Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1889-05-25
BAVARIA'S CAPITAL.
AMONG THE BEER GARDENS OF
ANCIENT MUNICH.
The "Record-Union" Correspondent
in the City of Happy Faces
Peculiar Customs.
MUNICH (Bayarial. Anril IA. 1889.

MUNICH (Bavaria), April IA, 1889.
1t is Palm Sunday. How much pleas
anter 1t is to US to mark the flight of time
by days which bear a name than by barren
numbers. 1t is the difference between the
visit of a friend and that of the tax gath
erer. Munich is busy. to-day, for the
children are to be confirmed, and hun
dreds of them, more or less beautiful, are
going to church with green branches or
candles in their hands. The Roman
Catholic girls are clad in pure white and
wear wreaths, while their Lutheran play
mates are dressed in black. 1t is the be-
ginning of natures year, and it is the be-
ginning of life for these first commune
cants. If it is to be the life of Munich it
will be a jolly one, for never was a city
with more laughing faces or plumper citi-
zens. Munich has a well-deserved repu-
tation for being one of the first cities in
the culture of art, both plastic and pic
torial, and until late years it held a high
rank in architecture.
Ludwig |. found his greatest pleasure
in the identifying of Munich, and during
his reign of about a quarter of a century
the city became famous for its magnificent
edifces. Thongh the last King did little
or nothing to improve it, the city has con-
tinued to increase in size and wealth with
remarkable rapidity. Piloty, the artist,
and Kaulbach have in their line done as
much as klenze or Cornelius to make the
Bavarian capital rank among the richest
art centers. Yet with all these beauties
and treasures before him, the visitor owns
himself to be more Impressed by a very
prosaic feature of the Jolly capital, and
that is the beer. One becomes aware of
this wonderful influence as o as the Ba-
varian border is crossed, in the timetable
for the railway. Each station where a
thrae-minute stop is made is designated by
a beer glass, and thus the route all the way
to Munich is
MARKET BY FoAMING GoBLEFs.
In the streets huge wagons of framework
carry loads of full or emptied casks from
brewery to gasthaus, their magnificent
horses being one of the sights of the city,
while. the fresh faces of the merry drivers
seem all of one pattern, and shine with
true Munich "gemuthlichkeit as the
stalwart owners crack their whips and stalk
along beside their Gambrinus chariots.
Though Gambrinus has driven Bacchus
and all the gods but Apollo from the city,
he allows the muses., with chivalric spirit,
to hold a little corner to themselves. The
Hofbranhas or court brewery has long
been famous, and attracts a crowd of all
classes, from princes to peasants, daily to
drink the beer, which is considered the
best to be had in the world. 1t is a quaint
old cellar, a little below the street level,
with arched ceiling and great pillars dim
with tobacco smoke; though the place is
yearly renovated it quickly grows old
again. Following the crowd, I entered
by the arched gateway, and found myself
in a dusky atmosphere, through which at
first it was difficult to see, but when my
eyes had grown accustomed to the dark
ness | found my way to a stand of shelves,
pewter covers, each holding a liter "a little
more than a QUART, no smaller quantity
being sold. With my mug in one hand
and my % pfennigs (about five cents in
the other, / took my place in line and
soon reached the counter, and passing
money and mug to the man at the cask,
received the measure of white-capped beer
and marched away to find a seat. Every
body works for himself in Hofbranhaus,
brings his W beer or goes to the kitchen
for his food, and there is a great independ-
ence in thus
BEING YOUR WI SERVANT.
The place was full, as always, but room
was made for me at one of the tables and
and there | sat, with some sausages and
sauerkraut IS cents, before me and a
quart of cool, amber beer. A soldier, two
workmen and their bags of tools, a woman
with a knitted scarf about her head, a gen.
tleman with two ladies, and great Danish
hound were the other occupants of the
table, and each excepting the ladies, who
had one between them, and the hound,
which had none,) had a quart of the same
delicious fluid. The gentleman and his
ladies were from Massachusetts, and conse-
.quently were a little nervous, least they
should be found in such company. Every
body talked with his neighbor and good
humor prevailed. Table after table
stretched away under the arches, each
with its happy compliment of humanity
chattering together over all sorts of sub
jects. Peddlers with souvenirs, picturs,
bread and post cards, in fact all portable
objects under the sun, were driving a busy
trade, hating now and then to take a
swallow from the politely proffered mug of
som good-natured person who is in that
mellow stage when poor humanity would
share its pleasures with all the world.
TUE prrp or NfrNrcu
Is wholesome, and is recommended by
physicians for those suffering from poverty
of the blood, though it cannot be that the
l20, 100000 litres of this beloved drink
which is brewed each year by the city
breweries is used for the sole purpose of
enriching the Munich blood. Salvador
beer time is just over, occurring in the first
part of April, when everybody makes a
special virtue of taking as much as posi-
BILE. Salvador, like book beer, was first
known in the sixteenth century, and is
drunk in spring only. 1t is sweeter and
has more malt than the common kind, be-
ing in consequence more difficult to keep
and to carry. The noise and crowd in
Hofbranhaus was comparatively small, to
h l remember some years ago at Saliva
tor time in a large hall and garden on the
Noker Hill, near Munich, where a perfect
~pandemonium ~reigned, and it was not
safe for anyone to appear wearing a
silk hat. Crowds of the lower classes
seized the time, as formerly in
Italy in Carnival week, to go into all
sorts of e~xtravagances and drink them
selves into a state of insanity, while music
and songs melted to every kind of license.
Last year these orgies were carried so far
that the police force was required to quell
the riotous tumult and the doom of these
disgracefnl scenes was sealed. Now each
person must pay, who enters the hall.
must go through a turn-stile and must
take his beer under the eye of the law.
Certain old songs are no longer allowed