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JOURNEY TO BERLIN.

cious gasthof, or public house, kept by a decent young man with a very pretty wife. Here we were indulged with the music of Bohemian minstrels, and here too we were visited by the Prussian commissary, who not having the fear of pestilential fomites before his eyes, condescended to drink a bottle of Hungarian wine at our expense. While thus engaged, this gentleman exhibited to our wondering and delighted eyes, an error in the date of our passports, by which it appeared that we had left Prague four days earlier than we imagined; and as the quarantine here always dated from the period of quitting any cholera-struck city, it was clear we had only one day's detention to endure. The whole matter was most satisfactorily demonstrated, and we therefore returned into Prussia the following morning, meeting with no adventure in our journey from Eibersdorff to Frankfort on the Oder, excepting a bouleversement over the edge of a precipice seven feet deep, which smashed our wicker vehicle, lamed a horse irrecoverably, and inflicted sundry bruises and contusions on the travellers.

CHAPTER V.

Berlin-Hotel St. Petersburg-Boots-Military atmosphere-Characteristics of Berlin-The King-The Arsenal-The Museum-The Cabinet of Curiosities-The Parades-The Opera and Theatres-The AsylumsLeave Berlin-Magdebourg-Brunswick-Hanover.

It was on a fine frosty night, late in January, that our wagen rattled out of a noble avenue into a capacious street which I took for the commencement of the suburbs of Berlin, for as yet we had passed no thor, or entrance gate. Our drive through paved and gas-lighted streets continued for a quarter of an hour, at the end of which we came to a full stop. I drew out my passport and waited for the demand which generally proceeded from the serjeants of the

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ARRIVAL AT BERLIN.

barrier guards in Austria, Russia, and Bohemia, when suddenly the post-boy appeared at the door and announced that we had reached our destination, the Hotel Goldenen Adler, (Golden Eagle.) What! enter the Prussian capital without showing a passport or submitting our baggage to the inspection of the douairiers? Away went one long-cherished prejudice against Prussian espionage and police dominion. We are getting into a freer atmosphere, thought I, and for the moment I forgot that I was within the pale of a military despotism.

The domicile chosen for us by our Hebrew associate was dark, cold, dirty, and dear. The landlord loved his ease, the kellner * loved the madchen,+ and the maid loved filth.

I departed on the second day, exchanging the patronage of the Golden Eagle for the comforts of the Hotel St. Petersburg. The title was somewhat unmusical while Poland's sufferings yet rang in my ears; but I had already experienced that "all is not gold that glitters,"

A GERMAN BOOTS.

109

and by parity of reasoning, surmised that all was not Russian that sounded so. Mr. Heudtlass, the landlord, turned up a trump; he had been cuisinier de la bouche du roi, prior to his installation as caterer general in the Unter den Linden,* and was as civil, attentive, and moderate in his charges as any rational Englishman could desire. The waiters, like all waiters in Germany, were independent, yet courteous"suaviter in modo, et fortiter in re;"-and Boots, who combined with his ordinary avocations, that of fire-lighter in the guest's chambers, told me the news and taught me German.

A German Boots is decidedly a different being to his namesake in England, though some travellers have pretended to trace a resemblance between the two. That they are both shining characters no one can deny; but our own boots is unquestionably a man of a much higher polish; for while he distributes Warren's jet from the heel to the calf, the Deutschlander

* "Beneath the trees," the name of the chief street in Berlin.

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GERMAN DANDIES.

contents himself with giving brilliancy to the instep, the toe, and parts thereunto adjacent, leaving the rest of the leg as undefinable in complexion as a cobbler's apron. But perhaps this penury of blacking is not so directly chargeable to Boots as to the petit-maîtres of Germany, who set the example of so large an economy in matters of dress, that there is scarcely one who, not to speak it profanely,' would not be called in England a dirty fellow. Shirts, stockings, &c. are considered by a large majority of Berlin and Vienna dandies, superfluous appendages to a wardrobe; and a washer-woman's bill exceeding three inches in length, a mark of extravagance utterly unpardonable in a well-regulated establishment.

6

I had not resided in Berlin three days before I took offence at three characteristics of the town. The first of these was the all-pervading military aspect-every thing smells of the moustache; ; the second was the constant presence in the streets of some prince of the blood royal or leader of hosts, making a perpetual demand on