Altona

“ I have seen a Danish harvest-home on a Sunday afternoon in the pretty village of Altona; watching its merry mummers as they passed by the old church-yard wall, where Klopstock lies buried. I have attended a funeral as a real mourner, followed by the mourning professionals in the theatrical trappings with which the custom of Hamburg usually adorns them. If we bent our steps, as we sometimes did, through the Altona gate to Hamburger Berg, we came upon a scene of hubbub and animation which was something between Clare Market on Saturday night, and High Street, Greenwich, at fair time. ”

“ Coleridge went to Ratzeberg at five o'clock in the diligence. Chester accompanied me towards Altona. The streets wide and pleasant in that quarter of the town. Immense crowds of people walking for pleasure, and many pleasure-waggons passing and repassing. Passed through a nest of Jews. Were invited to view an exhibition of waxwork. The theatres open, and the billiard-tables attended. The walks very pleasing between Hamburgh and Altona. A large piece of ground planted with trees, and intersected by gravel walks. ”

“ A little time was given me, and one fine day this Gruet debt, which had become a Müller debt, has become an Altona debt. The first notice is served on us. I conceal the fact from Monsieur le Marquis, understand, and I go at once to this Altona. I find a man installed in a magnificent mansion on Place Vendôme, with the air of a grand seigneur I should say, if I did not know Monsieur le Marquis and you, Landri—and beautiful antiques all about him. ”

“ I have constantly observed a disposition to cheat, and take advantage of our ignorance of the language and money. . . .
Thursday, 28th September.—William and I set forward at twelve o'clock to Altona. . . . The Elbe in the vicinity of Hamburgh is so divided, and spread out, that the country looks more like a plain overflowed by heavy rain than the bed of a great river. We went about a mile and a half beyond Altona: the roads dry and sandy, and a causeway for foot-passengers. . . . The houses on the banks of the Elbe, chiefly of brick, seemed very warm and well built. ”

“ At this time the city of Altona, only half a mile from Hamburg, was crowded with the adherents and partisans of the queen, many of them being of the first families in Denmark. Hamburg offered more [177] amusements than Altona, and they were therefore constantly to be found in the houses of the opulent citizens. Baron von Bülow, master of the horse to the Queen of Denmark, who was arrested at the time of the palace revolution, and eventually exiled to Altona, was among the number. ”

“ Naked boats with masts lying at the bare feet of the Blankenese hills. Houses more and more frequent as we approach Hamburgh. The banks of the Elbe more steep. Some gentlemen's seats after the English fashion. The spires of Altona and Hamburgh visible a considerable time. At Altona we took a boat, and rowed through the narrow passages of the Elbe, crowded with vessels of all nations. Landed at the Boom House, where we were received by porters, ready to carry our luggage to any part of the town. William went to seek lodgings, and the rest of the party guarded the luggage. ”

“ He obtained this interview, and remained for a long time in Paris, where I know he has frequently resided since the Restoration.
The individuals whom I had to observe in Hamburg gave me much less trouble than our neighbours at Altona. The number of the latter had considerably augmented, since the events of the war had compelled a great number of emigrants who had taken refuge at Munster to leave that town. They all proceeded to Altona. Conquered countries became as dangerous to them as the land which they had forsaken. ”

“ In respect of its local industries Altona has manufactures of tobacco and cigars, of machinery, woollens, cottons and chemicals. There are also extensive breweries, tanneries and soap and oil works. Altona carries on an extensive maritime trade with Great Britain, France and America, but it has by no means succeeded in depriving Hamburg of its commercial superiority—indeed, so dependent is it upon its rival that most of its business is transacted on the Hamburg exchange, while the magnificent warehouses on the Altona river bank are to a large extent occupied by the goods of Hamburg merchants. ”

“ Madame Genus also resided at Altona some time, under an assumed name, with many other sufferers of less note though higher rank. It is, in fact, scarcely possible to stir out without meeting interesting countenances, every lineament of which tells you that they have seen better days. ”

