through the streets at from ten to
twenty miles an hour, taking curves and corners after the manner of an
Irish car driver. Everybody travels by them, excepting only officers in
uniform, who must not. Ladies in evening dress, going to ball or opera,
porters with their baskets, sit side by side. They are all-important in
the streets, and everything and everybody makes haste to get out of their
way. If you do not get out of their way, and you still happen to be
alive when picked up, then on your recovery you are fined for having been
in their way. This teaches you to be wary of them.

One afternoon Harris took a "bummel" by himself. In the evening, as we
sat listening to the band at the Belvedere, Harris said, _a propos_ of
nothing in particular, "These Germans have no sense of humour."

"What makes you think that?" I asked.

"Why, this afternoon," he answered, "I jumped on one of those electric
tramcars. I wanted to see the town, so I stood outside on the little
platform--what do you call it?"

"The Stehplatz," I suggested.

"That's it," said Harris. "Well, you know the way they shake you about,
and how you have to look out for the corners, and mind yourself when they
stop and when they start?"

I nodded.

"There were about half a dozen of us standing there," he continued, "and,
of course, I am not experienced. The thing started suddenly, and that
jerked me backwards. I fell against a stout gentleman, just behind me.
He could not have been standing very firmly himself, and he, in his turn,
fell back against a boy who was carrying a trumpet in a green baize case.
They never smiled, neither the man nor the boy with the trumpet; they
just stood there and looked sulky. I was going to say I was sorry, but
before I could get the words out the tram eased up, for some reason or
other, and that, of course, shot me forward again, and I butted into a
white-haired old chap, who looked to me like a professor. Well, _he_
never smiled, never moved a muscle."

"Maybe, he was thinking of something else," I suggested.

"That could not have been the case with them all," replied Harris, "and
in the course of that journey, I must have fallen against every one of
them at least three times. You see," explained Harris, "they knew when
the corners were coming, and in which direction to brace themselves. I,
as a stranger, was naturally at a disadvantage. The way I rolled and
staggered about that platform, clutching wildly