ion, from very distant countries: while every town and village,
within a wide radius, finds itself represented by both wares and
customers.

It is not, however, all freedom even at fair time. The guild laws of the
different trades, exclusive and jealous as they are, are enforced with
the utmost severity. Jews, in general, and certain trades in
particular,--shoemakers, for example,--are not allowed the same
privileges as the rest; for their liberty to sell is restricted to a
shorter period, and woe to the ambitious or unhappy journeyman who shall
manufacture, or expose for sale, any article of his trade, either on his
own account or for others, if they be not acknowledged as masters by the
Guild. Every such article will be seized by the public officers,
deposited in the Rathhaus, and severe punishment--in the shape of
fines--inflicted on the offender. The last week of the Fair is called
the pay-week; the Thursday and Friday in this week being severally pay
and assignation days. The traffic at the Easter Fair, before the
establishment of railways, was estimated at forty millions of dollars,
but since, by their means, increased facilities of transit between
Leipsic and the two capitals, Berlin and Dresden, have been afforded, it
has risen to seventy millions of dollars, or ten millions five hundred
thousand pounds sterling.

In the meantime, here we are in the Bruhl, a street important enough, no
doubt, so far as its inhabitants and traffic are concerned, but neither
beautiful nor picturesque. The houses are high and flat, and, from a
peculiarity of build about their tops, seem to leer at you with one eye.
Softly over the pebbles! and mind you don't tread on the pigeons. They
are the only creatures in Leipsic that enjoy uncontrolled freedom. They
wriggle about the streets without fear of molestation; they sit in rows
upon the tops of houses; they whirl in little clouds above our heads;
they outnumber, at a moderate estimate, the whole human population of the
city, and are as sacred as the Apis or the Brahmin bull. As we proceed
along the Bruhl, the evidences of the traffic become more perceptible.
Square sheds of a dingy black hue line one side of the way, and are made
in such a manner, that from being more closed boxes at night, they
readily become converted into shops in the daytime, by a falling flap in
front, which in some cases is adjusted so as to perform the part of a
counter. These booths form the outer