The great achievement of the submarine telegraph strikes all with amazement, and the masses begin to comprehend that America is considerable of a country. The peasants have heard that grain in our country is sowed, harvested, threshed, and cleaned by machines, instead of manual labor, and the inquiry is, how is it possible?
Our failure in commercial affairs, through extended enterprise, improvements, and fast living, made Europe feel our importance, and from which it still suffers. We retrenched, stopped buying goods, and economized in public and private outlays, which cannot be done here with their standing armies and expensive court charges; and now I remark our banks are loaded down with specie, new gold discoveries are added to the stock, and only the movement of commerce is needed to put the wheels again in motion.
What would our farmers say if every head of cattle sold, paid a tax of two dollars for slaughtering privilege, and smaller animals in proportion; and every sale of houses and land from five to ten per cent. to the crown.
Hotelkeepers and owners of private houses, for neglect in announcing to the police the harboring a friend or stranger over night, have to pay from five to ten guilders.
CXLV.
Copenhagen, Denmark, Sept 12, 1858.
I had not the remotest idea of revisiting this northern region when I wrote you last; but such are the extraordinary facilities of locomotion in this age, that one finds himself within a few days transported hundreds and thousands of miles. I was on my way to Swinemunde, on the Baltic, for sea bathing, when I heard that my old friend Captain Irminger, with whom I visited Caraccas, La Guayra, and Porto Cabello in Venezuela, and the Island of Curaçoa, and who landed me on the small island of Beati, south of Hayti, many years since, from the brig-of-war Örnen, was now residing in this city as admiral of the Danish fleet, and I felt that I could not resist the desire of seeing him again.
I can scarcely realize the fact that at this time last year I had just returned home for a visit, and have since passed over so much ground in Europe, Asia, and Africa. It seems but yesterday that I was climbing the mountains of Circassia, or travelling rapidly over the steppes of Southern Russia, or wandering through the ruins of Sebastopol, passing in review within the year Arabs, Egyptians, Turks, Circassians, Georgians, Greeks, Hungarians, Moldavians, and a host of other races; but when I reflect that space is now almost annihilated, I must be reconciled to the fact, and turn my attention to the quiet and peaceful Dane, and mark the changes, if any, since I saw him for the first time.
From Marienbad I came twenty miles to Franzensbad, not remarkable for its position, but somewhat for the healing qualities of its waters, of which about two hundred thousand jugs are sent away, and about two hundred invalids visit it annually.
What struck me as most singular are the Schlambäder, or Turf Baths, charged with alkali, salt, and iron. One large bath house is adapted to this use. A number of men are employed digging and wheeling in turf, which is broken and ground in a mill, not unlike the breaking of clay for brickmaking. A steam engine of sixteen horse power is employed for this use, as also for pumping and for the heating of the water reservoirs. The bath tubs are mounted on wheels, filled with the black mixture, like thick mud, and rolled through the inner courtyard and in the outer door of the bath rooms. The patient takes his bath and then jumps into another of equally hot water, for washing and cleansing himself. The cost of such a bath is only half a dollar. They are said to be extremely strengthening after the use of other baths and water drinking, and particularly useful in rheumatic and paralytic afflictions. A couple of days was quite sufficient to familiarize one’s self with the springs, grounds, advantages, and disadvantages of the locality.