ious vegetable productions of the equatorial
world. The ground is carpeted with light-green moss, smooth and soft as
velvet, and, as an appropriate centre-piece to the whole, is seen the
silvery flash of a falling cataract.

The banquet was held in the music-hall, where General Grant was given a
seat immediately fronting the scene just described. The conservatory and
hall were brilliantly illuminated, the tables were resplendent with
silver and floral decorations, and upon the walls of the banquet-chamber
the emblems of the great Republic and the great Empire were suggestively
displayed side by side. Ladies were admitted to the galleries, but
gentlemen only were seated at the tables, and among the guests were many
of the most prominent bankers and merchants of Germany, including
capitalists who had been the first in Europe to invest in the war-loans
offered by our government.

The dinner lasted three hours. Between the courses various toasts were
drunk, a venerable burgher of Frankfort proposing the health of General
Grant, to which the general responded in a brief, sensible, and somewhat
humorous speech, which was exceedingly well received. Nothing could have
been more appropriate, modest, and fitting.

Outside the building the scene was scarcely less animated or interesting
than within. By the aid of colored lights and other pyrotechnic
contrivances the garden was made brilliant and gay as an Arabian Nights
dream. The air was perfumed with the aroma of flowers and moistened by
the delirious play of fountains. Thousands of people, elegantly dressed,
were seated on the out-door terraces, enjoying the fireworks and music,
and in the promenades other thousands were moving, producing a
kaleidoscopic combination of motion and color. For some time after the
banquet General Grant sat upon the veranda of the music-hall, conversing
with friends and observing this novel scene. His presence excited no
rude curiosity or boisterous enthusiasm, but was none the less honored
by more subdued and decorous demonstrations of respect.

The next day General Grant drove to Homburg, fifteen miles, and thence
four miles farther to Saalburg, the site of an ancient Roman
fortification on the Taunus Mountains. It was one of a series of
defensive stations covering the frontier of the Roman empire and
extending from the Rhine to the Danube. The exhumations at this
fortified camp, first attempted within a recent period, have disclosed
the most