Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1863-12-31
4 Berlin Custom.

1t would be an omission TO talk of dinners
IN Berlin without mentioning one singular Gus
tom that PREVAILS custom | have met with
In no other part of Germany, and which be-
heve to be confined to this capital, or at least
to be unknown beyond 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
go through set form of bowling and saluta-
ton. Everybody bows to everybody the
ladies curtesy, as Prussan ladies are apt 10
curtesy, with an elaborate grace and formali-
ty, worthy of the days of the minuet; |
think do not err when l say that l 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-
casonally YOU hear something murmured by
tn" person bowling to you, but as to whether
there may be any set form of speech appro-
pirate to the ceremony, | confess my ignor-
ance. The intention is doubtless a friendly
one; that namely, of desiring to you good
lgestion-which really, considering the COM
position of many Berlin dinners, is no super
fuous wish. 1t is in another form, the Buen
proverbs r'-may it profit you-of 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 an ancient Wendish
modern innovation, first suggested by tough
vlands and an anti-gastric style of cookery.
If 1t be borrowed from any other country it
has doubtless died out in the land of its ORR
gin. L have remarked that some Berliners
seemed rather ashamed of it, as of something
old-tashloned or out Of date that must seem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 a little when, for the
first time, Immediately after dinner, they be-
hold 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 FIsHNG.-CIiffs over
head, ribbed and scared, four hundred feet in
height, over which peeped many a gallant
deer! Stacks of rock-isand at their feet, as
large as great men-of-war 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 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, sceanaing, cackling,
laughing, fighting-and overhead two or three
| stately gannets, too proud to mingle with the
common herd, sailed round hundred feet in
air, In search of a vacant spot, and then
{. Fell from the sky, like god, while the wind rat
tied hoarse In their pinions -
and rushed under the water. throwing nm a
perpendicular jet of spray, exactly as does
| cannon ball. And, over all, nearest the roof
Of cloudless blue, sailed out from her eyrie 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 fatherring gull, full gorged with
| mackerel, flaps lazily away to digest. In
| 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 CULTS shoulders;
but not to kill. After moments tapping
and screaming, adversely gives him wit, and
necessity invention. Down drops mackerel,
shametully disgorged, and down after it drops
the falcon, and, catching the fish in mid-air,
bears it off 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 Lingula Or Orthis 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-conjugating
| the primary verb "To eat u eat thee he
eats me- they eat him; other theys eat them;
and so forth, ed intf"it~"e.-Prctessor Kings
leg, IN tie Ieaoer.