be the alpha
and omega of life at Wiesbaden. As everybody knows,
there were gardens, there were fountains, reading-rooms,
promenades, delightful lounges, excellent music, balls,
excursions, charming scenery, luxurious hotels, and a
host of minor agremens too numerous to catalogue ; but
they one and all gravitated and appertained to a con-
dition of things for which the above enunciations might
be a fitting device. It was all very well to say that
you came to AViesbaden, or to either of the other two
" dear, delightfully wicked places," over which the devil

THE PHYSIOGNOMY OF GAMBLING. 201

had hoisted his house-colours, to cure your capillary
rheumatism, or reduce a chronic inflammation in your
wooden leg; or to protest that "really, Wiesbaden is
so beautifully situated, scenery so romantic, you know,"
and all that; or to assert that you wanted to study
character — a feeble and transparent excuse, this, for
your presence — it was the subtle, mysterious attraction
of the gaming-table that drew together such assemblages
every year as that crowding the pretty little town to
overflowing just twenty years ago. A heterogeneous
assemblage enough, in truth, particularly strong — for
Wiesbaden was even then slightly on the wane — in
adventurers, blacklegs, and bourgeoisie, hotly spiced
with demi-monde — perhaps douzieme-monde would be
nearer the truth — and remarkable for the ornithological
type of countenance characterizing the majority of its
items. It is said that every human being is endowed
with a resemblance, faint or vigorous, according to his
or her " way of thinking," as well as to the physiog-
nomical modifications brought about by education a,nd
carriere, to some beast, bird, or fish. An eminent
Oriental linguist was once pointed out to me who was
absurdly like a hedge-snake ; and a Viennese financier
of my acquaintance was so close a caricature of a bull-
frog that I never looked at him intently without expect-
ing to hear him croak. In Wiesbaden the prevalent
type, I repeat, was bird — bird of the fierce, predatory,
flesh-eating class — old bird, mostly, who had seen the
world, and was a good deal the worse for it ; who had
got a slight general droop of the feathers and contraction
of the eyelid ; whose prehensile instincts were as strong

202 A WANDERER'S NOTES.

as ever, though his claw was somewhat shaky ; bad bird,
I should say, decidedly, who had long ceased to care
and chirrup about his nest and bantlings ; had given up
singing, and devoted himself exclusively to the plucking
of his neighbour birds, a process during which he had
not unfrequently got his own feathers pretty roughly
extracted. Of such birds, male and female, old and
young — the old, however, decidedly predominating —
Wiesbaden was a perfect aviary — every time I strolled
through the Kursaal I felt inclined to gather my coat
tails together, lest they should be pecked at by some
greedy beak ! so cunning and fierce were the looks of
that establishment's daily frequenters.

I must except the English colony, a numerous if not
very distinguished one, from classification with the car-
nivora of the three play rooms — true, they played (and
the more respectable they were the more wildly they
gambled), but then they almost invariably lost what they
could afford, stopped there, pocketed their vexation, and
having paid rather dearly for a few hours' fever, went
away poorer, if not wiser ; they did not, except in a few
very bad, confirmed cases, acquire the bird physiognomy.
They played very funnily, too, some of them. One
afternoon I watched two jolly, handsome English lads,
evidently fresh from one of the universities, almost ex-
ploding with health and spirits, and suffering from nothing
but a plethora of money which they seemed desirous to
reduce. First they tried the rouge-et-noir table, and
backed the red with humorous persistence during a long
series (eight, I think) of black, going over to the enemy
just as the " veine " broke, and the game settled into an

MARTINGALES. 203

interlude of zigzags. The result of this brilliant specula-
tion having nothing daunted them, they migrated into the
roulette room, where one of them, apparently the elder
by a year or so, and the bete forte of the two, combined
the pecuniary forces of himself and friend, and com-
menced sowing double florins all about amongst the
numbers in a manner doubtless very ingenious and
recondite, but which — owing, I presume, to some strange
accident — ended three consecutive times in the raking
up and subsequent arrangement in piles of all the
confederate capital. By this time the huge stock of
silver contributed by the partners to this investment
was completely exhausted — the gold had disappeared at
plain black and red — and the two young fellows sallied
out on the terrace, where they immediately encountered
some friends, to whom with shouts of genuine laughter
they recounted how they had been completely cleaned out.
The humours of the hell were various ; some a
little grim, perhaps, but others, comparatively speaking,
harmless and irresistibly comical. For instance, the
martingale delusion. Observe that the adopters of
martingales are generally people of moderate means and
immoderate conceit, whose intense belief in their own
wisdom and ingenuity is confined within certain limits
by a sort of parasitic prudence. Though they are, dans
leur for interieur, cock-sure of winning, they have not
heart enough to risk a large stake — the very strength of
their convictions seems to inspire them with an illogical
caution. Well for them that it is so ; for their infallible
systems come to hideous grief. I stood one afternoon
at Wiesbaden for more than half-an-hour by a suave but

204 A WANDERER'S NOTES.

positive old gentleman — from Camberwell, by his look
and bearing — who had been pricking holes in his card
till it was like an orrery, and who volunteered to instruct
me in the art of winning to a certain ty. Between his
stakes, which were made at certain intervals in con-
formity with his system, he favoured me with long and
incoherent explanations of the way the cards had and
would run, illustrating his discourse by reference to the
pierced card, and every now and then remarking, " Now,
you see, the red must win," or vice versd, put down a
double florin. I need scarcely say the old gentleman
lost ; but his confidence in his combinations remained
unshaken, and as he never staked more than four
shillings at a time, I hope and believe that his losses
did not hurt him much.

Amongst the foreigners, the most noticeable, both as
regards numerical strength and persevering play, were
certain men whom I should feel inclined to specify as
low Russians. They were not over clean, were flashily
dressed in inferior clothing, spoke French and German
with equal incorrectness, and played high. There is no
more polished and accomplished gentleman than the
Russian grand seigneur — no more offensive cad than the
Russian snob. All the good and great Russians (and
Turks, too) were at Baden-Baden in 1867; the raff of
Muscovy abode with us ; and there was not a fez, I
regret to say, in Wiesbaden. It is a pleasure, of the
negative sort — but still a pleasure — to see a high-bred
Mussulman challenge fortune ; there is a great calm
about his submission to the vicissitudes of luck, only
surpassed by the insouciance with which a noble Russ

" LE BRESILIEN." 205

will win or lose a moderate competence. But the
paraded civilization, mock dandyism, and clumsily worn
western clothing, of a travestied moujik, who in all
probability paid obrok not so very long ago to his
owner for the right to practise the trade by which he
has enriched himself, is to me a peculiarly disagreeable
sight. We had a " Brazilian," too — oh ! yes, we were
not so badly off that we were without a Brazilian. He
was very yellow and black — would have served as a
substitute for an Austrian standard or Custom House
barrier — dressed all in loose white, and wore a big
diamond on his forefinger. C'etait le Bresilien de
rigueur, traditionnel ; and if he did not, like Offenbach's
meridional American, fling gold pieces about with spend-
thrift impartiality, not the less did he play often and
lose heavily. He would play more, he told me languidly,
if he might smoke in the rooms, but this he might not
do ; and as three parts of his life was made up of
cigarette, he was kept out of mischief, to a great extent,
by tobacco. Who shall say, after this, that smoking is
a pernicious habit ? That Brazilian's cigarettes, valued
by their result, would have been cheap to him had he
paid a Frederic apiece for them.

There were several respectable English matrons at
Wiesbaden with large broods of daughters — "die blonden
Misse," as the Germans would persist in calling them.
It sounded very funny to hear a gentleman recounting
how he escorted an English young lady home from a
ball, for instance. One day, at Ischl, after the Casino
ball, a cuirassier was telling me all about it, and,
after stating how Count Kumpelstirn had disappeared

206 A WANDERER'S NOTES.

suddenly with the Princesse Tre'sdouteuse, he observed,
" Ich nahm die Miss," referring to one of our country-
women, just as if he had been fourth player at loo with
a fair pool. To return to our English mammas, so stout,
so richly dressed, so strictly virtuous : Few sights could
be more diverting to a cynic than that presented by one
of these portly ladies sauntering, with well-assumed
indifference — after having safely deposited her innocent
chicks on chairs round a table far away in a corner of
the terrace — into the Kursaal, as if she were looking
for an acquaintance on her way to the reading-rooms.
Arrived at the rouge-et-noir table — she always selected
this institution because it was in the second room, and
there was no fear of the girls following her through the
roulette apartment, tabooed to their timid footsteps —
she hurriedly drew her purse from her pocket, looking
nervously round her the while, and began to punt. The
next quarter of an hour afforded an excellent oppor-
tunity for studying the effects produced by alternate
hope and despair upon her kindly, flushed, perspiring
countenance. Papa, good easy man, was at the bath, or
drinking nasty water. Had he chanced to stroll in
unexpectedly. I tremble to think what he would have
said and done to the partner of his bed and banking
account. And how hard it must have been for Mrs.
De Smytthe to appear cheerful all day with the horrid
consciousness pervading her roomy bosom of that dread
hiatus in her portemonnaie !

My readers will, perhaps, have noticed that I speak
of all sorts and conditions of men and women who
played at the Wiesbaden tables as losers. Did nobody

THE PLAY EPIDEMIC. 207

win, then ? Frankly speaking, I think nobody did.
Of course, here and there some " chan§ard," tumbling
over a lucky vein and clinging to it, pocketed a large
sum ; but what was one amongst so many ? I had my
martingale comme un autre — my infallible system — and I
will disclose, in the profoundest confidence, what it is.
The way to win always at roulette, rouge-et-noir, and
chicken hazard is, not to play! What people were
always telling you at Wiesbaden was, that the company
owning the tables, despite their enormous expenses and
the heavy subvention they paid to the ruler of Hesse
for their privilege, made a clear profit in 1866 of thirty
seven per cent, on their capital. Arid the very people
who told you this, in order to prove to you how
impossible it was that any one should win in the long
run save the bank, started off a few minutes afterwards,
and were speedily to be found edging their Napoleons
or Frederics over the fatal line of demarcation. Their
own statistics did not make the slightest impression
upon them, so far as their personal chances of gain were
concerned. The worst feature of the play disease is
that everybody infected with it entertains a secret faith
that Providence will ordain a special dispensation from
loss on their particular behalf. One more illustration
of gaming superstition from an afternoon's experiences.
An acquaintance of mine, standing with rne by the
roulette table, happened to mention casually that he
had never played at a game of pure hazard. A young
" person," sitting just before us, immediately turned
round, and, placing a thousand franc note in his hand,
begged him urgently to put it on a number for her,

208 A WANDERER'S NOTES.

whichever he pleased. She was sure " qu 'il lui porterait
bonheur." He did so — that is to say, he put the note
on a number, whence it was a minute later swept into
the croupier's caisse. So much for the luck of an
" innocent." The pity of it was that my acquaintance,
having tasted the apple, did eat thereof, and it did not
agree with him. In plain words, after playing for two
hours with varied luck, he was reduced to a florin,
which he could not lose, only because so small a stake
was not allowed by the regulations.

Amongst the phenomena of organized and decorous
gambling, the most striking to a looker-on is the mere
fact that so many people endowed with the usual pro-
portion of intelligence allotted to educated human beings
should be found who will play at all. Let us examine
the institution as it formerly stood in Wiesbaden. There
was no concealment, there were no delusive inducements
to gamble put forward on any authority whatsoever ;
but there was a company — a thing without individuality
even — which did not attempt to cloak or hide from you
the fact that upon the capital invested in human folly,
weakness, and greed it returned a profit of from
60 to 100 per cent, to its shareholders. And it did
not even invite you to play against it, as how should
it, in the name of common sense ? A man armed with
a Ball's magazine rifle, two eight-barrelled revolvers, a
bowie knife, a couple of Derringer's, a sword-cane, and
a howitzer would be considered slightly unreasonable if
he proposed single combat a Voutrance to another man
provided only with a squirt and a pair of bellows ; by-
standers would probably interfere, animated by the

HOPELESS EMPRISE. 209

conviction that the chances of either adversary were not
exactly balanced, at least so far as their respective
armaments were concerned. Cceteris paribus, the position
of the player against the roulette bank is about as hope-
ful as that of the man with the squirt and bellows. The
table speaks for itself ; all you have to do is to examine
the combinations — compound numbers and the like —
carefully, test them by a simple arithmetical process,
and you will discover that a heavy per centage must
accrue to the bank on each combination. Add the
several combinations together, and you will arrive at
an idea of the enormous result actually achieved by the
company that " ran " the tables at Wiesbaden and else-
where, a score of years syne. As I said before, there
was no compulsion, even no persuasion, save the smooth
piece of green cloth which seemed to have the same
attraction for unfeathered bipeds as bits of broken look-
ing-glass have for larks. You could play if you like ;
nobody wanted you to do so. You knew beforehand
that you were sure to lose. Your fate was foreshadowed
to you by the terrible logic of figures. You had only to
look round as you stood near the altar upon which you
were about to sacrifice your worldly goods, in order to
see what sort of an autograph was set by Red and Black
upon the brows of their votaries. You were perfectly
aware — that is, if you were honest to yourself in your heart
of hearts — that if you won, the money thus gained would
not do you any good, and that if you lost you would
spoil your holiday and diminish your self-respect. What
did you do ? Why, you began to punt, of course. In
a day or two you reached the phase of playing on a

VOL. II.

210 A WANDERER'S NOTES.

system ; after which, the duration of your stay depended
merely upon the amount of money you had with you,
or the credit you might obtain from your banker's
correspondents.

To me the mere knowledge that, in challenging
the table, one was playing against a company — a
speculative abstraction, without heart, brain, or hand
of its own — was enough to deter me from risking
a single dollar. I could understand losing money to a
friend, or even a casual acquaintance, at a game where
individual skill had something to do with victory ; to-
day I lose, to-morrow I may win — at least I have a
triple consolation for my losses : First, that I have
played with my own hands, exercised my own intelli-
gence, discretion, and memory ; second, that my money
is only lent after all, for I am sure of the chance, at
least, of winning it back ; third, that it has been
pocketed by somebody whom I know, not by a corpora-
tion composed of persons entirely strangers to me.
Whereas at the gaming tables you did not — at rouge-et-
noir — even have the pleasure of touching the cards which
decided upon your losses or gains ; whilst at the roulette
bank a perfectly lifeless, unintelligent machine, set in
motion by a functionary who, although he paid and
received, had not the slightest personal interest in the
vicissitudes of the game — save such faint esprit de corps
as might perchance glimmer in the bosom of a croupier
— pronounced sentence every two minutes — sentence
from which there was no appeal — and your money
departed from you without having afforded you the
opportunity for exercising a single intellectual faculty

GAMES OF SKILL. 211

in its defence. There were none of the joys, the pro-
blems, the triumphs of whist ; the deep delight of an
extra trick wrested from gallant adversaries by a subtle
and dangerous finesse — the close and cheering sympathy
uniting you to your other self, who, heart and soul yours
for a couple of rubbers, will chivalrously compass your
defeat when Fate shall dissolve your partnership — the
mysterious blending of instinct and science which reveals
to you your enemies' plans, and suggests defensive ex-
pedients whose ingenuity or originality is a source of
secret congratulation to yourself, of rejoicing to your
partner, and of confusion, tempered by admiration of
your penetration and fertility of resource, to your
opponents. Whist is a game which makes men respect
one another. Piquet is an excellent exercise for the
memory, and full of promptings to bold and decisive
action. No timid, wavering, irresolute man can play
piquet. Ecarte', again, is a duel of divination, which
may be fought either by the inductive or the exhaustive
process, according to the number of cards " given." It
is not only an intellectual effort, but a psychological
praxis. Billiards has a fascination of its own — the
rapture of successful execution. He who can put side
on his ball with such exquisite nicety as to achieve
an apparent reversal of the laws of motion knows a
happiness denied to millions of his fellow-creatures.
The games of the red and black do not afford a single
elevating or refining inspiration ; they are perfected
expressions of mere lust of gain ; memory (even were
it of any use in a mere game of chance) finds its
substitute in a card and pin ; induction is impossible,

P 2

212 A WANDERER'S NOTES.

deduction a delusion, the brain is paralyzed in its action,
whilst the passions are stimulated to extravagance ; and
the player is in a state of continual self-condemnation,
because he is engaged in a really hopeless struggle
against overpowering odds.

Another of the grim anomalies of red and black is
that a defeat of the bank is actually a triumph, and
a cause of rejoicing to its actionaries. A " bad day"
brings triple grist to the gyrating mill, by encouraging
a hundred eventual and positive losers to emulate one
accidental winner. Such a day I once witnessed at
Wiesbaden ; when the bank accounts were made up at
midnight with closed doors, the bank was 16,000 francs
to the bad. This fact was communicated to me with
modest exultation by a gentlemanly croupier, smoking
his perfumed cigarette by the artificial lake during one
of his alternate hours of rest. Two Englishmen were
the great winners, netting £3000 or £4000 apiece ; for
of course, although the bank's actual losses were
under £700, all its day's winnings fell into the hands
of the lucky pair. The notable coup of the day had
been a run upon red of thirteen, which both Anglo-
Saxons stuck to on the " moiti^ & la masse " principle —
that is, setting half your accumulated winnings con-
secutively against the bank until the imposed limit be
attained. After the sixth or seventh victory of red, the
majority of players, who had hitherto backed the English-
men on the run, went over to black, and laid heavily and
more heavily against the red at each successive deal ;
consequently the bank nearly recouped itself upon the
whole run, winning upon the last six deals ten or twelve

A REMARKABLE " COUP.

heavy stakes against the two principal ones, which they
as regularly lost. When at last the vein broke and black
won, several of the chief losers had set their money
back to the red, in the belief — which appears to be
an established superstition here — that, having passed
twelve, the run would last till twenty. The fourteenth
deal, therefore, was a tremendous haul for the bank, and
a sort of suppressed groan ran round the table, which
was not good to hear. These runs upon a colour, or
" veines," as they are called in the Argot of the table,
are of rare occurrence, and sometimes break the bank.
Equally rare is the winning of a single heavy stake
upon one number at roulette, but it was my fortune to
witness a solitary accident of this class. There was an
elderly gentleman at Wiesbaden of benevolent exterior,
who was one of the most daring and persistent players
at the roulette table, never touching the rouge-et-noir
pur et simple. One afternoon, as soon as the military
band had wound up its programme by "God save the
Queen," he rose from a chair upon which he had been
sitting quietly for an hour or so, listening to the music
with great attention, walked hastily into the first room,
and pushing his way through the human fence surround-
ing the table, put a hundred franc note down on the
No. 3. Most of the players looked up in surprise,
it being unusual to set anything over a dollar upon a
single number — a cheval, on the point to which four
squares converge, is the utmost that habitues risk if
they have a fancy for any particular numeral. Eound
went the machine, the pith ball flying merrily along its
circular brass groove ; even the impassible croupiers

214 A WANDERER'S NOTES.

seemed to watch it with something like interest. In
half a minute its convolutions were over, and there it
lay, ensconced in compartment No. 3, sure enough !
The person who seemed least astonished was the vener-
able philanthropist who had just won 3200 francs, which
he gathered up, stuffed into his trousers' pocket, and
carried away into the garden, where he resumed his
chair, lit his cigar, and called for a cup of coffee.

There was a great deal of character about in Wies-
baden of yore — bad character, I am afraid, most of it,
but none the less amusing for that. Perhaps the class
of curiosities most abundantly represented was that of
the " vieillards monumentaux." White beards trimmed
with such care that every several hair seemed to occupy
a place prescribed for it by eternal law, bowed forms
arrayed in dandy jackets, stiff knees clothed in the
lightest and brightest of bags, feet " tres accidentes "
compressed in brilliant boots or dainty lacquered shoes,
pervaded the gardens and the Kursaal. These old gentle-
men divided their time between the tables, at which
they played with a calm acquired by centuries of experi-
ence, and " les petites dames," with whom they were
tender and fol&tres. Did Mdlle. Croquecoeur, or " la
s^millante Zizine," or any of the enamelled Heta'ires of
the Bois arrive in Wiesbaden, and make her appearance,
architecturally got up, on the terrace of the lake, within
half-an-hour of her advent you might see her holding
court over a ring of these venerable gallants, to whom
she prodigated impertinences that passed for esprit in
return for the superannuated compliments and highly
ornate flatteries which they poured forth at her feet.

PRUSSIAN OFFICERS AT WIESBADEN. 215

The social achievement represented by a spectacle of
this description must have been highly instructive and
profitable to the unsophisticated young girls who were
sojourning in Wiesbaden under the wing of their papas
and mammas. The only visitors who seemed utterly
impervious to the contagion of gambling and the fascin-
ations of courtesans were the Prussian officers, who
neither played nor hovered round the tables, nor paid
court to the painted syrens of the park. Those
gentlemen might be seen walking and talking together,
or gathered in a respectful group near the Bath- chair
of some gray and stately veteran, whose 1866 wounds
were yet unhealed, and who was wheeled out into the
afternoon sun, after performing his daily cure, in order
to chat over foughten fields with old and young com-
rades-in-arms. As a matter of fact, gambling was not
permitted in the Prussian army ; and the dark-blue
officers certainly did not take part in any of the merely
vicious amusements of the place, in or out of uniform.
I conversed with some of the older officers upon the
subject of the gambling resorts, and the probabilities of
their respective futures ; one and all expressed the
greatest contempt and disgust relative to the institu-
tions in question, and appeared confident that the
Prussian Government would put an end to them, which
it verily did, three years later, when the chartered hells
of Germany passed away for ever, to live only in the
memory of croupiers and ruined gamesters.

Talking about croupiers, I made a careful study of
those imperturbable officials — descendants of Tantalus,
every mother's son of them — and found out one curious

216 A WANDERER'S NOTES.

characteristic of the race (at least of the tribe reigning
over Wiesbaden), which I do not remember to have seen
noticed in any account of these gambling resorts. From
the purity of the accent with which they reiterated the
few formula of the game to which their remarks were
confined — as public characters and administrators of
untold wealth — one would have taken them for bred-
and-born Frenchmen, whereas they were, with one or
two exceptions, Germans of the Khine, and very super-
ficially acquainted with the French language. I had
occasion to interrogate two of these employes, both of
whom might have passed for Parisians — Boulevard ians
— to judge by the tripping way in which they enunciated
the sacramental sentences, "Kien n'va plus," ".Faites
1'jeu, Messieurs," " Cinquante Frederics a la masse," and
" Rouge gagne et couleur " . . , . and, to my surprise,
both expressed themselves with great difficulty in
French, and asked permission to change the idiom if
it was agreeable to me to do so. There were no Italian
or Spanish croupiers, and, I \ believe, only two Russians
and one Englishman — the latter, I was told, had been
once a gentleman.

It would have been an interesting and instructive
achievement, had it been possible to get at the figures
and facts indispensable to a faithful chronicle of the
gambling epoch terminated in 1870, to publish a sta-
tistical statement showing how many of the thirty-
six thousand valetudinarians (who visited Wiesbaden
"for the benefit of their health" during the 1867
season) contributed to the annual profits of the Red-
Black Company ; how many did nut play ; and Jtoio

WINNERS AND LOSERS. 217

many icon. Suppose we deduct one-third of this grand
total for non-combatants, including real sufferers from
rheumatism and old wounds, very young unmarried
women, and children under the age of fourteen, there
would remain a small army, twenty-four thousand strong,
of which every individual legionary had more or less
gallantly fought the company. Perhaps five hundred
of these may have won sums ranging between five
napoleons and two hundred pounds ; a dozen favourites
of the blind goddess may have carried away spoils of far
greater value ; but what about the twenty-three thousand
odd who did not win ? These statistics, of course, are to
a great extent imaginary ; but I believe I am over the
mark in my allowance of one-third for non-players ;
and, moreover, having watched the working of the tables
carefully for five successive days — there was positively
nothing else to do at Wiesbaden, and I cannot say that
looking on was an enlivening pastime — I felt seriously
inclined to doubt whether five hundred people can have
won during the season of 1867. I could only judge by
the results of the play during the time of my stay ;
gamblers are generally very communicative about their
winnings, and a lucky coup was for the most part made
the subject of afternoon cb.a,t,faute de mieu&\ So far as
I could ascertain from all available sources, only three
players had done really well out of the hundreds crowd-
ing the four rooms for twelve hours daily — two English-
men, who won heavily upon a " veine," and one old
gentleman, who might have been a German or a French-
man, for he spoke either language with equal fluency
and purity — to whom the roulette table proved a mine

218 A WANDERER'S NOTES.

of wealth. He played repeatedly on compound numbers,
and once on a single numeral, and was almost invariably
successful. I could not discover that any one else had
won ; but, en revanche, I saw a great many people lose,
and that to no small tune. One afternoon a young
Polish gentleman of title, only twenty-five years old,
but the widower of a lovely, accomplished, and wealthy
Princess, whose fortune as well as his own he had all
but dissipated at play, sate down to rouge-et-noir with
a huge pile of napoleons, twenty rouleaux of frederics,
and a thin but precious packet of bank-notes. Every-
body saw at once that he was in for " an event/' and
a crowd six-deep formed round the table. In less than
an hour gold, rouleaux, and notes had been raked in by
the croupiers ; rising from his chair, the Count turned
out all his pockets on the table, the chief croupiers
politely delaying the deal till this operation was com-
pleted. About thirty pounds' worth of gold and silver
resulted from the hurried rummaging of waistcoat and
trousers. " Faites le jeu ! " Nervously, almost spas-
modically, the white and yellow heap was pushed on the
red compartment. " L'jeu est fait, rien n'va plus ! "
The cards are dealt. " Eouge perd, couleur gagne ! "
and the heap is gone. " Qa, c'est tant soit pen du
guignon," was all the despoiled Pole remarked, as he
walked quietly out of the room and disappeared for the
rest of the day. There was a Eussian gentleman —
family, retinue, and all — in pawn at a leading Wiesbaden
hotel till remittances should come from Orenburg.

I was glad to see " Arry " and " Jim," from the
Minories, lose a few double florins. What business had

GAMBLING SNOBS. 219

such wretched little conceited, ignorant snobs to come
to gambling haunts at all, setting themselves up for
des gentilhommes Anglais, and offending every respect-
able English visitor by their obtrusive demeanour,
loud voices, impertinent comments on the wives and
daughters of their betters, intense vulgarity, and ruth-
less slaughter of her Majesty's language ? Such pitiful
fellows put down a piece or two after a long and
painful struggle with their native meanness, because
they thought it was magnificent and aristocratic to do
so ; and when they lost, elbowed their way out of the
play-rooms cursing, jostling everybody in their path,
and using foul expressions relative to their many-
adjectived luck, which must have been heard — though
I sincerely trust not understood — by dozens of English
ladies assembled on the terrace. What a contrast
betwen the cockney vulgarian who foamed and shrieked
over the loss of £5 — a loss attributable to his own
folly or lust of gain, or both — and the imperturbable
French or German snob, who smiled or shrugged his
shoulders over the tomb of his last louis, and did not
curse anybody — at least above his breath. Possibly the
Anglo-Saxon was the better man of the two, but he was
certainly not the most decorous ; and after all good
manners are much less easily dispensed with, so far as
society is concerned, than honesty, sincerity, and all sorts
of other virtues.

