Part 53

Whether it was by accident or design I know not, but a later invitation was offered from Mr. Matthew, the late English consul at Philadelphia, now consul general here, to dine the same day, but deferred for a subsequent one.

He protests his innocence in the affair of the recruits, which caused his removal, and looks back with pleasure upon his sojourn in the States, where he left many warm friends.

The terminus of a railway in all countries awakes a spirit of speculation, which I was struck with at Theodosie, the projected terminus of a railroad from Moscow, which may be a long time yet in construction. The people were brushing up and making repairs in the dull-looking town, and property was already out of the reach of buyers.

In the suburbs is a Tartar village of mud huts and thatched roofs. While strolling through the Musselman district with my map in my hand, and tourist glass directed to the chain of hills, with their line of windmills, I was surrounded by men, women, and children, whose curiosity was excited to know, either from motives of interest, or dread of having their houses torn down, where the iron horse was to come in, they having of course an indefinite idea of a railroad.

The Russian steamers on the Azof and Black Seas are of English or French construction, and are now manned by Russian officers. Three of the steamers among the number I have sailed in had none but Russian servants, speaking their language only, which is awkward for such strangers as have no knowledge of the same, particularly as the passage tickets include dinner only, and all other meals and refreshments are extra, so that at the end of the voyage the items for the traveller increase the expense from a third to a half. The English and American system is the best for sea steamers, where all is included and payable in advance. For the information of those who desire, it may be remarked that Russia is one of the most expensive countries in Europe to obtain the comforts and luxuries of life in.

CXLII.

BADEN, AUSTRIA, _July 28, 1858_.

Our steamer left Odessa at six P. M., and the next morning at sunrise we found ourselves at the entrance of one of the mouths of the Danube, with Sulina, the Turkish port, at our left, a small ill-built wooden town, its position reminding me of the Balize at the mouth of the Mississippi, with low banks and marshy soil, covered with reeds and rank vegetation. Large numbers of vessels lie straggling along the wooden wharves, waiting for a favorable wind, and tug boats to tow them up to their destined ports for cargoes of grain.

We had but few passengers; among the number was a Georgian Princess, the grand-daughter of the last King, whom I had met with her husband, a Russian colonel, in their own country. This lady is the sister of the Princesses taken captive by Schamyl, who were ransomed by the Russian government, as mentioned in a former letter. The meeting was the more agreeable, because quite unexpected. The society of a young and beautiful Georgian woman, with all the simplicity and amiability of the lady, speaking the English and French language fluently, as well as her husband, a man of large experience in Circassia, was calculated to make a long trip less irksome than it would otherwise have been.

At four P. M. we arrived at Galatz, in Moldavia, a city of some forty thousand inhabitants, where we changed steamers, remaining there thirty-six hours, awaiting the arrival of the passengers from Constantinople.

A larger boat was now furnished, constructed after the manner of our American river boats, with a saloon on the main deck, abaft the wheels, an upper promenade deck, and a number of cabins upon the forward deck. Our numbers being considerably augmented, the heat was oppressive, and mosquitoes brought back reminiscences of the Alabama and Apalachicola in the spring time.

We landed at Giurgevo, in Wallachia, a small town, the port of Bucharest. Both Galatz and the place named lie upon the river bank, but the principal parts are upon bluffs above. Galatz has a mixed population of all races. As the Principalities are subject to Turkey, the coin of that country is in use, as well as that of all the neighboring states, and the numbers of money-changers installed at short intervals upon the sidewalks, present a curious spectacle.

The language has much of the old Roman in its composition, and one is struck with the names of streets and persons upon signboards bearing analogy to the Italian. The dresses of the peasants also struck me as resembling those worn in Italy. The original inhabitants were evidently Romans. Their sympathies are, however, more Russian, as they profess most generally the Greek faith.

The river is quite serpentine in its course, and the scenery as we advanced became more varied, groups of forest trees and better cultivation being seen. Turkish villages lie along the left banks with their mosques and minarets, and Wallachian and Moldavian villages on the right.

We passed Silistria, celebrated for its defence by the Turks and defeat of the Russians with a loss of twelve thousand men; landed and received passengers at Mikopol, and at the strongly fortified town of Widdin, and arrived at the Eisernen Thor, or Iron Gate, where the low stage of water obliged the landing of passengers, and we took wagons for the distance of a few miles and found a small steamer of light draught of water, which conveyed us through the pass between high mountains of the boldest and most romantic scenery, a miniature Switzerland, to the town of Orsova, the frontier line of Hungary. Here all the luggage was discharged and carried to the Austrian Custom House for examination. Tobacco, sealed letters, and playing cards were handled without mercy, and some of the passengers had to pay heavily.