“ Between this central station and Altona terminus runs the metropolitan railway, which has been raised several feet so as to bridge over the streets, and on which lie the important stations Dammtor and Sternschanze. An excellent service of electric trams interconnect the towns of Hamburg, Altona and the adjacent suburbs, and steamboats provide communication on the Elbe with the riparian towns and villages ”

“ Here has been established the most completely representative railway city in the world, having enormous railway shops, a gigantic establishment, and a population of thirty-five thousand, almost all in one way or another dependent on the Pennsylvania Railroad. Altoona is at an elevation of about eleven hundred feet above tide, and the railway climbs to the summit of the mountain by a grade of ninety feet to the mile, winding around an indented valley to get the necessary elevation. At its head this valley divides into two smaller glens, with a towering crag rising between them. ”

“ The City of Altenbourg is the Capital of a County of that Name, of which the Duke of Saxe-Gotha is the Sovereign. This Prince has a Palace there which makes a handsome appearance, but I shall say nothing more of it because I neglected to go and see it. The Peasants of the County of Altenbourg are the richest in Germany, and may almost vye with those of Holland. I have been assur'd that some of them have given 20 or 30000 Crowns in Marriage with their Daughters; and like the Dutch Peasants, they take care to match them to none but the Sons of substantial Farmers. ”

“ At seven o'clock we arrived at Altenburg. A night in a railway train is not the best preparation for a day of sight-seeing. However, after the restorative of a wash and breakfast at the Bayerische Hof, the first hotel that presented itself, I crossed the road to the grounds belonging to the castle. By a bold undulating slope, laid out as an English park, you mount to a plateau, where a well-kept garden contrasts agreeably with the tall avenues and grouped masses of foliage. Small pleasure-houses stand here and there among the trees, and you see a pavilion built in the style of a Greek temple. ”

“ Half an hour’s drive up the lovely valley brought us to Altorf, at the foot of the Grünwald, which, in accord with its name, is clothed with a virgin forest, now called the “Bann forest,” because so useful is it in protecting the town from avalanches and landslips that the Uri government never permits it to be touched. Altorf, like so many of the capitals in these forest cantons, has a small population, 2,700 inhabitants only, but it has many good houses, for it was burnt down in 1799 and rebuilt in a better manner. Tell’s story forms its chief interest, and certainly did so in our eyes. ”

“ A number of whales spouted on all sides of us as we crossed the head of the fjord to Bosekop, near the mouth of the Alten River. This is a little village on a bare rocky headland, which completely shuts out from view the rich valley of the Alten, about which the Finmarkers speak with so much enthusiasm. "Ah, you should see the farms on the Alten," say they; "there we have large houses, fields, meadows, cattle, and the finest timber." This is Altengaard, familiar to all the readers of Mügge's "Afraja." ”

“ The people at Antonina (in fact all the people we saw in Brazil) were kind, extremely hospitable, and polite; living in thrift generally, their wants were but few beyond their resources. The mountain scenery, viewed from the harbour of Antonina, is something to gloat over; I have seen no place in the world more truly grand and pleasing. The climate, too, is perfect and healthy. The only doctor of the place, when we were there, wore a coat out at the elbows, for lack of patronage. A desirable port is Antonina. ”

“ Vast boggy plains, bare rocky hillsides, with scarcely a house to be seen anywhere—only a ruin, now and then, marking the site of some ancient stronghold; and so, in the first dusk of the evening, we came to Athlone.
One would have thought that, with so important a town, the station would have been placed somewhere near it; but habit was too strong for the builders of the line, and so they put the station about a mile away, at the end of a dreary stretch of road, beyond a great [273] barrack, along the river, past the castle, and over the bridge. ”

“ His thoughts outran the train; and long before his arrival at the Hamelin railway station, he was enjoying his welcome by the Ritterhausens, was revelling in the ease and comfort of the old castle, and was contrasting the pleasures of his home-coming—for he looked upon Schloss Altenau as a sort of temporary home—with his recent cheerless experiences of lodging-houses in London, hotels in Berlin, and strange indifferent faces everywhere. ”