There was a very curious old lady at Wiesbaden in
18G7, who lived, so it was said, by the tables ; poorly
enough, I judged, from her appearance and garb. She
was rich once, and having taken to the red and black,

220 A WANDERER'S NOTES.

became penniless in one course. She spoke and wrote
English, German, Italian, and French perfectly, and
could ask for food, drink, and other necessaries of life in
every European tongue. The croupiers were kind to
her, and I fancy put her up to a good thing now and
then ; for these officials seemed to be endowed with an
instinctive knowledge — or was it a science, resulting
from long experience and careful observation ? — of what
was likely to happen, when a " veine " had set in, or when
the cards had got into an alternating mood. The old
lady punted with a single silver coin, or at the most
two, lost or won meekly, and when she had amassed a
napoleon, crept quietly away to her gite, nobody knew
where. In brilliant contrast to this humble, broken-
spirited old gamester, was a very beautiful girl, radiant
with youth and health, who was " taking the waters "
with her " protector," a gandin of the first water. She
electrified the Kursaal every day with a new and
gorgeous toilette. One night, I remember, she was
arrayed in chocolate satin inlaid with maize lozenges
and a splendid parure of Neapolitan coral set in dead
gold. She played morning, noon, and night, passion-
ately, feverishly, recklessly — and her owner stood behind
her feeding her with napoleons, calm, smiling, prevenant.
This lovely young gamester must have been about as
expensive a luxury as a white elephant or a hopeful
Chancery suit ; I was told that she had not once left the
tables a winner !

The little dogs of the " little ladies " were an
intolerable nuisance ; one could not help wishing that
some enterprising Prussian would set up a sausage

A LUCKLESS PUG. 221

manufactory in the neighbourhood. With fiendish joy
I saw one bloated little beast, forgotten by his mistress
in the agony of the Red, crawl in amongst the legs of
the players whilst the game was going on. Presently
the cards ran out — an event which always causes a
general move for about a minute — an appalling squall
was heard, followed by some very hearty expletives in
French from a bedizened young lady in black, orange,
and turquoises. A tremendous German had set his
square foot upon the back of ce pauvre ange, and
literally broken him in two. The croupiers were highly
indignant, because the work of gathering up the frag-
ments stopped the business of the table for a few
seconds. In Servia, when the " Dog-Caretaker," an
official of some importance in a semi-Oriental country,
sees a dog of the pet class walking about alone, he forks
it into his cart with a long rod terminating in an iron
hook, cuts its throat, sells its skin, and claims a reward
for the collar. Verily Servian institutions are not all
objectionable.

The expression of the faces adorning the Kursaal
and its precincts at Wiesbaden having succeeded in
lowering my spirits day by day until I was brought
down to a settled melancholy suggestive of prussic acid,
I came to the conclusion one morning that I could not
stand that sort of thing any longer, packed my port-
manteau gloomily, paid my bill with sombre indifference,
and betook me to the Taunus Bahn, as very a misan-
thrope as ever hated his fellow-creatures. The Fates
forbid I should doubt that good predominates over
evil in human nature, or that honour, honesty, virtue,

222 A WANDERER'S NOTES.

clean living are not, socially speaking, in a bouncing
majority over their antitheses : but I would not cite
the company gathered together at Wiesbaden when that
pretty town was the haunt of gamesters as illustrative
or confirmatory of my belief: far from it. Moreover,
I will venture to say, were the institutions then and
there fostered permitted to exist in any and every
important watering-place whither the young and the
wealthy resort during the summer and autumn months,
the seven deadly sins would have it all their own way
ere long, and the cardinal virtues would be nowhere in
the race. Grands dieuocl what sort of an assemblage
was it that fenced the Wiesbaden tables round six and
eight deep ? If more than one tenth of them were
honest people, the surplus grievously belied its looks.
The unfair sex — pardon me, ladies, I speak only of
your representatives in the Wiesbaden Kursaal — were
deplorably numerous ; about a third of the feverish
crew was composed of women. Women, anything but
" ministering angels," God wot ! Women, some robed
in shining silk and laden with costly ornaments, others
huddled up in alpaca or cotton, heavy cloth cloaks or
stuff jackets, gloveless, and thickly booted, with faded
straw hats and dirty ribbons, all wandering restlessly
from table to table, in the wretched and futile hope of
overtaking the luck that ever eluded their passionate
pursuit. Where was the boasted decorum of the
Kursaal ? What were its liveried guardians about,
when troops of such sordid phantoms were allowed
ingress, and permitted to roam through the splendid
fealoons, grievances alike to the eye and heart of every

LIFE AT WIESBADEN. 223

humane observer ? It was near the end of the season,
and the regulations were somewhat relaxed, for the
tables must be kept going, and half-empty rooms, or
frequent gaps in the living hedge surrounding the green
cloth, were not encouraging to timid players. Every-
body, good, bad, or indifferent, prefers doing a wrong or
foolish thing in company. Vice, of the less atrocious
sort at least, is essentially gregarious ; and so it was
clearly the interest of the company to keep up the
attendance at its shrine, wherever the materials were
recruited, and of whatever quality. Amongst so many
rooks, there was still here and there a pigeon, of course,
underdoing a conscientious and thorough plucking ; but
Wiesbaden in September 1867 was far liker a rookery
than a dovecot.

Though the cosy, clean little town is environed by
lovely scenery within easy reach, few of its speculative
visitors took the trouble to visit the neighbouring hills,
from which an enchanting panorama is to be seen.
The Kursaal and its adjacent grounds possessed charms
all-sufficient to content their habitues. Indeed, one
could do everything and have everything but sleep in
that establishment ; accordingly, the plan of everyday
life in Wiesbaden was made out as follows : Eise at

10 a.m., breakfast at 10.30 — it was of no use to get
up and breakfast earlier, because play did not begin till

11 a.m. — stroll into the Kursaal, play till 4 p.m. ; from
4 to 6 music on the terrace ; at 6 dine in the restaurant
attached to the ball-room ; from 7 to 11 p.m. play, or
if you had no money, look on ; at 11, home to the hotel
and to bed. Twice a week this programme was varied

224 A WANDERER'S NOTES.

by an extra musical performance in the evening from
8 to 10, and once a week by a ball ; but both were
looked upon by the majority of guests as objectionable
distractions from the main object of existence —
gambling. Determined one morning to break through
the awful monotony of this turnspit sort of life, I
induced a couple of acquaintances who had had a
mauvais quart d'keure at roulette to accompany me in a
little excursion to the summit of the Nero-Berg, where
a Jagd-Schloss or hunting seat, lately belonging to the
Duke of Nassau, occupies a commanding position in
the centre of a splendid forest, called " Die Flatten "
— probably because it is hilly — about four English
miles from the town. The day was a bright one, the
sun's fierce heat tempered by a soft breeze ; nothing
could be more prettily romantic than the road up the
mountain, winding through lofty woods well stocked
with furred and feathered game. The castle itself is
more remarkable for its collection of autographs in the
visitors' book than for architectural grandeur or beauty
of proportion ; but from its broad, smoothly-gravelled
terrace an extensive view lies spread out before you of
a country so fertile, so admirably cultivated, so peaceful
and homely in its aspect, that it is pleasanter to gaze
on than many a scene richer in bolder or wilder acces-
sories. The frequent windings of the Ehine give to
that river, banked with vineyards, the appearance of
a huge white glittering serpent ; Biberich, Bingen,
Mayence with its stately cathedral, Hochheim, Hattes-
heim, Hochst, all three glowing with grapes in the
early autumn and rich with promise of a splendid

NERO'S MOUNTAIN. 225

vintage, lie mapped out at your feet ; and Wiesbaden
itself, the red towers of its two flamingo churches
standing out from the masses of white houses in bold
relief, is not the least attractive feature of the picture.
Opposite the Schloss is a hostelry with capacious stables
and a remarkably pretty garden, in which latter numer-
ous green arbours invite the probably thirsty pilgrim to
a consommation guelconque. I commend this roadside
inn to my readers, with this proviso, that if they desire
to assuage their thirst with beer, cool, bright, and foam-
ing, they must do so in the house itself, that refreshing
but plebeian drink being tabooed in the garden, where,
however, they may be served with as much wine as
they can afford to pay for. One of our party, who
preferred a good glass of malt liquor to all the pale-
green beverages of the Ehine, was greatly aggravated
because, having ordered his luncheon to be set out in
one of the trellised arbours and sate himself down to
discuss it, content with all mankind, his request for beer
was met by a stern refusal. He appealed to the higher
powers, and became for a few minutes the nucleus
of an excited family group, consisting of the host —
a pig-headed peasant, like most German innkeepers
— the host's wife, hot from the kitchen, and the
host's daughters, irritated by vigorous practising of the
overture to "Zampa" on an aged pianoforte. All
these, besides a flat-footed waitress or two, talked
Nassau dialect at the top of their voices to my friend,
who might be heard from time to time interpolating an
expostulation in the purest High German. Fairly
deafened into submission, he at last fled ignominiously,

VOL. II. Q

226 A WANDERER'S NOTES.

and for the next ten minutes alternated between his
arbour and the inn door — some thirty paces distant —
inside which latter the landlord had graciously consented
to place a bottle of beer on a chair, so that whenever
my friend wanted to take a drink he hurried across the
garden, filled and emptied his glass with extraordinary
swiftness, and then bolted back to his lunch in the
arbour. Be warned, travellers, and do not seek to
obtain beer in the garden of the Schloss Hotel, else will
you evoke such a storm of wrathful protestation as once
upon a time bent the gallant spirit of an Anglo-Saxon to
painful humility.

CHAPTER VIII.

GAMBLING IN GERMANY — HOMBURG.

BARELY twenty years ago, of all the colonial possessions
belonging to the British Empire, the thriving English
settlement commonly called Homburg-on-the-Heights
was, I should say, the most lively and prosperous. It
was of no use to tell me that I was in Prussia — that
German was the language of the country — that hie
barbarus ego fui, here I was a foreigner. I laughed such
assertions to scorn. Homburg was Anglo-Saxon to the
backbone, every bit as much as Quebec or Melbourne ;
there were no Germans, or, if there were, they lurked
timidly in remote corners, only venturing out now and
then to peep at that sovereign but cheery beast the
British lion, whose sway in his autumn lair was undis-
puted ; in short, my foot was on my native whatever

you like to call it — anything I am sure, except heath

and my name was Brownjones Eobinson, Esq., yentil-
homme Anglais, or haply, Sir Snooks, fils de Lord Smith.
The only mistake made by the Anglo-Saxon worthies,
who, in the early ages of civilization, took possession
of the Homburg heights, and founded the community
to which I had at one time the honour to belong was
that— probably in deference to the petty prejudices of

Q 2

228 A WANDERER'S NOTES.

adjacent monarchs, or as a complimentary concession
intended to soothe the feelings of the ousted aborigines
from whom the tiny possession had been wrested — they
christened it Homburg, a name of Teutonic flavour ;
they should have called it New Harrogate, Bath, Weston,
or some such familiar name bearing analogy to a favour-
ite watering-place in the mother country. Perhaps the
first colonists and conquerors of the soil were political
exiles, made cynical by oppression, despising themselves
as well as everybody else ; and so called the young settle-
ment "Humbug/' which in the course of centuries
became corrupted into Homburg. I merely throw out
this modest etymologica suggestion for the consider-
ation of historians and chronologists, reserving my
opinion upon so important a question as the origin of
this possibly hybrid name.

Homburg in 1868 was doing extremely well; its
population was decidedly on the increase, and the
special branch of commerce cultivated in the town,
though apparently somewhat speculative, prospered ex-
ceedingly, being conducted on the ready-money prin-
ciple, large profits, and quick returns. This important
business was entirely in the hands of one wealthy firm —
a monopoly, in fact — but nobody seemed to object to
so exceptional a state of things ; on the contrary, every-
body dealt with the house, although its terms were high
and the wares it offered for sale were not unfrequently
doubtful in quality. This establishment dealt in ex-
perience, of which it disposed impartially to any applicant
in exchange for sterling gold and silver, or genuine
bank notes. My reasons for averring that the article

A BRITISH BOROUGH. 229

in question was not invariably first-class is, that a great
many hundred persons invested in it daily, but did not
seem to derive much profit from it. The transactions of
the firm appeared to me to be altogether one-sided, and
it was more than once hinted to me that a good many
other people, notably disappointed purchasers, shared in
this view of the case ; which did not, however, prevent
them from continuing their investments so long as they
had anything to invest. The exceptions to this rule
were so few that they are scarcely worth mentioning.

To one who, like myself, was for many years an
exile from his native Britain, a visit to Homburg was
the next best thing to a summons home, say about the
end of May, when the London season is at its very
gayest. Wiesbaden was Eussian, raffish ; Baden-Baden
was Parisian ; Ems was solemnly German, with a leavening
of all nations ; but Homburg-on- the- Heights was English
to the core, even the Americans who frequented it being
less American than they were anywhere else. Other
nationalities were nowhere within its precincts. As I
walked in the park, on the terrace, through the play-
rooms, the library, the dining-halls, I saw no other
people than English men and women, heard no tongue
spoken save English, ate and drank nothing but that
which savoured of my country. What was the last
piece played by the band every morning and afternoon ?
Why, " God save the Queen," to be sure ! There were
those who pretended that it was the Prussian National
Hymn, and was called " Heil Dir im Siegeskranz." I
knew better. Dr. Bull composed it, and it belonged
to us every bit as much as " Kule Britannia." When

230 A WANDERER'S NOTES.

I wanted supper at a late hour (heavy, indigestible,
nationally prejudicial to health), did I ejaculate " Kell-
ner, verschaffen Sie mir eineri Schnitzel mit Erdaepfel
und einen Pfiff Eheinwein " ? No ; I called out,
" Waiter ! a mutton chop, under-done ; some toasted
cheese, and a pint of Barclay and Perkins," and my
order was promptly complied with. There was an
atmosphere of British respectability about the p]ace that
made a man accustomed to foreign society hush his voice
and throw away his cigar as he walked up the steps of
the lower esplanade. It was not that we were so
excruciatingly aristocratic ; by no means ; for, although
we had a Prince of the blood amongst us, the quietest
and most unaffected person in Homburg, a marquis, a
couple of earls, and some smaller patrician fry, the bulk
of our company was composed of middle-class people,
eminently respectable, slow, and — dare I say the word ?
— stupid. Why they were at Homburg, instead of
being at Margate, Llandudno, Cheltenham, or Harrogate
(not to mention Tunbridge Wells), I found it difficult
to understand. It was not for the waters : they did
not take them ; and far be it from me to blame them
for their wholesome abstinence. It was not for the
play : they were too careful of their self-respect to
haunt the tables, with all their hideous surroundings,
and submit to be shouldered by English adventurers and
foreign wantons. It was not to learn the language ;
for German was the last tongue one would have thought
of speaking in and about the Kursaal, and the only
foreigners they associated with were the Prussian officers,
who all spoke English. In short, their presence was a.

THE GIFT OF TONGUES. 231

mystery ; but there they were and it did me good to
see and hear them. At the time I allude to, there were
in Homburg at least thirty English ladies, of various
ages and ranks, who appeared to have travelled all the
way from Albion thither merely for the purpose of
sitting from morning till night upon the lower terrace,
busily employed upon sewing, hemming, and embroidery.
The amount of needlework these industrious creatures
got through in the course of their stay must have been
something astonishing ; but why they should have come
to Homburg to do it was more than I could understand.
Some of the older ladies were amusing enough in
their wily expeditions to the play-rooms, and ill-con-
cealed self-glorification if they happened to pouch a
florin or two during those secret forays. There was one
aged but active dame, whose whole foreign vocabulary
consisted of the word, " Oui," and who had her grandson,
a smart boy of ten or thereabouts, with her, in the
capacity of dragoman. She entertained a lurking
belief that she spoke several foreign tongues with fluency
and elegance, and that if she turned over the waiters,
&c., to her juvenile dolmetsch, it was only "for the
lad's improvement." I was sitting close to her one
night, at a time when she had to do with an attendant
who was utterly ignorant of English, as it happened,
and she wanted a glass of lemonade. "Now, Bobby,"
said she to her interpreter, " let me hear how nicely you
can ask the poor man for what I want, in his own
tongue ! " and she looked towards me, not without a
certain visible family pride in her grandson's accom-
plishments. Bobby evidently did not feel over and

232 A WANDERER'S NOTES.

above vigorous in his French, but, mustering up courage,
managed to bring out " Un verre lemonade " (pronounced
Anglice), "s'il vous plait." " Oui, oui, a glass of
lemonade ; one glass, oui ! " followed up grandmamma,
in an explanatory tone. The waiter did not catch the
meaning of the main word at first. Presently, however,
a, flash of intelligence illumined his countenance, and
he rushed off to execute the order. "You see how I
made him understand, my dear," remarked the old lady,
thoroughly persuaded that she had been speaking
Parisian French to the man ; "he was puzzled with
your accent, that was it!" Presently arrived the
lemonade ; but the glass was only three-parts full,
worse luck. " Ask him, dear, why he did not fill it,"
says the old lady, in an indignant tone. Quoth Bobby,
after much hesitation, " Pourquoi vous n'etes pas rem-
plisse' ? " the participle being nearly too much for my
gravity. " Oui, oui, why didn't you have it properly
filled ? Go and have it filled up directly, oui, do you
hear ? " By this time the unfortunate waiter's brains
had got tied up into a hopeless knot ; he stood staring
at both his interpellants with an utterly stupefied and
melancholy expression that would have made his fortune
in low comedy. "Take it back, oui." (Aside) " What
is 'water,' Bobby, in French?" " Eau, grandma."
" Oh, of course. 0 1 have it filled up, but not with 0 ;
no more 0, mind ; oui, oui, do you hear, man ? " This
time the waiter thought he understood, and ran off,
swiftly returning with a carafe full of water. At this
outrage the old lady fairly boiled over ; and I thought
it high time, in the interests of humanity, to interpose

THE ENGLISH ABROAD. 233

and offer my services, which were, however, repulsed
with freezing dignity. " I am much obliged to you,
but I can make myself perfectly understood without the
interference of any stranger, I thank you." Upon which
I bolted down the steps into the park, whence, for the
next five minutes, shrieks of wild laughter might be
heard to arise. The last words of the controversy that
reached my ears as I fled were, " Did I not expressly
tell you no more 0? You are a very impertinent
fellow, I think ! " It never occurred to my haughty
compatriot to impeach her own exhaustive knowledge
of French and perfect command of foreign idiom. She
felt sure of herself all the time, and attributed the mal-
entendu to the impervious, congenital stupidity of the
waiter. In this curiously complete self-deception lay
the screaming fun of the whole incident, which, of
course, it was necessary to see and hear, in order to
appreciate it thoroughly.

Something after this manner, although less ex-
travagantly, do many Englishmen and Englishwomen
abroad speak " the language of the country ; " and woe
be to the intrusive wight who, moved by compassion
for their flounderings and struggles, ventures to proffer
them timely aid. We are a carious people, we English.
Where a Frenchman or an Italian, with many apologetic
smiles and dramatic gestures, will appeal to a fellow-
traveller to extricate him from an idiomatic embarrass-
ment, an Englishman will scowl at you if he fancies
you are thinking of coming to his help, and, at the
most, grunt a discourteous " Thanks " or " Sorry you
troubled yourself," if your good nature should prove

234 A WANDERER'S NOTES.

stronger than your judgment, and compel you to pull
him out of the mire. It is, perhaps, that we are, after
all, a conceited race, and cannot bear that our ignorance
should suffer exposure. Or is it our noble independ-
ence of character that renders assistance of any kind
insupportable to us ? Surely not the latter ; for I have
known the very same Englishman who rudely rejected
a lift in a language, very affably solicit the loan of five
pounds from a casual acquaintance.

Homburg was a merry little place twenty years ago ;
but it was also a respectable little place. An irreverent
friend of mine, looking around him one evening on the
terrace of the Kursaal, observed, " This is the nearest
thing to Clapham I know/' He represented a metro-
politan borough pretty well leavened with dissent, so
he ought to have known. But he was also a gay and
fiery youth, a giovine turbulente, a " curled darling " of
impetuous and buoyant disposition, and so he found the
place slow. It was respectable, very respectable ; plus
respectable que la respectabilite. The rooms were not
thronged with " grecs," as at Wiesbaden, nor with
compact marvels of enamel, silks, velvet, and jewelry,
triumphs of queerly-earned ornamentation, as in Baden
Baden — they were filled with well-to-do, clean, church-
going English ladies and gentlemen, such as you may
meet at Scarborough, Worthing, or Weston-super-Mare,
any autumn. My compatriots were, truly, a little more
gregarious, and something more civil to one another in
Homburg than they would have been in any of the
above-named watering-places ; but with the exception
of this amiable weakness, brought on, I imagine, by

A THRILLING INCIDENT. 235

compulsory contiguity at the gaming-table and the com-
munity of passion awakened in all respectable bosoms
by the vicissitudes of that institution, the Britons of
Homburg were as Britannic as even the lamented
Sibthorp could have desired them to be.

The imperturbability of this Happy Family was
considerably deranged in September, 1868, by an oc-
currence in whicli an English gentleman, member for an
important constituency, was the leading actor. Amongst
the visitors to Homburg at that time was a certain
Signor Farina, calling himself Baron Farina, whose gay
career, it would seem, had not been altogether un-
blemished, and who was recognized by several gentlemen
at the time of his advent as a person who gained his
living by peculiarly discreditable means. It is utterly
impossible for me to specify the source of this adven-
turous youth's income ; suffice it to say that, if what
was positively asserted to me respecting his occupa-
tion by men of the highest honour was true, he was
one of those pariahs to whom no man or woman with
any respect for themselves would willingly be seen
speaking. Signor Farina being, if anything, an admirer
of the fair sex, contrived to make the acquaintance of
a young and beautiful American lady, Mrs. Edgar Eeed,
belonging to the most exclusive circle of Homburg
society. I should observe that Farina was a man of
prepossessing exterior, lively manners, and pleasing
address ; a fair linguist to boot, just one of those
plausible personages so common abroad, who might, by
a casual observer, easily be mistaken for gentlemen.
The lady in question, amused by Farina's volubility and

236 A WANDERER'S NOTES.

broken English, chatted on innocently enough with him
for a day or two, in perfect ignorance of his real
character. Those few who knew all about him did not
exactly see their way to interfere, much as they regretted
that Mrs. Reed should have unfortunately been drawn
into speaking terms with a person who, to say the least
of it, was doubtful. If they spoke to the lady's husband
an esclandre might ensue. American gentlemen are not
apt to be very patient when their personal honour is
touched, however lightly. At last one of Mr. Reed's
acquaintances, Mr. H. Labouchere, could not stand it
any longer ; and, being sufficiently intimate with that
gentleman to warrant him, as he believed, in offering his
advice upon so delicate a subject, spoke privately to
Mrs. Reed relative to her acquaintance with Farina,
telling her in general terms that the latter was not a fit
person for her to associate with, and that she would do
well to drop him quietly. Had Mrs. Reed contented
herself by simply following Mr. Labouchere's counsel, all
would have ended there ; but, as it happened, another
American lady, an unmarried friend of Mrs. Reed, had
been the object of particular attention at the hands of
Farina, and Mrs. Reed somewhat imprudently, acting upon
an indignant impulse, warned her young countrywoman
against the dangerous charmer. The lady in question
unwisely communicated the warning she had received,
as well as the name of her adviser, to Farina himself.
The consequence of this thoughtless step may readily
be imagined. To a man whose means were supremely
precarious, and altogether dependent upon his social
status, swallowing so terrible a rebuff or sitting

LABOUCHERE A LA RECOUSSE ! 237

dowxi tranquilly under so heavy a stigma meant
financial ruin, social death, possible starvation. Farina,
with more daring than prudence, resolved to take the
bull by the horns, and applied to Mr. Edgar Keed for
satisfaction, the accusation against his character having
emanated from that gentleman's wife. Mr. Keed, who
kept his temper admirably with the excited Italian, told
him that " he knew nothing about the matter, but that
whatever his wife said he was prepared to endorse, and
that if Mr. Farina, meant fighting, he would fight him
how, when, and where he pleased ! " This cool reply
effectually damped Farina's martial ardour, at least so
far as Mr. Keed was concerned. An hour or two
afterwards, however, he appeared on the terrace of the
Kursaal, armed with a stick disproportionately large to
the size of its bearer, and proclaimed that he had brought
this implement with him for the purpose of castigating
the person who had defamed his character. Upon hear-
ing this announcement, Henry Labouchere, who happened
to be on the terrace, went up to him, and said, " I told
Mrs. Keed whom and what you are ; and whenever I
see you presuming to speak to a lady of my acquaint-
ance, or a virtuous woman, I shall repeat my statements.
You gain your living by vile and dishonourable means.
You are not a baron, though you say you are ; and I am
prepared to substantiate my assertions to any one who
may require proof." Upon hearing this perfectly intelli-
gible declaration, Farina raised his stick in a menacing
manner, whereupon Mr. Labouchere immediately collared
him, and was about to administer physical correction,
when the bystanders interfered (they never let men have

238 A WANDERER'S NOTES.

it out, nowadays !) and separated the adversaries. It
was subsequently intimated to Mr. Labouchere that
Farina considered he had given him a blow, and awaited
his challenge. Of course our countryman's friends,
amongst them several eminent military men, told him
that it was utterly out of the question that he should
take any further notice of a person whom he could not
meet on equal terms. Shortly after the " rixe " Farina
was excluded from the Kursaal by the authorities ; but
he wrote a letter to the Europe (published in that
journal), in which he stated that, having struck an
English gentleman, member of Parliament, for a calumny,
and having waited fruitlessly for forty- eight hours to
receive his challenge, he had left Homburg "for fresh
fields and pastures new."

The humours of Homburg under the Blanc regime
were many and few. Many that had their origin in in-
dividual eccentricities and private social arrangements —
these might be discussed and chuckled over on the spot,
but could not by any means be converted into public
property. Few that were fair game for the chronicler.
As I have already had the pleasure of telling my readers,
we were very respectable — that is, outwardly so ; the
patrician element was strong amongst us ; and I need
scarcely say that a choice collection of curious little
dramas were acted every day within the precincts of the
Kursaal which were particularly amusing to the favoured
few who were admitted behind the scenes. But as these
performances came strictly under the heading " private
theatricals," and as no one, except a small privileged
clique, was supposed to know anything about them, I

A GAMBLING PRINCESS. 239

may not even hint at the dramatis personce. One or
two public characters, however, then " strutting and
fretting their hour upon the stage," I may allude to
without indiscretion, for they were destined to enjoy
historical association with Homburg in those future
happy ages when trente-et-quarante and roulette, buried
in the catacombs of Time, shall be disinterred by men
of science, and made the subjects of philosophical in-
vestigation ; and when the descendants of the last
croupier, slowly working their way up the social scale,
of which their ancestor was the zero, shall haply be
clerks in a savings-bank or a bureau de bienfaisance.

