Morning journal and courier., 1880-01-14

message coyly through another. The Prus- sian Cupid is not blind, but only short-sighted. Possibly this is the reason why he should be the keen hand he is at Q bargain. Of course Berlin is not withal 6 healthy city. MT. Vize- telly confidently expects 1t to be one of these days the prey of tremendous epidemic. There seems to be no money to spare on such a commonplace matter as sanitation. Sewers ! are useless from military point of view; and I not apenny of the e21, ,O0o, 900 Prussia re- l ceived as her share of the five miiliards could be spent on anything wholesome.
 l The Berlinese are extremely thrifty. They live cheaply, an officers dinner costing him no more than ninepence or 8 shilling; and as | they have hard struggle to make both ends meet, economy takes very severe shapes. Add l to this that they are divided into castes, which castes are themselves divided into sections, which sections in their turn are sub, divided ! into cIiques and it will be seen that the diff culties in the way of social intercourse are l many and great. The Emperor Is the all- | highest; and after him in genteel diminu- | endo, reminding one of the mouse's tale in ''Alice in Wonderland, !" this anxious subjects | troop. MT. Vizetelly professes to have seen card inscribed with the style and dignity of the royal sweeperess of the apartments; and declares that "a shopman or domestic enter ing the service of grocer, who during the whole course of his career has by some chance or other once supplied the royal palace with pound of coffee, willbe compelled to address his master on every occasion as "Herr Hofiie- rant-purveyor to the court" And then ev- cry male is privileged to extend the style he
 bears to his female, and it is etiquette to ad- dress them both by it in full. It will be
 noted how admirably the Emperor's we'll
 known principles of divine right and the 7Ru-
 thority of kingship have come to caricature
 themselves. The most Prussisn, and lamentable
 of all is the little regard that, with all this straiuing after the shadow of birth and au-
 fc f0 oT1d
 common decency. Your Prussian, says MT.
 Vizetslly, is the most impolite of men. He
 may sentimentalize devotedly with a lady, and
 quote pages of the hyperboiicali rhetroie of
 German erotics to her; but he will not stir to
 open door for her, or hand her 8 chair, or
 assist her with her cloak. Of the salon as it
 exists in Paris, of the drawing room as 1t sx-
 ists in London Berlin knows next to nothing.
 Either it's visits are purely formal, or it's
 meetings are manifestations of the caste
 spirit, and of little interest to anybody who
 is unattached to particular group or par
 ticular section. Sometimes Berlin dimes sol
 emnly; but MT. Vizstelly declares that Der
 lin cooks badly and fares poorly. On the
 whole. this author is clear that society in Ber-
 lin Is not only dull in itself, but singularly
 well qualified to be the cause of dullness in
 any one who gets into 1t.
 It is to be noted that MT. Vizetelly is shock ingly ungallant to the ladies of Berlin. He
 looked at them in vain, it appears, for sin gle classical nose be is impolite enough to
 insist that in Berlin, beauty has always big feet; and he declares that in dress she is gar
 ish or she is dowdy, she is both. Of the 50, 900, 900 gallons of beer, moreover, that are Bsriin's annual brew. beauty consumes 8 fair share. To the click-click of her knitting needles she assimilatss alike the music of Beethoven and the fatteries of her suitors the comic songs of Helmerding and his imi- tatorS, the VOWS of aspirants to her little for tune and her fair large hand. MT. Vizstely has noted her in the thiergarten, sumpsuously apparelled and conversing with Generals and Counts; has viewed her eating peas and gravy with her knife, as all good Prussians do, and the outcome of his studies is that she is not disposed to number him among her ad- mirers Indeed, he seems to think that there is not much that is truly admirable in the Prussian capital, unless, perchance, 1t Is it's geological collection and it's fire brigade. Per haps he may be a little prejudiced; but whether he is his4orical or picturesque, didac- | tic or reflective, epitomizing the career of Bis mark or the Red Prince, or noting the man. ners and customs of the Berlin rough, he is always worth listening to; for he always 1 speaks in such tone to convince you that he 1 is speaking honestly, from competent obser- vation.