The Corvallis gazette. [volume] (Corvallis, Or.) 1862-1899, 1885-10-09
THE GERMAN CAPITAL.
The Reality of Unter der Linden-Health Of
the Kaiser-A National Prospect-Life
and Living in Berlin.

n17ag Post, has very fine sound. Ih'
lime tree is as much like an elm as j
is like any other tree, and Meath the
Elms" is the idea the American cal
understand, and the idea "Unter del
Linden" is intended to convey, anC
does convey until the thing has been
seen. "'Neath the Elms," broad
spreading, thickly shadowing, with
grass underneath upon which tc
stretch ones self at full length and
think of all lovely things and all this
in the midst of a vast city. Let
! us start at once, and there make our
| home.
| The reality IS sad enough. Unter
! der Linden is street, with houses,
numbers, shops, palaces, ETC., about a
mile long, and about two hundred
feet broad. In the middle is dirt
walk perhaps fifty feet wide, row OF
trees on each side of it, guarded by
iron rails supported in very ordinary
stone posts. Upon one side of the dirt
footpath are about twenty feet of
thicker dirt for horsemen; upon the
other side about twenty feet of stone
roadway. Then come two more rows
of trees, those of the roadway being in
narrow plate-bande. Then on each
side follow ordinary street and side
walk reaching to succeed shops,
hotels, and palaces. The lime tree in
its proper growing places is lovely
tree; not very large, but large enough,
with dark green and very thick fol-
lage. There are many excellent spec
linens in the Thier garten, and even
in some of tine squares where grass is
allowed to grow beneath, seeming to
require the companionship of verdure.
But just where of all places they ought
to grow and flourish, just there they
will not-that is, at all conimensur-
ately with the expectations of hopes
of those who put them out. AS lines
will not grow, experiments are being
made with other trees. Naples, elms,
and horse-chestnuts have been substi-
tuted, but none of them seems hearty.
The one thing to do IN Berlin just
now is to see the emperor, that one
may know of ones own knowledge
So far as eyesight imparts knowledge
his physical condition and prospects.
According to my eyesight, the change
since the last time | saw him is pain
fully startling. He is no longer up
right, his chest has fallen away so
that his orders overlap; he has hardly
strength to reach his hand to his he'll
met; his eye is dull and heavy. The
newspapers speak of him every morn
ing as being fully re-established in
health, and as having worked for
hours the day before with his various
ministers and generals. That can not
he; there is no more work in that head
or in that hand. And what has the
kaiser done for the people? Are there
any fewer poor old women and little,
half nourished children, working on
their knees in the fields, tugging with
feeble fingers at the roots and weeds,
as though their lives depended upon
it-as. indeed, they do? And what
novels they crawl into when their
days work is done, and what they eat
before they fall dead asleep! All the
while strong husbands and brothers
are far away, watching lest an irritat-
ed foe acquire means or revenge; and
all the while. too, the emperor, ''Al-
erhoechst, is disturbing medals and
donors, which they have dug out of
the ground for him, though they are
poor, sick, ignorant, starving and |
helpless. There is not second of |
rest from labor for either play or
prayer; and what the emperor has |
done the nations about him must also
DO, or be ingulfea. The strain must
break soon.
Another and more solemn side of |
the question: Is the individual Ger
man any better hammered than he was
twenty years ago? Is he any more
cleanIy in his personal habits? Is he
any more likely to defer to a lady, |
unIaCS Knows bo1. and I'm
she is a countess? Is he any less of
most fearful nuisance when let loose
in Switzerland Is his scholarship |
less pedantic, are his ideas less vague,
is his language less confused, or his |
cooking less abomInable?
There was Il time Just after the |
French war when dining in Berlin
was tolerable. Of the French prison.
ers, of course, nearly the whole number
knew how 10 cook. For some years
their teachings were remembered and |
obeyed, but now they seem completely
dined yesterday at the |
Cafe de PEurope. Each Berlin restau- |
rant has its fixed dinner for the day,
and you are expected to take it. The |
first thing, and a terror, is the dish of |
hors d'euvres-a vast rotating plat
JcT, dUOuL IuTeC IeGG IN diameter, cOV- /!
cred with small dishes, at least twen-
ty in number, each dish containing a
so.called appetiser: Itallaenischer
salad, sardines, picked herring, and
all sorts of picked things unknown
Three Germans seated at |
a table next to me called at the start |
for champagne, and took enough of |
the hors d'9uvres to exhaust any non
German hunger. As to the dinner, 1
can not (and could Dot) go through
with it. Everything was cooked to
death. and everything was swimming
in the vilest of sauces.
Berlin is yet a most delightful city,
and if Mr.. Pendleton will present half
a dozen Americans at court every win
ter. so as to give Americans the So
cial position they have not hitherto
enjoyed, there is no reason why the
American colony should not rival that
of Paris. Above all others, Berlin is
the place for work. Everyb body is do
ing something, studying something.
The people you meet, of whatever ma
hn,