CIII.
Bremen, Germany, Nov. 21, 1854.
My last was from Hanover. I now write from this free port and commercial city, situated upon the banks of the Weser, which river divides the old and new town. Its gardens are laid out in English style, giving the new town a neat appearance, and many improvements have been made since my visit in the summer of 1848.
Small vessels come to the city, but the larger class of steamers and ships remain at Bremen harbor, a few leagues below.
The chief trade is with America. The quantity of cigars manufactured from our tobacco is enormous, employing some thousands of persons, and scattering the manufactured article throughout this land of smokers.
The number of emigrants forwarded to America is scarcely credible.
In most of the German cities, under the “Rathhaus,” or town hall, is a wholesale and retail wine cellar, the profits of which accrue to the church, bishopric, or city authorities, according to the circumstances of an early granted privilege. Since the German reformation the right here belongs to the municipality: and the cellars under the town-hall are shown to strangers as among the prominent curiosities of the city. The long succession of basements contains the choice qualities of Rhine wine, in huge oak casks, varying in size, the largest containing thirty-six thousand bottles of “Rudesheimer,” of the vintage of 1806. The heads of the mammoth casks are well braced by cross pieces, with sculptured allegorical and historical figures in wood, and highly gilded. In one room, the god Bacchus, and his followers, of life size, all gilded and crowned with wreaths of grape vines filled with fruit, are seated upon the centre of one of three large vats, dating back as far as 1624. One of the cellars most renowned for quality is called the Rose, and another the Twelve Apostles, from its containing only twelve casks, whose names are painted upon metal plates, which are attached to the heads. The wine in these casks is the delicious, light Hockheimer Rhine wine of 1718. The rivalry lies between Peter, Simon, and Judas. A manager is appointed by the city authorities, subject to the supervision of the director, and monthly reports are made. City funds are appropriated, and the supply is kept up from the last vintages, so that the public may be supplied with a pure article at moderate prices. A large old sign, in the Rose Keller, has the following inscription, literally translated from the German: “What to the stomach, to the body, and to the heart, health, vigor and spirit can give, can console the afflicted, can revive half dead persons, yields this Rose wine.”