There was Madame de Kisseleff, for instance, that
venerable, hooked-beaked, fierce-looking, infirm, tremen-
dous old lady, who was wheeled daily into the devil's
temple by gorgeous body-lackeys, at whom she mouthed
and snarled like a tormented sorceress. This aged and
sporting Transparency was the widow of an eminent
diplomatist, formerly accredited to the Court of the
Tuileries. She was a part proprietor of the tables (at
which she was treated with the greatest deference, and
lost 50,000 francs a year), and was so integral a section of
the institution round which Homburg town had been
built, that one of its most fashionable streets had been
named after her. Moreover, she enjoyed the honourable
distinction of being one of the worst-tempered women
, in Europe. Whenever she lost — a matter of almost daily
occurrence (for she was a bold and dashing player) — her
savage nature broke out, and her vexation took the form
of abusing the croupiers because they were not good-
looking enough. " But you are ugly ! You are to

240 A WANDERER'S NOTES.

make bristle the hairs, you ! " she would exclaim to
a bland and subdued official ; " does the Administration
desire to shatter one's nerves, that it serves itself of
such horrors ? I will catechise Le Blanc, me ; he shall
make you to march ; go, then ! " One calamitous day
she turned sharp round on a stout, fair croupier, of
nnocent mien, and threw him into a violent perspir-
ation by vociferating, " Accursed ugly one (maudit
laideron], again your devil-face has made me to lose ! "
She had outlived all human affections, and existed only
by the artificial excitement of gambling. The chink of
the money as it was dealt out to the winners seemed
to electrify her withered frame, arid her eyes " fairly
snapped " as she raked in her gains. One of the many
anecdotes told of her was wonderfully characteristic of
her ruling passion. Before gambling was done away
with in Paris she was a regular attendant at a celebrated
roulette establishment not a hundred miles from the
Palais Royal, as subsequently at the Homburg Kursaal ;
and if anything occurred to delay her daily visit to

M. G , would beat her female servants or smash her

chimney ornaments. One day her carriage did not
appear at the appointed hour, and she spent ten minutes
in fruitless fury. Presently the coachman drove up to
the door, where she was stamping and foaming. " Im-
becile ! canaille ! cretin ! where have you been ? I chase
you, I banish you, I should like to pull out your eyes ! "
" A thousand excuses, Highness ; but I waited whilst
a friend of mine imparted tome an infallible martingale."
" Get down at once and come in here (the porter's lodge).
Show it to me — explain it to me directly. I pardon

A HOMBURG TYPE. 241

you. Get down ; get down, do you hear ? " And the
coachman — a clever rascal that ! — got down, and detailed
his system to Madame de Kisseleff, who, when she had
mastered it, drove off at once to the spot, where 'she put
it in execution — the story saith not with what success.
When I met her at Homburg, she had got beyond
martingales or systems, and played by inspiration ;
sometimes she won a great stake, but on the whole
was a perennial and heavy loser. A more grimly ludi-
crous spectacle than she presented it is impossible to
conceive ; she had not the least control over her features
or her temper, and was a living epitome of the degrading
effects produced upon human nature by the black and
red. They said that she had once been very beautiful ;
but few men were old enough to remember that brilliant
period of her youth. As she crouched over the gaming-
table, in the year of grace 1868, she was, in every sense
of the word, a " frightful example."

Then there was Mdlle. Juliette, formerly of the Fau-
bourg St. Antoine, then of Baden-Baden, Nice, Ostend,
Biarritz, Chantilly, Homburg, Monaco, and I know not
where else besides. She was inimitably lovely, occupied
splendid apartments, and whenever she abode in a place
where play was permitted always dressed in the true
Satanic colours, as a delicate compliment to the patron
of the game. In short, she was an incarnation of red
and black ; black body, red sleeves, skirt of red and
black in oblong diamonds or lozenges ; red satin hat,
black feather ; red boots, black laces ; black gloves, red
seams ; red parasol, black handle ; red lips, black eye-
brows and hair. She played every day and all day,

VOL. II.

242 -A WANDERER'S NOTES.

gallantly, and with varied luck, though I think she won
rather than lost, and was calm, smiling, insouciantet
whichever way Fortune declared herself. Once, and only
once, I saw her lose her self-possession, when she had
set a heavy sum — all she had about her — on the couleur
and lost it ; she left the table and went out on the
terrace ; as she came to the door opening upon the
steps at the end of the glass verandah, where she
thought nobody could see her, she took her red and
black portemonnaie out of her pocket, bit and tore it
to pieces with her teeth and fingers, and stamped upon
the fragments with the tiny sharp heels of her fairy
hotlines till she fairly panted for breath. This exhibi-
tion lasted about two minutes, at the expiration of
which time, having, no doubt, in her own mind de-
spatched the winners of her money to a warmer region,
and thoroughly revenged herself on the company for
her losses, she drew out a jewelled etui, selected a thin
cigarette from about a dozen contained in the costly toy,
lit it composedly, and strolled down the terrace looking
as impassibly, scornfully lovely as ever. Amongst her
willing slaves were one or two very distinguished men —
for she was one of our institutions, and not the least
important one.

Not far from Homburg was a meek little hell, called
Nauheim, the Botany Bay of condemned gamblers from
fashionable Taunus settlement. Punters told me that
it was not a good place to play at, by reason of having
two refaires or apres, whilst Homburg had only one.
The proprietors were enterprising people struggling
against misfortune, or rather against an overwhelming

NAUHEIM. 243

competition ; they neglected no means of alluring people
into their net — for instance, the fare by carriage from
Homburg to Nauheim was eight florins, but only cost
you four, if you pleased, for the diminutive inferno would
gladly pay half the expense of your journey. When
a few stray guests, decently clothed, arrived at Nau-
heim, the melancholy croupiers brightened up cheerily ;
half a dozen "bonnets" were hastily collected from
their humble retreats, capital was hyked up out of the
strong box, and play commenced with great vigour.
Woe to the unwary wanderer who strayed into that
dismal den ! He was sure to emerge thence heavy in
heart and light in purse. The normal state of Nauheim
was one of deadly stagnation ; the croupiers saturated
themselves with politics and cheap hock. I heard that
they played dominoes with one another, and perused the
Allgemeine Zeitung till they got a diplomatic look.

Personally, I should not like to be obliged to live at
Nauheim, although it is one of the prettiest little spots
in Europe ; for I am of gregarious habits, and fond of
human converse. The loveliest flowers, the most gor-
geous salons, the most romantic walks would all speedily
become distasteful to me were' I condemned to survey
them alone. Solitary occupant of a grand terrace like
that which fronts the Kursaal of that watering-place,
with no one to dispute my mastership or brush against
my elbow, as I paced backwards and forwards, haughtily
surveying my domain, I might, perhaps, persuade my-
self for a day or two that it was a very fine thing to
have such a magnificent place all to one's self — to be
prince of its park, lord of its lake, ruler of its river,

R 2

244 A WANDERER'S NOTES.

and woivode of its woods, with all and every seignorial
right over the fish in its waters and the fowl of its
forests ; but solitude would soon, methinks, dull the
edge of self- grat ulation, and drive me, panting for com-
munion with my fellow-creatures, to the station. Where
is the pleasure of power if you have no one, I will not
say to share it, but at least to admire and venerate you
for possessing it ? Juan Fernandez, we are given to
understand by the poet, loathed his island after a time,
although surrounded by every comfort and convenience
that heart could wish ; and even that genial mariner,
Kobinson Crusoe, when he had got his little demesne into
order, and had everything ship-shape about him, began
to find that absolute sovereignty, without the adjuncts
of a court, ministers, retainers, or subjects, was an awful
bore. What a relief it was to his ennui when he secured
the companionship of a mere black savage, whom, in a
normal state of things, he would, being an average
Christian of his period, have certainly scorned, and
probably ill-treated ! I could fancy myself, condemned
to life-long residence at Nauheim, taking to my bosom
a Prussian policeman, and solacing myself by endeav-
ouring to soften his rough nature — any companionship
would be acceptable in such a soul-subduing loneliness
as that which reigned throughout the precincts of that
peaceful retreat. Grand-Ducal statistics informed me
that the population of Nauheim was nearly two thou-
sand strong ; and truly there were houses enough to
contain that number of inhabitants, and more ; but,
after a careful inspection of the town, the gaming
establishment, the baths, the lake, and pleasure-grounds

NAUHEIM. 245

of the Kursaal, &c., I could not swear to more than a
dozen natives ; all the rest of the persons I saw there
(perhaps fifty of all ages and sexes, not counting the
personnel of the tables, the band, and half a battalion of
Hessian liners temporarily occupying the place) were
visitors from Frankfort and the neighbouring villages,
who had come thither for a day's pleasure, and were
going away again by the last train. It was upon excur-
sionists such as these that Nauheim lived in the days
before the Franco-German War ; for, with the exception
of a few profoundly respectable Frankfort families which
migrated thither every summer for a few weeks, and
made up cosy coteries at the tables, giving quite a
domestic character to the play, no strangers abode by
those waters for more than four-and- twenty hours at a
stretch. As a proof that the administration counted
upon "casuals" for its annual dividend, I may repeat
the fact that, if you hired a carriage from Homburg or
"Wiesbaden to drive over to Nauheim, half your fare
would be defrayed by the gambling company. This
outlay was certainly judicious ; the directors of enter-
prises founded on human weakness and folly, were ever
deeply versed in the secrets of psychology, and found
the study of that science a highly profitable occupation.
Their apparent generosity was the result of a subtle but
sure calculation. The seven-and-sixpenny capital they
invested in alluring odd tourists to their meek little
tripot, bore goodly interest in nine cases out of ten.
Men who had triumphantly withstood the temptations of
rouge-et-noir at the fashionable hells — where the deuce
was in it if you could not get through your time

246 A WANDERER'S NOTES.

pleasantly without being driven to the tables — came
over to Nauheim, chuckling to themselves at the idea
that an enterprise to the prosperity of which they had
no intention whatever of contributing, should put itself
to expense for their gratification. Strong in their vir-
tuous antecedents, they scoffed at the company's philan-
thropy, even whilst availing themselves of it, and deemed
the small saving they effected to be a justifiable despoil-
ing of the Philistines. Deluded beings ! but men were
self-deceivers ever. When they arrived, they proceeded
forthwith to " go over the place," which, by an in-
genious eking out of the park resources, took them
about an hour ; then they got through another hour in
eating and drinking at the restauration attached to the
Kursaal. There they consumed a meal which, being
as costly as it was detestable in quality and preparation,
effectually damped their spirits. The organization of
this department was a master stroke of policy on the
part of the administration, whose object was, of course,
the production of a state of feeling in the breasts of those
who had been enticed to Nauheim which impelled them,
in sheer desperation, to take refuge from themselves in
the Salle de Jeu. After the deadly repast had been
swallowed, and paid for, with many plaints and objur-
gations, the victim thought he would cheer himself up
by listening to the music on the terrace. But the
administration was not to be done in that way : it had
taken its precautions, and provided for its victims a band
that no human being could listen to for five minutes
with impunity. Besides, had the performances been
ever so good, a person must have been either very strong-

THE FALL OF MAN. 247

minded, or have entertained an overwhelming opinion
of his own claims to consideration, if he could sit by
himself for any length of time listening to an orchestra
of which he was the only auditor ; the mere idea that
all those respectably-clad men were exerting their
talents for the recreation of one individual could scarcely
fail to make that individual nervous. The Nauheim
band, however, being what it was, speedily did its
appointed work, and chased you, shuddering, from the
terrace and the gardens. Whither could you go ? — how
pass the weary hours till the time fixed upon with the
driver of your carriage for your return ? He, the driver,
had disappeared, and was not to be found ; he was, I
presume, being " taken care of," and kept out of the
way by the astute managers of the company. What
must be must — there was no help for it. You strolled,
despising yourself the while, into the play-room, your
approach being signalled to the staff of the tables by
well-drilled menials ; the croupiers and (( bonnets," who
had been sitting with their hands before them, chatting
in subdued tones over the chances of your fall, roused
up and commenced playing with feverish interest and
preternatural activity. You lounged round the tables
with a careless demeanour — assumed to cover your guilt.
A distinguished looking lady, dressed in black, looked
round at you, as if by accident, smiled, and made room
for you beside her at the board ; you trifled for a minute
or two with a card and pin, and then — but I will draw
a veil over the humiliating end of your day's excursion.
As you were driving homewards in the moonlight, it
probably occurred to you that you could hardly have

248 A WANDERER'S NOTES.

saved seven-and-sixpence in a manner less advantageous
to your permanent interests than by allowing the lessees
of the Nauheim Kursaal to share your cab fare on that
particular occasion.

The suppression of gambling at the German watering-
places did more good than harm to Nauheim. In all
the honest attributes of a summer resort, it was far
superior to Homburg or Wiesbaden ; and when the
three settlements came to compete for popularity upon
their merits, purs et simples, Nauheim was able to hold
its own with its gaudy, meretricious, overrated rivals.
There are waters of all sorts there — hot, tepid, and cold
springs gifted with powerful medicinal properties ; the
grounds of the Kursaal are laid out with exquisite taste,
and are large enough to lose yourself in ; the Kursaal
itself is a magnificent building, containing a theatre, a
noble ball-room, spacious dining and reading rooms, and
accommodation of a far more extensive and complete
character than in any other establishment of the kind
with which I am acquainted. There is a big lake,
inhabited by real fish, which anybody may catch who
can. Upon this lake reposes an island, with boat-house,
flag-staff, and saluting ground complete. During my
brief sojourn in Nauheim I was told that, when any
fortunate angler landed a gudgeon, the man who lived
in this island, and who was always on the watch for so
exceptional an event, ran up the Grand-Ducal flag in
token of rejoicing. Should the patience and skill of
the fisherman have been rewarded, however, by the
capture of a carp, cannon were fired from the island,
and a fanfare blown upon the terrace by the company's

FELIX PISCATOR. 249

trumpeters. These compliments, of course, were paid
to visitors only, and therefore occurred but seldom ; for
the croupiers and waiters, who had the run of the fishing
at ordinary times, no banner was hoisted, no powder
burnt, however successful their practice of the gentle
craft might be. From a vantage-ground out of his
sight, I watched a waiter as he sat behind a rod in a
boat on the bosom of the lake ; it was pleasant to con-
template a being clad in a tail coat, white choker, and
dinner napkin, intent upon the most thrilling of sports
and philosophically reckless of incongruities. Presently
his frame quivered with excitement; he had "got a
bite," and, in the struggle that ensued with his recal-
citrant captive, nearly upset the boat. Destiny and
muscle, however, pulled him through, and, after a few
minutes' exertion, during which the fortunes of fish and
man swayed alternately the balance of Fate, he hauled
up a fine young gudgeon, at least three inches long and
in good condition. Anything like the glow of triumph
that illumined that waiter's countenance I have rarely
seen. No pennon waving in the breeze, no thunder of
artillery announced his conquest to the world at large ;
but an inner sense of victory achieved dilated his honest
lineaments and gladdened his simple soul. Tail-coat
and white choker notwithstanding, that waiter had the
heart of a sportsman ; one could not but rejoice in
his feat. There was a gentleman in Nauheim who
endeavoured, but in vain, to rival the constancy and
perseverance of that renowned Wiesbaden angler who
had for years fished for ten hours a day, come rain, hail,
fire, or snow, in the artificial water of the Kurpark,

250 A WANDERER'S NOTES.

beginning early in June and leaving off about the
middle of September. No one was acquainted with
him — he had never been known to catch any thing-
he did not drink the waters or play at the tables-
he took his meals al fresco, on the spot selected by
him years before as his locus standi by the pond-side,
and fished away from morn till eve, day after day,
week in week out, as if possessed by the spirit of
Izaak Walton himself. Emulous of this truly great
man's reputation, Herr Froschkopf set himself down
by the lake of Nauheim to besiege its finny tenants
with all the forms of war ; but he was, at best, only a
half-hearted imitator of his eminent prototype, and had
frequently, as I was informed, been observed sneaking
away from his post at meal-times, or furtively perusing
a book when he ought to have been wrapped in his
sport. Words are not strong enough to express the
contempt that every right-minded and honourable angler
must feel for such a pretender.

Besides the joys of the lake, which, as will have
been gathered from what precedes, were of the most
thrilling description, other recreations were provided for
the inhabitants of Nauheim by the liberal management
of the institution that supported the place and kept it
iu such admirable order. The chief of these was a
shooting-gallery, much frequented by the fair damsels
who accompanied their mammas from Frankfort, and
who, not being allowed to taste of the sweet poison dis-
pensed in the play-rooms, diverted themselves by firing
at a variety of marks, regarding this amusement as the
next best thing to gambling. Some of the targets were

"JEUX INNOCENTS." 251

humorously constructed, and would have drawn "crowded
houses " in an English fair. For instance, there was one,
a round, innocent-looking affair enough, which no one
could suspect of any secret properties. If you struck
the bull's-eye, however, up jumped Mr. Punch or Signor
Policinello (I could obtain no exact data relative to his
nationality) and rewarded your accuracy with a profusion
of nods and becks and wreathed smiles. Another was
rather a harrowing affair; for it was modelled in the
form of a deer — a stately stag of ten — upon whose
breast a crimson heart was painted. When your bullet
hit this heart, the monarch of the forest lowed in a
piteous voice, and bent his lofty crest. You felt that
you had done a cruel thing, and fired at that stag no
more. Not far from the shooting-gallery was a booth,
in which you might try your luck at another pastime,
highly complicated and exciting. There was a board
covered with pins and arches, amongst which were set
up wooden skittles, and, from an appointed starting
place, you spun a mammoth teetotum, which, in order
that you might win a prize, must meander in and out of
the labyrinth, upsetting or overcoming all obstacles, and
knock down all the skittles. Prizes of great beauty and
value were arranged in glass cases round the room in
which this amusement was carried on ; and there they
remained undisturbed, save by duster or feather- brush ;
for the chances were about a thousand to one against the
teetotum ever achieving the tremendous task imposed
upon it. At twopence a spin, this was not an unprofitable
game to the proprietors of the apparatus ; for I noticed
that it was the sort of speculation people got obstinate

252 A WANDERER'S NOTES.

over, and would go on in vesting in, even after long experi-
ence had proved to them the hopelessness of their efforts.
When I entered the Salon de Jeu, about half an hour
after play was supposed to have commenced, I found the
trente-et-guarante table in a state of " Gran Kiposo," and
the roulette supported by one adventurous punter, who
put a florin on enplein at every twist of the wheel. Was
he a confederate \ I think so — at least it looked very
like it ; for genuine players seldom risked even a florin
on a single number. An hour later, I paid the play
another visit — everything in statu quo, except that one
of the croupiers at the thirty and forty had fallen asleep.
The dining-hall and the band had not yet done their
duty, although at least twenty visitors had arrived from
different places in the neighbourhood. Play did not
set in briskly till about 4 p.m., from which time it
flourished, in fits and starts, till 11. I dare say there
may have been, at the most eventful epoch of the
evening, as many as seventeen genuine gamblers losing
their money to the bank. That was the place for people
who loved tranquillity, and wanted to be removed far
from the busy hum of men. I ventured at the time to
recommend it to the consideration of Professor Babbage.
The lodging-houses were a long way from the Kursaal ;
so that, effectually to avoid the only noise that was made
in Nauheim, you had merely to stay within doors at
band-time, and enjoy a silence like that of the Great
Desert. Peace — a great and abiding peace — reigned
over that leafy nook of Hessian territory. Should a
longing for wild and dangerous dissipation come over
you, Frankfort could be reached within an hour by rail ;

FRANKFORT DISSIPATIONS. 253

and if the riotous pleasures afforded by that frivolous
city did not suffice you, you must indeed have been an
abandoned character. Why, there was a theatre and a
circus, in which latter you might behold Poses Plastiques,
too, sinfully ravishing, and, if anything else, a thought
too classical for the general public. Both these delight-
ful exhibitions closed at 9 o'clock, an hour so advanced
for Germany that I scarcely expect my statement to be
credited by those of my readers who are acquainted with,
the Fatherland. There was the Casino, or fashionable
club, at which, if you were fortunate enough to obtain
the privilege of admission, you might find two or three
acquaintances even as late as 10 o'clock. There were
the Zoological Gardens, twice a week open in the even-
ing, where you might hear selections from " Tannhauser "
till your brain was in a whirl, and drain your beer-mug
to the accompaniment of the " Benediction des Poignards."
What more could the most depraved voluptuary require
for the gratification of his unhallowed yearnings ?

CHAPTER IX.

EMS, NASSAU, SCHWALBACH, KRONENBERG AND KCENIGSTEIN.

EMS is unquestionably the prettiest of all the German
watering-places, and its well-being has survived the
demise of Mesdames Roulette and Rouge-et-Noir, its
whilom fairy godmothers. It nestles so cosily, in a deep
umbrageous valley, its houses are so old-fashioned and
picturesque in exterior, so comfortably modern in their
inner arrangements ; its baths are so delightful, its
promenades so enchanting, and its assembly-rooms so
luxuriously and tastefully fitted up, that those who have
once visited its pleasant precincts think of it ever with
a tender regret, and long for the time when they may
return to it. My last visit to Ems was paid in September,
1869, and I entered the Kursaal just in time to witness
a charming performance of "Le Fifre Enchante" in the
tiniest, daintiest little theatre imaginable, erected for
the occasion in the ball-room, itself one of the most
handsomely proportioned and splendidly decorated apart-
ments in Europe, and crowded to suffocation with one
of those heterogeneous cosmopolitan audiences to be seen
only in places that, like Ems, are the autumn rendezvous
of all nationalities — the Anglo-American infusion being,
I fancied, a thought stronger than usual. How easily,

THE ENGLISH "MANNER. 255

spite of beard, large sleeve-buttons, and general ornate-
ness, is my countryman to be distinguished from his
Continental contemporaries. Do what he will to ease
off his natural rigidity, he is, exceptis exdpiendis, stiff
and stark with vanity, partly national, partly personal.
The foreigner is vain too, but expansively ; his conceit
is of the florid order, and he is at intervals dimly con-
scious that it is absurd ; whereas it never for a single
instant seems to cross the Englishman's mind that any-
body could entertain a doubt of his being, emphatically
and inevitably, anax andron, the king of men. He puts
up, as it were, with the existence of aliens ; he endures,
whilst heartily despising them, their ridiculous languages,
manners and customs, even deigning, for his own con-
venience, to learn a few words of what I know he regards
as their " jargons" — English being, in his opinion, the
only real tongue having a raison dletre, and destined to
become universal ; he patronizes the Frenchman, the
German, the Italian with an equally cold blandness,
superciliously convinced that he is treating them accord-
ing to their natural deserts, and taking no trouble to
distinguish the one from the other, in respect either to
national characteristics or individual temperament. How
often have I seen the sensitive Gaul writhe and sputter
with horrid fury by reason of some scornful condescension
with which he had been honoured by an Englishman,
who, for his part, was utterly unconscious of offence —
indeed, had meant to be civil ! It is our manner, above
everything, that causes us to be so intensely disliked
abroad ; and I should be very much astonished if it did
not. Our women are more plastic ; they even outdo

256 A WANDERER'S NOTES.

foreign ladies in gorgeousness of apparel, desinvolture,
and general rakishness of demeanour ; besides, being
women, they are amenable to flattery and soft nothings,
whether spoken by a buckram Briton or a facile foreigner,
so that they make themselves equally agreeable to either,
irrespective of race, creed, or complexion. But no
amount of travelling and rubbing shoulders with
humanity at large avails to modify the Englishman's
self- appreciation or plane down his angularity. The
free-and-easiness he deems appropriate to foreign travel
extends only to his dress ; it scarcely ever affects his,
bearing, and is only an additional slight to those whose
country he deigns to glorify with his presence. I picked
out at least a dozen of my compatriots at Ems, stiffly
lounging in the red velvet reserved seats of the Kursaal
Theatre, who would, I am confident, have perished
rather than appear in the stalls of the smallest London
play-house, unless duly apparelled in the evening livery
of society, but whose roughest tweed suits and loudest
coloured scarves were evidently deemed "good enough"
for an elegant and refined dramatic performance abroad.
Wonderfully clean, uncommunicative and contemptuous,
there they were, the veritable offspring of la brumeuse
Albion , offering a strange contrast to the courteous
suavity and careful demi-toilette of the French, Italian,
and Hungarian gentlemen near them.

At the tables there was but little doing, and that of
the mildest sort — silver, humble silver — except in the
case of one old gentleman, of lofty and martial presence,
who was actively employed in planting louis d'ors by
dozens upon the numbers of the roulette board, evidently,

EMS BY MOONLIGHT. 257

from his care and pre-occupation, according to some
recondite system of play. Whilst I watched him, the
No. 22 came up three times running, and he never
touched it. What a relief to step out of the heated
tripot to the broad gravelled terrace, and look round
one at the solemn leafy hills and the bright smooth
Lahn, lighted up with a ghostly radiance by such a
white moon ! It was an Italian night. The sky a
transparent mysterious blue, gemmed with twinkling
stars ; all the constellations in their holiday garments
of dazzling silver, striving to outvie the refulgence of
Diana's virgin raiment ; white villas peeping out from
the deep shadows of the tall, broad-shouldered mountains,
whose outlines are softened and rounded with feathery
foliage, broken here and there by the sharply-defined
form of some loftily-perched kiosk, pavilion, or ruined
tower, standing out black and clear against the back-
ground of ether. A lovely scene, indeed, not easily to
be forgotten, and a grand stroll homewards, after the
last burner of the Kursaal had been turned off, along the
avenue of lime-trees flanking the river-side, and past the
massive, turretted Bad Haus, that looks like a stronghold
of some robber-baron or count-palatine, transported
magically from the middle ages into a modern pleasure
haunt, and surrounded by prim parterres full of the
choicest flowers. Utter solitude to boot, for it was
midnight, and not a soul save myself was stirring, nor
tramp of foot save my own, nor call of watchman, nor
roll of distant wheel, to tamper with the profound still-
ness of the night ; every now and then just a sigh of

the breeze amongst the fast-drying leaves, and a ripple
VOL. n. s

258 A WANDERER'S NOTES.

of the river over some obstinate rock or round a keen
corner, and that was all. On such a night I could ask
for no deeper delight than to wander about Ems, and
steep my soothed senses in its tranquil, luxuriant beauty.
A few days later, wearied of the tables and their
tiresome shibboleths, I fled from Bad Ems and its
blandishments, and took refuge in the quaintest, quiet-
est, and, I should think, smallest of German cities — so
quaint, that there was nothing about its physiognomy
familiar to our century save the railway-station ; so
quiet, that the frying of a cutlet in any one of its
mansions resounded through every part of the town ;
and so small, that it could be exhaustively " done " in a
quarter of an hour, with several seconds to spare. The
number of its Burger, or citizens possessing the inestim-
able right of voting at its municipal elections, &c.,
corresponded accurately to that of the days in the year
— three hundred and sixty-five, neither more nor less.
Upon inquiry I find that no provision had been made in
the town statutes for Leap Year, in the shape of a
Bissextile citizen. Judging from appearances, the freed-
men of Nassau, so far as their residences are concerned,
must have been divided into weeks, for there were
certainly not more than fifty-two houses in the whole
burgh. In each of these hebdomadal houses, therefore,
according to my calculations, resided seven citizens, with
their impedimenta ; and, as the space afforded by these
structures appeared to be wholly inadequate to the
harbouring of three hundred and sixty-five families, or
one-half that number, I was led to believe that the
burghers of Nassau adhered steadfastly, with a few

NASSAU. 259

exceptions, to the celibate condition. At least, if they
did not, their domestic arrangements must have been of
a remarkably tight-fitting sort, like that adopted by
drawing-room conjurers in respect to the tin goblet
trick. Or the cellarage of the Nassau houses must have
been something absurdly disproportionate to their super-
ficial dimensions, and one-half, or a semester, of its three
hundred and sixty-five citizens must have led a subter-
ranean existence, as moles and colliers do. Barring
beer, in the production of which this ancient city ex-
celled, there was neither trade, commerce, industry, nor
manufacture of any description whatever in Nassau
when I made its acquaintance. Indeed, after a careful
inspection of its precincts, I satisfied myself that there
was but one shop within its walls, and that one, curiously
enough, to judge by the contents of its window, was
exclusively devoted to the sale of Paisley shawls. If it
be true that demand creates supply, one cannot but
wonder at the ardent and passionate desire for Paisley
shawls that must have animated the bosoms of the
Nassau dames and damsels twenty years ago, causing
the exclusion of all other wares from their only shop
window ; perhaps, however, the spirited proprietor of
the emporium conducted his business on the converse of
that principle, and, having bought up a cheap lot of
Paisleys, was determined to exhibit nothing else, hoping
that in his case supply would create demand. I was
the more encouraged to take this latter view of what
would otherwise have been an unfathomable mystery,
seeing that, during all my peregrinations in, about,
and around this city, I never once met a single female

S 2

260 A WANDERER'S NOTES.

sporting a Paisley or, indeed, any other kind of
shawl.

