to the German. The Unter den Linden is a hundred and
ninety-six feet wide, and receives its name from the double avenue of
linden trees extending through the centre. The street is flanked with
fine buildings, a few hotels, three palaces, a museum, a school of art,
public library, etc. At one end is the famous bronze statue of Frederick
the Great. The Brandenburg Gate, where the Linden commences, forms the
entrance to the city from the Thiergarten, and is a sort of triumphal
arch, erected in 1789. It is seventy feet in height, and two hundred in
width, being modelled after the entrance in the gateway of the temple of
the Parthenon at Athens. It affords five passage-ways through its great
width.

This proud capital, six hundred years ago, was only of small importance,
since when it has grown to its present mammoth proportions. Frederick
William made it his home and started its most important structures.
Frederick I. added to it, and so it has been improved by one ruler after
another until it has become one of the most important political and
commercial centres in Europe. It is divided by the river Spree, which at
this point is about two hundred feet in width, and communicates with the
Oder and the Baltic by canal. No continental city except Vienna has
grown so rapidly during the last half-century. The late emperor did
little or nothing to beautify the capital, whose growth has been mostly
of a normal character, greatly retarded by a devotion to military
purposes.

The Unter den Linden is the charm of Berlin, so bright, shaded, and
retired, as it were, in the very midst of outer noise and bustle. At
nearly all hours of the day the long lines of benches are crowded by
laughing, flaxen-haired children, attended by gayly dressed nurses, the
groups they form contrasting with the rude struggle of business life
going on so close at hand. A regiment of soldiers is passing as we gaze
upon the scene, accompanied by a full band, their helmets and bright
arms glittering in the sunlight; the vehicles rattle past on both sides
of the mall; here and there is seen an open official carriage with
liveried servants and outriders; well-mounted army officers pass at a
hand-gallop on the equestrian division of the street, saluting right
and left; dogs and women harnessed together to small carts wind in and
out among the throng, while girls and boys with huge baskets strapped to
their backs, containing merchandise, mingle in the scene.

The