The New Orleans bulletin. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1874-1876, 1875-05-16
OUR GERMAN LETTER.

Street Scenes in Berlin Early Mornins-Th
Markes People-TheIr Customs ana Cas
tomers-Observaiions Of a New Orieanial
Abroad.
IEuropean Correspondence Of the Bulletin.1
BERLIN, April 16, 1875.
Dear Buuetin-It is very pleasant while tn
weather continues so fine to take an earl,
stroll upon the streets while they are ye
aeitated with that peculiar hustle and sti
that attends the opening of shops and thu
passage of industrious market people to ant
fro with their baskets and bundles, and while
everything seems in preparation for the com
ing business Of the day.
In cold or rainy weather such scene may
be said to possess the least possible romance,
but now we are having the most charming
spring weather. and the morning air, 80 cool
and delightfully."- exhilarating. is almost like
what one enjoys in the country, SO that
nothing could be more agreeable in the way OF
. "spaziergang as the Germans call walk,
than to stroll an hour or two, and at random,
on the streets of Berlin, and to study at
leisure the interesting and not little pic
turesque scenes that such walk will afford.
do not think the Berlin trades people are
very early risers as q rule, for when one goes
out between seven and eight in the morning
he vii find many of the shops still closed
Ind o.ha.a lust in the act Of being opened,
while between eight and nine things just
begin to get fairly in shape for work.
The bakers arc decidedly the most indus
trious of all, and afte,- thsn those who deal
in meats of various kinds; s"ese shops are
the first to be opened and then fo.!.ows this
partial opening Of little "grog shops" where
,xatchmen may imbibe an "eye-opener" to
freshen them up after their nightly vigils. or
mechanics and wagon drivers take one to
steady (?) them for their days work. THESE
places are very strangely called Installations. y
/ say strangely because they certainly have
nothing to do with distilling the liquors
which they sell, but it does not matter much
what they are called, for their patrons would
find them in any case, or by any NAME
They are most always situated in cellars, q
plan that is not out Of keeping with the low
U sA"AAooSsb
more degraded sort of customers by whom
they are patronized.
So it is, 1 believe, everywhere, first the alb
solute necessities of existence as bread and
meat, must claim attention, and then before
everything else man must drink, and the
"distillations" of Berlin from being among
the first places to throw open their doors in
the morning are about the last to close them
as the midnight hour draws on or recsdes.
But, after all, people seem to drink milder
liquors and in smaller quantities here than
with us, the custom being to serve out the
"schnapps," or whatever the beverage may be,
in little wine glasses, so that the amount of
poison imbibed at single dose is less than
one usually takes in q tumbler half full
of bad whisky. But besause a place
is located in cellar in Berlin, 1t does not by
any means follow that it is of disreputable
character, or even of the less respectable class,
for some of the incest shops in the city are so
situated, and at least half of the best s'restau-
rations" lie below the level Of the street. They
are not however, completely underground,
but have windows opening about two feet
above the pavement, by which the necessary
our morning stroll we need not descend into
any of these hospitable caverns, as it is better
to postpone such tour of investigation until
q later hour, when the heat of the MONDAY
sun becomes oppressive, or the streets cease
from any cause to be interesting, and particu-
larly while the balmy air of the spring morn
ming is SO enticing and grateful to the senses,
it is better to turn our attention to the lively
scenes being enacted all around.
Here, for instance, is the Crosse Friedrich
strdsse, stretching away at either end into
lofty buildings, whose sculptured and orna-
mental cornices, lit up by the eastern sun
le,ms, 0 . into dim perspective above, while
below the passing and repassing of omni-
buses, drosches, wagons, horsemen and Pc
destrians of all classes Is growing momentarily
more active as the great city wakes up, and
the stirring business OF daily life sets fairly
in. Here it crosses the river by draw
bridge, whose draw seems to remain per-
petually closed, % all the craft which ply in
the stream lay their masts on the deck and
are propelled by poles while within Berlin, SO
that they rapidly pass beneath the arches of
the bridges. Standing on the bridge one can
see numbers of long, cumbrous barges fast
ened in tiers three to four deep, to the stone
piers along the river side, or moving slowly
past in the dark bosom Of the sluggish
stream, with one old "Dollinger" of "pilot-
man" swaying the long tiller. and three or
four lusty Teutons laooriousy urging their
craft forward with bodies bent, shoulders
pressed firmly against their poles and every
sinew strained to the task.
The boats that ply upon the Spree are built
upon the model of flat-bottomed sklff, and
instead of having a sharp prov and q square
stern, as most vessels have, they rise from the
water in curving line at each end and ter
inmate in a point. They are covered in like
our Mississippi flatboa,s with a regular root,
while at the rearais little cabin for the crew.
They have masts and sails, which, however,
suppose they can only use in open stretches
of country, as where the river flows through
fields and level valleys. Many of them carry
freights of fruit. and glimpse into the inte-
rior often shows great bins of apples and rows
upon rows of boxes, between the stats Of which
the rich yellow of Mediterranean oranges peeps
out. Such fruit boats usually lilo near a