It happened that one fine autumn morning, in a
desperate endeavour to get clear, for at least a little
while, of croupiers, crutches and convalescents, I climbed
a high hill, the highest hill in the neighbourhood of Ems
— I think it is called the Eahmberg, or Cream Mountain
— from the summit of which a glorious view is to be had
of the Lahn Valley. It is a long pull up to the very
tip-top, surmounted by a round tower of red stone,
roughly built up to afford a resting-place and point de
mire ; but, when the ascent is achieved, all the labour
is at once forgotten in contemplating as lovely a pano-
rama of hill, dale, wood, water, and garden — not to
mention the picturesque, straggling little town of Ems —
as eye can see. It was from this goodly eminence that
I looked up the beautiful valley through which the Lahn,
walled in closely by rounded, woody hills, glides noise-
lessly down towards the Ehine, and made up my mind
to explore its beauties, at least as far as Nassau. Accord-
ingly, I started on foot that very afternoon, not by the
post road that follows the right bank of the Lahn, but
along the green meadows on the other side of that river,
an extra mile or two on Shanks's mare being compen-
sated by an absolute immunity from dust ; to my right
the railway, flanked by rugged rocks of a deep brownish
gray, overhung in their turn by luxuriant foliage ; to
my left the placid stream, its surface troubled only from
time to time by the cumbersome leap of some plump,
well-to-do fish after a more than usually tempting fly.
How abruptly and frequently the Lahn twists and winds

A BISMARCKIAN ENTHUSIAST. 261

itself about, to be sure ! One would think it did so on
purpose to prolong the journey between Ems and Nassau.
About half-way there is a fossil place, of which I forget
the name (it is a very long one), in a wonderful state
of preservation, considering that it cannot have been
built later than the twelfth century. Everything, to
the massive old river wall and water-gates, the frowning
donjon-keep of the venerable baronial castle standing at
the river's edge, the solid village church, built for pur-
poses of defence as well as prayer, remains, almost
unimpaired by time, in the genuine, rough-and-ready,
but picturesque grouping of the middle ages. I had
rarely seen so perfect a specimen of a mediaeval fortified
village. A little past these interesting relics of the
"good old days," I came across a very odd Prussian
official — a pointsman, with a monomania, harmless but
engrossing. Let me give my readers an echantitton of
his conversation. " Guten tag, bester Herr ! You have
come a rough walk ; if Bismarck were here, he would
soon have a good footpath made, I promise you. How
far is it to Nassau \ About an hour for you ; Bismarck
would do it easily in forty-seven minutes. You come
from Ems ? I hear that not many fashionables arrive
there this year. Kreuzelement ! they want Bismarck to
show them which way they should go, and then you
would see ! For they follow him, best Sir, as sheep do
the old bell-wether. Ach, du lieber Gottl It is dull
work being all alone in this cursed valley, watching for
the trains to pass, and blowing a horn. If Bismarck
were to walk by, say as you are doing, he would give an
old soldier a few groschen to get him a schnapps when

262 A WANDERER'S NOTES.

the day's duty was over." The old fellow's chatter was
far too good to check. I sat down on the embankment,
and let him run on ; whereupon he gave me a dose of
Bismarck that nearly resulted in our being both run over
by a goods-train, so loudly and incessantly did he dilate
upon his one theme. We parted the best of friends, and
he vociferated several statements about Bismarck after
me as I walked rapidly along the line. A clear case,
poor fellow, of Bundeskanzler on the brain — not an
uncommon malady in Prussia by any means.

One or two ruined castles are perched upon the hills
over against Nassau, on the left bank of the Lahn, as
well as a Schloss, sometime inhabited by the dethroned
Prince who since distinguished himself by founding a
colony of his former subjects in the plains of Eoumania
— which colony, by the way, came to grief in a piteous
manner. The only other house of importance, except
the Bad-Anstalt, belonging to the tiny township is an
old-fashioned Landhaus, situate in the centre of the
city, and surrounded by prettily laid-out gardens, the
property of the Hanoverian Kielmannsegger, who seldom
visit it. Near this property, in a narrow, common-
looking street, is a huge double gate, supported by
stone pillars, and surmounted by the arms of the princely
house that gave its name to the town, the escutcheon
clutched in the paws of two majestic lions. This stately
portal leads to nothing more distinguished than a wood-
yard, and none of the masterful citizens whom I interro-
gated respecting it could give me any account of its
history. "It had always been there/' was the most
they would tell me ; " how should they know who had

A CROUPIER'S BON-MOT. 263

built it, or anything about it ? " The church of Nassau
is remarkable for the picturesqueness of its tower ; arid
the only other salient feature of the whole burgh is a
grim-looking edifice resembling a Border " peel " or
tower, and evidently belonging to the same architectural
period as the church, that rises above the gray roofs of
the quaint old houses, most of which are inlaid, as it
were, with enormous wooden beams, painted green,
yellow, or dirt-colour, according to the family traditions
of their occupants. High sloping roofs, forests of clumsy
chimneys, latticed windows, fantastic loopholes into lofty
attics, shaped like gigantic eyes, wooden roofs and
facings to about one house of every four, no paving
worth mentioning, an open, loathsome sewer meandering
through the streets and festering in the sun — rien ne
manque at Nassau that may give it the cachet of the
nasty, inconvenient, unhealthy olden times. It is,
perhaps, even in Germany, a unique specimen of dogged,
stupid, utter conservatism.

Before I left Ems I saw some pretty high play at
the generally forsaken trente-et-qiiarante, and heard a
croupier say a good thing too. A Russian gentleman,
who had for an hour or two enjoyed one of those
seductive runs of luck that invariably lead to the total
ruin of the person temporarily favoured, was about to
quit his seat, having won a good many thousand francs.
Whatever he had backed had come out of the cards ; as
surely as he pushed his masse over from black to red, or
raked it back from red to black, so surely did Fortune
indorse his inspirations. As he rose he gathered up a
heap of hundred and thousand franc notes that had

264 A WANDERER'S NOTES.

accumulated before him, crumpled them together in a
lump that filled both his hands, and stuffed them into
the skirt pocket of his morning jacket. Said the croupier
next him, in a half whisper to the old boy who sate
behind on a raised chair to look out for condottieri,
" Tiens, vois-tu, il abime qa comme si cetait a Im ! " If
the Company had only known what a sublime confidence
that croupier entertained in the infallibility of their
institution, it could hardly have refrained from raising
his salary on the spot. Even supposing his ejaculation
not to have been the offspring of pure faith, it was
either the axiom of a sage, deduced from experience,
or a brilliant flash of esprit, in either of which cases,
considering the exhausting and brutifying nature of
a croupier's employment, its utterer unquestionably
deserved encouragement.

In the days when I was a confirmed wanderer the
journey to Schwalbach from Frankfort, although the
distance between the two places is not more than six-
and-twenty miles as the crow flies, occupied fully four
hours, and involved a rather complicated combination
of cab, train, and post-chaise. The latter conveyance
was driven by a thing of beauty in uniform — brown
turned up with orange, stiff glazed hat, with black and
white cockade, melodramatic cloak, and brass instrument
of torture wound round his body, upon which he per-
formed not wisely, but too well, at painfully short
intervals. Starting from the Hotel de Eussie at 8.30
a.m., a fellow- wanderer and myself arrived in Schwal-
bach at a quarter-past one in the afternoon, and were
congratulated upon having done a quick thing. It was

A PRUSSIAN POST-BOY. 265

in Wiesbaden that we confided ourselves to the govern-
ment official in the tasty attire above described, who,
upon being respectfully interrogated as to the probable
duration of our transit to Schwalbach, insisted upon
staking his salvation on the contingency of the distance
being effected in precisely one hour and forty-three
minutes, and was moved to indignation by the sugges-
tion that we should not feel inclined to grumble if he
exceeded that time by half a minute or so. " You will
be conveyed to Schwalbach, my sirs, in one hour and
forty-three minutes — no more, no less — it cannot be
otherwise, do you understand, for such is the official
regulation of the Eoyal Extra Post." As might have
been expected, from a person of such settled views and
fixed principles, although the drive lasted two hours
and ten minutes, he sternly repelled any insinuation to
that effect. When, on our arrival, we ventured to hint
that the infallibility of the Prussian posting ordinances
had not been altogether substantiated to our satisfaction
by his performances, he crushed us at once by a loud
asseveration to the effect that " one hour and forty-three
minutes had elapsed since he left Wiesbaden, and that
if we had made a mistake about the time he had not."
Of such a steadfast temper are Prussian post-boys, and,
indeed, small Prussian employes in every branch of the
public service. The word of a government official, be
he policeman or postilion, is law, arid gospel besides.
Bold must be the wight who dares dispute it.

The drive from Wiesbaden is delightful, three-fourths
of the road being cut through the extensive " hunting
grounds " or woods and loose cover, as we should call

266 A WANDERER'S NOTES.

them, formerly belonging to the Duke of Nassau, and

now the property of the Prussian Crown. These covers

are of enormous size, commencing about a mile beyond

Wiesbaden town, and stretching away in a westerly

and north-westerly direction as far as Schlangenbad,

Blendenstadt, Wehen, &c., they form a curved belt of

wood five miles deep and ten miles or so long, full of

game for the sportsman and of romantic walks for the

sentimental pedestrian. The hunting-ground includes

several hills, all spurs of the Taunus, and is approached

from the new suburb — on the outskirts of which a

magnificent synagogue has been erected — through a

lovely green valley, studded with venerable trees

gleaming with fruit, and inhabited by peasants whom,

for sheer ugliness, I will back against any agricultural

population in Europe. Schwalbach itself, a town of

two thousand souls, contained in bodies distressingly

uncomely, lies perdu in a nook of the Taunus range.

I did not see a well set-up man, pleasant-looking woman,

or pretty child during the whole of my afternoon's

peregrinations, devoted to exploring the town, park,

and mineral establishments ; indeed, I hardly saw any

men at all, for, like Franzensbad, Schwalbach and its

waters are peculiarly affected to the use of the fair

sex, which occupied the place en masse , barely tolerating

the presence of a few down-cast he-creatures, husbands

and brothers of exceptionally delicate invalids, who

were allowed to pay bills, appear near the springs when

the band played, and partake in moderation and with

due meekness of what other inspiriting amusements

were afforded by the generosity of the Kur committee.

RAFFLED FOR. 267

These unfortunate men were too evidently on their best
behaviour ; one could see that a sense of their situation
was upon them, and it was painful to think how wildly
they must have broken out when they got back to
Homburg or Wiesbaden. But they had their revenge
hebdomadally, for being kept down as they were on six
days of the week ; at least so I was told ; for was there
not a " reunion " at the All^e-Saal every Saturday, and
were they not, for a few short hours on that retributive
evening, masters of the position ? The proportion of
ladies to gentlemen at these exhilarating little meetings
was about fifteen to one ; so the sterner sex had a proud,
but somewhat fatiguing time of it. As the value of
anything is enhanced by the difficulty experienced in
procuring it, competition for these fortunate fellows too
frequently became a fierce and bitter business ; so, in
order to avoid contention and bad language in the
assembly-rooms, a wise arrangement was entered into
with the sanction of the local authorities, by which
the lords of the creation were raffled for by ministering
angels immediately before every dance. Any lady
lucky enough to draw a man, marched off her prize in
triumph to the " mazy " — the disconsolate drawers of
blanks danced viciously with one another. It was
rather alarming to a modest youth who shall be "name-
less here for evermore," unacquainted as he was with this
ingenious method of keeping the peace (and possibly
wedded to some distant Dulcinea), to be suddenly
accosted by a young lady whom he had never seen
before, with the words, " You belong to me. I have
just won you, so come along ! " There was no appeal ;

268 A WANDERER'S NOTES.

old or young, portly or spectral, Puseyite or Firewor-
shipper, you were bound to submit to your fate, and
go through your gyrations with the best grace you
might. Any lady drawing a prize for two dances
running was obliged to wait till the other ladies had
had their pick out of the abashed group huddled up
together at one end of the room. She took the " Last
Man," perhaps her own husband. Fourier would have
called this " an example of distributive justice." Flirt-
ation was rather uphill work, under the circumstances,
for every man knew that his partner must be suffering
from some ailment or other, else she would not be at
Schwalbach — (fancy going thither for pleasure ! ) — and
the consciousness of this fact acted as a damper on
romance. A good deal might be done, of course, in the
way of tenderly-expressed sympathy ; but to sympathize
aptly, you must be acquainted with the cause of dolour,
and it was rather a ticklish venture to ask a young lady
taking the Schwalbach waters what was the matter with
her ; nor was she likely to volunteer information on that
subject. Taking one thing with another, I doubt whether
the stray men at Schwalbach were much to be envied
their privileges. At least they did not look like it.

The musical reputation of Germany stands deservedly
high ; there are in the Fatherland at least half a dozen
full and perfectly balanced orchestras (without including
a few admirable military bands) — that is, as many as the
rest of Europe, including England and France, can
produce, despite the rapid advance made in those
countries by the divine art within the last twenty years.
But the bauds that were provided twenty years ago for

MUSIC AT SCHWALBACH. 269

the recreation of invalids at the smaller watering-places
of that realm of harmony were the most extraordinary, not
to say fearful, institutions extant. I suppose the owners
of the bathing establishments and the doctors attached
to the waters had entered into a secret compact to
secure the services of all the vilest " musikanten " who
could be recruited in the wilds of Bohemia, as an
excellent means of keeping down the spirits of their
customers, retarding their cure, and consequently pro-
longing their stay in those healing settlements. If any
one can suggest a more plausible method for account-
ing for the infamy of the performances perpetrated
at Nauheim, Schwalbach, Schlangenbad, Franzensbad,
Kreuznach, and other third-rate watering-places, I shall
be much obliged to him. At Schwalbach the public
was put to the peine forte et dure three times a day,
and it was advertised that the familiars of this unholy
inquisition would, for a consideration, serenade any
personage of distinction on his or her arrival or
departure. Welcome the coming, speed the parting
guest, at his own costs and charges, lien entendn. The
Allee-Saal rejoiced, too, in the possession of two pianos,
both in the same room, and each tuned (or rather kept
out of tune) to a different pitch. When played upon
simultaneously, a startling effect was produced. One
afternoon we had the pleasure of hearing Chopin's
Impromptu in C sharp minor and the "Hailstone
Chorus," rendered with much force and brio, at one and
the same time. The ensemble was Wagnerish, very —
puzzling to an ear untrained in the music of the future,
perhaps, but new and interesting. There are several

270 A WANDERER'S NOTES.

springs, of different strength and properties ; and the
band played by each in succession. The waters are, I
believe, stimulating to the nerves — they have need to
be ! By one of these springs is situate a large gloomy
pond, yellow and of thick consistence ; this is called the
Lake, and is the favourite haunt of the melancholy
company gathered together in Schwalbach. It is sur-
rounded by trees, and is about as suicide-suggesting
a piece of artificial water as the most lugubrious bard
could wish to describe. Near the other springs there
are one or two ancient arcades, lined with shops, in
which you can purchase remembrances of Schwalbach —
as if anybody would desire to remember it ! Bone
brooches, pebble snuff-boxes, wooden knick-knacks
carved by the plain but industrious peasantry ; coloured
glass, white umbrellas, and unwholesome confectionery
appeared to be the staples of Schwalbach commerce.
Buoyant must be the nature which could bear up
against a protracted stay in that secluded spot ; strong
the digestion that would not succumb to the fare
provided at the table-d'li6te of the " fashionable " and
expensive Allee-Saal. Schwalbach, farewell ! may you
be prosperous and happy ! Let us part friends ; for
never again will you welcome me within your health-
giving precincts — no, not if I were sure of being greeted
by a gratuitous serenade from your remarkable orchestra,
and of being raffled for nightly by the fairest of your
frequenters ! In an hour and forty-three minutes to a
fraction of a second, I shall be deposited in Wiesbaden,
by the irrefragable exactitude of the Prussian Extra-
Post, and never more But the royal postilion

VILLAGES OF THE TAUNUS. 271

blows his horn angrily ; I dare not incur his displeasure
by further delay. Adieu, adieu !

The Taunus is well and generally known in England,
through its association with Homburg-on-the-Heights ;
whilst the vast majority of even my travelled country-
folk is profoundly unacquainted with Kronenberg,
Falkenstein, Koenigstein, and half-a-dozen other moun-
tain villages ending in " berg " and " stein/' amongst
which I have often wandered, delighting my eyes and
warming up a naturally ruddy complexion into a bright
brick red, invariably resented by my companions on
the ground that " it made them hot to look at me."
All these villages, and many others which I indolently
failed to discover, are perched on the green crests, or
nestle snugly on the wooded slopes of the Taunus
range ; and to them many Frankfort families resort
during the fiery summer months, in quest of cool re-
treats, shady walks, bracing air, and a light but hardy
diet. The three hamlets above mentioned lie within
short, if not easy, reach of one another; a trained
gymnast may, without impairing his constitution per-
manently by over-exertion, breakfast in Kronenberg,
lunch at Falkenstein, and dine at Kcenigstein — that is, if
he be fortunate enough to find anything to eat there.
Koenigstein is the blest possessor of one excellent ruin and
two indifferent inns. At the latter, the occupants of all
the village lodgings, as well as of the hotel bed-rooms, are
compelled to take their meals ; any proposition made to
the native villager with a tendency towards obtaining
food upon his premises would elicit from that aborigine
a blank stare of amazement, and would lead to no other

272 A WANDERER'S NOTES.

result whatsoever. All the eatable food consumed in the
village is brought thither daily from Frankfort, and
punctually delivered at the two inns aforesaid, which dis-
pense it to their guests in due course. What the local
householders and their families devour was never, I rejoice
to say, within my province to inquire into ; judging by
their appearance, and especially by that of their children,
I should say that they got very little to eat, and bad
of its sort. They were sallow complexioned, under-
grown, and surly-looking. Their " season " was only of
a few weeks7 duration, and they had not yet learnt in
its fulness the art of fleecing their visitors so ably and
thoroughly as to make out of them a handsome annual
income by a month or so of lodging-keeping. Un-
sophisticated agricolae ! they know better by this time,
doubtless ; and wanderers to these hilly nooks now
probably note that, whilst the natives wear a plump
and joyous mien, the visitors appear emaciated and
careworn with brooding over the prices of accommoda-
tion. When I was in the habit of haunting the Taunus
summer settlements the whole of the commissariat
arrangements were thrown into the hands of the two
innkeepers, who consequently had to keep themselves
well posted up in the movements of the floating popu-
lation, and were obliged to enter daily into intricate
calculations in order to arrive at a nice estimate of the
quantity of food to be provided for consumption by
their guests ; for meat, fish, and poultry would not
keep in the dog-days, and an error in the total sum
of appetites to be allayed might swiftly swallow up a
week's profits in damaged vivres. Demand and supply

KRONENBERG. 273

being thus meticulously balanced, it will be readily
understood that the unexpected arrival of half-a-dozen
"casuals" introduced a distracting factor into mine
host's diurnal problem, and placed him in a somewhat
painful dilemma. If he fed the famished wanderers, his
Stamm-gaste must suffer some minishment of their
accustomed rations ; if he sternly refused to supply the
bona-fide traveller of the day he might be alienating a
possible regular customer of the morrow. Wherefore the
Frankfurters, when they proposed to spend a few hours
at any of these picturesque little places, signified their
intended advent a day or two before starting, by letter
or telegram, to the Boniface of their choice, who com-
municated with his purveyors in Frankfort, and was
enabled to solve his problem to everybody's satisfaction.
Kronenberg is about ten miles by road from the old
Bundes Stadt, and is certainly one of the quaintest old
hamlets in that part of Germany. It is all up and
down, with the narrowest of streets and a truly mediaeval
pavement. No portion of its roadway is level for ten
successive yards. You must be always ascending or
descending whilst within its precincts. It is singularly
provocative of panting in full-bodied persons, and of
swearing in the tender-footed. Strong horses become
limp after traversing the intricacies of its thoroughfares.
Like most of the villages in Nassau and Hesse, it is
full of twists, sharp turns, and odd corners on the cork-
screw terrace pattern. Some of its ledges are connected
together by appalling short cuts of ragged steps, flanked
by cesspools, dungheaps, pigstyes, and other domestic
institutions of a rudimentary and highly-flavoured

VOL. II.

274 A WANDERER'S NOTES.

character. These savoury flights afford on either
hand the very grimmest of glimpses into the private
life of the Kronenbergers, who ingeniously combine
a maximum of dirt with a minimum of light, and
are sublimely ignorant of sanitary laws. Were it
not for the searching mountain breezes, permanent and
indefatigable deodorizers of all the fever-holes these hill-
folk surround themselves with, Kronenberg and its
fellow-hamlets would be so many cholera and typhus-
breeders of the first order ; but so fine is the quality
of their native air, and so incessant its activity, that
beyond a stale whiff or two of uncommon loathsomeness
in a peculiarly narrow and tortuous alley, where the
wind itself is at a disadvantage, there is really little to
complain of in the olfactory line as you stumble and
clamber through the village streets. But so steep are
they, so crooked, and so jagged on either side with gaps
that " give " upon small precipices or sudden eminences,
that everybody who is compelled to be out after dark
carries a light. These bobbing-lanterns, viewed from a
little distance, look like gigantic fireflies ; they are the
only illuminations to be met with in Kronenberg's high-
ways and by-ways, which, but for them, would be
plunged at evensong into total darkness.

But for all the winding, turning, and doubling,
aggravated by wrenches of your ankle-joints and
scrunches of your toes, you are amply rewarded when
you emerge from the Kronenbergian labyrinth at its
" down-town " issue, and enter a broad, carefully-kept
road, or rather avenue, of noble chestnut and walnut
trees, which skirts, half-way up the mountain side, the

A FINE VIEW. 275

broad and deep gorge, the entrance to which is guarded
by the venerable Schloss that towers aloft, high above
the dusky roofs of Kronenberg. This avenue, upon
which the Kuryiiste take their " constitutionals/' conducts
you by a gentle descent to the very end of the ravine,
where both its thickly-wooded natural walls slope down
into a vast park-like plain, enclosed on all its sides by
lofty hills, upon the summits of which stand crumbling
castles and time-worn towers, formerly the strongholds
of a fierce and predatory noblesse, whose very titles have
vanished from the popular memory. It is, indeed, one
of the leading peculiarities of the fertile districts
watered by the Maine and Neckar that they are all
but entirely forlorn of a land owning aristocracy. I
know no other part of Germany — save the Hanse Towns
— so utterly devoid of counts and barons. There are
even hardly any large estates in the hands of individuals,
or held as family properties. Most of the land is owned
by the peasants, who cultivate it, with the exception
of the wine-growing hill-sides — and many of these are
minutely subdivided amongst a number of " small men."
But to return to the park-like meadow at the foot
of the Kronenberg, Falkenstein, and Kcenigstein moun-
tains. From a rustic seat planted at the very mouth
of the gorge above alluded to is to be seen a really
charming view of the Taunus range, embracing a very
considerable extent of romantic and picturesque country.
There is nothing grand, stern, or imposing about the
scenery ; it reminds a West-countryman irresistibly of
Monmouthshire and the southern districts of Glamorgan-
shire ; it is extremely varied in colour and accessories,

T 2

276 A WANDERER'S NOTES.

upon a somewhat small scale, but replete with that soft
and quiet beauty that grows upon you more and more
the longer you gaze upon it. There are woods, meadows,
hills, valleys, clusters of red-roofed cottages, church
spires, rugged fortalices, splendid villas, Swiss chalets,
orchards rosy with ripened fruit, waving cornfields, and
tawny strips of glistening stubble. The only element
wanting to the picture is water, of which scarcely any
is to be detected in the whole paysage. From the
heights, with a good glass, the Maine can be faintly
discerned in the far distance, a silvern serpent winding
over the chequered plain, as well as a confused agglomer-
ation of gleaming white spots, the suburban villas of
wealthy Frankfort. But in the foreground there is no
stream wider than a Berlin gutter to relieve the " green
upon green " by a crystal shimmer and sparkle.

Kcenigstein differs in many material respects from
Kronenberg. It is built upon a much higher level,
and, indeed, crowns one of the loftier mountains of the
range. Its castle is a very conspicuous and extensive
relic of the robber-ages, and close to its lower outworks
the Duchess of Nassau has built a handsome country
seat, which overlooks the whole landscape already de-
scribed. The mountain-side is partially clothed with
larchwoods, through which many cool, delightful path-
ways have been cleared. During the hottest day one
may wander in the shade for miles and miles, breathing
the balmiest of atmospheres, and enjoying perfect im-
munity from the mosquitoes and gnats that infest the
plains beneath and Frankfort itself. Kcenigstein was
building a good deal in 1875, when I last climbed

KCENIGSTEIN. 277

its heights, being threatened with a fashionable future ;
ugly and commonplace new houses were springing up
at its either end, and one gentleman, a Swiss seigneur,
who had married into the " upper fifty " of Frankfort,
had caused to be constructed on the higher slopes of
the Castle Hill, just beneath the Duchess's Chateau, a
genuine Schweizer farmhouse — a farmhouse of " gen-
tility," with high-art gardens, ornate terraces, and fine
winding walks down the hill to a verdant paddock
intervening between its spacious pleasure-grounds and
the public highway — which was one of the prettiest
objects in the whole neighbourhood. Kcenigstein is
about fourteen miles by road from Frankfort, and the
drive thither, when once you are clear of Bockenheim
and the railway system, which is exceedingly trying to
spirited horses, is a pleasant one, through intricate
village streets, past noisy mill-dams, over old-fashioned
wooden bridges, between long rows of heavily-laden
apple trees (the Taunus district is a great cider-
making and cinder- drinking country), up sloping corn-
fields, along the edges of young plantations, and, after
seven miles or so of comparatively level ground, rising
gradually higher and higher till every turn of the road
gives you a more extensive coup d'ceil over a constantly
widening and deepening panorama. At Kronenberg,
which is on the shortest route to Kcenigstein, you could
formerly dine very well, and, by comparison with other
hostelries of the district, cheaply. The proprietor of
the principal hotel was a man de son siecle, who kept a
real live French cook and a grand piano. The former
was a meritorious artiste ; of the latter, the less said,

278 A WANDERER'S NOTES.

perhaps, the better. An instrument four-fifths of the
notes of which stood in no known harmonious relation
to one another, whilst the remaiDing fifth was as dumb
as the Duke of York's Column, could not be conscien-
tiously described as an exhilarating addition to the
diverting resources of a holiday resort, or, in fact, as
anything but an element of discord. In the mountain
fastnesses of Nassau and Hesse one must dispense with
artistic and intellectual recreations ; all one can do is to
eat, drink, smoke, walk about and sleep ; and a man
may employ his time a good deal less rationally than in
these simple pursuits. Stout boots and a good appetite
lead to a very appreciable amount of happiness.

CHAPTER X.

REVOLUTIONARY MADRID — TRIUMPHAL ENTRY OF JUAN PRIM — STUPEN-
DOUS POPULAR DEMONSTRATION ACROSS THE SIERRA MORENA

CORDOVA A CONVERTED MOSQUE MALAGA ALMONDS AND RAISINS

— ALICANTE.