We made a halt at Belgrade, the last point in Turkey, and at Semlen near the mouth of the Save. The Hungarian shores were alive with cattle, horses, and sheep grazing.

At Widdin we took on board its Governor, Ismet Pacha, and suite. I found him an intelligent and liberal-minded man. Our sleeping apartments being contiguous we had frequent interviews, and I found he entertained a high opinion of American character and enterprise. He has occupied many important positions, and tells me he has always protected the Christians.

An unpleasant affair has just occurred at Belgrade in the attack on the English consul by a Turkish soldier; he escaped without serious injury. This, however, with the recent massacre at Jiddah, and the murder of the Greeks and attack of the Christians in Candia, have produced a painful impression throughout Europe.

The voyage up the Danube, although offering much of interest, is rather monotonous, occupying seven days from Odessa to Pesth, in Hungary, where the railroad can be taken for Vienna. The distance probably does not equal that from New Orleans to Louisville, which occupies less time, and our steamers afford better accommodations to passengers at one-third the cost.

The Danube Steamship Company have one hundred and five steamers in all, besides barges for towing. The capital employed is very large. Last year, with the outlays for wharves, new boats, etc., they were deficient over a million of guilders. With the further extension of the railways, and the probable free navigation for all flags, the success formerly obtained is questionable.

I spent a couple of days in the capital city of Hungary, which I formerly described to you. It is a fine, well-built, and well-paved city, offering many objects of attraction. Near Orsova the spot was pointed out to us where the crown of Hungary, secreted as it is said by Kossuth, was discovered. A small chapel is erected on the spot.

From Pesth I took the railroad to this celebrated Austrian watering-place. It is abundantly supplied with hot and cold sulphur baths, and swimming schools for ladies and gentlemen. A most charming, romantic, and picturesque country lies about it. The town has a population of four thousand, and there is about an equal number of guests. It is only an hour’s ride by rail from Vienna, and consequently much frequented. The bath houses are well built structures, with comfortable quarters for families or private individuals; the ladies and gentlemen have separate entrances and dressing rooms, but generally bathe together in deep square baths, surrounded by a gallery for the use of friends or spectators. They use bathing dresses, which are numbered. It is rather startling at first when one enters, to find a party of gentlemen and ladies walking about, their heads only above water, and engaged in cheerful conversation. Private baths may be obtained, but the masses prefer passing the hour in society, talking over the affairs of the day and making arrangements for excursions and dinner parties.

CXLIII.

BATHS OF TÖPLITZ, BOHEMIA, _Aug. 21, 1858_.

From the baths of Baden, in Austria, I came to the old capital, Vienna, which I found dull as usual at this season of the year, as all who can get into the country make their escape. A grand work of improvement is in progress here. The old Bastei, or walls which fortified and surrounded the city, are being torn away and levelled. The concentration of business and residences in the city had increased the average occupancy of houses to seventy persons each, or double the number of any city in Europe, and the want of room for extension had caused the building up of some twenty-five suburbs, towns and villages. The admission of light and air will lessen the mortality, which was in greater proportion to the population than in other well-regulated cities.

We came from Vienna to Prague in one day, by rail. Having visited this city repeatedly, and, I think, described the same, I will not hazard a repetition.

Four hours by rail brought me to this celebrated watering-place, which has been used for the last thousand years. The distance now traversed by the locomotive within a day, cost me more than five days’ travel, by the posts of the country, before these conveyances were introduced.

I found Töplitz much changed since my last visit, years ago. The railroad now connects it with Dresden, the Saxon capital, within a few hours. The town has about six thousand inhabitants, and the number of guests throughout the season equals that amount. Besides numerous hotels, almost every private house furnishes lodgings, and has a particular name, which one would suppose would exhaust the whole vocabulary of words. There are some eighty bathing establishments of all kinds, capable of accommodating four thousand four hundred persons daily with warm baths.

The many romantic walks and drives, the park grounds of the chateau of Prince Clary, to whom the buildings, bath, and spacious garden where I have taken up my abode belong, all afford an infinite variety for the stranger. The majority of the visitors, however, being here ostensibly for health, there is less life and animation than at the watering-places on the Rhine. The character of the guests is less varied. Russians, Germans, and Poles predominate. Only a few French, Italians, English, or Americans are here this season. Indeed the baths generally are less frequented since the late crisis, and the complaint is general in cities as well as places of summer resort, of the falling off of travel.

In the Austrian dominions gaming is not allowed, which pays all the expenses of the great bathing establishments in the little German Duchies, and attracts a different class of society. Here a tax is levied upon every visitor, called Kur-und Musik Taxe, which I hold the receipt for in Baden and here, and as I design visiting Karlsbad and Marienbad, I shall not be forgotten by the collector or by the Barmherzige Brüder, who presents himself as soon as one gets comfortably quartered in his hotel, for a subscription for the infirm poor of all nations, who are received and treated gratis.

