Though all these spas, or baths, as they are styled, are in Germany, they are visited during the season, extending from May to October, by invalids and pleasure-seekers from every civilized country. July and August are the most fashionable months, and then the springs are frequented by French, Spaniards, Dutch, English, and Americans, as well as Germans. The principal patrons, independent of the home population, are from France, England, and our own country, albeit almost every nationality under the sun is represented at those centres of folly and dissipation. I have seen Turks and Armenians at Baden, Greeks and Persians at Homburg, Egyptians and East Indians at Wiesbaden, and Mongols and Arabians at Ems.
Baden (it is called Baden-Baden to distinguish it from other places of the same name) is the most fashionable of the four resorts, and cannot be surpassed for the beauty of its scenery. The picturesque heights rising above the valley, the ruins of the old castle overlooking it, the magnificent views, the pleasant drives, handsome villas, and charming walks in the neighborhood, with the agreeable and varied society, render it remarkably inviting. The number of strangers annually flocking to Baden is from fifty to sixty thousand, and these, especially in midsummer, crowd the hotels and countless boarding-houses to overflowing.
Homburg within the past ten years has also become very fashionable, and counts its summer visitors by the tens of thousands. It lacks the pictorial quality of Baden, but its atmosphere is reputed to be extremely salubrious, and its society is delightful, of course. Being so near Frankfort, many persons, particularly those in delicate health, reside there all the year round, and many of the Frankforters have their residences at the springs.
Wiesbaden, even more than Homburg, is the home of the denizens of the old German capital, and by reason of its larger population, has greater attractions than the rival watering-place. A large number of retired bankers and merchants from various parts of the Continent have villas at Wiesbaden, and every year the number increases.
QUALITY OF THE VISITORS.
Ems has had, and still has, the reputation of being patronized extensively by crowned heads and the nobility; but the prosperous and pleasure-loving generally are hieing to the banks of the Lahn more and more every season, and making its society more agreeable and democratic at the same time. The annual attendance is much less than at any of the other three springs, but they who go to Ems claim that the quality of its visitors more than compensates for any want of quantity.
The four German spas are on the whole very much alike, barring topical features. They each claim great antiquity in regard to the fame of their waters, holding, and upon good grounds, that the old Romans found vast benefit in the healing virtues of the baths. For generations they were frequented only by invalids, but of late years gayety and enjoyment have been the object of the majority of their patrons. The gambling, it must be confessed, has been, and is still, the chief attraction; not so much because all the visitors wish to play themselves, but they like to see others play, and to be part of the great variety of people whom the tables draw to the different spas. Since the gambling has ceased, as it did last year (1872), the German watering-places have lost much of their allurement, and the thousands who used to go there will be represented by hundreds merely. What is considered wickedness has unquestionably its spice and charm for the average mind, and a certain departure from the customary and conventional creates a species of magnetism.
The games at the baths are roulette and rouge-et-noir, frequently called trente-et-quarante. The smallest stake allowed at roulette is a florin (about fifty cents) and at rouge-et-noir two florins. The largest bet that can be made at the former is four thousand florins, and the largest bet that can be made at the latter game is five thousand six hundred florins. The capital at the roulette table is thirty thousand francs (six thousand dollars), and at rouge-et-noir one hundred and fifty thousand francs (thirty thousand dollars). When this sum is won by any of the bettors, the bank is declared broken, and the table is closed for the day, but is re-opened on the day following for all to test still further their good or ill luck. Newspaper correspondents are constantly writing about the breaking of the bank at Baden or Homburg, depending, as many such writers do, upon their imagination for their facts. The truth is, the bank is very seldom broken,—sometimes not more than once or twice during the whole season,—and when it is, it almost invariably wins back from the fortunate player all, and much more than he has gained.
SPLENDOR OF THE SALOONS.
The gambling saloons are in large and splendid buildings, beautifully frescoed and gilded in the interior, and luxuriously furnished. They are called the Conversationshaus, the Cursaal or Curhaus, containing, in addition to the gambling tables, spacious apartments for reading, dining, dancing, and lounging. The tables are thronged during the height of the season by elegantly dressed men and women of divers nationalities. They are presided over by the banker,—so he is styled,—who receives and pays out the money, and keeps general watch over the game, and by several croupiers, who with a little rake, draw in or push out the stakes as they are won or lost by the bank. During July and August, the gaming saloons, in which there are generally six or eight roulette or rouge-et-noir tables, present a brilliant spectacle. Anybody may enter, if he be respectably dressed and well-mannered, though he must leave his cane or umbrella with the lackeys in the vestibule, remove his hat, and refrain from speaking above a whisper. Why the Goddess of Chance should be entitled to the homage of silence may seem singular; but when it is remembered that all gamesters, while engaged at play, are exceedingly nervous, and therefore morbidly sensitive, it is plain enough why the strictest order and quiet should be carefully preserved.