e new than those which
they go to Venice in search of.

This forest of salmon-colored masts, with their maze of cordage and
their yellowish-brown sails drying in the sun, these tarred sterns with
apple-green decks, these lateen-yards threatening the windows of the
neighboring houses, these derricks standing under plank roofs shaped
like pagodas, these tackles lifting heavy packages out of vessels and
landing them in houses, these bridges opening to give passage to
vessels, these clumps of trees, these gables overtopped here and there
by spires and belfries; all this bathed in smoke, traversed by sunlight
and here and there returning a glitter of polished metal, the far-off
distance blue and misty, and the foreground full of vigorous color,
produced effects of the most brilliant and piquant novelty. A
church-tower, covered with plates of copper, springing from this curious
medley of rigging and of houses, recalled to me by its odd green color
the tower of Galata, at Constantinople....

As the hour advanced, the crowd became more numerous, and it was
largely composed of women. In Hamburg they seem to enjoy great license.
Very young girls come and go alone without anyone's noticing it, and--a
remarkable thing!--children go to school by themselves, little basket on
the arm, and slate in hand; in Paris, left to their own free will, they
will run off to play marbles, tag, or hop-scotch.

Dogs are muzzled in Hamburg all the week, but on Sundays they are left
at liberty to bite whom they please. They are taxed, and appear to be
esteemed; but the cats are sad and unappreciated. Recognizing in me a
friend, they cast melancholy glances at me, saying in their feline
language, to which long use has given me the key:

"These Philistines, busy with their money-getting, despise us; and yet
our eyes are as yellow as their louis d'or. Stupid men that they are,
they believe us good for nothing but to catch rats; we, the wise, the
meditative, the independent, who have slept upon the prophet's sleeve,
and lulled his ear with the whir of our mysterious wheel! Pass your hand
over our backs full of electric sparkles--we allow you this liberty, and
say to Charles Baudelaire that he must write a fine sonnet, deploring
our woes."

As the Luebeck boat was not to leave until the morrow, I went to Wilkin's
to get my supper. This famous establishment occupies a low-ceiled
basement, which is divided into cabinets ornamented with more show than
t