mmanding a fine view. But to one unused to many
stairs, and weakened by continuous illness in a long sea-voyage, the
exhaustion of that first ascent was something to be remembered. It
was, however, but the precursor of hundreds of similar feats, which
our residence involved, as nearly all families live up several flights
of stairs. Only once did we see an elevator in Germany. In the elegant
hotel known as the Kaiserhof, the sojourning-place of princes,
diplomatists, and statesmen, we took our seats in a commodious
elevator, rejoiced at the thought of such an American way of getting
upstairs. It was fully five minutes before we reached the moderate
elevation of the corridor on which our rooms opened; the liveried and
intelligent official in charge, evidently a personage of importance,
meanwhile replying to our queries and enjoying our evident surprise at
the slow motion, until we forgot our annoyance in the interest of the
conversation which ensued before we reached our destination. Once I
was toiling up the four flights which led to the residence of a
cultivated German lady, in company with the hostess. "Oh," I said
breathlessly, "would there were elevators in Germany!"

"Yes," courteously responded the lady; adding, with a resigned sigh,
the conclusive words which indicated contentment with her lot, "but it
is not ze custom."

It was late in the season, and our lodgings were not engaged in
advance. Americans in increasing numbers make Berlin a winter
residence, and by October the most desirable _pensions_ generally have
their rooms engaged. By the kind offices of our friend, our famishing
party were provided with the rolls and coffee which compose the
continental breakfast, and a fortunate entrance was, after much
seeking, obtained for us to a most desirable boarding-house. Our own
apartment was a large corner room, with immense windows looking north
and east, and, like nearly all rooms in Berlin houses, connected by
double doors with the apartments on either side. A fire was built
before we took possession, but it was two days before we ceased to
shiver. We looked for the stove of which we had heard. More than one
of the five senses were called into requisition to determine which
article of furniture was entitled to that designation. Across one
corner of the room stood a tall white monument composed of glazed
tiles laid in mortar, built into the room as a chimney might have
been, with a hidden flue in the rear conne