We rise at six A.M.; drink of the mineral waters agreeably to medical advice; walk until eight; partake of coffee, milk, and plain bread, without the accompaniment of fresh butter; bathe at ten; repose, without sleeping, in warm clothing, and avoid stimulants, fruits, acids, and fat or greasy food, as long as under treatment.

This place is indebted to Frederick William III., king of Prussia, who visited it annually for nearly a quarter of a century, thereby prolonging his life, and expended yearly about the same sum our President receives for his full term. Consequently the citizens, as well they could, have erected a monument upon what is called King’s Hill, to the memory of their lamented guest.

There is, as usual, a theatre, concert rooms, a shooting house for target exercise, coffee saloons, and music in the open air, all calculated to sustain the drooping spirits of sufferers. I find more persons in little wagons, and chairs upon wheels, drawn or pushed about by servants, than at other baths. I have met with many paralytic cases, but the waters are used for such a variety of diseases, that it would be difficult to enumerate them. Many finish the cure here, after making use of other springs in the early part of the season. It is interesting to hear the counting up of so many more baths, and so much more water to be drunk, before they can escape the exactions of the physicians, and can set their faces towards home, or upon intended travels.

For now nearly a month the friends of monarchy have been expecting the birth of a prince or princess to the crown of Austria. If the former, one hundred and one guns would announce the happy event; but if the latter, the news will fall upon them like a cold shower bath, as I observed two years since in Milan, where the authorities had the great cathedral decorations prepared for the occasion; when the tidings came of another female heir, twenty-one guns only hailed the news, and the celebration was a failure. Amid the expectations of the interested, I notice in the public journal that the empress’s health continues good. I also translate literally an article of court news from the same journal, as follows:

“_The Little Wagon of Princess Gisella._--In Laxenburg the little Princess rides often in a little wagon, to which is attached a little donkey. The governess rides upon a similar animal by her side. The sight is extremely delightful, and excites the most intense interest among the park visitors.” Comment is unnecessary.

The birthday of the emperor has just been celebrated by the firing of cannon, ringing of bells, high mass in the church, and music by the band, all of which it is incumbent upon the officials and employees to perform. In order to be conversant with the affair, I attended the dinner given in commemoration, but it struck me that it went off with little enthusiasm, and without that spontaneous effusion of patriotism so marked on public occasions in our country.

Since my last visit, two years since, I find the currency somewhat better. The shinplasters for ten kreutzers, or eight cents, are supplanted by an alloy, and the national bank, on the 13th of October, will make an effort to resume specie payments. It has three hundred and eighty millions of paper guilders afloat, equal to one hundred and ninety millions of dollars. The government of Austria has a debt of two billions of guilders, or one billion dollars, and it is every year increasing the debt. The interest is equal to fifty millions of dollars yearly. What would we think in our country of such a load upon its shoulders? The resources of the country, it is true, are great; but the whole territory does not equal in superficial area the state of Texas. Every source of income is squeezed and pressed out, while the farm laborer obtains only twenty-four kreutzers, or twenty cents per day, not enough to keep body and soul together.

CXLIV.

MARIENBAD, BOHEMIA, _August 29, 1858_.

Karlsbad lies thirteen hundred and seventy feet above the level of the sea, in a deep narrow valley between steep projecting granite rocks and hills, upon the margin of a little serpentine stream, and from the many points of look-out reached by circuitous paths, gives enchanting views and panoramas. Upon one of the ragged jutting points stands a bronze deer, indicating the Hirschsprung. As the story goes, the discoverer of the Sprudel, or hot bubbling spring, which throws out forty-five buckets of water per minute, was the Emperor Karl the Fourth, in the year 1379, while in pursuit of a deer, which leaped over the precipice, pursued by the dogs, and when found was in a cooked condition in the boiling element.

The town has about three thousand inhabitants, and the Kurliste calls for about four thousand visitors during the season. What is called the wiese, or meadow, is formed of two long rows of houses built against the rocks fronting on the little stream Tepel, spanned by bridges, promenades bordered with shade trees, a quantity of little shops filled with wares and ornaments of every variety, offering a lounge for the ladies. Both sexes sit in the open air and take coffee and refreshments, and the parties are more thrown together, making it more like a family circle than in many other bathing places.

The different springs are so arranged with galleries as to protect from the sun and rainy weather. The walks and ascents are of the most wild and romantic character. Savage scenery and deep woods of thick forest trees, affording exercise and protecting from heat, abound. Altogether the natural attractions are almost unsurpassed on the continent. Baden-Baden and Karlsbad are two of the watering-places of Europe, where within a few minutes’ time one may escape the noise and excitement of the multitude, and find himself solitary and alone, admiring the works of nature.

