Mineral Point weekly tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1859-1868, 1863-12-30
4 Berlin Custom.

4 Berlin Custom.
1t would be an omission 70 talk of dinners
IN Berlin without mentioning one singular Gus
tom that prevails custom | have met with
IN no other part of Germany, aud which be-
heve TO be confined TO this capital, or at least
tc be unknown beyond a very limited district
OF Prussia. When, the meal being at an end.
the diners rise from the table and pass into
another room, they turn to each other and
90 through set form of bowling and saluta-
ton Everybody bows to everybody the
ladies cSrtesy, Prussian ladies are ant to
curtesy, with an elaborate grace and formal
", worthy of the DAYS of the minuet: |
think L DO not err when | say that | have
seen some men shake hands and women even
KISS each other; but if this took place it was
only after some remarkably good dinner Oc-
casIonaily you hear something murmured by
the person bowling to you, but as to whether
there may be any set form of speech az pro-
pirate to the ceremony, | confess lay ignol-
ance. The intention Is doubtless Il friendly
one; that namely, of desiring to YOU good
digestion-which really considering the COM
position of many Berlin dinners is no super
huous wish. 1t is in another form, the Buen
proverbs !'-may it profit you-af the court
eous Spaniard when he finds YOU at a meal.
As to the rise of the practice it is difficult to
speak-whether it be ancient Wendish
usage, handed down through centuries. or
modern innovation, first suggested by tough
vlandS and an anti-gastric style of cookery.
Ii 1t be borrowed from any other country it
has doubtless died out in the land of its orr
gin. | have remarked that some Berliners
seemed rather ashamed of it, as of something
old-fashloned or out of date, that must seem
ridiculous to foreigners but in truth there is
nothing Objectionable in the custom which is
a cordial and courteous one, although strang-
ers may be apt to stare little when, for the
hrst time, Immediately after dinner, they be-
mold the entire company bowling in pairs and
then facing TO the right about to renew the
performance with somebody else and so on
until they have gone through the whole party
POETRY OF MACKEREL FIsHING-Cliffs over
head, ribbed and Scared four hundred feet in
height, over which peeped many gallant
deer Stacks of roek-island at their feet, as
large as great men-ofwar with all sails set,
ribboned with yellow, black and red, pierced
with vast arches, through shone the infinite
gieam OF the Atlantic; round the stacks and
in and out of the arches mackerel in tens of
thousands, breaking water an acre at a time.
with soft roar, as, out of the water, flashed
before them millions of shining splinters-
some water-beads sparkling in the sun, some
= brett the herring fry which they had
chased IN shore. In among them the boat
slides, with three lines out, and each are Ia
ken ere the bait was two oars length from
the boat; while overhead and all around was
Babel OF wings and voices which confused
eye and ear-alike of mer and clearwater
blackjack and herring-gull, hacklet and cor
morant-diving, gobbling, SCANNING cacklins,
laughing, hghting--and overhead two or three
stately gannets, too proud to mingle with the
common herd, sailed round "a hundred feet in
air, in search of vacant spot, and then
g Fell from the sky, like god, while the wind rat
tied hoarse in their pinions -
and rushed under the water, throwing IN a
perpendicular jet of spray, exactly as does a
cannon ball. And, over all, nearest the roof
OF clOudess blue sailed out from her evrie in
the white cliff the great hen-peregrrine, the
queen Of all the shore Slowly the falcon
slides round and round, cycling the mob be
low, till some fat herring-gull full gorged with
| mackerel, flaps lazily away to digest. In a
moment the great falcons wings are closed
| over her back. With one long silent rush
she has reached him, and those terrible hind
talons, which can strike the life out of NAL
| lard's brain, and drop him into the mire at a
single stroke, are fast in the gull's shoulders
| but not to kill. After moments Tapping
| and screaming, adversely gives him wit, and
| necessity invention. Down drops mackerel
| shamefully disgorged, and down after il drops
| the falcon, and, catching the fish in mid air,
| bears 1t of III triumph to the ledge where her
| young are barking for their dinner And so
goes on the great hungry world. as it has
gone since the first LinguIa or Crthis gaped
| IN pre-Silurian seas, some hundred and ninety
nine millions of years ago, and as much more
| as Sir Charles Lyell has need of-coniugating
| the primary verb g To eat - eat thee ne
eats me; they eat him; other theys eat them;
and so forth, ad fl.itanl.- Professor hinqs
leg, IN he Rea,}er.