Delaware gazette. [volume] (Delaware, Ohio) 1855-1886, 1870-12-30
rIewaoF nERL1E, PRussIA.



thought themselves to see churchyard.
/ iChurchyard In and about Berlin, means
graveyard. It does not mean cemetery,
if your idea Of a cemetery IS a roomy up
hill and downhill stretch of greensward
wood, knoll, blooming dingle In spring
time, like Oak Grove IN Delaware Be
cause, first, the city IS old-fashioned in
| graveyards second, if it were not, all
the land in and out of 1t is sterile,
bald and fat almost as fat as a grid
die, almost as bald as II can be.
i Now, the notion of seeing a church
yard was nothing new at all, but the
churchyard itself was as new as new
could be- One day Paul came home
loaded with howerpots. Among them
was one with a wondrous pink lily
which drew so many eyes to it that, at
last, Madame said, ''Yes it is for my
husbands grave; tomorrow IS his birth
| day. Tomorrow, at noon, she said,
Il am going to plant my flowers come
with me. -
We took this offer as simply as If was
meant, for we had long before found out
that this good people IS much too social
to be fond Of secret joys and sorrows.
So Paul ran OUT for a droschy, and
soon, armed and barricaded with
howerpots, we were driving fast away.
/ After half an hour in dingy, crooked
I streets, and half an hour on a sunbaked
grass desert beyond them. we came to a
Wretched old church and a wall. We
unlatched little wicket gate and step
| ped into what seemed to be a gay and
festive place with straight white alleys
and green and cleaning parteres. Like
no graveyard, ! should say, but like a
garden And in the distance like n
piece of soft plush, green and white in
even plaids checked off with smaller,
darker ones wrought in blue, scarlet,
and purple and yellow colOrs. These
smaller checks were the graves spread
over with dark ivy and flowers. They
stood out in bright relief, and partly be-
I cause of their rich colors, and partly be-
cause they were shaped Just like the
German beds, tall and slim. There
were flowers growing and flowers IN
wreaths and bouquets. 1t IS quite COM
mon to see from six to fifteen wTeaths
on new made mounds and nothing
strange to see fresh ones on those fifteen
and twenty years old. It all seems to
be part and parcel of the custom of Civ
ing people flowers as birthday gifts.
Now, quite Hkely~in an American
cemetery, it IS in choice taste to put
nothing but few handsome flowers on
a grave to have the colors few, simple
and pure Perhaps a splendid tea-rose
or a great white lily is just the thing
there. But the German style of garden
ing is different, and here many colors
are blended, and the rich and sparkling
effects they make, is ''just the thing. -
The fat parks and churchman's would
be tame without it. So in the Thier-
garten and elsewhere there are beds of
every shape under the sun filed with
flowers Of every color under the sun,
the Berliners can imagine is the spread
Prussian eagle done in blue, white and
scarlet. There is a tiny sort of blue
flower and another tiny sort of yellow
flower, both of them rich and strange,
that make up very nicely in this sort of
fancy patchwork and many others
which we turn up our noses at because
they are so snowy. are used to make pret
ty things in the princely gardens for the
very reasons why we ignore them. Still
Of course, there can be all seFtss Of bad
taste in the way the effects are made,
but coarse flowers and coarse effects do
not look so badly on the green beds in
the churchyards as you would suppose,
for the reason that they are crowded so
closely together, you can never get the
effect of single one, but only of num-
Der at once, and this general effect IS
sort of heavenly; it is more lovely than
can describe. 1t is the only way in
which they excel those at home, and it
was this. without doubt that made Dick
and Dora, the two young folks in our
party, throw up their hands and say
they had never seen anything so pretty
in their lives. In all other respects we
are quite sure that cemeteries are one of
the things in which America excels Ger
many, and perhaps the whole continent.
But to see the very finest American
cemeteries you must go to New York
and Philadelphia.
Perhaps, though, you will not believe
these churchyards could look garden |
like, on account of the tombstones. So
they would not if the tombstones were
snowy. They are small and plain
Quite often they are black and gilt cross
es which are as gay as flowers. One
such quite small, sometimes does for a |
whole family, the names of the children |
running out on the arms. Oftenest of |
all they are white pillows" lying fiat. |
A German bed has two pillows the un-
der one IS short --Swedge-shaped |
one Of straw or something hard. The
churchyard pillows are just like these, |
of white marble, placed just so at the |
top. Only in this case you know the
head of the sleeper lies below, which /
does not matter.
They have pretty way of guarding /
lots. 1t is by looping vines from pillar
to pillar or from tree to tree They |
kaTI
er they had foundation wire or chain
or not.
We visited several other churchyards
besides this; one where some very
great men are buried; Fichte, HegeI,
Rauch and others, whom you will know
better when you are older. They were
all alike, and differed only in being bet
ter or worse kept. They were all gay
sunny places places where you could
and would not think people are lying
dead, but pretty gardens rather, where
bodies were lain to get rested and ready
to be made over in light and shining
shapes fit for the souls to wear one day,
and sun themselves in forever.
The tombs Of the Humboldt family,
at Tegel, were arranged in American
style.
Now l do not know that / have any
more letters to write Instead, / will
send two or three written by. Dick and
Dora.
When they found there was a plot in
the family council to send them to the
that dreadful school so
strict that visitors often cannot be adj
mitted where Prussian boys and girls
have all lessons and almost no holidays;
and whittier, with knapsacks just like
strapped upon their backs.
they are often obliged to send at seven
o'clock in the morning. they raised the
white flag of truce and begged a parley.
They agreed to write letters on what they
heard and saw-enough to make up for
a reasonable number Of letters, the trial
10 last two weeks.
LEES SURRENDER.
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