ide.
Sunflowers, dahlias, and roses grew in the little patches of garden by
the road; and all was charming and primitive, save for the discordant
electric fittings which hung midway on the telegraph-posts, and the
anomaly of a brand new brick _Brod-fabrik_ just outside the village.

All the way up the "cane-bottomed chair" and the "Assessor" smoked
stolidly, while their women-folk cackled like human geese. "_Wie
schoen!_" "_Colossal!_" "_Entzueckend!_" "_Reizend!_" Nothing but
incessant and weary adjectives! I turned with relief to the
"Barmherzige Schwester," a prim and silent little figure in neat blue
cotton gown, black apron, and white kerchief pinned over her shining
hair.

The tram stopped at last before the village church, and we all got
out. To our left, as we faced the Kurhaus, straggled a long line of
houses with deep verandahs and balconies, to our right shady walks and
bath-houses and beautiful woods. Here and there amid the hotels and
villas was a shop, and we knew that Schlangenbad marched with the
times when we saw the word "_Schamponieren_" and a bunch of Empire
curls exhibited as a modern trophy. We stopped at a shop and examined
its wares, which, indeed, hung chiefly on the shutters. There were
Swiss embroidered gowns and blouses to be bought, edelweiss penwipers,
wooden paper-cutters, and clocks with chamois climbing wooden rocks.
Nothing apparently in that shop had been "made in Germany." When we
reached the verandah of the "Nassauer Hof" we were gladdened by bows
from the "Assessor" and the student, who with the "cackling geese"
were seated at a long table consuming piles of Apfelkuchen,
Streuselkuchen, and Napfkuchen to an accompaniment of steaming coffee.

As for dull, useful information Schlangenbad, of course, was known to
the Romans, and they bathed in its waters. The Middle Ages seem to
have neglected Spas generally, and to have been dead to the joys of a
bath. At all events, nothing more was heard about Schlangenbad or its
springs until in 1687 a wooden hut was put over what was known as the
"Roemer Bad." Next the Landgraf of Hesse awoke to the virtues of its
waters, and caused the "Oberes Kurhaus" to be built. Five years
later, the "Nassauer Hof" was erected, and a time of prosperity and
fashion set in for Schlangenbad. The waters have always had a great
reputation for beautifying the skin and healing wounds and sores. It
is on record that Frederick the First of Sweden ordered four thousa