“ Noted as a railway junction, as well as a pleasantly located town on the Aare, Olten is only five miles distant from the pretty health resort of Frohburg, on the Hauenstein. From this eminence one can enjoy a wonderful panorama of the Alps, extending from the Sentis at the extreme northwest, to Mont Blanc at the southeastern end of the mighty range of snow-capped mountains. ”

“ The narrow ridge cut by the railway is abruptly terminated to the Northeast by the valley of Allatoona Creek, crooking among the hills to join the Etowah, and its slopes facing Northwest and Southeast are steep and difficult. Towards the West and Southwest the descent is more gradual, and a country road follows the rolling crest of the ridge along which from the Westward the main attack was ultimately to be made. ”

“ Altenburg, my objective point for the night, is the centre of a sixty-thousand-acre estate belonging to the Archduke Albrecht, uncle of the present Emperor of Austro-Hungary, and one of the wealthiest land-owners in the empire. Ere I have been at the gasthaus an hour I am honored by a visit from Professor Thallmeyer, of the Altenburg Royal Agricultural School, who invites me over to his house to spend an hour in conversation, and in the discussion of a bottle of Hungary's best vintage, for the learned professor can talk very good English, and his wife is of English birth and parentage. ”

“ Then his crest lowered, for he thought of Electra.
“Hellen,” urged the queen, “better would it be if thou didst not speak.” Then to the king, she said appealingly, “Atlano, of a truth, the galleys wait for us. Let us to them. As thou goest, it may be that thou wilt look with other eyes upon this.”
“Never will I look with other eyes. But I will go with thee to make this naught.”
“Make it not naught, King Atlano,” interposed Æole, to the amazement of all, even himself. Never before had she been known to address him. “Make not naught our going. The heart of Queen Atlana is in this. ”

“ The Range is traversed at Allatoona Pass by the Etowah River, flowing West and North to unite at Rome, thirty miles distant, with the Oostenaula and form the Coosa. The railway, coming down from Kingston,—whence a branch ran Westward to Rome,—and crossing the Etowah, winds Southeasterly among the hills, and at Allatoona station, about four miles from the river, penetrates a minor ridge and emerges from a cut some sixty-five feet in depth. It was at this point—referred to by Sherman as a “Natural Fortress”—that the “secondary base” was established, and the surplus supplies were accumulated. ”

“ Allan made none; he taught with conscientiousness thirty tow-headed youngsters, read what books he could get, and worked in the tollgate keeper's small, bright garden. He had a passion for flowers. He loved, too, to sit with his pipe upon the rude porch of the toll-house, fanned by the marvellous mountain air, and look down over ridges of chestnut and oak to the mighty valley below, and across to the far blue wall of the Alleghenies.
The one-roomed, log-built schoolhouse stood a mile from the road across the mountains, upon a higher level, in a fairy meadow below the mountain clearings. ”

“ Al′ten, Karl August, a distinguished officer, native of Hanover, who entered the British service, bore arms under Sir John Moore, was chief of a division, under Wellington, in the Peninsular war, and closed his military career at the battle of Waterloo (1763-1840) .
Al′tenburg (33) , capital of Saxe-Altenburg, and 4 m. S. of Leipsic; its castle is the scene of the famous “Prinzenraub” (q. v.) , related by Carlyle in his “Miscellanies.”
Althen, a Persian refugee, who introduced into France the cultivation of madder, which became one of the most important products of the S. of France. ”

“ While the old castle of Landshort was in this state of perplexity a very interesting scene was transacting in a different part of the Odenwald.
The young Count Von Altenburg was tranquilly pursuing his route in that sober jog-trot way in which a man travels toward matrimony when his friends have taken all the trouble and uncertainty of courtship off his hands and a bride is waiting for him as certainly as a dinner at the end of his journey. ”

“ The gear of the sluice was stiff: but Antonio was strong, and his task was soon accomplished. For the first time in three years the water began gurgling among the dust and dead leaves of its ancient bed, and nothing but a slender runnel was left for the stone channel which ran through the kitchen.
Antonio threw off his boots and socks and outer garments and swung himself down into the ankle-deep stream. Before him yawned the black tunnel by which the waters passed over the whole width of the refectory, a distance of about eight yards. ”