t of the concerts and theatrical
performances given in it, to say nothing of the occasional balls,--no,
what attracted him and took him out there now and then even Lor his
morning glass, was a pavilion standing close by the "Society House,"
in which a major with a historical name and most affable manners,
dressed in a faultless blue frock coat with gold buttons, kept the
bank. This was only too often the resort of my father, who, when he
had lost a considerable sum and had correspondingly enriched the pot
of the bank keeper, instead of being out of sorts over it, simply drew
the inference that the keeping of the bank was a business that
produced sure gain, and the old major with the high white neckcloth
and the diamond pin was an extremely enviable man and, above all, one
very worthy of emulation. In such a career one got something out of
life. My father expressed such opinions, too, when he came home and
sat down late to dinner. This he did once in the presence of a
recently married sister of my mother, who was visiting in our home
during the bathing season.

"But you are not going to-do that," she replied to his remarks.

"Why not?"

"Because there is no honor in it."

"Hm, honor," he ejaculated, and began to drum upon the table with his
fingers; but, not having the courage to argue the question, he merely
turned his face away and left the table.

* * * * *

The city was very ugly and very handsome, and an equal contrast was,
to be observed in its inhabitants, at least with respect to their
moral qualities. Here, as in all seaports, there was a broad stratum
of human beings day in and day out under the influence of rum and
arrack, and they composed the main body of the population; but there
was also, as is quite general in seaports, a society of a materially
higher type spiritually, which overshadowed by far what one usually
met with in those days in the small cities of the inland provinces,
especially the Mark of Brandenburg, where the narrowest philistinism
held sway. That these inhabitants were so thoroughly free from
narrow-mindedness was without doubt due to a variety of causes, but
chiefly, perhaps, to the fact that the whole population was of a
pronounced international character. In the villages of the environs
there still lived presumably a certain number of the descendants of
the Wendic Pomeranian: aborigines of the days of Julin and Vineta. In
Swinemuende itself, especi