New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1874-06-14
LETTERS FROM ABROAD--NO. s.
BERLIN, May IL, 1874.

| bERLIN, may III 1917.
EDITOR REPUBLICANS:
| What a change one day can bring After
a ride of nine hours in comfortable rail-
road carriage, passing through beautiful
villages, picturesque woods and highly cul-
tivated lands. arrived in this city of his
torical splendors and world-renowned mu
sic. Upon entering the cars at Hamburg,
l remarked to friend that loved to drive
| fast with pair Of handsome horses before
light carriage but when it came to rail
road car could never, as often as l had
| travelled in this manner, divest myself of
certain painful feeling of having but a mo-
rnent's warning from life to death. Yes,
he replied, one will naturally experience
some serious thoughts in a ride OF this kind,
but you must remember that you are in
Germany, and in no other country are rail-
roads as safe. Strong laws prohibit them
from travelling faster than German mile
in ten minutes, and strict military disci
pline keeps such good order that serious
accidents are almost impossible, and-but
little known.
The legend tells us that Berlin first was
but little fsher-village on the Elbe. This
was about 1900, when little was really
known of it. History dates with its real
Importance which commenced with the
reign of Friedrich Wilhelm, the great kur-
furst, l64O at which time commerce and
luxury began to flourish, and art and
science grew up as beautiful flowers under
their shade and protection. And to-day
1t seems hardly possible to give the reader
| a perfect idea Of the beauty and immense
treasures of Berlin. Having read numer-
GUS letters Of English, French and Ameri.
| can tourists in Berlin, l was quite unde-
cided in my impressions of it, although his
tory alone had given me sufficient desire to
see the capital of the German empire, and to
walk over ground once Familiarity trodden
by Frederick the Great, and afteward by
Napoleon /. in his early triumphs.
Who has not from early school days
learned to respect and admire the letters
of Lady Montagu, Murray, De Stael and
Guion For precision, truth and grace
of style Lydy Montagu is hardly sur
passed by more modern writer's of travel.
But why was Berlin so distasteful to herr
She writes to friend that ''there is little
in Berlin to interest stranger for any
length of time. The people are stupid and
arrogant, and their manners and language
homely" l wonder if Lady Montagu knew
the German language9 Even Frederick the
Great, who had reason enough to dislike it
from the severe early training he received
in that language, and who spent half his
DAYS and fortune for his sworn allegiance
to the French tongue, declaring his own
only fit for barbarians, and refusing to
speak it except upon military duty-even
he was forced to change his opinion after
listening to the rich poetry of his Glenn, and
the soul-stirring drama of his Gellert, and
he exclaimed "Can the German language
be used to express such thought, such emo
toni He afterward ordered books for the
deep study of the language, which he mas
tered, and it seems had no cause to regret
it, for he became a considerable poet, and
dispensed with the society of Noltaire,
which made him better man. l have OBJ
served something akin to the distaste ex-
pressed by Lady Montagu and De Stael in
Germany among modern tourists, both
of England and America. Murray, called
'sthe humorous" seems to have taken tit OF
1.-THE "blues' while here, for he found Berlin
; dull and unattractive. One may more
easily account for the antipathies of Nine.
De Stael, but when it comes to modern
} graduate of the sound school of Oxford, as
George Augustus Sala, writing us in 1866
that the sightseeing of Berlin is soon ex
} hausted. some questions naturally repeat
themselves to my mind Is he lover OF
history! of music9 Does he know the Ger
, man authors! Does he know the languagel
} How different are the reports of the IN
mortal Irving and the finely polished
scholar, Bayard Taylor, who have given
mastery literary proofs of 1.-THE pleasures
never ending" to the traveller in Germany
Berlin especially, the seat OF glory in ar
and triumphal in war. Bayard Taylor has
furnished us much useful and entertaining
information in his tour through Germany
| He must have found some charm, too il
the language, for he takes great pleasure II
| translating the great German authors, ant
, | has given to Americans an English Faust
which they may we'll value, for the German
school of "Engllsb criticism" has given i
6 a high acceptance in saying that their dea
old Goethe has lost nothing of his beauty
and imagery of thought in the hands O.
this able translator. l can understand thu
possibility Of a chance traveller not liking
q Berlin-or one like "Doesticks" at Mia
CARA, who happens to find in his first ram
q bles over Berlin its splendid "bier-kellers.
when he has examined these after the
0 fashion of 'Doesticks' at Niagara, it may
| we'll be imagined that he has exhausted thu
sightseeing at Berlin. But to the traveller
who has time, health, money and goot
conscience, there is certainly nc reason
to be but little argument, however, for the
difference in impression, for have spent a
winter in Washington, District of Colum
bia, and found it delightful, while my Eng
lish friend George Augustus Sala," thinks
such a visit only 10 be endured after a re
turn from the horror of horrors in company
with Messrs. Dante and Virgil. No matter
what may be the causes of disfavor will
which many persons regard this stately
city, it is the seat of the most powerful
monarchy existing, and holds a population
of nearly million, besides a garrison o
$4,000 soldiers; its schools of art and learn
ing can not be equaled by any othel
European city. Here in the old palace Glay
the lover of history find enjoyment; Tho
facts of what he has read Of the old heroes