Omaha daily bee., 1903-03-22
Berlin the Best Managed City of Europe

new buildings faster than most OF our
American towns. The improvements have
been better than ours, and you will not find
a country on earth that has as many fne
cities as Germany in proportion to its pop
ulation.
Let me give you a few facts about some
of the cities l know. l first came to Ger
many over twenty years age. and the
growth has been almost altogether since
that time. Leipsig is three times as large
as IL was then. 1t had 100, 600 popu alton
at the time Of the Franco-P russian war,
and 1t numbers almost half a million today.
Munich and Dresden each have now half n
million. Breslau has 422. OCO, Cologne AGO.
900 and Frankfort or the Main about 300,-
0OO. DoTtmund. Barmen and Danzig have
each 14O.O 900 Chemnitz 200 900 and Hamburg
has three-quarters Of a million aud is fast
rising toward the million mark.
The United States has thirty-eight towns
which have mere than 100, 900 population.
Prussia is not as big as Texas and it has
twenty-five towns of more than 0 1000
population. Stettin is bigger than Mime
apolis, Dusseldorf is bigger than Louisville,
Hanover ranks with Newark, N. j.. Altoona
Is about as large as st. Paul and Elber-
field and Halle are of about the same size.
Nuremberg is about as big as Washington
and Charlottenburg and Koenigsburg, on
the edge of Berlin, are each 1870, GOO and
more. Indeed, the whole country ts grow
ing and there are gOod-sized cities here
the names OF which we hardly know. Just
now the times are hard and the country Is
in the midst OF a business depression. 1t
has. however. plenty Of resources. and its
savings banks are full.
One OF the best ways for a birds eye view
Of Berlin Is a ride on the Ringbabn. This
Is an elevated railway encircling the city
and stopping at all the chief sections. There
are two branches-the North Ring and the
South Ring. which have trains every few
minutes. The cars move by steam and the
fares are exceedingly low. You can ride
for an hour for s cents third class, and the
second and first classes are not very OK
pensive. There are slot machines at the
stations which sell third class tickets for
the ordinary trip for ~ cents each. Such
a ticket gives a ride for five stations, and
IL you go further you must arrange for an
extra payment at the end OF the ride.
took my tickets at the Friedrichstrasse
Bahnhof. We shot out OF the depot over
an enormous restaurant built under the
track and rode for some miles to the edge
OF the city. We went by the cattle market
and slaughter houses belonging to the
municipality. past the city gas works and
skirted the edge of Berlin, finding five
story buildings clear to the boundaries.
Further on we entered the city again, rode
about the Thiergarten, past the geological
garden and n the end came back to the
place where we started.
This ride shows one how we'll Berlin Is
built and how wen II is kept. Most Of the
buildings are new, and Notwithstanding
the poor, who are as many as in any city
in Europe except London, IL has no eye
sores. One sees no clothes hanging out of
fiat windows or on ropes or wires stretched
from building to building as in the cities
OF the United States. There are no ash
piles or tin cans in the back yards and
even the wood and scraps are nicely piled.
The roads are everywhere clean. The
city is a dude compared with ether munic-
qualities. II has creases in it's trousers and
a bouquet in it's buttonhole. Most OF the
flats in the summer have window gardens
hanging out over the streets. These are
filled with flowers and the various stories
are decorated with lines of roses and
fuchsias and other bright colored bios
SONS. D. late the fats have been built
with balconies aTranged especially for
flowers so that one can walk under hanging
gardens for miles through the streets, look
ing up at flowers all the way.
The business parts Of the city are be-
coming quite as well decorated as the
residence sections. The Germans are good
window dressers. They understand the
value of plate glass, and many merchants
keep men Oh the sidewalks who rub the
windows with chamois skins every few