resolve; so in a few
days after he had imparted to Madaleine and his mother his intention of
emigrating to America, his last good-byes were exchanged with the little
household in the Gulden Strasse--not forgetting the faithful Gelert, now
domiciled in the family, whom it was impossible to take with him on
account of the expense and trouble his transit would have occasioned,
besides which, the good doggie would be ever so much better looked after
by those left behind and would serve "as a sort of pledge," Fritz told
Madaleine, "of his master's return!"

Yes, within a week at the outside, he had left Lubeck once more, and was
on his way to that western "land of the free" which Henry Russell the
ballad writer, has sung of:-- where the "mighty Missouri rolls down to
the sea," and where imperial autocrats and conscription are undreamt
of--although, not so very, very many years ago, it was convulsed in the
throes of a civil war which could boast of as gigantic struggles between
hostile forces and as terrible and bloodthirsty battles as those which
had characterised that Franco-German campaign, in which Fritz had but so
recently participated and been heartily sick of before it terminated!

The love of colonisation seems to be the controlling spirit of modern
times.

Some sceptics in the truth of historical accuracy, have whispered their
suspicions that, the "New World" was actually discovered at a date long
anterior to the age of Columbus; but, even allowing that there might be
some stray scrap of fact for this assertion, it may be taken for granted
that the first nucleus of our present system of emigration, from the
older continent to the "new" one, originated in the little band of
thirty-nine men left behind him by Christopher in Hispaniola, at the
close of his first "voyage beyond seas," in the year 1493, or
thereabouts. This small settlement failed, as is well-known, and the
bones of the Genoese mariner who founded it have been mouldering in dust
for centuries. Sir Walter Raleigh--the gallant imitator of Columbus,
treading so successfully in his footsteps as to illustrate the old adage
of the pupil excelling the master, the original expounder, indeed, of
the famous "Westwards Ho!" doctrine since preached so ably by latter-day
enthusiasts--has also departed to that bourne from whence no traveller
returns. So have, likewise, a host of others, possessing names proudly
borne on the chronicle of fame as martyrs to the uni