Northern Lands; Or, Young America in Russia and PrussiaOptic, Oliver
General
Northern Lands; Or, Young America in Russia and Prussia
Optic, Oliver
Prussia (Germany) -- Description and travel -- Juvenile fiction; Russia -- Description and travel -- Juvenile fiction
The population of Leipzig is nearly a hundred thousand. The productions
of the printing press form one of the most important branches of
commerce. Three fairs are held here every year, the principal of which
is just after Easter; and the commercial transactions at all of them
amount to nearly fifty millions of dollars. Like the fair at Nijni,
they attract visitors from the most distant parts of Europe, and even
from Asia, and formerly, during the Easter Fair, the population of the
city was doubled. On this occasion the booksellers from all parts of
Germany, with many from adjoining countries, assemble to make sales and
exchanges of books, and to settle their accounts. The booksellers of
Leipzig have an exchange, or _bourse_, of their own.
The party took carriages and rode through the streets. There are many
quaint old structures to be seen in the Great Market-place, for the
town is very old. The allied monarchs met in this square after the
battle of Leipzig, in 1813, which the Germans call the _Völkerschlact_,
or Battle of the Nations, because the affairs of Europe were settled
for the time by it. Nearly five hundred thousand men were engaged in
the battle, with sixteen hundred cannon. It lasted three days; but as
the troops of Napoleon were outnumbered by those of the allies nearly
two to one, the emperor was disastrously defeated in the end, and
came very near being captured himself. The bridge over the Elster was
prematurely blown up, and twenty-five thousand of the French had to
ford the stream. Poniatowski, the brave Polish prince, who commanded a
corps of his countrymen in the Grand Army, was drowned in crossing.
"I suppose you have read Göthe, commodore," said Mr. Kinnaird, as he
ordered the driver to stop in a street near the market-place.
"Very little in German, sir."
"Of course you have seen the opera of Faust. This is Auerbach's
cellar, where some of the scenes in the poet's tragedy are laid," added
Mr. Kinnaird, as he pointed to the lower part of an old building. "It
is still a wine and beer shop. It is said that Göthe used to drink deep
in this place himself."
The party drove to the University, which is one of the oldest and most
extensive in Germany, and has eight hundred students. An excursion to
the Castle of Pleissenburg, and to the suburbs, where a view of the
battle-field was obtained, completed the day, though in the evening the
tourists went to the Schützenhaus, which is a beer garden, with the
most elaborate decorations. The place is illuminated with lights of all
colors, and contains castles, grottoes, waterfalls with crimson lights
under them, and a great variety of other attractions.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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