Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-09-25
SOME GERMAN CITlbS
HAMBURG, A TYPE, ALMOST ENG
LISH IN CHARACTER.
Its People Are Englishmen Who Have
Habit of Speaking German-A
Well-Managed Town.
From the London Chronicle.

From the London Chronicle.
We have all heard of the famous foreign
er who defined punch as i contradiction
drink" First" he said, you put In lemon
TO make 10 sour, and sugar to make II
sweet. then you put IN whisky TO make !,
strong and water to make IL weak: then
you say, Here's to YOU and drink 1t your
self" Most big cites are contradiction
towns" but Hamburg most of all You see
its docks and its shipping and you say.
Here ! am In Liverpool" five minutes
away YOU come TO the Alster Lakes. and
you might almost fancy yourself in Venice;
you are In Its Industrial quarters, and feel
yourself in Manchester; ten minutes away
is a great ring of parks and boulevards
that might well be Paris nu down by Ihs
docks are little streets that are for all the
world like our own Cable street. Finally
you hear German spoken everywhere by
people with English faces.
That Is perhaps the first striking impress
Sion that Hamburg holds in store for the
EnglishmaD. Let him arrive by sea, and
he finds the wharf crowded by English
faced dock laborers; by train. and the man
who takes his ticket Is an EngliShman in all
but the tongue; The 'Schutzmann," who
directs the traffic Is a London Robert In an
unfamiliar uniform. 1t Is true that the
hotel waiter will strike him as unexpected,
having, in fact, an aspect so much more
British fhan those we are accustomed to in
London. For that matter. even the Ian
guage of the crowd is step nearer English
than that with which We struggle in s. Ger
man dictionary. He is In fact. not yet In
Germany, but in Low Germ my, with tie
Dutch frontier only few miles away, and
Hamburg, being free, imperial and Hansa
city, Is not going to forget it. 1t is true
that Altoona, which Is to Hamburg In sit
uation at least, what Stafford Is to Man
chester. is n Prussian town. but on this
side the border their magnficences the
burgomaster and senate OF the free city are
every whit the equals of the King of Prus-
STA, though being loyal members of the en-
p!re, they do not withhold their allegiance
from the German emperor.
Liverpool of Germany.
Here, then, is another Hannonian para
dox. Hamburg is provincial city. Yet at
the same time capitalize Liverpool of
Germany, she is also London on her own
account. The Hamburg post office may be
bur branch of that of Berlin. but the
Hamburg ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ruler of
his city-can afford 10 look with contempt
upon his brother of Berlin, who has no
more real power to govern than has the
mayor or Little Peddlington.
Ana because OF this, no doubt Hamburg
Is such beautiful city. Her wealthy mer-
chants have no need or ambition to desert
her IN order to seek social prestige in Ber-
Hn-upstart Berlin, that was a poor village
when Hamburg had been for long centuries
among the proudest European cities They
live in and around their own city-the banks
OF the AlSter are lined with their abodes-
their country houses spread for miles along
the Eibe. Nor could they find throughout
Germany, more eligible residential dis
tricts. In the double lase-the Binnen and
Aussen Afster-Ilamburg possesses a nat
ural OF serni-natural feature unique take
II, IN Europe. Imagine St James Park
Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens turned
into lakes, crossed by a bridge, the '1.om-
bardsbrucke, at Hyde Park Corner, with
the best hotels and the finest shops grouped
round st. James Park, with the Rathaus
hnd It's square standing on the site of the
houses of parliament, and you would have a.
London very much like Hamburg. Park
lane. kniShtSbridge and the Bayswater road
would remain much they are a narrow
margin of beautifully kept parks separating
them from the lake. The waters would be
eiiVe with swift, white steamboats,, carrying
sou whittier you would go for one penny.
AT the l<ensington end of the lake would be
small permanent edition of the Earl's
Court exhibition, without the exhibits, but
with gardens and a band. whittier you would
resort by hundreds every evening Those
who could afford IL would keep yacht
those who could not would hire a rowing
boat. or take a penny steamer trip on sum-
sner evenings. There would be a navigable
fiver-the Alster, from the damming ND of
which the lakes have been formed, part by
nature and part by art-connecting with the
Thames at Westminster. and keeping the
lake water always clean and pleasant. For
such an attraction London might well agree
10 suffer the loss of Rotten Row.
Clean Streets, Good Cars.
For the rest. Hamburg gives the impress
sion of being an altogether well-managed
town. Siums and waste places there are,
IL they be looked for, but they are not
prominently 10 evidence. In the business
quarter the streets remind one more per
Laps of Liverpool than of any other city
though they are cleaner There is an
electric car service which rivals that of
Glasgow In ubiquity, and carries you
round the town., TO say nothing OF Saint
PAUL and know not how many other
suburbs, for a penny. The residential quar-
tiers, especially those which run back from
the Aussen Alster ithe Hamburg Knights
bridge, as il werc) form ready-made gar
den cities. SO that you cannot see the
houses for the trees. Everywhere are little
open spaces. with green grass and flowers
peopled at all hours by hordes of absurdIy
EngiiSh-looking children. watched over,
some OF them. by absurdly Euglish-looking
HurSemaiaS. with absuTdly English-lookIng
''prams,' and who live In houses surround
ed each by IT'S garden, after the English
fashion.
II you wish TO gain quite the most beau
tfth and lasting impression of Hamburg
you must take one of the little white
steamboats, toward dusk, when already the
lights are beginning 20 sparkle among the
trees on the lakeside, and the glow of sun
set dweils lovingly on the tall spires of
the city before you-one of them by the
way, and that one the tallest and most
beautiful, the spire of St. Nicholas Church,
the work OF our own famous architect, Sir
Gilbert Scott Then as the light gradually
fades from above. and the banks glow more
and more with sparkling lamps as you
draw always near to the city, while on the
water itself dance thousand giowworms
from the masts or port holes of yacht or
steam launch then, indeed, Hamburg be-
comes not prosy place OF business, but
some dream city of the other world; "A city
fsTrt l. rf