ON the seventh of October, 1868, the streets of Madrid
presented such a spectacle as few Europeans had there-
tofore seen, although the history of the present century
had up to that time certainly been replete with emo-
tional incident. The " anarchy and confusion " to which
the ex- Queen, in the first paragraph of her inept protest
against the revolution, asserted that "unhappy Spain"
was miserably abandoned, and which had thitherto taken
the somewhat paradoxical form of an organization and
order that could give points to the best-regulated
monarchy extant, culminated on that day in a reception
of the popular hero, Don Juan Prim, by the Madrilenos,
that did as much honour to those offering the ovation as
to its gallant recipient. Free Spain, as represented by
the citizens of her capital, proved herself grandly worthy
of the liberty she had so nobly won for herself. I
venture to believe that there exists upon the face of the
earth no other race which, in achieving with magical
suddenness the intoxicating transition from the dread

280 A WANDEKER' s NOTES.

degradation of utter slavery to the sublime rapture of
unbounded freedom, would have manifested its righteous
joy in a manner so unexceptionally admirable, so free
from every blemish of exaggeration or excess. None
others would have been capable of such passionate
enthusiasm so exquisitely tempered by a fine respect
for the dignity and honour of a sovereign people, as
that displayed throughout the colossal demonstration
made by the inhabitants of Madrid towards one of the
great men who had fairly earned the title of " The
Saviours of Spain." Except in the procession which
escorted Don Juan Prim from the station to the
Palacio de la Gobernacion, and which consisted of about
thirty thousand men, there was not a soldier nor a
gendarme to be seen throughout the long line of route
taken by the cortege, comprising the great lengths of the
Calle del Alcald and the San Geronimo. The Madrilenos
kept the streets themselves ; and, though during the
passage of their adored Liberator the broad thorough-
fares leading into the Puerta del Sol and the whole of
that huge Plaza itself were so densely thronged with
spectators that individual motion was no longer possible,
every human item in that enormous crowd being welded
into the mighty mass which surged and swayed to and
fro with irresistible force, the whole day's proceedings
did not furnish one instance of misconduct or breach of
decorum. I crave my readers' pardon for dwelling so
emphatically on this particular feature of the great
Spanish revolution ; but it impressed me so deeply that
I cannot but lay particular stress upon it. I had seen
many crowds of many nationalities, some well nigh

A MADRID CROWD. 281

frenzied with rejoicing, others half frantic with rage and
disappointment, others again simply gathered together
by motives of idle curiosity ; but I may safely say that
I had never contemplated such a crowd, either for
density, enthusiasm, or self-control, as that assembled
to welcome John Prim to the capital of his regenerated,
rescued country. Its patience was sorely tried, too ;
for it had been announced that the General would
arrive at mid-day, whereas he did not make his appear-
ance until past five in the afternoon ; and as the
majority of the people had taken up vantage ground
early in the forenoon, which they retained until he was
safely housed at half-past six in the Fonda de Paris,
they must have been suffering from sheer physical
exhaustion, as well as from that hope deferred which
maketh the heart sick, by the time that the head of the
procession emerged from the Atocha station. As a proof
of the extraordinary cohesion into which they were
wedged, I may mention that just under my windows,
as the General passed them, a poor little baby in arms,
held up above the crowd by its mother to see the hero
of the day, floated out of her hands (I can find no other
word to describe the occurrence) far away over the heads
of men and women, all cheering with might and main,
down the street and round the corner, without once
touching anything nearer ground than the tops of hats
innumerable. The shrieks of the bereaved mother were
drowned in the acclamations of those around her, and
all her efforts to extricate herself were vain — the child
had disappeared, and we saw it no more.

General John Prim should surely have been the

282 A WANDERER'S NOTES.

happiest and proudest man in the world that day.
Perfect success had crowned his combinations ; he had
rid his country of the incubus that had thitherto para-
lyzed its powers, with more completeness, and less
effusion of blood, than the most sanguine patriot could
have anticipated ; and he arrived, triumphant, from
distant provinces in which his name had swept 'despot-
ism away before him with miraculous power, to receive
the greatest reward of service that any man can aspire
to — the absolute approval and heartfelt gratitude of his
compatriots. And what a reception they gave him ! I
am hopeless of conveying to any one, in colourless black
and white, an idea of the ovation I then witnessed, but
I will try to do so, although the pen of a poet could
alone do justice to the marvellous spectacle.

The previous night had been a busy one in the city
of Madrid. Gangs of workmen, relieved at short inter-
vals, were employed upon the construction of triumphal
arches in the Calle del Alcala* and opposite the House
of Parliament. Those of the inhabitants who were not
crowding the cafes — of which establishments there are,
in the Spanish capital, at least a dozen, far larger and
costlier in their accessories than any in Paris or Vienna
—or swarming along the principal streets to the strains
of the Eiego and O'Donnell hymns, played by Catalan
bagpipers or amateur brass bands, were engaged in
covering the fronts of their houses with parti-coloured
drapery, the national red and yellow, of course, pre-
dominant, and in nailing up wreaths of flowers, symbol-
ical banners, festoons of evergreens and many-hued
lamps upon every available portion of space intervening

THE PUERTA DEL SOL. 283

between the long massive balconies that face every
Spanish residence. I need scarcely say that the night
was a sleepless one for all those who, like myself and
several of my journalistic colleagues, were lodged in
quarters closely contiguous to the great centre of all
action — the Puerta del Sol.

By early morn the decorative part of the prepar-
ations was completed, and the Madrilenos commenced
to promenade their gaily-dressed city with that feverish
restlessness which is so often the premonitory symptom
of an event in which the popular sympathies and
interests are vigorously enlisted. By eleven o'clock the
whole pavement of the Puerta and its radiation of main
streets was entirely concealed from view by a seething
mass of humanity. Viewed from the upper storeys of
the Fonda de Paris or the Casino de los Principes, the
great gathering seemed to be smouldering with hidden
fire ; for a heavy cloud of blue smoke, emanating from
fifty thousand cigarettes, hung over it in the still air.
Besides the incredibly numerous assemblage swaying
backwards and forwards in deep and broad waves, every
balcony was lined with ladies, for the most part attired
in gay colours, contrary to the sombre rule of Spanish
female toilette, plying their fans with coquettish grace,
and pouring forth volleys of flashing glances from
beneath the folds of their black mantillas. In the midst
of the Plaza played the sparkling fountain, varying from
time to time the form of its foaming jets of water, and
glittering in the sun rays like a fairy source of countless
diamonds.

Meanwhile, the French and Italian congratulatory

284 A WANDERER'S NOTES.

committees (that alleged to be of England, I have reason
to believe, were little more than a mythical body, without
local habitation or name) were preparing their flags and
rehearsing the hymns that they had arranged for the
occasion to hybrid tunes — the French ode being set to
a mixture of the Marseillaise and a Spanish national
air, and that of Italy amalgamating the Eiego march,
Garibaldi's hymn, and a chorus from the " Donna
Caritea" of Mercadante. I subjoin the words of the
latter effusion, which were rehearsed in my hotel
throughout the night till the house shook again :

Chi per la patria muore

Vissuto ha assai ;
La palma dell'onore

Non muore mai.
Meglio e di morire,

Sul fior degl' anni,
Piutosto che languire,

Sotto i tiranni !

Both these committees were headed by horsemen,
bearing the French and Italian tricolours, and girt with
broad sashes. It had been wished by the French
delegates that the Italians should coalesce with them ;
but to this request gallant Tamberlik, who had been the
inspiring genius of the Italian demonstration, replied :
" Prim a sortite di Roma ; e poi c'uuiremo con voi altri
di cuore ! " So each body of sympathisers went upon
its own hook.

By one o'clock the arteries of Madrid communication
wrere turned into streams of changeful colour — men,
women, and children were arrayed in gala costume of
every bright hue, shifting incessantly in arrangement

THE PROCESSION. 285

like the tints of a dying dolphin. Here and there a
Basque wet nurse offered a glowing dot of crimson to
the eye, like a gaudy poppy prominent amongst a
thousand field flowers of more subdued colours, or the
striped poncho of a Castilian peasant gleamed like a
tiger skin, and cast all costumes near it into the shade.
Denser and denser grew the crowd — hour after hour
passed in anxious anticipation ; and at length, about
half-past four, the strains of distant music, and the roar
of distant " vivas," announced to us that the General
had arrived, and that the procession had started from
the station. By a ha.ppy combination of resources, the
small party of Englishmen, under the aegis of a kindly
countryman long resident in Spain, and well-known to
every English gentleman who has visited Madrid within
the last twenty years, was put in possession of half-a-
dozen points de mire, commanding the different avenues
traversed by the cortege and the Puerta del Sol itself, so
that scarce a detail of the ovation escaped us.

Slowly working its way up the Calle del Alcala",
appeared the head of the column, composed of National
Guards in their new uniforms — light blue blouses with
red facings, blue foraging caps, and shiny black jack-
boots— marching in excellent style, and headed by a
military band, playing the inevitable " Eiego " hymn.
Next came a squadron of dragoons in spiked helmets of
Prussian pattern ; then a car or galley, as much resem-
bling the one as the other, lined with odoriferous pine
branches, and adorned with inscriptions of a suitable
character. In this car were seated a number of dis-
tinguished patriots, who cast flowers to the crowd, and

286 A WANDERER'S NOTES.

every now and then let loose a white dove or two,
emblems of peace, that fluttered wildly into the balconies
and open windows, where they were made prisoners by
bright- eyed senoritas. Guarding and following the car
came a strong body of sailors, splendid fellows, whose
marching was a marvel of steadiness and solidity. Then
more milicia ciudadana, out of uniform, but distinguished
by yellow bands round their hats and badges of the
national colours — a small picked body was clad in com-
plete scarlet, a la Garibaldi, and was told off to guard
the entrance to Prim's quarters.

Pleasant and familiar harmonies reached us from the
distance in intermittent gushes, between the plaudits of
the mob, and, as they approached, gathered consistence
and coherence from the addition to their slender forces
of ten thousand glad voices. First the "Marseillaise,"
its fierce choral denunciations emphasised by trumpets,
ophicleides, and trombones ; and next the strains to
which so many gallant hearts have bounded in the land
of the sister Latin race. As the Italian Committee
reached the spot opposite the grand entrance to our
hotel, they halted and gave out the whole of their
composite hymn with magnificent energy, led by Tam-
berlik ; who gathered himself together for the final
phrase, which he wound up with one of his great chest
notes, that rang out like a silver trumpet over all the
clamour and uproar of the deafening tumult. The
Italians melted into the sea of vitality lashing the
Puerta del Sol, and their refrain reached us but in
musical whiffs ; a greater roar than any that had yet
burst over us swelled up from the lower end of the

DOX JUAN PEIM. 287

Alcala, and the thousand or so of volunteers who marched
hurriedly by us cast eager glances over their shoulders
as they pressed onward.

At last, at last ! every living thing converged to-
wards the triumphal arch, under which might be seen
to pass a small group of horsemen, headed by a dark,
thick-set, middle-sized man, in a plain undress uniform,
with a bright star on his left breast, and raising in his
hand a blue foraging cap, with which he gravely saluted
the enraptured people. That was Prim ! Close to his
bridle hand rode Serrano, in full marshal's uniform,
covered with plaques and crachats, a heavy plume waving
from his gold- bound cocked hat. He was scarcely looked
at, gay and gallant as was his seeming. All eyes were
fixed upon the great Progresista, all hearts leaped out
towards him, every throat was strained with passionate
cries of devotion and thankfulness. Such moments fall
to a man's lot but once in an existence, and it could not
be denied that Prim bore the surpassing honour of his
position modestly and worthily. Surrounded by a
gorgeous staff, glittering with gold and crosses, whilst
he was as simply dressed as one of his high rank could
be without affectation, he looked the impersonation of
a popular leader. But for a bright glance of recognition,
levelled now and then at some balcony whence the face
of an old friend gazed fondly upon him, the calm of his
• resolute countenance never varied ; one could see that
he felt the enormous responsibilities of his power, but
that his spirit was equal to their fulfilment, and that the
knowledge that so many hearts yearned towards him,
whilst it filled his soul with a deep gratefulness, did not

288 A WANDERER'S NOTES.

avail to break down his self-command or overwhelm him.
with a tide of emotion. I never saw a man of more
gallant presence.

Presently, after riding through the Puerta del Sol
and round the Calle San Geronimo, he drew up at the
door of his quarters and alighted. We awaited him in
the large corridor leading to his apartments, and accom-
panied him to the grand salon looking over the Puerta,
from which he addressed the people in a few soldierly,
terse sentences. He said : " Friends and countrymen —
Do not expect a long speech from me. I am weary and
exhausted with fatigue and emotion ; besides, I am no
missionary to spin you out an elaborate discourse.
Accept my thanks and congratulation. 'Viva la
Libertad ! ' ' Viva el Pueblo ! ' ' Abajo los Borbones ! '
Farewell for to-night." Returning into the room, he
had to pass from the arms of one friend into those of
another. Everybody embraced him ; and it was a
pretty sight to see a timid, budding young English
beauty, the daughter of an eminent Englishman resident
in Madrid, receiving a fatherly kiss on her fair brow
from the Liberator, whom she greeted in the name of
her countrymen as the regenerator of Spanish liberties.
Several ladies, his compatriots, kissed and cried over
him with such passion that I could see he had to
struggle for self-possession. One old friend and comrade,
an Englishman, wrung him by the hand, saying, " No
words can express how rejoiced I am to see you here ! "
To which he replied, " II ^tait bien temps, n'est-ce
pas, ami ? " As soon as the greetings were ended, we
left him to change his dress ; and shortly afterwards, in

THE SIERRA MORENA. 289

company with a chosen cohort of Spanish patriots, from
which everybody missed Milan del Bosch — left by Don
Juan in Carthagena as its Governor — he descended to
the salle-a-manger, and, sat down to the banquet that
had been prepared for him. The rest of the evening
and night was one long series of marchings, serenades,
fireworks, cheerings, and mad rejoicing. Madrid never
went to bed at all; at 4 a.m. military bands were
parading the town in full play, choruses were being sung
in every street, squibs and crackers exploded in hundreds
under my windows, but a few yards removed from the
General's, and everything was being done to keep the
people's Tribune from the rest he had so thoroughly
earned. The morrow a grand review of the troops and
volunteers was held in his honour. Twenty-five thousand
of the latter had taken regular service, and were already
licked into very soldierly shape.

Shortly after the triumphal entry of Don Juan Prim
into the Spanish capital I left Madrid for the South of
Spain, and made a tour which I can only characterize
as a splendid surfeit of the picturesque. The entrance
to the Pass of the Sierra Morena is by far the wildest
and most extraordinary piece of mountain scenery in
Europe. Nature has here indulged in some of her
maddest freaks, piling up tower above towrer, ranging
long lines of battlements one above another, scooping
out fearsome gulfs under what should be the founda-
tions of immense fortresses, and altogether conducting
herself in the most incomprehensible manner. Seen in
the dim morning light, their topmost peaks tinted rose-
colour by the rays of the rising sun, these frontier

VOL. II.

290 A WANDERER'S NOTES.

sentinels of the great range that separates Andalusia
from New Castile have a weird and awful appearance.
As the train plunges deeper into the pass, rushing
through tunnel after tunnel, and each time emerging
into brighter daylight — for the transit from night to
morning takes place in the rare mountain atmosphere
with marvellous rapidity — you begin to perceive that
the rocks around you are many-hued, varying from a
creamy yellow to a dusky brown. There are soft greens,
tender pinks, veined here and there with lines of black,
every shade of gray and purple ; and all these nuances
blend into one another with exquisite fitness, offering a
series of pictures by which, although they exhaust the
resources of the spectrum, the eye is never dazzled or
fatigued. Queer, mysterious little brooks, whose sparse
waters seem now black as ink, now olive green, now a
dull red, as the colour of their bed changes, wind along
the course taken by the line, sometimes disappearing
suddenly engulfed in gloomy caves, sometimes stealing
noiselessly round some giant rock planted right in their
path, sometimes bubbling and babbling with a merry
noise over a stony slope that terminates in a deep, sullen
pool.

As soon as the southern face of the Sierra is attained,
everything assumes a more cheerful countenance. There
are plenty of trees — olives, lemons, arid oranges — the
latter heavy in October with their second golden burthen.
Presently the road is bounded on either side with rows
of aloes ; and, as I live, here are some green fields, the
first I have seen in Spain. There are plenty of white,
stoutly-built houses, agreeably superseding the hideous,

ALCOLEA. 291

squalid huts that seem to rise from the arid surface of
Castile like tumours. At the stations, trays full of
pomegranates, oranges, and yellow apples are brought
to the carriage doors by lithe, bright- eyed little maids,
fantastically dressed in jackets and petticoats of the most
glaring colours. About half-an-hour before arriving at
Cordova, the train passes over the river that was so
deeply tinged with Spanish blood on the 28th September
1868, within a few hundred yards of the famous bridge
upon which Novaliches received his death wound. From
the right-hand side windows of the cars we commanded
an excellent and comprehensive view of the battle-field,
the bridge and river, the houses occupied by Serrano
and his staff, and the thick straggling orchard in which
Lacy and his brigade were so cleverly surprised and so
magnanimously released. Serrano's position was an
admirable one ; whilst the Eoyal troops, disposed upon
the flat country stretching away northwards from the
left bank of the river, were terribly exposed to the fire
of their opponents. The bridge of Alcolea, a noble old
structure, appeared to have suffered little from the
tremendous cannonade poured upon it from batteries
on both sides of the river. One of the two towers
with which it was garnished had been swept away ;
but I could not learn whether its destruction was the
effect of the artillery fire on the day of the last battle,
or whether it had resulted from the former contest,
which was a still more serious affair than that of
the 28th, and lasted three days, yielding a formidable
butcher's bill. The casualties of Serrano's victory had

amounted in all to 3057 killed and wounded on both

u 2

292 A WANDERER'S NOTES.

sides. And the village looked so peaceful, the trees
and meadows were so green, the scanty waters of the
river so pellucid, that one could scarcely fancy 40,000
men had been engaged in desperate affray upon so
quiet a spot only a month before. Scarce a trace of
the fight was to be seen. Here and there a broken
branch, and a few bullet marks upon the white walls of
the farmhouses ; and that was all — save half a dozen
broad mounds of freshly-turned earth, beneath which
lay royalists and insurgents, side by side — that remained
to tell of the glorious victory of Alcolea.

What shall I say of Cordova ? When, towering
high above the houses of a city, you perceive a giant
palm-tree, its lower leaves fringed with clusters of
ripening dates, you begin to think that, somehow or
other, you have got out of Europe into an Eastern land ;
and every step you take in this enchanted town heightens
your illusion. How fiercely the sun burns, and how
sharply defined are the shadows thrown by the strange
buildings that surround you as you painfully stumble
along the narrow streets, paved with stones every one
of which seems to have been carefully disposed so as to
inflict the greatest possible amount of torture on the
human foot ! The omnibus that conveys you from the
station to the hotel is the only object of this century
that you may see in all Cordova ; and even that is
romanticized by the sturdy brown mules, covered with
red trappings, tinkling with bells, and driven by a majo
in picturesque costume, that drag it at a frantic gallop
through streets in which it has not two inches of space
to spare on either side — streets which are so narrow that

CORDOVA. 293

friends, standing with their backs against either wall,
can shake hands comfortably without changing their
position. Your hotel — which I hereby beg to recom-
mend very heartily, as being the cleanest and handsomest
Fonda in Spain (the Fonda Suiza) — is an ancient Moorish
palace. In its patio, or central courtyard, surrounded by
cool arcades and Mauresque arches, under which are
ranged soft divans whereon to lounge during the sunny
afternoon time, is a fountain, splashing away all day and
night, and cooling the hot air. Round it are exotic
plants, growing in huge red flower-pots ; bird-cages
hang amongst the arches, and an orange-tree shades the
basin of the fountain that gleams with gold and silver
fish. One of the columns supporting the arcade is a
genuine relic of Cordova's great days ; it is more than a
thousand years old, and its capital exhibits the exquisite
Moorish tracery, fresh as if it had just come from under
the sculptor's chisel.

The cathedral — it is a shame to call the noblest
mosque in the world a cathedral — is unique of its kind.
It was built by the orders, and at the private expense,
of a Cordovan Kaliph, in the years 786-790, and was
enlarged and enriched by subsequent Moorish rulers,
until it reached its apogee of wealth and glory under
Abdurrhaman (tenth century), in whose wise and generous
reign Cordova, now a languishing provincial town of
barely 40,000 inhabitants, was the capital of Spain, with
a population of 300,000, possessing 600 mosques, 800
public schools, 900 public baths, and no less than 600
inns. What grand fellows these Moors were, and how
mean their Spanish inheritors, with their barbarous

294 A WANDERER'S NOTES.

whitewashing Christianity ! As you enter the gorgeous
mosque from its romantic patio (of which more anon),
you are completely overpowered by the wonders of the
interior. Vista upon vista of double broad arches,
painted red and yellow, meet your eye whichever way
you look. All these countless arches are supported by
marble pillars, each a solid single block of green jasper,
blood jasper, shining black, dazzling white, rose, dark
red, and emerald porphyry. There are over a thousand
of these columns, brought from all parts of the Western
world, many of them presents from emperors and kings,
allies or friends of the lordly Moorish Kaliphs. Painted
windows throw rainbow lights on the strange horse-shoe
shapes filling the eighteen naves of the enormous build-
ing. In the centre of the mosque a comparatively
modern choir has been erected, which would be mag-
nificent were it anywhere else but where it is. The
whole of the Old and New Testaments, illustrated in
mahogany carvings, decorate the side stalls, and a
sprawling double eagle forms the bishop's chair and
reading-desk. Through heavy brass gates you are ad-
mitted to the chapel, in which the Moorish kings were
wont to perform their orisons. Its inner roof is a huge
stone shell, carved out of a gigantic marble block.
Lines from the Koran, in relief-letters of gold, encircle
the walls, just below the spring of the grooved, twisted,
multi-coloured arches. What delicate fretted work in
those deeply-groined roofs ! Here is some of the mosaic
panelling that looks like velvet and silk tapestry. Eleven
hundred years have passed away since that gold was
spread over the capitals of those columns ; it glows

THE MOSQUE AT CORDOVA. 295

with as rich a refulgence as the newest gilding of a
Palais .Royal mirror. And the marble lacework, in
isolated spots where the Spanish whitewashers forgot to
clog it up with their plastering brushes — how elegantly
is it devised, how elaborately finished !

Everything that ignorant, tasteless fanaticism could
do to obliterate the transcendant beauties of detail with
which this marvel of architecture was embellished was
done by the rough, brutal Spaniards who drove the
refined, artistic Moors from their strongholds ; and yet
enough remains of the old glories to fill the beholder
with rapture, to intoxicate him with prodigality of
colour and purity of form. Of the post-Mauresque
additions and "improvements " I will say but little.
Certainly, there are two splendid organs, one of which,
however, is rendered ridiculous by two Turks' heads
fixed up on either side the register, which open their
mouths and low whenever a particular stop is pulled
out. Let us turn to the patio — the unrivalled patio,
site of a grand Koman temple dedicated to Janus, of
which two noble columns still defy the ages and record
the distance between Cordova and Cadiz. This patio,
divided into three sections, is surrounded on three sides
by the walls of the mosque, and on the fourth by the
modern belfry-tower, built some three hundred years
ago on the foundations of the magnificent Moorish
tower that was levelled with the ground by a Spanish
king. It is thickly planted with orange and lemon
trees, most of which are in their third century, and two
gigantic palms, as old as the crusades, rear their fan-like
heads on high in the very midst of it. One of the

290 A WANDERER'S NOTES.

orange- trees is a great curiosity, for it bears both male
and female fruit, and the lemons hanging from the bent
branches of the citroniers surrounding it are as large as
small melons, and covered with a corrugated hide, which
it would be flattery to call a skin. There are fountains
— oh ! so limpid and translucent — hidden amongst these
orange and lemon trees ; provided with wooden spouts
are they, through which the mendicants and thirsty
loungers drink in long, cool draughts of water that
flashes with a thousand diamonds in the burning light
of the sun. The whole court is paved with tiny round
stones, arranged in spiral patterns, but nearly concealed
from view by a velvet carpet of moss. It is a place
in which to stretch out one's weary limbs full length,
sheltered by green leaves from the noonday heat, and
listen to the tinkling of ever-falling waters, the swelling
strains of the organ, and the half gay, half melancholy
refrain of the seguidilla, declaimed rather than sung to
the light, feathery, accompaniment of a guitar by some
wandering musician, crouched in the shadow of the great
bow that arches in the entrance to that charmed ground ;
to forget the world of railways, breechloaders, and fallen
and falling princes, and dream oneself back into the
poetic age of the great Oriental artists and warriors who
won Spain at point of sword and lance, only to enrich it
with the whole wealth of their romantic natures, and
then resign it to a barbarous race whose bitter and blind
fanaticism has for six centuries been employed in mar-
ring or wholly undoing the glorious works of its former
conquerors and rulers.

After leaving the cathedral, I strayed across the

THE ALCAZAR. 297

plateau overlooking the town walls and the Guadal-
quivir, the Moorish bridge and Moorish mills, the massive
towers and strong battlements of the city, birth-place
of Seneca and Lucan, fosterer of the arts and sciences,
proud seat of the proudest dynasty that ever ruled a
subdued country with generous and magnificent sway.
This plateau is encumbered with a horrible monument
called El Trionfo, and erected in honour of Eaphael, patron
saint of Cordova, by a Cardinal Quelconque, whose name
had better be forgotten. The stately old bridge of
sixteen spacious arches was originally built by Octavius
Caesar, but, having fallen into decay in the eighth century,
was reconstructed upon its first foundations by a Kaliph
of Cordova. At its further end rises an enormous
Moorish tower, excellently preserved ; and down in the
river bed, to its right and left, stand several deserted
Moorish mills, each of which might have been a fortress,
judging by the solidity of their walls. A few majos,
armed with long, single-barrelled guns, of which the
stocks were curved and curiously covered with carvings,
were lounging over the bridge, intent upon shooting
cock-a-yoly birds, and accompanied by their bright- eyed
sweethearts. Besides these there was not a soul to be
seen ; nor did I meet ten persons during my whole day's
peregrinations in Cordova.

Eeluctantly leaving the plateau, whence the view
seemed to me to be an epitome of Spanish romance, the
Cid ballads, and the poetry of the East, I visited the
new Alcazar, built in 1328, on the ruins of the stately
palace of the Moorish kings. It was for many years
devoted to the service of the Holy Office (Inquisition),

298 A WANDERER'S NOTES.

but is now used as a prison, and is fallen into decay.
From the top of its central tower, the whole panorama
of Cordova and the surrounding hills and valleys is
commanded. The prisoners enjoyed a very easy life in
this gaol ; two fellows who had recently murdered a
man for the sake of obtaining about fifty pounds, cut
off his head, and hid it in a well near the Mosque, were
pointed out to me by the head gaoler, walking up and
down a gravelled enclosure, arm-in-arm, smoking their
papelitos and conversing with great animation. They
were scarcely guarded, and nothing seemed easier than
that they should escape when they pleased. I asked
the caballero with the huge bunch of keys why they
didn't ; upon which, with a humorous smile, he replied,
" Because they are so good-natured, very appreciable,
Sir ! (muy apreciable, Senor) ; " or, the French idiom being
closer to the Spanish than ours, " Parcequ'ils sont d'un
si bon naturel ! " Under the walls of the men's prison
are the tangled remains of what were once the luxurious
gardens of the Alcazar ; all the marble baths, artificial
waterworks, gigantic cisterns, are destroyed or choked
up ; the costly machine for raising water from the
Guadalquivir was destroyed in the reign of Isabel the
Catholic, because the noise it made at night prevented
her pious Majesty from sleeping after the religious
exercises of the day. There are still two fine fish-ponds,
however, last relics of Moorish prodigality, in which
enormous mullet disport themselves, and attain fabulous
ages.

