was kindly forced
upon me. At Schonefeld I was urged by the masons to demand the usual
"geschenk" from the only jeweller in the village. "Why," exclaimed the
landlord, enthusiastically, "if you only get a penny, it will buy you a
glass of beer!" I overcame the temptation.

BERLIN AND LEIPSIC.--ON TRAMP TO VIENNA.

I was less fortunate in the search for work in Berlin than I had been in
Hamburg. Having started on my travels too early in the year, I paid the
penalty of my rashness. My guide into Berlin was a glovemaker, whose
acquaintance I had made upon the road, and through whom, curiously
enough, I succeeded in discovering my Parisian friend Alcibiade, the
first object of my search. Alcibiade, eccentric, but frank and generous,
received me like a brother. There was no employment to be obtained in
Berlin, or assuredly he would have ferreted it out; more especially as in
the search he had the assistance of one of those philological curiosities
met with in Germany more often than in any other country, a
school-teacher, who seemed to have any number of foreign languages glibly
at the end of his tongue. I stayed a week in Berlin, sleeping at the
Herberge in the Schuster Gasse, described in the body of this work; and
when forced at length to depart, Alcibiade pressed four dollars upon me
as a loan, to help me on my further wanderings. It must be remembered
that my stock was reduced to seventeen shillings on my arrival at Berlin,
and as my expenses in this capital, during a week's vain search for
employment, amounted to nine shillings, I was but indifferently provided.
Under these circumstances I asserted my claim to the trade geschenk, and,
having fulfilled all the conditions of a tramp unable to find work,
received from the Guild twenty silver groschens, or two shillings.

Leipsic was my natural destination, and thither I proceeded by railway,
paying two dollars eight groschens for the transit in an open carriage.
This would give seven shillings in English money. The journey occupied
about twelve hours, and although the average speed through the Prussian
territory was slow, no sooner did we come upon Saxon ground at the
frontier town of Kothen, than we spun along over the sandy waste with a
rapidity which reminded one of a trip on an English railway. It was
already dark when the train reached Leipsic, and in the drizzling rain I
wandered round the city ditch and rampart, unknowing where to find a
lodging