The daily morning journal and courier., 1903-06-13

and, truth to tell, it is fast losing that "Kleinstadtsche" character of which, in spite of its enormous population, it con- tinued to retain many traces only a de- cade ago. Berlin is becoming less Prussian and more cosmopolitan, and among other signs of this change may be mentioned the existence of several ''Sportplatze" devoted to lawn tennis and other English games, while there is a nine-hole golf course at Charlotten- burg. Everywhere there are signs of hustle, improvement and development, and one feels somehow that the empe- TOT has communicated his restless ener- gy to the inhabitants of his capital. For this rapidly increasing population new means of movement had to be cre- ated; and perhaps the most striking feature of their city is it's system of street communication, with it's circular railway of Ringbahn, its high-level and underground lines, and its network of electric tramways, which whisk you through the streets-not in single cars, but in trains. Without losing its char acter as a City of Intelligence" which it always boasted itself to be, it is now a city of incessant noise from it's tram way and ather street traffic, making you fancy you must be in New York. It is really astonishing to think what has been done in that direction within the last few years.
 On the other hand, the establishment of the city has kept pace with its ex- pansion and the development of it's traffic Here again we can readily trace the influence of the emperor, who has most decidedly impressed the capi- tai with his own character, so that even if he does nothing else to make his reign remarkable. apart from his ar grandizement os the German fleet, he will always be remembered as the architectural beautifier Of Berlin. For with all it's new monuments and public buildings-the creation of the last de- cade-it really has now become most imposing city.
 I will even make bold to say that mo- where in all the world is there such a magnificent promenade as the Siege salle, or Victory avenue. in the Thier- garten, lined with the marble statues of thirty-two os the emperor's ancestors, rulers of Brandenburg and Prussia, from Albrecht the Bear to Kaiser Will liam I. One misses the Emperor Fred erick among these historical celebrities, but special monument to him, as well as one to his English consort. is about to be erected over against the Branden- bury Gate The wits of Berlin and of other places have made merry over what they call the emperor's Sea of Marmora," into which he has converted theSiegesallee, while others here ques- tioned the taste of this representation in marble of the history of the house of Hohenzollern Srom the twelfth to the twentieth century. But. honestly speaking, it strikes me as being a most perfect and beautiful thing of its kind. The effect is not only grand-it is al- most grandiose. Anyhow, the Prussian people have nothing to complain of. as the emperor-king has done the whole thing out of his own private purse as compliment to the city of Berlin, and it must have cost him very considerable penny-far more than coronation cer- emony would have done, and with that he has hitherto dispensed.
 At the present time the Germans do not stand particularly high as painters, or as workers in the field of the belles lettres, which may now be said to be practically non-existent in the Father land; but they are not so far behind with their sculpture, and all these Ho- henzollern statues are really very finely done. Those, in particular, from the "Grosse Kurfurst," to what the empe- TOT erroneously calls the Crosse Kali ser" strike me as the perfection of por traiture in marble, while the historical character of the rest has been well ex- pressed in their figures and features even when these were only legendary.
 And what a magnificent avenue of approach is thus formed to the Konigs- platz, with it's gilded victory column in the center, which has now been adorned by the Imperial Parliament House, or Reichstagegebaude- building worthy of a great people, and the visible sign and sybbol of their political unity. In front of this massive and majestic pile stands a monument to the chief archi- tect of that national unity, with the ra- vens of the Kyffhauser among it's ale gorical embellishments. but this Bis marck statue strikes me as being a much less successful one than those of the Siegesallee. For, not giving the Iron Chancellor his jack boots, the sculptor has merely invested him with a pair of baggy trousers, of which any military tailor in Berlin would he ashamed, and thus somehow marred the soldierly character of the states mans figure by imparting to it an ap- pearance of Dutch skipper dumpiness.
 I.a.a itIn