Malaga is a wonderfully interesting place to any
foreigner, especially an Englishman, who, not being an

ANGLO-SPANIARDS. 299

artist or a poet, may deem that the real significance of
a town is, not the bricks and mortar, marble and wood,
of which, combined in more or less curious forms, it
may be constructed, but the men who inhabit it, and
the degree of social progress or commercial development
which those men represent. It is a place deriving its
prosperity from trade, transacted almost exclusively
with Great Britain and the United States. Its leading
families have all more or less received an infusion of
Anglo-Saxon blood; a pleasant clannishness and genial
hospitality are characteristics of its better society. Of
the hundred and fifty or so members of the aristocratic
club — into which Englishmen are received with a hearti-
ness to which I have experienced no parallel in the
thirty or forty foreign clubs of which I am an honorary
member — not more than twenty are unacquainted with
our language, and a large majority of the remainder
speak it with marvellous fluency and idiomatic correct-
ness. Indeed, most of the jeunesse doree of Malaga
have been educated at public schools in England. I
need but mention the names of Oyarzabal, Heredia,
Larios, Orueta, Loring, Clemens, Crooke, Howard, to
recall the Malagenos to many of my compatriots who
have duly fought and fagged with the very good fellows
who bear those appellations, and who — all of them
wealthy men of business in Malaga — entertain the
most kindly feelings towards the dear old country in
which they learnt to make Latin verses and play foot-
ball. Let any Englishman, decently accredited, present
himself to any of these Anglo- Spaniards ; if he be only
inoffensive, without being even positively agreeable, he

300 A WANDERER'S NOTES.

may be assured of a genuine welcome — nay, of being
overwhelmed with kindnesses that, unless he be indeed
an ungrateful dog, he will not easily forget. In three
days he will know everybody worth knowing ; will be
jovially menaced with tremendous penalties if he do
not call his acquaintances by their Christian names;
will be invited out night after night (and not to a
cigarette and a glass of cold water, as in Madrid) ;
will have carriages placed at his disposal ; will, in fact,
be petted and made much of by all the world. The
only difficulty he will experience will be in fulfilling
his pleasure engagements and in obtaining permission
to pay for anything he may consume in any place of
public entertainment. The hospitality of the Malaga
merchants is positively unbounded, and their habits of
living contrast remarkably with the painful frugality
and farouche reserve of the Castillanos.

The villeggiatura life that prevails round Malaga in
summer and autumn is nearer that of the English
country-house than anything I have elsewhere en-
countered abroad. The differences are all pleasant
ones. Your croquet-ground or lawn-tennis court, for
instance, is surrounded and deliciously shaded by palm
and banana trees ; your billiard-room is skirted by a
marble terrace inlaid with beds of bright-coloured,
languidly-scented tropical flowers, and with translucent
fountains ; perhaps it is built upon arches over an
enormous reservoir of water, kept constantly in motion
by streams coaxed down from the mountain-springs
in huge brick-conduits. You breakfast in a trellised
gallery, sheltered from the hot sun by a thick roof of

ANDALUSIAN SCENERY. 301

tangled vegetation, gemmed with countless flower-bells,
or in the branches of a giant tree, amongst which a tiny
platform has been cunningly fashioned and furnished
with seats, which are half nature, half upholstery. Are
you thirsty ? Pluck one or two of those ripe bananas,
a custard apple, or a bursting prickly pear — they are all
growing within a yard or two of your luxurious lounge.
I drove out one autumn afternoon in 1868 with a
friend, to the hacienda* of Heredia and the Concepcion,
about two miles from Malaga. Our road lay along the
bed of a river which had become a foaming torrent, so
magical had been the effect of four-and-twenty hours'
rain upon that strange land. For eight months scarcely
a shower had fallen ; the wells in and about Malaga
were nearly all dried up, and the country was suffering
terribly from drought. It was estimated that this
rainfall would benefit the district immediately sur-
rounding Malaga to the tune of some £300,000 !
About half a mile from the town this river-road,
then impassable, plunged into a gorge of the richly-
tinted, billowy mountain range upon which grew the
luscious grapes that, converted into tawny wine or
purple raisins, take their respective titles from Malaga ;
the hills were dotted even to their crowns with gleaming
white villas, set in wooded parks and gay parterres, the
summer retreats of the MalagerLo aristocracy. As we
penetrated farther into this gorge we met scores of
peasants, some on foot and some on donkeys, the
favourite mounted position being a sort of balance on
the animal's hind quarters, with the legs resting on
the upper curve of his ribs. All these men were armed

302 A WANDERER'S NOTES.

with long single-barrelled guns, straight-stocked, and
highly ornamented ; some of the donkey riders carried
two, one slung to each holster, and constituting, with
the deadly navaja, a pretty fair armament for a quiet
afternoon's ride. On entering the precincts of the
hacienda, we first passed through a plantation of
sugar-canes, then through a large grove of orange-trees
laden with glowing, perfumed, juicy fruit-globes, into
winding walks fringed with azaleas, rhododendron, and
a hundred tropical plants of which even the names were
unknown to me. By and by we arrived at the foot of a
cascade that fell into a basin of rock through a screen of
aquatic creepers, its pellucid streamlets filtering through
a wilderness of thick, fleshy green leaves and strange
neutral-coloured flowers, to which huge, clear drops
clung obstinately, flashing like any diamonds in the
sun, and would not be washed away. Terrace above
terrace was clad in rainbow hues, from dusky red to
dazzling white, passing through every shade of green,
purple and blue ; magnolias scented the air, and their
waxen petals were reflected in glassy pools through
which a golden or silvered ray darted from time to
time, with fins and tail glittering like burnished metal.
The house itself was built of white stone, with im-
mensely thick walls to keep out the killing summer
heats ; it stood on a gravelled plateau bound in marble,
and cut out of the hill-side, which sprang upwards,
clothed with vineyards, at its back. Such a hacienda
is, I believe, the nearest approach to a terrestrial para-
dise extant. From the Concepcion we drove back, our
carriage filled with bananas and other tropical fruits, to

MALAGA RAISINS. 303

Malaga, by the sea shore, past old Moorish towers, a
noble hospital bequeathed by an Englishman to the poor
of the town, the ancient fortress that frowns upon the
port, the mole, and the long straggling suburb which
adjoins the southern side of the city. As we reached
the Alameda it began to rain, and did not cease pouring
all that night and the following day ; so that next
evening the road along which we had driven but thirty-
six hours previously had entirely disappeared, and in
its place might be seen a roaring, angry yellow flood
rushing down to the sea.

Amongst the commercial lions of Malaga are
Loring's magnificent sugar refineries and cellars of
fine Montillo wines — those aromatic vintages with
which amber Xeres is " amontillado," or converted into
a high-classed sherry known throughout Europe by that
participle — exquisitely fragrant and delicate in flavour.
The almond and raisin trade of Malaga is also not with-
out a melancholy and touching interest to a wanderer in
many lands, whose reminiscences of plum-pudding are
fast fading away in the dim vistas of Time. There are
raisins and raisins — some of gigantic size and wondrous
lusciousness, that I was told went to England, though
I had never seen such splendid fellows sold in the
London shops ; others, which I recognized as the raisins
of my youth, hard to stone at Christmas time, and
ineffably sticky ; others, again, meek — or shall I say
mean little raisins, exported in hundreds of thousand
pound- weights to the "territory that is wrapped in the
star-spangled banner," as an American friend of mine
will have it. All the worst Malaga wines are also

304 A WANDERER'S NOTES.

shipped to the States, where they are retailed at
enormous prices. The packing of the raisins and
almonds is a business entirely confided to women, and
the "stores" in which the operation in question is
carried out are capital places for the calm and con-
templative study of the type of beauty prevalent in
Andalusia — a very striking one. An eccentric and
somewhat comical mode of giving a gentle hint to a
stranger that he is expected to pay his footing in a
sorting and packing store obtains in Malaga, where it
is hallowed by long custom. I was strolling through
Mr. Howard's establishment one day, and, I confess,
was lost in admiration of the picturesque groups
gathered round the smart-looking raisin boxes that
were fast filling under the agency of so many deft
and nimble fingers, when the prettiest girl in the room,
suddenly crouching down in her place, whipped off her
garter with singular dexterity, and approaching me
with a saucy smile on her handsome face, bound it
swiftly round my arm ere I had time to defend myself,
even had I been inclined to do so. Being totally un-
acquainted with the customs of the country, I appealed
for an explanation of this rite to my companion, who
told me that the " liga " was a lure or springe from
which the only creditable means of extrication was the
ransom of a silver dollar. Having conformed to tbe
tradition, I considered myself justified in carrying off
the " liga," which I retain as a trophy honourably
acquired. "Honi soit qui inal y pense."

In the almond-sorting department I was made
acquainted with a secret of the trade, which I hereby

STATISTICS OF THE NAVAJA.

305

fearlessly unfold to the public at large. There is in
every basket of almonds a considerable number of the
shelled ones that have been chipped, cracked, or other-
wise damaged. These are scrupulously sorted out and
conveyed to a large, low table, round which are squatted
half-a-dozen women, far less comely than the raisin
houris. Before each woman is a pile of the damaged
almonds, a little jar of liquid gum, and a tiny mound
of brown dust, gathered from the inside of the almond
shells ; by her side a basket, and in her dexter hand a
camel's-hair brush. Her business, year in year out, is
to pick up almonds from her pile (which is constantly
being fed by an attendant), paint over the damaged
place with gum, and dip it into the mound of brown
dust. She then brushes off the superfluous grains of
powder, and drops the apparently perfect almond into
her basket, the latter being emptied at intervals into a
heap of shelled fruit that occupies a whole corner of the
room. Economical and ingenious, is it not ? In some
establishments I believe a simpler and less adhesive
liquid than gum is used in this department of the trade ;
the gum is a recent innovation, in fact, and it is one of
which I highly approve.

At the hospital in Malaga, according to statistics
with which I was supplied when in that town, four
hundred and thirty-seven men, wounded by the navaja,
were admitted and received surgical aid in the year
1867 — a largish percentage of a population that numbers
under thirty thousand, all told. Curiously enough, not one
of them — not even one of those hurt to death and broken
in courage by the terrors of approaching dissolution

VOL. II. X

306 A WANDERER'S NOTES.

—could be induced to reveal the name of the person
who had stabbed him ! On one occasion, after a free
stabbing- match outside a wine-shop on the Alameda,
at which I happened to be present, eight or ten were
brought in at the same time, the whole batch scored
with knife- wounds given and received during the brief
but fierce encounter, and laid side by side in the " stab-
ward " ; the escribano employed in taking a proces-verbal
of the affair interrogated a half- dead man as to the name
of his assassin, who was actually lying within two feet
of him, desperately prejudiced in his health by some
half-dozen deep thrusts from an albacete punal, and
received the reply in my hearing, " Do you think,
Senor Escribano, that I intend to make you as wise
as myself ? " Ten minutes later the chivalrous majo was
a corpse. Dozens of cheerful-looking fellows might be
seen about the streets of Malaga, each of whom was
well known to have killed his man or men, and was
respected accordingly ; murder had never been proved
against them, and so, as they naturally did not
volunteer a confession of their deeds, the justice of
Spain, such as it was, could not touch them.

Alicante is a dull, ugly, and bilious-looking seaport
town, built in one of the most picturesque situations in
Europe. It lies in the very centre and deepest recess of
a magnificent bay, in which all the navies of the world
might ride comfortably at anchor without risk of fouling
or collisions. It is semi-engirdled by a chain of lofty
mountains, rugged, brown, and presenting phenomenal
eccentricities of outline to the eye. It is scarcely
possible to conceive anything more imposing than the

ALICANTE. 307

aspect of this noble range, as viewed from any of the
rocky vantage-points that abound in the immediate
neighbourhood of the city, especially about the hour of
sunset, when the whole gigantic stone amphitheatre,
broken only by the deep blue sea into which its either
spur projects with stern abruptness, is invested with a
series of rich tints that change, chameleon-like, from
tender pink to rosy red, purple to violet, deep brown to
sombre gray. These mountains are not speckled with
snowy- white haciendas, like those encircling Malaga, for
several reasons. In the first place, they are incon-
veniently distant from the business residences of the
rich Alicante merchants ; secondly, the roughness and
irregularity of their surfaces render their upper regions
difficult of access even to pedestrians, and puts building
upon them quite out of the question ; and, thirdly, there
is a glorious plateau, covered with fertile soil, and sweep-
ing down to the edge of the tideless sea, within two
miles of Alicante, upon which the wealthy residents
have erected their summer residences in great number,
and some of them in handsome style. These villas,
generally built in the form of a square round a patio
or garden of tropical plants, command from each of their
four sides a view surpassingly lovely. The settlement
is called San Juan.

The Malaga range, through which the traveller from
Malaga must pass, is especially characterized by incon-
gruities of shape the most astounding — overhanging
rocks, awful rifts, ghastly chasms filled with mysterious
blue haze, black tarns filling up enormous crevices with
a dull sheen like unpolished marble, tawny waterfalls

X 2

308 A WANDERER'S NOTES.

that disappear in the bowels of the earth and tarn up in
the form of dusky streams where you least expect to see
them, and a hundred other of nature's wildest whims
bewilder and awe you as you traverse the weird pass.
One of the mountains, through which a tunnel has been
driven, is cleft asunder from base to summit in its very
centre, and, the gap not having been bricked over by
the engineers, you catch what seems to be a glimpse
into another world as you roll laboriously through the
split heart of the rock. Up, up on each side of the
hideous rent, bridged over with iron, rise smooth,
perpendicular masses of stone to a tremendous height ;
and, down to apparently fathomless depths, beneath the
wheels of your car yawns an abyss that might well be
taken for the entrance to Pluto's dominions. The effect
of the whole picture is, beyond everything, unearthly ;
once seen, although not more than three seconds are
allowed by the rate of travelling speed for its contem-
plation, it is ineffaceably impressed upon the memory.
The Sierra Morena, too, imperfectly lighted up by a pale
half-moon, abounds in romantic surprises — castellated
ridges, gulfs of shadow, natural battlements piled up
one above another, conical peaks that seem to pierce the
clouds, noisy torrents that rush furiously past the line
of way, and under the slender bridges that span the
narrower gorges, their turbid waters turned, in appear-
ance, to liquid fire, as the fierce light of the locomotive
furnace glows down upon them.

Traversing these wonders about midnight was once
upon a time a carriage full of Englishmen, in a state of
great excitement at the wonders of the scenery. The

AN IMPROMPTU ILLUMINATION.

309

lamp having punctually gone out within half an hour
of our start from Mendizabal, and the moon being in an
embryotic and feeble condition, it was suggested that
we should lighten our darkness with an illumination of
wax matches ; and accordingly four large boxes of those
articles were expended, arranged in the cracks of the
windows, &c., during the passage over the Sierra, much
to the astonishment of the waymen on the line, whose
shouts of alarm we could hear as we fled by their grim
little stone houses — they must have thought the train was
on fire. The object of this illumination, I need scarcely
say, was "to see the scenery better;" and I leave my
readers to imagine with what perfect success our efforts
were crowned.

CHAPTER XI.

CHRISTMAS AND NEW YEAR'S DATS IN ROME — BRIGANDAGE IN THE
PAPAL STATES NINETEEN YEARS AGO — ROMAN ANOMALIES — THE
CAMPAGNA HUNT — BLEST BEASTS — A PROPAGANDA PERFORMANCE
"LABEFANA" — THE BAMBINS ON ITS ROUNDS— A STATE FUNERAL

THE ROMAN CARNIVAL — STREET RACING — HIGH JINKS IN A

JESUIT COLLEGE.

Two Englishmen, naturally of cheerful dispositions and
even temper, both of whom had got up by candle-light
to secure places in St. Peter's for the grand religious
ceremony to be performed there in celebration of the
anniversary of Our Saviour's Nativity, met on Christmas
morning, 1869, at the hour of seven in the breakfast-
room of the Hotel de Kome, which apartment, though
adorned with frescoes of the liveliest description, looked
unutterably gloomy under the influence of a semi-
illumination. The gas burnt in that dismal manner
which it invariably exhibits when the white of its
flame is turned into dirty yellow by the pale light of
dawning day ; rain had been falling heavily all night,
and the skies gave abundant promise of a further deluge
— a promise which they honourably fulfilled an hour
later ; furniture was clammy to the touch, and a damp
smell pervaded every part of the building ; there was
a chilly wind abroad, that sneaked into bedrooms,

CHRISTMAS IN ROME. 311

corridors, and refectories, through all sorts of cracks
and crannies, badly-fitting window-frames, imperfectly-
closing doors and cracked panes of glass, and toyed
spitefully with the back of your neck, with your ear, or
any other specially vulnerable part of your economy.
The Englishmen nodded sadly, not to say gruffly, at
one another, after the custom of their nation ; and one
of them, suddenly struck by the remembrance of the
anniversary, and unwittingly shivering at the thought
of the physical misery he was enduring, said to the
other in a sepulchral and lugubrious voice, "Merry
Christmas, old man ! " His friend looked up at him
from the pliable toast and tepid egg upon which he had
been engaged, and was about to reply to the jovial
imprecation in the words hallowed by long tradition,
" The same to you, and many of them ! " when the deep
mournfulness expressed upon his interlocutor's coun-
tenance froze the kindly words upon his lips, and caused
him to give utterance in their stead to a hollow laugh, that
but too faithfully betokened a broken spirit. A merry
Christmas, indeed ! ever so many hundred miles away
from home in a dirty city, reeking like a wet sponge —
a city never more than half alive, under the most favour-
able conditions of climate and seasons, and just then,
thanks to Santa Bibbiana, at the lowest ebb of its
flickering vitality — with the barometer apparently gone
mad beyond cure on the subject of rain ; the inevitable
horrors of an ecclesiastical field-day at St. Peter's hanging
over one's sleepy head ; the discordant twang of the
midnight intonings at San Luigi dei Francesi still ring-
ing in one's ears ; the certainty of cold hands, the

312 A WANDERER'S NOTES.

prospect of wet feet, and the " biled owl " state of
feeling developed, morally and physically, to the highest
bearable degree ! A merry Christmas in Home ! Be-
tween the merriment of that Eoman Christmas and the
gloom of settled despair, what was the appreciable
difference ?

A week later the Old Year died out amidst pealing
of bells, chanting of choristers, and the harmonious
lowings of deep diapasons ; dismally enough, however,
for many of Koine's temporary tenants, who, like myself,
were for the nonce dwellers amongst strangers. The
special religious ceremonies with which the Christmas
week had been almost exclusively occupied, and which
had kept the floating population of the Eternal City
wandering about from church to church at all hours of
the day and night ever since the evening of the Vigilia
di Natale, were wound up at midnight by a service of
thanksgiving, performed at every place of worship simul-
taneously ; so that sightseers were late at breakfast next
morning. In Eoman families the New Year was ushered
in with champagnate, hand-shakings, and embracings ; in
the Eternal City, as in England, the anniversary is
observed and celebrated with merriment and libations ;
but the festivity is confined to the domestic circle.
" Bidete quidquid est domi cachinnomm," as Catullus
enjoins, is the maxim of modern Eomans on New Year's
Eve ; foreigners or mere acquaintances, naturally enough,
are not bidden to take part in such intimate revelry.
Wherefore, we English and American " barbarians," as
a rule, spent the last night of the Old Year either on
foot in sweltering churches, inhaling faint incense and

A DISMAL NEW-YEARS EVE.

313

strong garlic, and listening miserably to dull music,
badly sung, or in our chilly hotels, listening sadly
enough to the noisy bells that filled the clear, cold star-
light sky with jangling clamour. For us, no one filled
high the flowing or any other kind of bowl ; we drank
no healths, sang no old songs, and sat round no cheerful
fire, but shivered solemnly in our respective rooms, and
thought, as pleasantly as we could under the circum-
stances, of " absent friends " and " sweethearts and
wives," although it was not Saturday night. There was
a grand concert at the Sala Dantesca, but I had not the
heart to go to it. Everybody Eoman was there, except
a few elect Borbonissimi who were dining at the
Countess Trapani's ; and a sprightly Archbishop, Hay-
nald of Kalocza, himself no mean dilettante of the Queen
Art, whom I met on the chief stair of my h6tel as I was
creeping up to bed, told me that Sgambati's performance
had been " Wondrously beautiful ! Something extra-
ordinary ! " He was the only prelate there — all the rest
of the pious seven hundred were engaged in the religious
rites of the evening, at an average of about two per
Roman church. Music had set in, for Rome, with great
severity ; music not altogether classical, but mixed and
mitigated. We were promised two concerts a week until
Lent ; perhaps a stringed quartet, to temper the bois-
terous gaiety of Carnival, and make the Roman nobles
yawn. There was to be a good deal of Liszt, a sprinkling
of Haydn and Mozart, perhaps here and there a stanza
or two from one of Beethoven's musical poems, much
Rossini, and more Verdi. Schubert was a sealed book
twenty years ago to those whose lot was cast among the

314 A WANDERER'S NOTES.

Seven Hills ; of Wagner and Schumann they had never
heard. The " Tordinone " had turned out such an utter
failure that season, however, that the concerts were
crowded, and society mourned in due time over the
"d illness and intricacy" of chamber-music as bitterly as
it had thitherto reviled and protested against the orrore
ed infamia of the pitiable representations provided
nightly for its recreation at the Apollo. Theatres, at that
time, were only tolerated in Rome, not allowed ; their
programmes were not printed in the daily papers ; their
existence was virtually ignored by the clergy. The
toleration of such abominations as the public was ex-
pected to listen to gratefully seemed, indeed, to be rather
a punishment than a favour — -an ingenious method of
convincing the laity that the desire for amusement was
Vanitas vanitatum. Still, the drama — lyrical, Terpsi-
chorean, or otherwise — was under the control of the
Vicariato, which regularly posted Papal dragoons along
all the approaches to the theatres, with the kindly
object of preventing any hack-cab from plying for the
convenience of those music-lovers who were not fortunate
enough to be "carriage people," when the curtain had
fallen at the end of the fourth act, and the rain was
streaming down in torrents. Who should dare to com-
plain to the Vicariato ? What ! we were allowed to
indulge our vile passion for lights, warmth, company,
and secular strains that told of love, murder, duelling,
and other uncanonical practices ; and we presumed to be
dissatisfied because, forsooth, the singers engaged by the
impresario were ignorant, voiceless supernumeraries, and
because we were compelled to walk home in the wet ! Was

A ROMAN INUNDATION. 315

ever such ingratitude ? Aussi, nobody did complain ; or,
if lie did, it was in a cautious whisper, and only to
persons of whose discretion he was assured.

With the New Year the reign of Santa Bibbiana
came to an end, or, rather, she was untimely dethroned ;
and the Pagan usurper, glad Phoebus, took the reins of
climatic government into his own hands. At Christmas-
tide the floodgates of Heaven were still open, and rain
had not ceased to fall for seven days and nights. The
Tiber had slopped over into the Via Kipetta, and threat-
ened to turn the Opera-house into an island ; there were
eighteen inches of water in the long, narrow vicolo that
ekes out the Via dell'Orso towards the bridge of Sant'
Angelo ; and already a huge stage had been erected,
level with the foyer of the Apollo — which, as in most
Italian and Spanish theatres, is on the first floor — at one
end, and sloping down gradually for about sixty yards
to the roadway of a small side street situate on a gentle
rise. This stage was intended to serve as a means of
entrance when the Opera-house should be as an ark on
the face of the waters. We had no gondolas in Kome,
and if we had they would have been available for one
door only of the Tordinone, opening riverwards from the
" mezzanin " ; the ground-floor portals would all have
had to be barred and defended from inwards against the
inundation. When the stage was nearly completed, and
the weather-wise had declared that, if the rain lasted
another night and day, we should be able to row up and
down the Corso, and take steamboat from the Piazza
del Popolo to the Coliseum, suddenly the wind changed.
From Scirocco we fell into Tramontana ; a biting breeze

316 A WANDERERS NOTES.

swept through the city, the streets dried as if by magic ;
the Tiber curled himself up in his bed ; the sun shone
out by day and the stars by night ; and those who
gloomily reckoned upon a repetition of the incidents of
'38 were joyfully disappointed. That very afternoon, as
if by common consent, and to celebrate the change,
" long wished-for, come at last," all Rome turned out
and thronged to the Pincio. I have never seen a gayer
sight than that prettily carved and decorated hill pre-
sented at about half-past three p.m., when I reached its
summit. The ladies had arrayed themselves in their
most effective winter toilettes, of bright-coloured velvet
and rich furs. Many of the equipages would have done
credit to Hyde Park or the Bois. Uniforms, military
and ecclesiastical, were scattered about in bewildering
variety. Here was a scarlet cardinal, attended by two
retainers in long cloaks and cocked hats ; there a group
of dashing Zouave officers, in French gray turned up
with red, gathered round a leash of bearded patriarchs,
clad in flowing purple robes, enriched with gold em-
broidery. A dense mass of carriages, ten deep, filled up
the oval space between the central front terrace and the
locus standi of the band ; tubular bouquet holders, teem-
ing with the choicest flowers of Roman and foreign
female beauty. An hour before the sounding of the
Angelus, the blowing of trumpets, the rolling of drums,
and galloping of dragoons heralded the approach of
the Holy Father, in grand gala, attended by his house-
hold. Pius the Ninth drove slowly up the winding
slopes, and alighted at the corner of the upper terrace,
whence he proceeded, at a smart walk, to the semi-

THE POPE ON THE PINCIO. 317

tropical parterre that adorns the plateau of the Pincian
Hill. As he passed, thousands of ladies and gentlemen
fell upon their knees on either side the road, although
the mud was an inch deep, and large puddles still re-
minded us of the recent deluges. I saw a lovely young
English girl open the door of the carriage in which she
was seated, spring to the ground like a startled fawn,
rush towards the Pontiff, force her way through the
crowd, and throw herself at his feet in the middle of
a small pool, to the eternal detriment of a delicate violet
" costume." She got a special benediction however, and
came back in a dreadful mess, but beaming with pride
and happiness. The Papal stroll did not last long, and
presently his Holiness, distributing blessings right and
left, got into his splendid carriage, and drove off to the
strains of the Pontifical hymn — a very pretty air, by the
way.

There were certain things connected, if not with the
CEcumenical Council, yet with the Papacy and its
Government that came under our notice as hard,, un-
deniable facts, and that were full of point and signifi-
cance, as illustrating the critical position of the system
which the Fathers of Catholicism were just then in-
tent] upon consolidating. Such a grim, indigestible,
untoward fait accompli was the attempted murder of
Signor Sinimberghi by brigands, within five miles of
Rome. There was the Pope, about to assert his own
infallibility, and the testimony of blood rose against
him in his own domain — a wretched, poverty-stricken
little territory, with scarcely the population of half
a dozen London parishes — proclaiming that he, the

318 A WANDEKER'S NOTES.

ID fallible One, was not able to govern even his pitiful
province in such wise that the lives and property of his
most faithful subjects should enjoy the commonest
security from the attacks of assassins and robbers. Did
not such an incident as this — open brigandage, perpe-
trated within cannon-shot of the Pontiff's palace — turn
the Council, and all that it may do, into a ghastly farce ?
How should he rule the world who could not rule his
own house ?

