There are thousands of legends about them, in brief the stork figures in everything Strasburgian. It is said that about a week before their departure in the Autumn, all the storks meet in a meadow outside of the city and hold solemn council, the oldest acting as chairman, and all talking and discussing things the same as men do, in their own language. It is not said that they come to blows in their debates, as American Congressmen do, but that is doubtless because they know only French and German usages. The stork is a well behaved bird.
CHAPTER XL.
BADEN-BADEN AND THINGS THEREIN.
AT one time Baden-Baden was one of the most famous gambling places in the world, but it is now simply a fashionable watering place, very like Saratoga. It is beautifully situated in the valley of the Oos, at the entrance to the Black Forest. During the time the gambling rooms flourished, great pains were taken to make it as attractive as possible. Long, wide avenues were laid out and planted with beautiful trees, picturesque drives were made, and all the natural advantages were improved a thousand fold, so that to-day it is one of the most beautiful spots imaginable.
The buildings, formerly the scenes of fashionable riot and dissipation, were built in the most elaborate manner and most lavishly decorated with beautiful frescoes by most eminent artists.
Nature made Baden-Baden a natural pleasure and health resort, and wherever men and women go for pleasure or health you may be sure of meeting vice in almost every form. The pleasure seekers must be perpetually stimulated, and those who haunt mineral springs to recover health, generally lost by persistent following of vicious practices, come expecting the waters to build them up to the resumption of the vices that brought them down. Consequently they gamble.
A few years ago Baden-Baden was the head centre of gambling for the world. The Frenchman, Englishman, German, Russian, American, Turk, and, for that matter, men of all nations came here to drink the waters, take the baths and gamble. Following in the train of the rich invalids came the professional gamblers, hawks following pigeons everywhere.
The government gave the exclusive right to manage a
