aste. Oysters, turtle-soup, a truffled filet, and a bottle of Veuve
Cliquot iced, composed my simple bill of fare. The place was filled,
after the Hamburg fashion, with edibles of all sorts; things early and
things out of season, dainties not yet in existence or having long
ceased to exist, for the common crowd. In the kitchen they showed us, in
great tanks, huge sea-turtles which lifted their scaly heads above the
water, resembling snakes caught between two platters. Their little horny
eyes looked with uneasiness at the light which was held near them, and
their flippers, like oars of some disabled galley, vaguely moved up and
down, as seeking some impossible escape. I trust that the personnel of
the exhibition changes occasionally.

In the morning I went for my breakfast to an English restaurant, a sort
of pavilion of glass, whence I had a magnificent panoramic view. The
river spread out majestically through a forest of vessels with tall
masts, of every build and tonnage. Steam-tugs were beating the water,
towing sailing-vessels out to sea; others, moving about freely, made
their way hither and thither, with that precision which makes a
steam-boat seem like a conscious being, endowed by a will of its own,
and served by sentient organs. From the elevation the Elbe is seen,
spreading broadly like all great rivers as they near the sea. Its
waters, sure of arriving at last, are in no haste; placid as a lake,
they flow with an almost invisible motion. The low opposite shore was
covered with verdure, and dotted with red houses half-effaced by the
smoke from the chimneys. A golden bar of sunshine shot across the plain;
it was grand, luminous, superb.

[Footnote A: From "A Winter in Russia." By arrangement with, and by
permission of, the publishers, Henry Holt & Co. Copyright, 1874. Hamburg
is now the largest seaport on the continent of Europe. London and New
York are the only ports in the world that are larger. Exclusive of its
rural territory, it had in 1905 a population of 803,000.]

SCHLESWIG[A]

BY THEOPHILE GAUTIER

When you are in a foreign country, reduced to the condition of a
deaf-mute, you can not but curse the memory of him who conceived the
idea of building the tower of Babel, and by his pride brought about the
confusion of tongues! An omnibus took possession of myself and my
trunks, and, with the feeling that it must of necessity take me
somewhere, I confidingly allowed myself to be stowed in and car