That brigandage in the Roman States was reduced
to the shadow of its former dimensions was true enough.
Since blood-money had been paid by the Pope to the
peasants, the institution had dwindled, peaked, and
pined; but none the less certainly in 1869 than ten
years previously might a peaceful sportsman, traveller,
or country gentleman be plundered, held to ransom, or
murdered under the very walls of the Pontifical capital
— none the less did Roman gentlemen, intending to
stroll home through the streets of the Eternal City by
night, after attending a party or a theatrical representa-
tion, arm themselves with loaded revolvers. For this
fact I can personally vouch. The tariff of reward was
still in force ; and, since its first publication, the Pon-
tifical Government had disbursed about £15,000
sterling to squadriglieri and contadini, at the rate
of something like 500 francs for a captured — live
— brigand, 800 for a bandit's head, 1200 for a live
"captain/' 1500 for a captain's head, and so forth.
Many a head had been brought in and paid for, the
first proprietor of which had had much less to do with
brigandage than his decapitator. A private feud, a

BRIGANDAGE IN THE PAPAL STATES. 319

domestic disagreement, or a family arrangement, made
with a view to benefiting by the reward, brought many
a stout paesano to the knife when he least expected it.
Nevertheless, despite the thinning of brigand ranks, and
the weeding out of unpopular persons in the mountain
villages, enough was left of the genuine knights of the
road to turn a shooting party or a pleasure excursion
into a bloody tragedy.

I was talking with a Roman gentleman one day
about this iniquity, as well as a few others resulting
from the infamous administration of justice that ob-
tained in the misgoverned Papal States, and he told me
a few choice anecdotes of brig ant ac/gio, one of which
I reproduce, having ascertained it to be, in every detail,
authentic. Some years previously one of Prince Orsini's
land stewards had been taken, and carried off to the
hills, his capture being subsequently signified, in the
usual manner, to his employer. At a certain appointed
time, an ambassador was sent out to a "neutral terri-
tory" to treat with the bandits, who had authorized
their plenipotentiary to demand, as their prisoner's
ransom, so much money — I forget the exact sum — and
two hundred loaves of bread, ten barrels of wine, fifty
rifles, two thousand ball cartridges, and — guess what ! —
twenty good watches, of which they said they stood in
peculiar need ! They circumstantially prescribed the
dimensions of. the rifle-bore they wished to have, and
the size of the cartridges. They further required that
all their old watches, which had got badly out of order,
should be taken to Rome by the Prince's agent, there
repaired, and brought back to them " as good as new."

320 A WANDERER'S NOTES.

His Excellency communicated this demand to the Papal
authorities, who shrugged their shoulders, smiled apolo-
getically, and said, " If, Altezza, you want your fattore,
or agent, back again, perhaps you had better give these
scoundrels what they ask for. We can do nothing for
him." Accordingly, as the steward was an honest and
useful servant, the Prince caused all the " objects" in
question to be purchased, had the watches of the band
repaired in the best style, paid the money, consigned
the new goods and the mended timekeepers through his
mediator e, and thus ransomed his retainer. Not the
least comic part of this true story — which sounds like a
joke, but is an exact relation of facts — is that thzfattore,
who was returned in very bad condition, half dazed
with fright, privation, and compulsory nocturnal exer-
cise— for the band always kept moving, and changed its
quarters at night — was not unfrequently at Rome on
business, and when there almost invariably met one or
two of his former hosts in the streets, who greeted him
affectionately, made him stand drink in a wine-shop,
called him the best of good fellows, and never failed
to say to him, in a jesting manner that congealed his
blood, " Mind you never mention us to anybody, as it
might get you into trouble ; and we are so fond of you
that we should be in despair were anything to happen
to you." The poor man's life was one long torture,
lest somebody else should inform against his friends,
and they should attribute their " misfortune " to him,
in which case his days would, he knew too well, be
numbered. Talk of Damocles and the suspended sword !
I dare say he got accustomed to it after a time, and felt

PONTIFICAL ROME. 321

quite sure that the thread would hold out, at least for
his time ; but Prince Orsini's poor fattore was never
certain from one day to another whether he would be
murdered "by mistake" or not.

Eome under the Papacy was a gorgeous, miserable,
lively, dull, fascinating, depressing, and above all, puzzling
place. It was full of contradictions. The longer you lived
in it, the more you didn't know it. There was no other
city in Europe the least resembling it. That, perhaps,
which distinguished it from every other European town,
was its unreality, which struck you forcibly when first
you entered its walls, and grew upon you more and
more with every day of your residence, until you got
into a chronic and distracting state of doubt as to
whether you were actually living in a genuine city, the
abode of nineteenth-century men and women, and the
seat of a regal Government, or whether you were under-
going a long, fantastic, and circumstantial dream, out of
which you might at any moment wake to the realities of
science, politics, and business — to the civilization of the
present epoch. The contrast which enhanced your con-
fusion at every step was pointed by gas, dim though
it was, by Zouaves, by Paris bonnets and Milanese
barouches, by jewellers' shops and powdered flunkeys,
intermingled with the broken monuments and massive
debris, overgrown by lichens, moss, and saxifrage, of
that Kome which was once the capital of the world,
the Empress City, the centre of art, chivalry, luxury,
and learning before the beginning of our era. For old
Eome — not the Rome of the popes, but of the Caesars —
cropped up irrepressibly, walk whither you would, and

VOL. II. Y

322 A WANDERER'S NOTES.

suppressed centuries by dozens, to your dazed appre-
hension as if they had been seconds.

Say that you grappled a gas-lamp, and persuaded
yourself you were safe anchored amongst the Latter
Days — hard by was a shattered column that cast you
adrift into the troubled seas of the prse-Christian era ere
you had time to think of the (Ecumenical Council or
the Irish Land Bill. Or you took a cab in the Corso,
just in front of a convincing shop, all that was most
prosaic and 1870, with "English spoken here" on a
pane of glass, and a dirty policeman lounging over
against the open doorway — you took this cab, I say,
confirmed for the moment in your sense of modernness,
and ejaculating "Al Pincio," drove away towards the
Porta del Popolo, with a comfortable feeling of belong-
ing, after all, to your own proper cycle. In at a gate
you turned, to your right, and ascended a gravelled
slope amidst tropical plants, unfamiliar, somehow, to
your notions, already become somewhat vague and loose,
of Europe, civilization, the month of January, and
revealed religion. Presently your confidence in your-
self was shaken to the roots by an enormous alto relievo
of gods and heroes that flashed upon you in purity of
colour and form and antique vigour of expression, from
the dusky wall of a raised terrace ; in a minute more
you passed between two huge pillars, from the sides of
which sprout in stone the beaks of Eoman galleys, and
you were irretrievably lost to actualities — for all you
knew, your name might be Sestertius Duodecimus, cives
Romanus, on your way to the Forum or the Thermae, to
chat about the expedition to Britain, or the latest news

A " MEET IN THE CAMPAGNA. 323

from the colonist legion that had just settled down in
the fertile trans-Danubian plains, after having built the
great road along the river bank, past the towers of
Severus and Mogarel ; aye and hewn miles of it out of
the living rock, and thrown a bridge over the mighty
stream where it is half a mile broad.

Or you got notice from the club that there was to be
a grand meet at the Osteria del Curato, or the tomb of
Cecilia Metella, and straightway hied you to a livery
stable, where you chose something as near a quadruped
as could be expected in Pontifical latitudes, and ordered
him for next morning at ten precisely outside the Porta
San Giovanni, or the Porta San Sebastiano, as the case
might be. " Modern enough, this, in all conscience,"
you muttered, distrustfully, to yourself, as you screwed
yourself into corduroys, tops, and haply a garment of
stained scarlet, that said next morning.

And the hunt, though its reality was gravely pre-
judiced by the hoary finger-posts of history that crowd
the Campagna upon which its members used to assemble
twice a week, was a brave sight — one especially glad-
dening to the heart of an Englishman. What if the
majority of the horses were a little weedy and given to
slackness in the loins — if the pack were tout ce quit y a
du plus scratch — if even many of the gallant sportsmen
were manifestly less at ease in the saddle than when
lounging languidly but gracefully amongst the squab
stone pillars in front of the Pincio palm ? The tout
ensemble of the meet was eminently picturesque, gay,
and stirring ; pretty girls were sprinkled amongst the
squadron of horsemen, pervading that heterogeneous

Y 2

324 A WANDERER'S NOTES.

mass with a leaven of grace and beauty ; a few scarlet
coats supplied colour, and stood out in bold relief from
the dull tints of the sodden Campagna. Carriages
crowded the road that cleaves straight as an arrow's
flight through the waste of barren fields immediately
surrounding Eome, and groups of moustached coachmen
and lackeys pledged one another with a Southern courtesy
that was interlarded with strange oaths — in which
Paganism and Christianity were curiously blended — in
the purple, astringent wine of the neighbouring hills ;
brightly dressed ladies and extensively got-up men
streamed away over the russet-hued pastures towards
vantage points — queerly shaped lumps of ruined brick-
work, mounds that seemed to have been thrown up by
praediluvian moles, as big as Megalosauri, stone walls
hidden under parasitical growths, and such like —
whence they might command a comprehensive view
of the huntsman's operations — the casts, the find, and
the run.

I was a little late at the last meet of the 1870
season, near the Osteria del Curato, half-way to Frascati,
and the hounds were already busy, but had not found ;
a lovelier day is seldom seen in our brumous isle during
an English July than that which welcomed the votaries
of " le sport " to the Campagna on that Koman January
morning. Frascati shone out from its dark hill-side like
a marble mosaic set in malachite ; and the dome of St.
Peter's loomed lustrously over the distant city, like a
huge inverted balloon, held to earth by some invisible
agency. The mere hunting was nothing to speak of —
not to be taken au grand serieux, at least — but the

BLESSING THE BEASTS. 325

accessories, natural and 'artistic, were enchanting. And
yet, looking around one upon comparative desolation,
expressed in a thousand ways, but in none more unde-
niably than in the expanse of fat, spongy soil stretching
away in every direction for miles to the far hills, utterly
uncultivated, abandoned, and vacant, save where a few
undersized sheep were engaged in melancholy browsing,
one involuntarily asked oneself, what other capital city
of Europe was or could be thus environed with decay
and unproductiveness ? Why should Rome, alone, of all
human centres, have not only stood still for centuries,
but retrograded ? That was a problem, the key to the
solution of which was kept in the Vatican. The (Ecu-
menical Councillors could have told us all about it if
they had chosen to.

The 7th of January, 1870, was a day to be marked
with a white stone by professional — if I may venture to
apply the term to many of my travelling countrymen —
sightseers. No less than two curious spectacles, rivalling
each other in attractions, were offered to the public that
afternoon at nearly the same hour — one in front of Sant'
Antonio, a small church near the Basilica of Santa Maria
Ma^giore ; and one at the Propaganda College, in a
chapel converted for the occasion into an auditorium.
The first was the benediction of sundry horses, mules,
donkeys, and little dogs, performed by a couple of not
over-clean acolytes, armed with a form of prayer, a tub
of holy water, and a besom of shavings, with which last
weapon they asperged the animals freely. Many of the
noble Romans — the Borghesi in particular — send their
yearlings annually to be blessed ; those who do not own

326 A WANDERER'S NOTES.

steeds claim the good offices of the Church for their
carriage horses and beasts of burthen. Numbers of
ladies were sitting in their carriages, at about three
p.m., with pet pugs and fluffy Maltese in their laps,
awaiting their turn for a sprinkle from the bucket. It
was a fashionable day devoted to the more aristocratic
quadrupeds ; on the morrow the plebeian order came in
for their share of the grace, and we saw long processions
of rough colts and ragged asses trooping in from all
parts of the Campagna, attended by their proprietors,
who, judging from appearances, stood in far more urgent
need of blessings, or indeed of anything that would
soften their rugged natures, than did their pitiful-looking
live stock.

The other ceremony, still more interesting than that
performed at Sant' Antonio, was the first of the yearly
series of recitations, orations, and musical performances
in many tongues that serve to show off the forcing
capabilities of the Propaganda College. The programme
opened with the overture to " Sonnambula," fairly played
by the orchestra ; then came several recitations in verse
by pupils ranging from twelve to twenty-one years of
age ; and in many cases these lads delivered their lines
with admirable spirit and abundant gesticulation. As
some of the compositions were in Coptic, Arabic, Sene-
gambian, and the dialects of Memphis and Cairo, their
meaning was not vividly apparent to the majority of the
audience ; but we were told that they had been mostly
indited in honour of the late Pope, whom one of the
youthful orators magniloquently described as " a second
Christ — the Divine Redeemer of Mankind ! " Presently

A PROPAGANDA SHOW. 327

came the overture to " Cenerentola " as a releve ; and
then a cantata, or " Inno," dedicated to Pius IX., and
naturally full of his praises. The part-singing in this
(executed by the scholars) was not at all bad ; and the
music itself insignificantly pretty, " composed for the
occasion." Next followed a dozen or so more juvenile
declaimers, in Latin, Greek, Hebrew, Sanscrit, Chinese,
Hindostani, Persian, and the Mexican languages ; the
English poem, spoken by a bright boy of about fourteen,
terminating in the following couplet :

We hope that God our labours will bless,
And that our shadows may never grow less !

A sweet little bit of pious jocularity. Then came the
overture to " William Tell " by the band, and the per-
formances terminated. Only gentlemen were admitted.
The morrow was to be the Propaganda Oaks or ladies'
day, from which men would be as rigidly excluded as
the fair sex had been on the previous afternoon. Upon
inquiry I found that recitations were pronounced in no
fewer than thirty-one languages, and that the linguistic
resources of the establishment had not been nearly
exhausted by such profuseness. Perhaps Oxford and
Cambridge, not to mention our public schools, might
take a hint or two from the Propaganda, which turns
out so many accomplished modern linguists and facile
orators. It is something to be taught how to express
your ideas, if you have any, in the most effective
manner ; and a man who can speak and write with
ease half-a-dozen languages is a six-fold man. Alto-
gether the " exhibitions " afford abundant evidence that

328 A WANDERER'S NOIES.

the Propaganda College is a first-rate institution, and its
pupils, although they have to work hard, looked as well
and jolly, with few exceptions, when I saw them, as
English schoolboys.

In the last year of the Temporal Power, the Eve
of Epiphany was observed in a very peculiar manner
by the inhabitants of Rome, high and low, rich and
poor. In the immediate vicinity of the Pantheon is
situated a small parish, or municipal district, called
Sant' Eustachio, which enjoys the privilege, every 5th
of January, of holding revelry within its precincts,
comprising some half-a-dozeri narrow streets and one
or two murky Piazze. There the Pontifical Eomans
used to perform a sort of High Jinks all through the
night, consisting simply of howling, whistling, drum-
ming, blowing tin trumpets and thumping tambourines
with an energy and perseverance that no one would
have given them credit for, whose experience of their
character and habits had been limited to the other
three hundred and sixty-four days of the year. Stalls
lined all the streets and lanes of the favoured parish ;
at these stalls might be purchased every variety of
devilish invention for making a hideous noise that
perverted ingenuity had thitherto compassed. Clay
figures were to be had for five pence ; they might have
been meant to represent saints — so deformed, ugly, and
gaudy were they — in which had been pierced gaping
wounds with a musical purpose, in the oddest of
physical situations. To blow into one of these painted
earthen josses was to produce a ghastly moaning, or an
eldritch screech, as the case might be; perhaps ten

THE BEFANA.

329

thousand of them were made to utter these horrible
sounds at one and the same time on Epiphany Eve,
1870. It was as though all the fiends of Hades had
given rendezvous to the witches of the Brocken in
" Sant'Eustachio," and had struck up an infernal paean
to greet them ; whilst the witches, tweaking and pinch-
ing their familiar owls and cats, as a stimulant to vocal
effort, were joyfully yelling at the top power of their
leathern lungs. Nor was the spectacle presented by
the excited crowd that thronged the dimly-lighted
streets less strange and fantastic than the clamour
assailing my ears as I approached the scene of the
Befana. Torches, lanterns, and metal cups filled with
spirit flared in a weird and fitful way on either side the
narrow roadways ; immense harlequins, lozenged all
over with the most staring colours, huge wooden dolls,
expressionless and stiff, tinted and indigestible cakes of
eccentric form, paper balloons, and noise-generating
toys, dangled from doorways, booth fronts, and pegs
fixed to house- fronts to right and left, or even brand-
ished aloft on stick ends, or thrust into your very
face by brazen-throated hawkers at every step you took,
forward or backward, through the dense, hustling,
shouting, whistling, screaming, crowing, braying crowd.
Every now and then a rush w^as made into the thickest
of the fray by some blatant band of Eoman youths,
and I found myself surrounded by " Katzenmusik," with
half-a-dozen large monotone trumpets, in full blare,
levelled at my ears, and a leash of drums beaten
frantically under my very nose. The great joke of
never-failing humour, peculiar to the Befana, appeared

330 A WANDERER'S NOTES.

to consist in environing any respectably-dressed female
so closely as to preclude all chance of escape, and
squealing under her bonnet for a minute or two as
if possessed of demons. It must not be imagined that
this " Tone-Orgie," as a German friend of mine called
it, was confined to the lower classes or to the larky
young sprigs of the " calicot " aristocracy. Old, staid
gentlemen, in white chokers and gibuses, with barren
dukedoms and plurality of quarterings as plainly
expressed in their irreproachable tenue as if they had
been clothed, back and breast, in funereal hatchments
or herald tabards, were to be seen gravely worming their
way through the throng, blowing a tin shawm or
tapping a child's drum with as much solemnity of
demeanour and concentration of purpose as though all
else were vanity, and participation in the rites of
the Befana the one worthy arid honourable object
of life.

The audiences of all the theatres — that is to say,
the bulk of Eoman fashionable society — turned out on
foot, in burnous shawl and wrapper, to visit Sant'Eus-
tachio ; the shops in the Corso and many of the
principal streets were open and ablaze with gaslight ;
troops of amateur minstrels marched round the Piazza
playing, not inharmoniously, on guitars and mandolines,
and singing " Stornelli " in chorus with pleasant voices ;
pretty girls and stately matrons, under strong escort,
tripped or glided along, chatting volubly as is their
wont on extraordinary expeditions, and contributing
peal upon peal of silvery laughter to the olla podrida of
nondescript noise that echoed through the grim old

ROMAN CHARACTERISTICS. 331

town. And so the Befana had its wilful way from
about nine p.m. on Epiphany Eve to seven a.m. the
following morning. There was no fighting, no appre-
ciable drunkenness, but little pocket-picking. How
easy to govern a people that could be so easily amused,
and that, submitting patiently to extortion, tyranny,
and injustice such as would stir any other race to
madness, was piu die contento if allowed to yell and
scream about a few dirty streets once a year ! Surely
the gentle temper that was at the bottom of this long
endurance went far to qualify the Romans for a happier
lot than had at that time fallen to them ; in justice
to them be it said that indolence is by no means the
Alpha and Omega of their characters. No ; they are
kindly, amiable, and yielding — too much so for their
own well-being. Besides, they are accustomed to their
joke, irksome though it be ; and of two evils choose
that which habit has brought them to believe is the
least. Nineteen years ago even their rare pleasures
and national amusements had been clipped and curtailed
by order of the Priest-King. No more "maschere"
were allowed in the streets at Carnival ; the " mocco-
letti " had been virtually extinguished ; and there was
talk of the Barb race in the Corso being omitted, for
reasons best known to that enlightened, honest, and
genial tribunal, the Vicariato. Scarcely anything with
even the semblance of free fun remained to the etiolated
descendants of Romulus and Remus, except the Befana ;
so it was not to be wondered at if they celebrated their
solitary jubilee " strepitosissimamente."

The Epiphany anniversary was a field-day for the

332 A WANDERER'S NOTES.

famous Bambino, reported to have been made by St.
Luke, and to have walked all by itself from the
catacombs of San Calisto — where it had been hidden
by some rich lady, who had induced the Jesuits to
swop it for a handsomer and costlier doll — back to its
cradle at Ara Cceli. There it now reposes in a deep
niche fashioned like a stable ; cows, asses, and other
" animals walking two by two — the nigger and the
kangaroo/'' are picturesquely grouped around the images
of Mary, Joseph, and the Magi — all of which are pro-
fusely adorned with jewels and gold, rather out of
keeping with the humbleness of the other accessories.
Ara Cceli stands on a hill to the left of the Capitol, and
is reached by about a hundred steep marble steps, much
worn and perilously slippery. It is a large and very
ugly church, with nothing particular to recommend it
except the evident difficulty of approaching it, the
mock stable-full of dolls above mentioned, and the
amateur preaching, at certain seasons, of sundry infants,
ranging from five to ten in age, who stand upon a
board, and spout pious fables, learnt by rote, with a
self-possession and clearness of articulation that are
truly marvellous. Sometimes these prodigies conduct
their teachings in the form of dialogue, and argue away
at theological problems and questions of doctrine till
their audiences sensibly diminish in number. They
were hard at a performance of this class when I entered
Ara Cceli, at about half-past three p.m. ; but, luckily
for me, the strains of the fire brigade band, which
shortly afterwards took up ground near the high altar,
drowned their disputatious squeaks, and " drew " the

THE BAMBINO. 333

public in another direction. Very pretty polkas, waltzes,
and operatic selections did the gallant " pompieri " play ;
and all went merry as a marriage bell, till the organ
and choir struck in with dismal chords, and the business
of the procession commenced. Thrice was the Bambino
reverently lifted from its repose on Mary's lap, carried
round the church, and shown to the congregation.
Twice was it taken out on the steps, and held aloft for
inspection by some forty or fifty thousand people,
gathered on the Piazza of Ara Coeli of the Campidoglio.
As it appeared the whole throng sank to its knees — a
striking effect viewed from the top of the lofty Scala.
Rome is the city par excellence of picturesque crowds ;
my readers can fancy what a coup d'ceil was presented
by such a vast concourse of men and women, more than
half their muster clad in gay colours, uniforms, or fancy
dresses — the English for national costumes — rising and
falling in enormous waves as the ruddy-cheeked Bam-
bino was lifted or depressed by his bearer. Between
the acts of this " mystery " we had plenty of " pump "
music, laid on vigorously by turn-cocks and firemen, and
propped up by strange rumblings from the organ. It
was certainly the funniest medley of sounds and con-
fusion of associations I ever underwent. Rub-a-dub-dub
went the drums ; then the Bambino was brought
forward, starting the choristers into a paroxysm of
minor fifths ; boom ! boom ! went the pedal pipes of
the organ — and bash ! the cymbals of the band, usher-
ing in a lively trois temps of Strauss, or a " Fran£aise "
of Gungl. Of course the firemen got the best of it ;
but every now and then you could hear the " muckle

334 A WANDERER'S NOTES.

kist o' whistles " coughing out crude harmonies in a vain
endeavour to stay the distance, and the droning, grunt-
ing choir, just cropping up all out of tune, to be swept
instantly away in a flood of brazen blasts.

After an hour or so of this Pandemonium, we fled
to the Pincio, where there was enough attraction in the
way of lovely faces to reward us amply for all our Ara
Cceli sufferings. We agreed that it was scarcely fair
that the Princesses Bonaparte and Ruspoli should always
drive together in one barouche ; they ought to have been
spread over several carriages, and widely disseminated all
about the Pincio, so that everybody could have seen them
all at once ; two such enchanting visions coming upon
you all at the same moment — it was too much ! Not
that the Roman belles had it all their own way. No,
indeed ; there were English and American ladies to be
seen daily on that palm -crowned eminence, who might
challenge competition throughout the four quarters of
the globe. The Pincio was full of perils — it was, so to
speak, the Tarpeian Rock and the Lovers' Leap amalga-
mated into one hill. It was a sight to see the condition
to which many of our hardiest men — and we could
show some pretty straight goers — were reduced as they
wandered sadly down the slopes, and slunk along the
Corso to dinner. Iron muscles and unexceptional top-
coats offered but a mockery of resistance to the shafts
lavished from such eyes as glanced at you from slowly
rolling carriages on the upper terrace, whilst you
lounged " on the rails " — which were stone posts, by
the way — and gazed, and got hit hard, and gazed again !
There were no half measures about Roman ladies —

AN IMPERIAL FUNERAL. 335

they looked right through you, if, haply, you were
worth looking at ; and I noticed that the fair, broad
giants of the north were especially selected by them to
essuyer le feu !

Due honours were paid by the Papal Government
to the remains of his Imperial Highness the ex-Grand
Duke of Tuscany, who died in the last week of January,
1870. The body was conveyed in state from the
deceased Prince's house to the Santi Apostoli, escorted
by a military force that could not have been far short
of the whole Pontifical army. I happened to be dining
with some friends in Lord Byron's old sitting-room —
next to that in which Keats died — looking over the
Piazza di Spagna, through which the funeral cortege
defiled solemnly, with ha]f-a-dozen military bands play-
ing their respective " Marches funebres ; " and so I saw
the procession exceptionally well. First came half a
troop of dragoons, bearing lighted torches ; then a few
sections of Gendarmes, also carrying flambeaux ; and
then a black velvet and gold state coach of Louis
Quatorze shape, lined with white satin, and drawn by
two magnificent stallions. In this coach, supported on
the knees of ecclesiastics, was conveyed the corpse of
the venerable Austrian Arch -Duke, in a richly decorated
coffin of precious wood. Immediately following it came
the Eoyal Ambassadorial, Cardinalian, and Senatorial
equipages, headed by the Austrian Embassy's State
carriage, and then the army, Antibes Legion and all,
which took three-quarters of an hour to pass our
window. The Zouaves mustered very strong, for I
counted seven, if not eight battalions. There was all

336 A WANDERER'S NOTES.

the cavalry, and most of the artillery — no fewer than
twelve guns — a lot of chasseurs, the splendid gendarm-
erie, both mounted and on foot, a few sections of the
Palatini, and some Guardie Nobili. Except the Swiss
Guard, every arm of the Papal service was adequately
represented ; and the troops looked better in the flicker-
ing, mysterious torchlight than I had ever theretofore
seen them. One could descry the red glare of the
flambeaux moving slowly up the house-fronts on either
side of the Via dei Condotti long before the respective
detachments of torch-bearers leading each battalion,
squadron, or battery had reached the huge Piazza, into
which they successively debouched and, wheeling to the
right, wound their way slowly along past the Propaganda,
finally disappearing in the labyrinth of streets leading
to the Fountain of Trevi. It was a dismal, but imposing
spectacle, and Eome turned out en masse to witness it,
the English and American colonists being, as usual, in a
vast majority over the natives. Double and triple rows
of carriages, filled with fair girls, stretched from Spit-
hover's fairly to the mouth of the Macelli. All the
windows of the Piazza were crowded with ladies, ever
curious to see "a sight," whether it be a wedding or a
funeral, a review or a benediction, a people's fair or a
Papal high mass. And thus, with bray of trumpets,
clash of cymbals, and roll of drums, the former ruler
of beautiful Tuscany — whose charming hospitality at
the Pitti, in the " good old days," must be gratefully
remembered by hundreds of Englishmen, and who, after
all, for an Austrian Prince, was wonderfully Italian at
heart — was borne away to the Santi Apostoli ; where,

A GOOD GRAND-DUKE. 337

next morning, His Holiness, in person, conducted the
religious ceremonies celebrated over his mortal remains,
prior to their being removed to the family crypts of the
Habsburg-Lorraine-Estes. The Pontiff's sonorous voice
faltered as he pronounced the valedictory blessing upon
the body of his old friend and contemporary.

