I notice across the street, outside of the double window sashes, heavy coarse curtains drawn up, which are lowered at night to protect from cold and storms. What are the white and colored objects hanging against the glass, and what do the flower-vases contain? They are a counterpart of the porcelain variegated transparencies suspended from mine, with similar tulips; but it strikes me that my two India rubber trees, with their long green leaves, are more attractive. The people are very fond of these window decorations.
The droschki drivers, thickly clad, are dozing upon their seats. Here comes a customer. The driver gives him a ticket, as he enters, with the number of his vehicle, in case of reclamation, in default of which he is amenable to the police. He receives so many checks from his employer daily, and is responsible for them.
Our American ladies are shocked at seeing women sawing wood, carrying coal, making mortar, working upon the land, and performing all sorts of manual labor. A pair of harnessed cows before a wagon containing five or six ruddy-faced, thick-waisted, bare-headed, or cap-covered, country costumed bauerinnen, or peasant women, is quite a ludicrous sight.
This last sentence, I notice, partakes a little of the German form of writing. It must be atmospheric. In the works of some German writers, one sometimes reads a third of a page before finding the meaning of the sentence, the construction of the language having the advantage of keeping up and increasing attention to the end. The word which least defines the subject is placed at the beginning of the sentence. Then come those words which define it in a higher degree, so that the word which most determines the meaning of the phrase, is at the end. It is one of the richest and most beautiful of living languages for its literature, but exceedingly difficult to acquire, and few Germans speak their language grammatically. Dialects are found all over Europe; and in many parts, the distance of a few miles changes the patois. In no single country, for its extent, is a language (notwithstanding the slang, or provincialisms) so generally well spoken, as in the United States. With a knowledge of English, the traveller may visit all parts of our country, with slight exceptions, and hold intercourse with all classes, which cannot be done even in some parts of Great Britain.
Unconsciously this letter has been drawn out to an unusual length, and I fancy I hear you cry out, “Halten sie an!”
CXXI.
Breslau, Silesia, Feb. 10, 1857.
On my way south to the Austrian capital, instead of taking my former route, via Dresden and Prague, from which cities you heard from me two years since, I have made the detour to this place ostensibly to visit a travelling acquaintance, who had passed several months with me in Turkey, Greece, Egypt, and the Holy Land.
Breslau, with its suburbs, has a population of one hundred and twenty-five thousand, and has its attractions for the students, nine hundred of whom attend the University, which has a public library of three hundred thousand volumes. There is an interesting Zoological Museum, some antique churches, and other objects worth seeing. The public walks upon the former bastions, now planted with trees, with views upon the river Oder, whose branches traverse the city, are quite pretty, but fevers are the natural result there in summer. It is a bustling, active, trading city. The carnival season is now at hand. At a citizens’ masked and unmasked ball, given at the theatre, I noticed more variety of costume, more characters assumed and carried out with more life and animation than is generally manifested in Germany on similar occasions. I was struck with the contrast, having in Berlin recently attended the first of a series of three balls, given at the grand opera-house, and attended by the king and royal family. The attendance consisted only of those whose names guaranteed the privilege of a ticket, and ladies could not appear without the expenditure of large sums in dress; foreign ministers, civil and military officers, were covered with orders. The galleries, passages, and stairs, as well as the rear of the stage and parterre, which were planked over, were converted into a tropical garden of plants, flowers, and festoons of laurel. There was an excellent orchestra, and the supper halls were well garnished with dainties and substantials. The quantities of diamonds, emeralds, and rubies, with the scores of gas-lights, dazzled the eyes; the value of these baubles, properly applied, would prevent any further increase of taxation, a subject which is now agitating the country. The ball was numerously attended by the leading nobility and the whole retinue of the court; beauty and ugliness were there in the richest and most extravagant apparel. The variety of characters and uniforms in the waltz and dance, was undoubtedly calculated to strike one at first glance with wonder and admiration, but with a certain amount of restraint; the guests did not seem to enjoy themselves very much.
I adverted in my last, or meant to if I did not, to the practice of duelling still kept up by the German students, and winked at by the authorities, and even the professors themselves, who not unfrequently wear the marks of old duels upon their faces. Many clubs exist among these youths, whose different colored caps denote their members. They have their different places of rendezvous for pastime, drinking, and smoking.