in Prussia by his stamp on each
packet. The coloured porcelain-headed pipe began to supplant the
meerschaum. In Northern Germany the white beer became the new
fashionable drink of the citizens; staid old-fashioned tradesmen shook
their heads, and complained that their favourite old brew became worse,
and that the consumption of wine among the citizens increased
immoderately. In Saxony they began to drink coffee to a great extent,
however thin and adulterated it might be, and it was the only warm
drink of the poor. The general complaint of travellers, who came from
the south of Germany, was that the cooking in Prussia, Saxony, and
Thuringia was poor and scanty.

The public amusements, also, were neither numerous or expensive.
Foremost was the theatre; it was quite a passion with the citizens. The
wandering companies became better and more numerous, the number of
theatres greater; the best place was the parterre, in which officers,
students, or young officials, who were frequently at variance, gave the
tone. The sensation dramas, with dagger, poison, and rattling of
chains, enchanted the unpretending; pathetic family dramas, with
iniquitous ministers of state, and raving lovers excited feeling in the
educated; and the bad taste of the pieces, and the good acting,
astonished strangers. The entrance of one of these companies within
walls was an event of great importance; and we see, from the accounts
of many worthy men, how great was the influence of such representations
upon their life. It is difficult for us to comprehend the enthusiasm
with which young people of education followed these performances,
the intensity of the feelings excited in them. Iffland's pieces,
"Verbrechen aus Ehrgeiz" and "Der Spieler," drew forth not only tears
and sobs, but also oaths and impassioned vows. Once at Lauchstaedt, when
the curtain fell at the end of the "Spielers" (Gamblers), one of the
wildest students of Halle rushed up to another, also of Halle, but whom
he scarcely knew, and begged him, the tears streaming from his eyes, to
record his oath that he would never again touch a card. According to
the account the excited youth kept his word. Similar scenes were not
extraordinary. Poor students saved money for weeks to enable them to go
even once from Halle to the theatre in Lauchstaedt, and they ran back
the same night, so as not to miss their lectures the next morning. But,
lively as was the interest of the Germans in the drama, it was