The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-10-29

years been supreme, and that no substantial
change in their condition is likely to occur.
Nor from the pocket-potentate himself, who,
whatever may be the feelings with which he
sees his easy sway over two millions of souls
and six thousand fertile square miles wrested
from him, and the brilliant historic memories
of his family, covering space of more than
q thousand years, ruthlessly dispersed and
obliterated, is far too cautious to give them
offensive utterance. They are in no sense
the outcry of wounded patriotism or OF
outraged honor. The lamentation is purely
of social and fashionable origin, and it comes
from the lively capitals of st. Petersburg and
Vienna, from the Boulevards of Paris, and
from Belgravia and Bloomsbury. Its echo may
be family heard in our own Fifth Avenue
For Baden was by universal consent and usage
the shining central European rendezvous of all
that is most alluring and fascinating in the
dainty dissipations and the captivating cor
ruptions of modern existence. We mean, OF
course, by Baden, the pretty town upon
the banks of the Oos with its little popula-
tion of 1000 permanent inhabitants, and ITS
annual overflow of a quarter of MIL
lion. For the pleasure-seeking world, no
other Baden exists. Carlsruhe, the political
capital, Mannheim the commercial, and Hel-
delberg, the intellectual, are unknown lands.
Baden-Baden M. Benazets stronghold, the
capital of vice, alone claims their attention
and arrests their footsteps. For twenty years
it has been the Mecca of gilded folly, extra
/ vagance, passion, and infamy. For twenty
years its continually increasing armies OF de-
votees have clung to it with unswerylnS
tenacity. Now the hour of separation has
come. It's guilty glories will presently cease
to glow; for Prussia whatever her other
weaknesses, has one virtuous impulse, and
that is the summary eXtirpation of all licensed
gaming haunts within her borders.
Baden-Baden is a natural Paradise and
Prussia could not, If it would, destroy the in
Vulnerable charms of its picturesque ruins, its
perfumed meadows, its lovely valleys, and its
stately forest-covered hills. But, unlucllily,
these are not the real attractions TO the multi
tude who yearly make it their temporary
home The only brightness that such scenic
attributes possess in the eyes of the vast
majority of visitors is reflected from the un-
wholesome glare of the Conversation Hall
so called, perhaps, because the Internal
frenzy that seizes upon all who enter it at
once and effectively precludes every inter
ceange of thought The rainbow huos of
field and sky are forgotten in the harlequin
colors of rOuge-et-noir; the fresh and invigo-
rating breezes in the sitting crowds that
hurry day and night to fight with fortune;
the pleasant murmurings of the harps in
| the Old Castle in the dull, ,monotonous click of
the roulette ball; the outward atmosphere of
ineifable tranquility and gentleness in the hot
strife and anguish and greed of play Vice
banished from Baden will leave it purified
resort for the few who can be satisfied with
nature, unstained by those tawdry and ruin
Gus, accessories which blase and profigate APP
petites demand, but as the blazing focus of
wild excitement and lurid license, its day will
soon have passed. In its new character of a
small provincial town it will lose all the gaudy
glitter which now distinguishes it, but we
may, nevertheless, congratulate it on the
prospect of better if an humber future
one more in harmony with the matchless
physical endowments it enjoys