me, libraries, and ornamental gardens are not
inferior to those of New York itself: in these two cities, if the dollar
does jingle too often in conversation, it is sometimes made to shine in
a worthy cause. After dusk, Hamburg becomes dissolute and gay. It is
difficult to pass through a single street without hearing a violin.
Lager-bier saloons, oyster-cellars, cafes, dancing-rooms, and
restaurants of every kind are lighted up, and quickly filled. Debauchery
runs riot, and yet, strange to say, there is very little crime. The
respectable classes are less well provided for as regards amusement. I
went to the opera, and heard William Tell. The performance was mediocre,
though far superior to anything that could be done upon the English
operatic stage. But I was chiefly amused in watching the habits of the
gentlemen who patronized the stalls.

The custom of visiting and receiving at the opera was invented by the
Italians, to avoid the trouble and expense of receiving in their own
homes; from Italy it spread through Europe; and although the
opera-houses of London and Paris do not so closely resemble a public
drawing-room as those of Florence and Milan, yet the Italian opera could
scarcely exist in those cities unless it were supported as much by
people of fashion as by people of taste. But I was hardly prepared to
find in Hamburg a parody of polite life in this respect. During the
whole performance there was a continual interchange of social greetings
between corpulent ship-chandlers, their heads violently greased for the
occasion, and certain frowsy women sprinkled scantily through the house.
There was an old gentleman sitting next to me who turned the performance
to a nobler use; he had apparently brought his son there for the
purpose of tuition; holding the libretto between them, he translated
with great rapidity and in a clear voice the Italian words, at the
moment that they were sung, into one of the most guttural of German
dialects, thus playing the part of Dutch chorus to the entertainment,
and producing a conflict of sounds which it would be difficult to
describe.

* * * * *

I discovered, to my astonishment, that Heligoland, in summer at all
events, was by no means an isolated rock; that since 1840 it has been
blessed with a Season; that, celebrated for its waves, it has become the
Scarborough of Northern Germany, and is visited by thousands of
sea-bathers every year.

I took my p