The Sun.
London, England, 1869-07-07 00:00:00

(From a German Lady.)

"AMERICANS IN DRESDEN.—Since I had the pleasure of
making your acquaintance, dear Miss—the number of your
compatriots who have chosen Dresden for their temporary
abode has increased greatly, and my intercourse with them
has been such as to call forth reflections which, if you will
allow me, I wish to submit to your judgment, hoping that
you will refute them where you find them erroneous.
Dresden has been, as you may know, since the war with
Napoleon I. the resort of foreigners, who found themselves
attracted by the beauty of the country, the cheapness of
living, and, above all, by the exquisite picture gallery, and
an opera, which, once upon a time, was the finest in Eu-
rope. In particular, English families have resorted to this
place in order to give to their children the benefit of a first
rate education, which 'their restricted means did not al-
low them to do at home. They have taught the inha-
bitants to furnish rooms, to open boarding-houses, and
to establish schools that suited their demands. These
English residents have had some influence on the inhabi-
tants. They have made them acquainted with comforts
never before known, and have given to the ladies an ex-
ample of independence foreign to the German customs, the
consequence of which has been that single ladies, as well
as widows and spinsters, have flocked to this town and
procured for it the name of the 'Jerusalem of Women.'
Another thing these English residents have done for us

has been to give us an example of conjugal domestic life
far above the aspirations of our fair damsels. The middle

class of England, you may know, are far famed for their
attachment to home and hearth ; and wherever they go
they adhere to this predilection. They have introduced
here open fireplaces, before which their tea table is spread
at eight o'clock in the evening, when a dropper-iu is wel-
come. Husband and wife are, as it were, inseparable and
share what life brings iu the shape of pleasure and of woe."
AMERICAN MOTLIEaS.—" When, after your war, the
Americans, prompted by a desire to economise, did Dres-
den the honour to make it their temporary residence, the
inhabitants, bearing the English language, knowing your
English descent, felt quite familiar with foreigners who
were no longer strangers to them ; but soon they became
aware of their mistake. The new arrivals, although pro-
fessing the same purposes—to economise, and to educate
their children—did not take the same means to these ends.
They wanted to live cheaply, but desired all the luxuries
of their home, and grumbled at not being able to get them
for nothing, showing a discontent very little to their cre-
dit. Moreover, they looked down with a sort of contempt
on this country, where the people live on so little and live
so cheaply, because they can do without those costly
luxuries which the strangers coveted as indispensable to

their happiness. Very soon they began to understand that
we have to pay for luxuries here almost as much as you do
in America, and that to live cheaply they must come
down to our simplicity. The discontent of the mothers
imparted itself to the children ; and fathers there were
none—or at least few. If there had been fathers Ido not
know but they would have said : children, you are
here in order to get what stands highest in civilised na-
tions—culture of mind : we are a young country, and a
man has first to build his house before ho can hang up his
pictures, place his piano and his statues ; but by-and-by
we shall live for the same things as we do here.' But, as
I have said, the fathers were wanting. To our utter
astonishment the American ladies had left their husbands
behind. The German mothers could not comprehend how
marriage ties could hang so loosely on them as to be
thrown off without a peremptory necessity. If these Ame-
rican husbands could do without their wives and daugh-
ters after having tasted the sweetness of domestic life,
they could not have felt happy in the possession of such a
partner in sadness and in joy, else they would not have
consented to the separation. The German ladies looked
contemptuously upon these travelling mothers. America
had been called amongst us the paradise of women ; but
our German women no longer envied them this paradise,
in which Adam could do without Eve. In consequence,
these roaming ladies, who preferred pleasure to duty, were