The Express.
London, England, 1861-10-26 00:00:00

THE ILLUMINATIONS.

(fox ore smut. cosszsrosmzirri
BERLIN, Ocr. 23.
My last letter brought the ceremonial of yester-
day morning to a successful termination, but the
day's record would not be complete did I not also
send you a few words respecting the evening's illu- I
lulu:Alan. Great exertions had been made by the'
civic authorities and the proprietors of the principal
hotels to produce a splendid effect, and itl
may he said that their united efforts were
entirely successful. The corporation bad issued
a programme, the style of which indicated very
clearly the stupendous intentions of the compilers.
We were told, for example, "that besides these
(meaning all previously enumerated) illuminations
there will be over the city a great horizontal system
of splendid fireworks, thrown up by means of fire
balloons, which (rather needles= information) will
be ultimately burnt. These balloons will light
themselves in glancing illumination even to the
height of 2,000 or 3,000 feet. They will then effect
a conflagration of the various bodies contained in
them, and will burn away, showering down many
varieties of fireworks."
When I started out for a walk in the Linden, to
see this programme worked out, I found that all its
directions had been complied with, for every public
11 building was a Maze of gas device or many coloured
lamps; windows were filled with emblematic trans-
' parencies, and crowds were collected round each,
criticising or applauding as the effect came up to
their expectation. The number of people in the
streets was immense, and the circulation rather
difficult, but as there were no police to interfere
everyone seemed to arrange matters amicably with
his neighbour.
It may be easily imagined how fine was the effect
in the great central avenue of the city. If you be-
gan at the Royal Palace, you found the whole of its
unmet's° exterior illuminated by means of the elec-
tric light, which brought out the most marvellous
contrasts ; am l passing on a little further, in the
Caine direction, you saw a large open Plata rsr
market, I am not certain as to the name, beauti-
fully illtuninatod in a similar manner. The way
here having become impassable in consequence of
the interminable columns of the trades which were
returning from the Palace, I retraced my steps,
stopping fur another view at the Palace-bridge.
Everyone who knows this tine bridge, with its
splendid group; of statuary, can imagine how
well it looked when illumined with many co-
loured lights, and decked with festoons of leaves
and flowers.

From this point my eye was principally attracted
by the .front of the Museum, the beautiful frescoes
of which could be seen under the strong blaze of the
electric light as clearly and perhaps more effec-
tively than in the day time. Kiss's Amazon and
Tiger never, perhaps, looked so well, although its
glory was on this occasion somewhat eclipsed by
the gilt bronze group on the opposite pedestal.
Close at hand the quaint form of the Roman
catholic church—that of a cupola set on the ground
—was fully delineated in coloured lamps, the moat
conspicuous device being a cross which covered the
whole front of the building. Passing this we came
to the Linden Strange itself, which showed by the
splendour of its illuminations how little it resented
its omission from the procession of the morning.
The Opera-house looked maguiticeut;and next to
it the Palace of the Crown Prince presented a royal
crown, the brilliancy of which lighted up the
whole neighbourhood. Along with other gazers,
I had established myself in a very comfortable
position on its steps, from which I
could command the whole vista down to
the Brandenburg gate ; but a sudden charge of
dragoons and the rapid sweeping up of a royal
carriage soon rendered a precipitous retreat a mai-
ter of obvious arrangement. I must, however, do
the dragoons and the royal guards the justice to say
that they charged very politely and good-humour-
edly. They did not flourish nor even show their
swords, but with their hands waved the people
away, whilst their horses, standing principally on
their hind legs, gave a very intelligible intimation
of what might be the consequence of refusal. Every
one said " All right," !iu excellent German, and then
every one cleared away, giving a lusty cheer for the
Crown Princess, the arrival of whose carriage had,
they believed, caused their sudden ejectment.
We Lad plenty of time to look at everything, as
wo made our way very slowly down to the Bran-
denburg gate ; but everything looked exceedingly
like everything else, the outlines of the public
buildings being all traced out in gas jets, and the
windows of the private homes rather economically
illuminated with two candles in each, with a
bouquet of flowers standing between. I thought
at find that this must be taken as indicating rather
a parsimonious turn in the inhabitants ; but when
1 afterwards learnt from my hotel bills that candles
are a thaler a piece iu Berlin, I formed a rather
more respectful estimate of the demonstration.
There was a splendid fountain of gas in the middle
of the street, round which an immense crowd of
people constantly congregated, and, a little further
on, the noble monument of Frederick the Great
was, with excellent taste, just so much lighted as
to enable people to see the marvellous beauty of
the design and workmanship. The great King,
fixed in imperishable bronze, looked calmly down
upon his generals and statesmen, grouped ro 1
the pedestal upon which rusted the hoofs of his
charger ; and Prussia of the nineteenth century
looked up at the Prussian of the eighteenth, and
sang their " Volkslied" in strains of patriotic—
Laps of prophetic enthusiasm. Thegreat hotels—
hotels are everywhere the greatest things on the con-
tinent—devoted a liberal proportion of their horrid
exactions upon strangers to a magnificent lighting
up. Their devices were well and tastefully chosen,
and were almost universal, the only exception I
noticed being the Hotel de Rusaie close to the
Palace-bridge, and which, although actually facing
the Schloss, presented a front of Cimmerian dark-
ness during the evening.
The Brandenburg gate is, as you are aware, sur-
mounted by a splendid horse-group, to which
history is attached, of which perhaps the Duke of
Magenta may remember something. On this occa-
sion a row of lights was so placed as to throw out
the horses conspicuously, whilst the lights them-
selves were invisible, and here, therefore, I may,
perhaps, say was produced the most striking and
beautiful of all the illuminations. Such were the
most noticeable features of the house devices ; but
in addition we had the corporation "balloons,"
whose " ghuicingilluminations" were to astonish the
natives at a height of 2,000 or 3,000 feet in the air.
I saw a good many of them sent up, but I coufess they
did not astonish me much, although they pleased
the people, who clapped their hands in childish de-
light, whilst the children themselves ran about with
little fire-balloons of their own, fastened ou the ends
of sticks, and which they made very effective iu in.
creasuingthe danger of every adult passenger who
attempted to get over a crossing. As usual, all the
vehicles in the city had been put into requisition by
people anxious to see the sight at their ease, but
their occupants made little progress, notwithstand-
ing the most praiseworthy attempts on the part of
the coachmen to run over everything thatobstructed
their progress.

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