stmas time when I was a little boy. The
little fellow had the gravest and most comical face ever seen, and when
he had a hard nut to crack there was some arrangement inside him which
made him roll his great eyes, which projected far out of his head, and
this gave him such an absurdly life-like effect that I could play with
him for hours; in fact, in my secret soul, I almost thought he was
real. All the marionettes I have seen since then, however perfect, I
have thought stiff and lifeless compared to my glorious Nutcracker. I
had heard much of some wonderful automatons in the Arsenal at Dantzig,
and I took care to go and see them when I was there some years ago.
Soon after I got into the place where they were, an old-fashioned
German soldier came marching up to me, and fired off his musket with
such a bang that the great vaulted hall rang again. There were other
similar tricks which I forget about now; but at length I was taken into
a room where I found the God of War--the terrible Mars himself--with
all his suite. He was seated, in a rather grotesque dress, on a throne
ornamented with arms of all sorts; heralds and warriors were standing
round him. As soon as we came before the throne, a set of drummers
began to roll their drums, and lifers blew on their fifes in the most
horrible way--all out of tune--so that one had to put one's fingers in
one's ears. My remark was that the God of War was very badly off for a
band, and every one agreed with me. The drums and fifes stopped; the
heralds began to turn their heads about, and stamp with their halberds,
and finally the God of War, after rolling his eyes for a time, started
up from his seat, and seemed to be coming straight at us. However, he
soon sank back on his throne again, and after a little more drumming
and fifing, everything reverted to its state of wooden repose. As I
came away from seeing these automatons, I said to myself, 'Nothing like
my Nutcracker!' And now that I have seen the sage Turk, I say again,
'Give me my Nutcracker.'

"'"People laughed at this, of course; though it was believed to be
'more jest than earnest,' for, to say nothing of the remarkable
cleverness of many of the Turk's answers, the indiscoverable connection
between him and the hidden Being who, besides speaking through him,
must produce the movements which accompanied his answers, was
unquestionably very wonderful, at all events a masterpiece of
mechanical and acoustical skill."

"'Lewis wa