The Grand Duke's death was a heavy blow to Pius
IX., whose junior he was by six years, and who enter-
tained a very sincere regard for Joseph John Leopold
Maria Salvatore, &c. Both Princes had for a time been
Italianissimi, and had — at least in their own opinions —
suffered severely from the effects of popular ingratitude.
His Imperial Highness was a devout Catholic, and as
charitable as he was amiable ; whilst he reigned in
Florence he was an active member of the principal
Confraternita, and often, when the summons of his
particular association reached him at a State banquet,
ball, or reception, would quietly leave his guests to the
care of his chamberlains, and, donning the hood, gown,
rope, and lantern of the order, aid in conveying the
body of some poor Florentine to its last home, or in
performing some other function of Christian mercy.
The Tuscans liked him well, whilst abhorring his
Government, and it is seldom that an exiled Prince
leaves behind him in his quondam realms as many well-
wishers as did Leopold the Austrian. I need scarcely
say that the Church in which his obsequies were held
was thronged with distinguished personages. Most of
the Bourbons then in Rome were present at the cere-
mony ; the young Duke of Parma, all the foreign
Ambassadors and Ministers — except M. de Lavradio,

VOL. II. Z

338 A WANDERER'S NOTES.

then actually in extremis, and next day dead — many
Bishops, and the whole Roman Court, the Senators,
Roman Princes, Neapolitan grandees, and a large
number of distinguished foreigners. The coffin, covered
with a gorgeous cloth- of-gold pall, upon which were
arranged — on velvet cushions — the Archducal hat and
other princely insignia of the deceased ex-sovereign,
was surrounded by drooping banners and hatchments
exhibiting the blazonings of half-a-dozen Imperial and
Royal houses; horseguards, with ported arms, guarded
the catafalque ; and acolytes, bearing tall waxen tapers,
were grouped picturesquely about the nave of the
church. The ceremony lasted about an hour, and as
soon as it was over the congregation dispersed, leaving
the dead Archduke in his gorgeous shrine of gold,
velvet, silk, and rare woods, to lie in state till nightfall,
when he was removed to his palace.

On the 19th February, 1870, at half-past two in
the afternoon, Rome went mad. In other words, the
Carnival was opened in the usual manner, and the city
gave itself up to an insane, purposeless, and tiresome
revel, as thoroughly out of keeping with the spirit and
character of the present age as the Hari-Kari, or Idol-
worship. Whatever the Roman Carnival may have
been in former years, when the Corso was crowded with
maskers and brilliant equipages, when gigantic practical
jokes, that had taken no end of time and scudi to
mature, were brought out and played coram populo —
when it was the privilege alike of the prince and of the
peasant to deliver their souls of all accumulated jokes,
grievances, and scandals of the past twelvemonth from

THE ROMAN CARNIVAL. 339

behind the impenetrable shield of incognito conferred
by the domino and the mask, it is very certain that it
had degenerated under the Papal regime into a mere
pretext for the sale, at absurd prices, of plaster-of-Paris
pellets and wild-flower nosegays in inconceivable quan-
tities. The Alpha and Omega of the .Roman Carnival,
eighteen years ago, was — pelting ! As for the " mosso,"
or cavalry scamper, and the barb-races, for which it
daily cleared the course, though they were pretty and
fantastic sights enough, nobody cared a bit for them —
they were rather voted a bore, as interfering with the
real aim and end of the festival, namely, to pelt your
fellow-creatures with as many mock comfits as you
could afford to purchase for that purpose. What the
Carnival meant to everybody who took an active part
in it was this : throw comfits, throw comfits, throw more
comfits. There were three ways of fulfilling the Whole
Duty of Man (and Woman) during Carnival time in
Kome. The first was, to hire a window or "loggia,"
overlooking the Corso, suspend great wooden tanks or
reservoirs full of confetti to your balcony, and pelt the
crowd with those missiles, either by raining them down
from tin scoops (much affected by ladies), or by hurling
them with the full strength of your arm. The second
was to clothe yourself in white or gray linen, hang a
huge bag of confetti over your shoulder, cover your face
with a wire gauze vizor, and discharge volleys of chalk
at every window or carriage within range. The third
was perhaps the most pleasant — certainly the most
costly — namely, to hire a carriage and pair, fill the
space between the seats with baskets and bags full of

z 2

340 A WANDERER'S NOTES.

comfits — stick up a ten-foot pole in the centre, gar-
nished with bouquets, stand on the seats, accoutred
in blouses and vizors, and throw at everybody, vary-
ing your projectile according to your mark. This
manner of performing Carnival duties cost from £12
to £15 a day, and the soundest of sound pel tings to
boot. The more acquaintances you possessed — the
greater your popularity in society — the worse for you
during that desperate passage. It took you about an
hour to get to the Piazza di Venezia from the Piazza
del Popolo ; and by the time you turned off at the
Eipresa de' Barberi you were sore from head to foot,
panting with exertion, and suffocated with the white
dust given out by millions of confetti. The Eoman
upper classes took no part whatever in the war of
confetti, save by letting off their house-fronts to the
forestieri, at an average tariff of five francs per head per
day. A few — very few — of the younger men belonging
to society might be seen walking disdainfully along the
Corso, amongst the popotani, Zouaves, Papal liners, and
energetic Anglo-Saxons, that made up the bulk of the
pedestrian crowd ; but they threw nothing at anybody,
and scorned even to protect their pallid, melancholy
faces against the rain of plaster by a vizor, or to wrap
their dainty garments in a linen shroud. Neither did
the people, who were inconceivably dirty, ferocious-look-
ing, and good-natured, do much, except make a noise,
as if Bedlam had broken loose amongst them. It was
our countrymen and our Transatlantic cousins, supple-
mented by a few exuberant Gauls, and honest, grinning,
spectacled Teutons, who kept the confetti game alive,

THE CONTEST OF COMFITS. 341

and pegged away at one another, at the soldiers —
despite Vicariate prohibitions — at the ladies in the
windows, at the carriage-horses, at the stoical Roman
youths, at the squadriglieri from the hills, and the
gorgeous peasant-women from the villages round the
Campagna — ay ! and would, I doubt not, have pelted
the Pope himself, had His Holiness driven past them
in his State carriage. The only amusing feature of the
whole silly business was the comic fury with which
foreigners conducted themselves in the mimic fray of
comfits. Their hand was against every man, and they
went in for battle as if life or death had depended upon
its issue. Every now and then an episode of great
humour occurred — as, for instance, that of a stalwart
American youth one afternoon, who took it into his
head to attack with the licensed missiles of Carnival
three officers of the Roman Cacciatori — by the way,
they are called " Cacciatori esteri" but number more
Roman subjects than foreigners in their ranks. He had
slung on an enormous sack of confetti, convenient to his
right hand, and, from the vantage-ground of the kerb-
stone, he "let them have it" in famous style. There
were some tremendously hot corners between San Carlo
in Corso and the Piazza Colonna, nearly every window
of which interval was garrisoned by Anglo-Saxons ; but
the hottest of all was at San Lorenzo in Lucina, where
are situate the two great loggie of the Palazzo Fiano.
These were held by a strong body of Englishmen, nine
out of ten of whom, from their manner of throwing,
I should say had played unlimited cricket at some
period of their lives. Consequently, to pass the Fiano
balconies was an undertaking of exceeding peril,

342 A WANDERER'S NOTES.

requiring brilliant intrepidity and stoical fortitude under
suffering.

When the plaster-of-Paris combat was at its fiercest
trumpets, drums, and the rolling of the great Capitol
bell announced to us the approach of the grand municipal
procession, with which, had traditions been strictly ad-
hered to, the Carnival should have been opened. Not
a nosegay or a comfit ought to have been thrown until
this splendid cortege had made its accustomed rounds ;
but popular impatience — for popular, read Anglo-
American — anticipated the inaugural ceremony by at
least a couple of hours. It was nearly 5 o'clock
before, headed by two military bands, the gallant civic
train made its appearance under the protection of a
strong cavalry escort — mounted gendarmes and Papal
dragoons. First came the Senator, Prince Colonna, in
a gorgeous sheriff's carriage, attended by running foot-
men in cinque-cento liveries, and accompanied by two
pages of honour — young Roman noblemen. Then the
eight embroidered banners, given by the communes as
prizes for the eight barb-races, borne by yeomen in
scarlet and amber justaucorps, beefeaters' hats, and
light hose — one yellow, one red. After these, at a foot
pace, followed the Counsellors and Conservators of Rome,
in six more sheriffs' carriages. The costumes of these
gentlemen were theatrically magnificent — cloth of gold,
flowered silks, velvet, and white satin, ostrich feathers,
and crimson rods tipped with precious metal. Shortly
after they had gone by in all the gaudiriess and pomp of
mediaeval princes, the first gun was fired to clear the
Corso for the " mosso," which was the gayest, liveliest,
and best executed spectacle of the whole day. A small

BARBEPJNI, SED BARBERI." 343

detachment of cavalry, under the command of a subal-
tern, started on unshod horses from the Popolo, and
galloped venire a terre the whole length of the Corso, as
far as the Pedacchia and back again. The men kept
their formation perfectly, and rode like Austrian Uhlans,
which is saying a good deal. About five minutes later
they reined in their panting chargers at the tribune,
erected near the starting-point of the barbs, and an-
nounced that " the course was clear " (which it was not,
for everybody crowded into the roadway when they had
passed to look after them). A distant roar, that swelled
up louder and louder every moment as the riderless
horses scampered madly up the Corso, reached our ears,
and we knew that the first race of Carnival had com-
menced. In a minute more the barbs flashed by us at
an astounding rate, and dashing against the canvas wall
stretched across the street at the Kipresa de' Barberi to
stop them and serve as a winning-post, broke through
it as if it had been made of silver paper. No fewer
than four of them, including the winner, continued their
" wild career " through tortuous streets and darksome
vicoli, until they got fairly outside the walls, and were
captured by suburbans.

The toilette of the barbs was fanciful enough, but
must, I should think, have caused considerable physical
irritation and mental confusion to the honest animals
invested with it. Wings were attached to their shoulders
and quarters — a sort of silken network was fitted to
their bodies, and to this were attached by leather straps
heavy balls of lead studded with sharp steel spikes that
swung freely with every movement of their wearer, and
goaded him to frantic efforts, which, made in the hope

344 A WANDERER'S NOTES.

of ridding himself of his prickly tormentors, only aggra-
vated the force and rapidity of their punctuations.
From the starting-point to the winning-post, the barbs
had to pass between a double hedge of hooting, whist-
ling, screeching, and clapping men and boys ; before
they had run half their distance, accordingly, they were
all but mad with terror. As a rule they were thorough-
bred screws, and scoured over their mile at a speed that
would not have shamed a British plater. As soon as
they were "home" the dragoons left their stations at
the street-corners, the co^/^'-throwing ceased, and cabs
poured into the Corso by hundreds ; converting the
bright brown gravel with which it had been strewn,
a propos des Barberi, into gritty mud. Everybody
trooped off as fast as might be to dress for dinner,
and the round of night duty at Roman palaces, en-
livened by a short interval of bad theatre and seven
games of ecarte at the club, en passant, was punctually
entered upon.

Few mundane institutions would appear to an
average Protestant intellect more opposed to one another
in character and purpose than a Jesuit College and a
theatre. The nearest approach we have in England to
a fusion of such incongruities is Exeter Hall, alternate
scene of " May Meetings " and Philharmonic Concerts.
But the contrast these successive entertainments afford
is not so very startling after all. There is, somehow
or other — at least to the heretical mind — a less broad
distinction between a cohort of High or Low Church
parsons and the performers of a stringed quartet — even
supposing the former to have a " call " of the most un-
compromising character — than between the Society of

THE JESUITS. 345

Jesus and a company of stage-players. I fancy the
popular notions of Jesuits and their modus vivendi, as
generally entertained in England, are somewhat loose
and indefinite, because derived chiefly from the vivid
but curiously incorrect descriptions of the Order con-
tained in strongly flavoured, bitterly biassed contemporary
romances. The Fates forbid that I should seriously essay
to shake any deep-rooted British prejudice, amiable or
unamiable ; for a more ungrateful, hopeless task I can
scarcely conceive ; but I cannot disguise from myself
the fact that, of all the Eoman Catholic clergymen with
whom I have had the pleasure of being personally
acquainted — and their name is legion — the most intel-
ligent, agreeable, and seemingly tolerant of other people's
views have unquestionably been Jesuits. That they are
the first missionaries in the world, even the " great gas-
lights of grace " in the Strand will hardly refuse to
admit ; a glance at the roster of martyrs for the last
three centuries or so will sufficiently prove to their
worst enemy how plentifully they have shed their blood
in partibus infidelium, to fertilize the hard and barren soil
over which they have strewed broadcast the seed of
Christianity. Their learning is at least as indisputable
as the dauntless courage and utter self-abnegation which
they manifest in propagating the Gospel amongst the
heathen ; and it is, I suppose, because they are ex-
ceptionally erudite and cultivated men — although mainly
recruited from the lower middle class of society — that
so many Catholic noblemen and gentlemen in Italy and
Spain confide the scions of their ancient houses to the
Order of Jesus for education.

In February, 1870, I paid a long visit to the Jesuit

346 A WANDERER'S NOTES.

College of Mondragone, at Frascati, where some eighty
young princes, dukes, marquises, and counts, from all
parts of Italy, were received as pupils ; and a brighter,
gayer set of boys I had never seen in any public school,
nor any more obviously and unaffectedly attached to
their masters. It was at this College — formerly a
country mansion of the Borghesi, three Principini of
which patrician race were numbered amongst its scholars
— that I witnessed a theatrical performance, some three
hours long, consisting of a five-act comedy, and a
" screaming " farce, given in a pretty little theatre
attached to the principal school-room, and attended
by as oddly constituted an audience as can well be
imagined. Lords and ladies of high degree, Capuchin
friars, noble Zouaves, Jesuit fathers, parti-coloured semin-
arists, and the whole upper and lower school, professors,
teachers, Carthaginian and Roman praetors, decurions,
centurions, and legionaries — for into two camps of
classical organization, comprehending all the honorific
distinctions of military rank that obtained in the
Caesarian age, were the juvenile collegians divided —
made up a heterogeneous, but highly appreciative,
assembly. The comedy selected for representation was,
of course, one altogether forlorn of feminine dramatis
persons — 77 Barbiere di Babit, one of those slenderly
constructed Italian plays which appear to be written
entirely up to one character, or rather to one character-
istic, thrown into such strong relief that it monopolizes
the whole interest of the audience. Plot there was
none — there seldom is in such pieces — but the leading
part, that of an inveterate backbiter, was cleverly written
and brilliantly acted. Between the acts, overtures and

PURIFIED PLAYS. 347

incidental music were played by some of the young
Moridragonists, amongst whom are one or two promising
pianists — viz., Count Dieudonne' Olivieri de Vernier
(aetat. 14), M. d'Altemps (setat. 12), and a Marchesino
from Perugia, whose name I did not catch. After the
comedy had terminated, amidst loud and prolonged
applause, in which the Capuchins took the lead enthusi-
astically, we had Come Finira, a favourite one-act farce,
considerably altered, however, by the Keverend Fathers
to whose censorship it had been submitted. Whenever,
in the original, the word " marriage," for instance, had
occurred — and the whole point of the piece turns upon
a matrimonial arrangement — "journey" had been sub-
stituted, which rather took the edge off some of the
jokes, and caused them to assume about the significance
and aptness of an idiot's tale. Marriage, it would
appear, comes under the category of words prohibited
by the Church to be used in the presence of gentlemen
of tender age ; and all the answer I got from one of the
Fathers whom I questioned relative to the excisions and
alterations perpetrated in the dialogue was, " Maxima
debetur pueris reverentia." What a treat it was to look
at the fresh young faces, and listen to the bursts of
ringing, happy laughter with which even the dullest
jokes were greeted ; and how heartily the fine lads,
whose ancestors were very likely in the genial habit of
stabbing or poisoning one another " wherever met,"
cheered any of their comrades who made a successful
hit. There were few of the great baronial Eoman
families unrepresented at Mondragone — Orsini and
Colorma, Caetani and Massimo, Buoncompagni and Otto-
buoni construed irregular verbs, and played " pallone "

348 A WANDERER'S NOTES.

together, altogether oblivious of blood feuds, transmitted
hatreds, and hereditary vendette.

The school itself stood upon the brow of a height
some two hundred feet above the town of Frascati, and
was approached through leafy woods and avenues of
venerable trees, many of which were planted three cen-
turies ago by Cardinal d'Al temps, who built the villa
and laid out the grounds. It commanded a magnificent
view of Eome and the Campagna, the coast, the Alban,
and Sabine hills, Soracte, Monte Cimino, Monte Porzio,
Monte Cavo, Monte Pila, Castel Gandolfo, Grotta Fer-
rata, and Marino, with a glimpse of the Volscian moun-
tains afar off, towering above Monte de Fiori, Mentana,
and Monte Rotondo. The chief residence, or " casino,"
was an enormous quadrangular building, very much re-
sembling a cavalry barracks in reduced circumstances ;
it was pierced for no fewer than three hundred and
seventy windows, and its central courtyard, used as
a playground for the boys, was nearly as large as Lord's.
Adjoining the Casino was the garden loggia, designed
by Vignola, the portico of which, though much dilapi-
dated, was still a magnificent specimen of sixteenth-
century architecture. It was executed in travertine, and
liberally ornamented with the dragon and eagle of the
Borghesi. Facing it was a noble tilt-yard, terminating
in a fountain that, like everything around it, was gone
to rack and ruin. Fragments of mosaic still adhered to
the face of the terrace opposite the portico, and might
be discovered, under the thick mantle of moss, lichens,
and saxifrage that Time had gathered round the stone
basin, once teeming with limpid water, and now half
filled with its own debris. What could have induced so

MONDRAGONE COLLEGE. 349

proud and wealthy a family as the Borghese to suffer
this splendid villa to fall into such a lamentable state
of decay ? But for its enormous solidity of construction
it must, long before I visited it, have tumbled into a
heap of ruins ; nor had the Jesuits done much to repair
or set it in order.

It may interest some of my readers to make ac-
quaintance with the daily routine of life observed by
young Italian patricians in a model college belonging
to the great Order. Eise at 6, in the summer months
at 5 ; no tub, washing being considered unhealthy.
Religious exercises till 7. Breakfast — coffee, bread, and
butter— at 7.30. Mass, 8. Morning Mass, 8.30 till
noon. Dinner at 12 — five courses, pint of wine, and
fruit. Recreation till 2. Afternoon class, 2 till 3.30.
At 3.45, large slice of bread, apple or pear, and cake of
chocolate. Studies with masters (extras) till 7. Supper
at 7.15 — soup, two sorts of meat, pasticceria, and wine.
Bed at 9. The regular studies were Italian, Latin,
Greek, philosophy, Church history, and theology ; a
little geography, and less mathematics. Extras com-
prehended French, German, English, music, and drawing,
and were pretty expensive ; indeed, each boy cost his
parents about £130 a year — a large sum for schooling in
Italy. The usual duration of each pupil's stay at the col-
lege was from five to six years, during which he was not
- allowed to go home for holidays. The boys were treated
with the utmost kindness and consideration, although
very strictly looked after, and appeared to be sincerely
fond of their reverend instructors — the Grand Rector,
Count Ponza di San Martino, a courtly and accomplished
Piedmontese gentleman, being an especial favourite

350 A WANDERER'S NOTES.

amongst the collegians. As we drove up the hill from
the railway station, which nestles in a tufa hollow
some 600 feet beneath Mondragone, we encountered
the main body of the upper school, under the care of
two Fathers, enjoying a wild scamper in the woods that
separate the villa from the town of Frascati. One of the
latter gentlemen wore a beautiful black eye, conferred
upon him during a war of snow-balls by a young
Australian belonging to what we should call the sixth
form, and the cock of the school in the matter of athletic
exercises. There was a sort of football played on high
days and holidays, but no " scrummages" were allowed,
and the two sides were kept from actual contact by
ropes stretched across the play-ground. Another game
in great vogue consisted in " putting " a large hollow
sphere through an iron ring just large enough to admit
its passage ; and this, to the scorn of the two or three
English boys belonging to the college, was called crickete.
There was a riding-school, too, attached to the loggia,
but it was not much patronized by the Bo man scholars,
and the Fathers discouraged equitation as " dangerous."
Every boy distinguishing himself in the monthly examin-
ations was decorated with a handsome cross, suspended
to his breast by a light blue ribbon, which he wore until
some other fellow surpassed him in the specialty for
which he had been rewarded ; and no soldier could be
prouder of his croix cthonneur than were those bright
lads of their Order of Merit.

THE END.

MONARCHS I HAVE MET.

Br W. BEATTY-KINGSTON", Author of " Music and Manners."
2 vols. demy 8vo, 24s.

From THE DAILY TELEGRAPH.

" The announcement that Mr. William Beatty- Kingston has written a book in two volumes,
with the appetizing title ' Monarchs I have Met,' raises high expectation of entertainment and
interest. We can truly say that such expectation will not be disappointed. . . . The sove-
reigns to which Mr. Kingston has been presented in the course of his travels ' through
Christendom and Paynimland ' are conspicuously associated with events and occasion s in
modern history, the recollection of which invests with well-sustained interest a book teeming
with valuable information concerning them, their residences, habits, and surroundings. . . .
The good humour with which the accomplished writer rallies those few persons with whom he
may have happened to experience disagreement, and the stout fealty he upholds for his
friends, are among the kindly traits exhibited in these volumes, the contents of which throw
valuable light upon some obscure passages of contemporary history."

From THE MORNING POST.

"Few Englishmen have had better opportunities of observing the individual character-
istics of contemporary monarchs than those enjoyed by the author, who, before he commenced
his distinguished career as a journalist, passed a considerable time in the service of the
Austrian Kaiser. As the special correspondent of one of the leading English newspapers, he
has found himself, on different occasions during a period of thirteen years, at the principal
Courts of Europe, recording the various functions of public importance that are of interest

to the readers of London journals He has given the world a charmingly written series

of 'word-sketches,' which reflect with faithful accuracy the peculiar little traits of character
and disposition displayed by his august models, and which present Court Life in an entirely
novel aspect. He enables his readers to look upon regal splendour and princely deeds from
a standpoint hitherto unattainable by ordinary mortals, and to trace beneath the gorgeous
exteriors of state pageantry the homely feelings and kindly impulses of monarchs whose

hearts are stirred by the emotions which are common to all men It would be a

pleasant but an over-lengthy task to refer here to the many charming little histoires of kingly
humour and generosity related by Mr. Beatty- Kingston, but such delights must be reserved
for the reader, who, in this conspicuously able book, will meet with a fund of entertaining
and instructive anecdote and story."

From THE ILLUSTRATED SPORTING AND DRAMATIC NEWS.

" Mr. Beatty-Kingston has been for a good many years of his life a special correspondent
accredited from a popular and exceedingly wealthy journal. He is a good linguist, a man of
the world, ready-witted, eager to do the best service to his chief by being everywhere at the
right time, not very much more bashful or retiring than a special correspondent ought to be,
and just the man, therefore, to have seen a great deal, and to know how to make the most
of it when provided with the familiar weapons of a pen and an ink-pot. The result of the
author's labour is, however, a book which will entertain a great number of people, for Mr.
Kingston understands his public as a journalist of literary ability might be expected to do. . .
A very entertaining book."

From THE COURT JOURNAL.

" It is seldom, indeed, that so charming and so sound a work as Mr. W. Beatty-Kingston's
'Monarchs I have Met ' is prefaced with so much modesty and good taste as are evidenced
by the well-known special correspondent of the Daily Telegraph. Mr. Kingston describes his
entertaining collection of papers as ' unpretentious gossip,' and disarms adverse criticism by
a really superfluous plea for imaginary shortcomings and redundancies. As a matter of fact,
' Monarchs I have Met ' is one of the best books of the kind we have yet seen. Not only is t
unique in the class of personages with whom its author deals, but it is written with so much
vigour and vivacity that we are enabled by the magic of the writer's art to share in the curious
and striking scenes which he depicts, and, as it were, to rub shoulders with Royalties with
as much freedom as if we had already attained that ideal condition dear to the unpractical
mind of the poet, where every man is king-like, and no one man is crowned above his
fellows."

From THE DAILY NEWS.

" ' Monarchs I have Met ' is an amusing work. ... A couple of highly entertaining
volumes . . . written with the power of a gifted and long experienced writer, and should
secure a wide circle of readers."

From TRUTH.

" To few men fall either such opportunities or such powers of observation as Mr. Beatty-
Kingston has had, and in these two volumes he gives you the results in the pleasantest
possible style."

From THE SATURDAY REVIEW.

" We shall be glad to welcome another volume or two of his amusing reminiscences."

From THE GLOBE.

" Monarchs I have Met ' is, indeed, one of the few books which can truthfully be said to
be readable from first to last."

London: CHAPMAN & HALL, Limited.

MUSIC AND MANNERS:

PERSONAL REMINISCENCES AND SKETCHES OF CHARACTER.
By W. BEATTY-KINGSTON.

SECOND EDITION. Two vols. demy 8vo, 30s.

From VANITY FAIR.

" The author has turned out two big volumes of sparkling journalism, and the
level brilliancy of the work is not varied by a single dull page. His good-humour
and high spirits are catching, and only a dull man could avoid falling into a pleasant
mood as the rollicking, clever journalist dashes on from page to page. . . . He fre-
quently flashes out with an epigram that reminds one of Sydney Smith. . . . Any
good judge who reads the book will sorrowfully own that we lost a fine novelist when
Mr. Kingston took to newspaper work. If we say that he is the equal of Mr. Sala,
we are well within the mark."

From THE GLOBE.

"Informing and readable sketches of life ..... on account of the wealth of
anecdote about famous people with which the writer has been enabled to endow
it ..... Most distinguished composers and executants of his time, concerning most
of whom he has something fresh and agreeable to record."

From TRUTH.

"Two most readable and delightful volumes ..... Singularly instructive and
amusing."

From THE ST. JAMES'S GAZETTE.

"MR. KINGSTON'S two large volumes may be safely recommended to all lovers of
music, and with equal security to those who care nothing for music, but who are
interested in the national ways of Prussia, Austria, Hungary, Koumauia, Servia,
Egypt, Spain, and Italy. Even those to whom instrumental music is only an expen-
sive noise will take pleasure in Mr. Kingston's vivacious accounts of the composers,
singers, and instrumental musicians whom he has known ; while those to whom it is
a source of joy will delight in his pictures and anecdotes of musical society in various
great capitals, especially in Vienna and Berlin. Nor among the strange lands that
Mr. Kingston has visited must Wales be forgotten ; though here he was occupied
with music alone. For one happy week he was the guest of Mdme. Adelina Patti ;
and the chapter in which he describes Mdme. Patti and her surroundings, her daily
existence, and the castle in which she lives, is one of the most interesting in the
whole work."

From THE SATTTRDAY REVIEW.

" ME. KINGSTON'S wide knowledge of music, including the popular music of many
diff erent lands, makes his observations on musical characteristics really valuable."

From THE WORLD.

" A large number of facts and anecdotes, which form a very interesting collection :
instructive and amusing."

From THE DALLY NEWS.

" Brilliant panorama of life. Likely to be one of the most popular books of the

season."

From THE DALLY CHRONICLE.

" This title, despite alliteration's artful aid, scarcely suggests the many charms of
Mr. Beatty- Kingston's new work. Its pictures of life 'in foreign parts' literally
abound with entertainment, while the descriptions of places and people are so clear,
vivid, and realistic as to convey a large amount of information in the pleasantest
possible manner."

" It is written in the author's well-known fluent and attractive style, and will at
once recommend itself to all lovers of anecdotal literature. Mr. Beatty-Kingston's
work is a thoroughly enjoyable one, and we wish it all the success it deserves and is

sure to command."

From THE ERA.

" Intensely readable, and conveys, en passant, much useful information ..... It
really seems as hard for Mr. Kingston to be dull as it is for some people to be
amusing."

London: CHAPMAN & HALL, Limited.

D

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Beatty-Kingston, William
A wanderer's notes

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