Weekly expositor. (Brockway Centre, Mich.) 1882-1894, 1885-08-20
THE GERMAN CAPITAL
The Reality Of Inter der Linden-Health %
the kaiser-A National Prospect-Life
and Living In Berlin

HtHy rot, mas very nne SOunu. Inc
lime tree Is rs much like an elm as 1t
is like any other tree, and meath the
Elms" is the idea the American can
understand, and the idea "Untcr der
Linden" is intended to convey, and
does convey until the thing has been
seen. d" Meath the Elms," broad
spreading, thickly shadowing, with
grass underneath upon which to
stretch ones self at full length and
think of all lovely things and all this
in the midst Of vast city. Let
us start at once, and there make our
home.
The reality Is sad enough. Inter
der Linden is street, with houses,
numbers, shops, palaces, cic., about q
mile long, and about two hundred
feet broad. In the middle is dirt
walk perhaps fifty feet wide. a row of
trees on each side of it, irded by
iron rails supported in yer, ordinary
stone posts. Upon one side of the dirt
foOtpath are about twenty feet of
thicker dirt for horsemen; upon the
other sit'H pout twenty feet of stone
roadwos. Then come two more rows
of trees, those of the roadway being in
u 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-
iage. There are many excellent spec
linens in the Thier garten, and even
in some of the 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 commensur-
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 rs having worked for
hours the day before with his various
ministers and generals. That can not
hn. thar. l. moab -, 3loe l. a
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, cal
lerhOechst, is disturbing medals and
honors, 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 ingulfed. 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
cleanly in his personal habitsP Is he
any more likely to defer to lady,
unless ne knows her name and knows
she is a countess? Is he any less of a
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 abomlnablep
There was time Just after the
French war when dining in Berlin
was tolerable. Of the French prison.
srs, of course, nearly the whole number
knew how TO cook. For some years
their teachings were remembered and
obeyed, but now they seem completely
forgotten. l dned yesterday at the
Cafe de Europe. Each Berlin restau-
rant has its fixed dinner for the day,
and you are expected to take it. The
first thing, and terror, is the dish of
hors d'9uvres--a vast rotating plat
ter, about three feet 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
elsewhere. 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 nom
German hunger. As to the dinner, L
can not (and could DoD 90 through
with it. Everything was cooked to
death. and everything was swimming
in the vilest of sauces
Berlin is yet 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. Everybody is do
ing something, studying something.
The people you meet, of whatever ma
tion they may be, look as if they were
making the best of their time, and not
worrying with the idea that they were
too young or too old to take hold OF
anything. In classic art Berlin has
won the lead. The Pergamos marbles
must be seen and closely studied by
everyone who would know anything
of Greek sculpture. Their Greater was
the Giulia Romano of antiquity. 1
was at once taken back to the Paiazzo