American telegraph. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1851-1851, 1851-12-15
C0pRNHAGEN

scarcely be imagined. The streets, wide and
long, filled with spacious and lofty houses of
unspotted whiteness and built with great regu-
arity remind one somewhat of Bath, but that
the ground is leyel-many of them all but
equal in breadth to the lrishman's test Of street
architecture - Sackville-street Dublin. But
large squares break up their continuous lines
and the eye rests on fine statues, noble palaces
and splendid buildings devoted to the arts, to
amusement, to justice, or to the purposes of re-
ligion in every quarter of the city Copenha-
gen is but creation of the last century and,
after a little time spent there, large portion
of it gives the idea that it was built all Of u
sudden by some Danish Grissell and Peto ac-
cording to contract. Surrounded by deen
foss, by ramparts and intrenchments, defended
by formidable forts. and batteries, filed with
| the halls of kings, with churches, museums,
and castles, it combines the appearance Of a
new cut made by the royal Commissioners
through some old London rookery with the air
of an old feudal town. The moat prohibits
any considerable extension. Seen under a
bright cold sky, the blanched fronts Of the
houses, the white walls of the public edifces
the regularity of the streets, conveyed an i'm
preston of cleanliness, which could only be
destroyed when one happened to look down at
his feet or ceased to keep guard over his nose.
The paving is of the style which may be called
Titanic, and was never intended for any foot
garb less defensive than Sab0t or cahga.
The drainage is superfcial-that is, all the
liquid refuse of the city runs, or rather walks
| very leisurely along grooves in the pavement
| aforesaid, which are covered over by boards in
various stages of decomposition In summer,
the city must be worse than Berlin (which, by
the by, it very much resembles in many re-
spects) In spring time, after rain, my own ex-
perience tells me, it suggests forcible reminis
cences of the antique odors of Fleet Ditch.
One thing which soon strikes the stranger is
| the apparent want OF shops. But they are to
be found by those who want them. Nearly
| every trader carries on his business very mod
estly in his front parlor, and makes moderate
display of his stock in the ordinary window,
50 that the illusory and enchanting department
of trade is quite gone. A Danish gentleman
can walk out with his wife without the least
fear that he will fall victim to g a stupendous
sacrifice" or be inundated on the altar of an
imperative necessity to clear out in week.
| Moving through these streets is a quiet So
berly-attired population Bigger than most
foreigners, and with great roundness of muscle
| and size of bone, your Dane wants the dapper
air of the Frenchman, or the solemnty of the
| Spaniard while he is not SO bearded or so dirty
as the German. But then he smokes prodi-
giously, dresses moderately in the English style,
is addicted to jewelry in excess, and has habit
| of plodding along straight in the middle of the
/, road, with his head down, which must be q
matter Of considerable annoyance to the native
cabman He is, however amazingly polite.
He not only takes off his hat to every one he
knows but gives any lady acquaintance the
trouble of recognising him by bowling to her
before she has made up her mind whether the
| individual Is known or not. Another OF his
peculiarities is, that he always has dog |
should say, more correctly, there is always a
dog following him. for ] have seen an animal,
which seemed to be bound by the closest ties
to particular gentleman placidly leave him
at the corner of a street and set off on an in
dependent walk by itself These dogs are, in
fact, feature of the place by themselves. In
number they can only be excelled by the ca
nine scavengers of Carlo or Constantinople,
and in mongrelness and ugliness by no place
IN the world--not even in Tuum before the po-
tato rot They get up little extemporary
hunts through the squares, the trail being gene
rally the remnant OF an old rat, carried away
by the foremost and dash between your legs
from unexpected apertures in walls and houses,
so as to cause very unpleasant consequences to
the nervous or feeble sojourner. On seeking
for an explanation of their great abundance |
was informed that they were kept to kill rats.
But this is a mere dcluson. These dogs are
hours in pursuit of vermin. No; they retire as
soon as darkness sets in, and with darkness out
come the rats in the most perfect security.
Such rats they are as big as kittens, and their
saueaking under the wooden planks of the
cutters as you walk home is perfectly amazing.
The celebrated dog Billy would have died in n
week of violent exercise in any one street in
Copenhagen, giving him his usual allowance of
murder | must say that, in the matters of
paving dogs rats sewers, water and lights,
| Copenhagen is rather behind the rest Of the
world As to the lights, they are sparely
placed, and as yet gas is not used. With
laudable economy, the oil-wicks are extinguish-
ed when the moon shines, and the result is,
that sometimes an cnvious cloud leaves the
whole city in Cimmerian darkness for the rest
of the night, in consequence of five minutes
moonshine in the early part as, once put out,
they are not again relumed
In the crowd you meet many pale, SORROW
stricken women in mourning and now and
then poor soldier limps before you, with re-
cent bandages on his stump, or hobbies along
Iimpingly, with perhaps sabre-cut across the
face, or an empty coat-sleeve dangling from his
| shoulder; and then you remember all the nor
rors the late war must have caused Denmark,
when, out of her small population, 10000 men
were under arms in the field. 1t can scarcely
atone for this sight to meet dashng hussars,
with their red coats and shecpskin calpacks;
heavy dragons in light-blue and dark-green :.
layers in smart frocks of olive green, decorated
with stars and ribands, and staggering along
in all the pride of having smelt powder and
done their duty. They are numerous enough
indeed. every third man is soldier but one Of
these sad widows or orphans is an antidote to
the glorios Of these fine heroes scarcely less
tl,o,, Of he apnctocla of thoir