The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1911-06-02
Berlin As a \. Gay Capital
Cultivating the Reputation
 of a Pleasure City
Longing to Draw American Millionair,>s Away from Paris - Striving for Big ness and Beauty in All Features - Desires to Dine in Crowds-Amuse- ments and Night Life.
Special Correspondence of ne N. '.
 PoSt)

Special correspondence or ec ->' A'
 Post)
 Berlin June 1-There has Peen d three-cornered controversy in t-Ve Eu- ropean press lately between Parl. S Ser lin and London as to whether parls still retains the palm for gayety " UT whether it has gone to the new t'apl tai by the Spree, with its Spac-pio distances. it's fountains and statua w impressive architecture. its eye-takl Us shop-windows, its nocturnal pleasu- V quarter gay with light and music un ' ii long after the first freshness of summer morning has faded. and the cleanliness prevailing all things Ser lin certainly cultiVateS the reputalloh of what H G. Wells calls pleasure city" It is avid of foreign custom. It longs to see American millionalreS set ting here as they do in Paris. spend ing the season here as they do III London.
 ..Tnser schoenes Berlin says the ! Berliner mo one else has anything like it" No where is there tsuch l,rof,lsion of bronze and brass ana IT'S rble nowhere such endless Nlstas Of handsome streets. In the par ts of the town a foreigner is likely to see there is hardly shabby buliGne scarcely one that has not some cla1rf ta architactural distinction. The neS" quarters have been laid out as if for a generation of giants. There are ho,Iievarfls in Charlottenburg with room for half-a-dozen streams Of trat- fc. with sidewalks on which resl- mPnts could march without cranp- ing. and tree-shaded avenues in the middle. The Doeberitzer Heerstrasse. the new military road out of Berlin. IS a sight which no visitor should mlsS Tor what Titanic musters 1t has been designed heaven and perhaps the War Office know l. seems impossible that
 Q ! cafes and -rinks-there are three or tho latter-are planned to seat thous- 7nds of guests. At the ice-rinks the skating is merely there to amuse the diners All these places call them selves palaces and are quite as costly and well furnished as most bulldlngs . having an historic right to that appel | lation. stroll through the endless saloons of the Cafe Kerkau, which was opened last summer. will teach visitor more of the new Germany than the Gernanic Museum at Nuremberg.
 BIGNESS AND BEAUTY.
 Bigness and handsomeness are per haps the qualities which emerge most clearly from ones impressions of Ber- lin The restaurants which have been built to sratify the Berliners' desire to dine together in armies are amaz- ingly costly. One dimes in these pla- ces for well under a dollar, in huge nallS. panelon WllH IIldIplS anu plC- cious woods roofed with carved oak and cedar, lighted and furnished with reckless disregard of expense. An auctioneer, primed by reading pre- liminary description of Solomon's Temple could hardly overstate the sp1endors of the Rheingold. It cost millions to build and daily feeds thou- sands in surroundings which would have startled Semiramis.
 There is. of course. another side to al this huge responsiveness. Many men do not share the German predI- ection for eating in herds like Words vorth's cattle-"forty heads are feed ing like one.'' which. substituting A. coo for the poets numeral. is exactly the impression one gets from a glance along the terraces at Halensee. For such the question of food and drink is most important in a restaurant. The food at these places is good, and is ] supplied at about cost price Yet all this magnifcence has to be paid for. and handsome dividends are earned. Ii is on the wine that the proprietors recoup their outlay. The wine pays for everything. and. as few of the guests go beyond three marks (75 cts.) q bottle for it. one cannot help wonder ing what 1t costs ones host. The J BeTliner does not ask such questions. So long as there is crowd and plenty or brass and marble, he is happy. In most of these restaurants wine must te ordered on penalty of a fine. The result is that huge amount of "dop- cd and dOctOred wine is sold. as any south German will tell you.
 ADJUSTMENTS
 Music one gets in Berlin better and Ches per-apart from opera-than any where else. The Royal Opera is good, perhaps all the better because it does nct specialize in stars of the first
 
 houses are unimportant. In the way of theatres one has the Court Thea tire which gives German classical dra- ma. Shakespeare. and such mOdernS as can stand rigorous test in pru- dery and patriotism. classically done. At the Deutsches. the Kammerspiele. and a good many other places there is Teinhardt. the ma gician. who runs So- phocles as a popular novelty. and. in spite of the purists is the best stage mana ger in the world and there is tine Lessing. where one gets the ser i9us moderns. Ibsen being the staple fare There are besides about a doz- en houses which live on trivialities from Paris and Vienna. cheaply staged. in which the young girls parts are played by impossibly fat women. and the men appear as fashionable loung- . CTS clubmen. sportsmen and so on. in strangely assorted garments suggest ing nothing so much as a recent es- cape from a burning hotel
 But 1t is on her famous night life that Berlin founds her claim to be the !. capital of gayety, the revelry which , goes on from midnight to morning in [ the gorgeous. ill-ventilated haunts of the Friedrichstadt The essence of the fun in these places is champagne. Give a German "Sekt' and you can do anything with him. It is his ne plus ultra of pleasure. the embodi- ment of 2riStOcratic wickedneSS The very ordering of it marks the mood which no longer counts the cost. Who says "Sekt' has done with hesitations. for that night at least. And the best of 1t Is that 1t has the same name, whether it is some dubious German brew or the real thing from Epernay. Tn fact. in the former case, it has a finer name. The night life now begins ! in the splendid new Palais de Danse. which is an annex of the Metropol va riety theatre One is tired of em- phasizing newness on all occasions. but it Is impossible to avoid it in Berlin. The Palais de Danse was opened on New Years night. and ev- erything in it is blatantly new. The dancing hall is a circular apartment crowned with glass cupola. It is a blaze of raw color; against the oppres- sively gorgeous hangings are copies of well-known rocco paintings in the same faring tone a the rest of the room. There are also arrangements for shedding vari-colored lights. In the centre is a railed-off arena, where