The heat of the spring is 165° Fahrenheit. Objects encrusted with the deposit of this water are polished and prepared in different forms, the colors resembling the lava of Vesuvius, and are quite an article of commerce. Here is seen the crucifix upon Kreuz Berg. Now one stumbles upon a monument to the memory of a benefactor who has built a new walk, or extended balconies or iron railings; then one imagines, in a narrow defile in the rocks, he is entering a graveyard, with slabs to the memory of the deceased, but on reading the engravings in different languages, he finds they are tributes and songs of praise from invalids to the waters for restored health.

After a halt of a few days at this agreeable place, I proceeded to Marienbad. It is also a lovely spot, with newer arrangements than Karlsbad, better bath houses, and larger and better hotels. It lies one thousand nine hundred and thirty-two feet above the level of the North Sea, and contains only about one hundred and twenty private houses. Nearly six hundred thousand jugs of this water are sent out, and it finds its way to all parts of Europe. The entire spring grounds form an English park, with trout brooks running through, and are particularly adapted for those who wish to escape the bustle of the world to take care of their health while here in this quiet valley surrounded by hills and pleasant walks. Nature and art together offer everything for the recovery of the lost blessing.

The sources here, as well as at Karlsbad, are various, and the springs are built over. The Krews Brunnen has a colonnade of seventy-two Ionic columns, with a long hall connecting for bad weather. Before the same is the promenade, under the shade of lofty trees, with music morning and evening. Every guest has his vari-colored Bohemian glass, and takes his turn at the fountain of health, at intervals of a quarter of an hour, with a walk in the meantime.

A bright Sunday morning at Karlsbad announced the long expected birth of an heir to the Hapsburg dynasty. The bulletins gave the information that it was a crown prince, and accordingly a hundred and one guns were fired, all the church bells were rung, a Te Deum was performed, and the officers military and civil, with their trappings and orders, paraded through the streets much to the edification of the peasants, in their picturesque costumes, who were attracted to the town by the holiday. At night the hills were illuminated with the lights representing the double-headed eagle, with the letters F. J., a twinkling star, and E., signifying Francis Joseph and Elizabeth.

The great achievement of the submarine telegraph strikes all with amazement, and the masses begin to comprehend that America is considerable of a country. The peasants have heard that grain in our country is sowed, harvested, threshed, and cleaned by machines, instead of manual labor, and the inquiry is, how is it possible?

Our failure in commercial affairs, through extended enterprise, improvements, and fast living, made Europe feel our importance, and from which it still suffers. We retrenched, stopped buying goods, and economized in public and private outlays, which cannot be done here with their standing armies and expensive court charges; and now I remark our banks are loaded down with specie, new gold discoveries are added to the stock, and only the movement of commerce is needed to put the wheels again in motion.

What would our farmers say if every head of cattle sold, paid a tax of two dollars for slaughtering privilege, and smaller animals in proportion; and every sale of houses and land from five to ten per cent. to the crown.

Hotelkeepers and owners of private houses, for neglect in announcing to the police the harboring a friend or stranger over night, have to pay from five to ten guilders.

CXLV.

COPENHAGEN, DENMARK, _Sept 12, 1858_.

I had not the remotest idea of revisiting this northern region when I wrote you last; but such are the extraordinary facilities of locomotion in this age, that one finds himself within a few days transported hundreds and thousands of miles. I was on my way to Swinemunde, on the Baltic, for sea bathing, when I heard that my old friend Captain Irminger, with whom I visited Caraccas, La Guayra, and Porto Cabello in Venezuela, and the Island of Curaçoa, and who landed me on the small island of Beati, south of Hayti, many years since, from the brig-of-war Örnen, was now residing in this city as admiral of the Danish fleet, and I felt that I could not resist the desire of seeing him again.

I can scarcely realize the fact that at this time last year I had just returned home for a visit, and have since passed over so much ground in Europe, Asia, and Africa. It seems but yesterday that I was climbing the mountains of Circassia, or travelling rapidly over the steppes of Southern Russia, or wandering through the ruins of Sebastopol, passing in review within the year Arabs, Egyptians, Turks, Circassians, Georgians, Greeks, Hungarians, Moldavians, and a host of other races; but when I reflect that space is now almost annihilated, I must be reconciled to the fact, and turn my attention to the quiet and peaceful Dane, and mark the changes, if any, since I saw him for the first time.

From Marienbad I came twenty miles to Franzensbad, not remarkable for its position, but somewhat for the healing qualities of its waters, of which about two hundred thousand jugs are sent away, and about two hundred invalids visit it annually.