"No city in Germany can boast of the splendid ball-rooms of Berlin. One in particular, near the Brandenburg gate and the Parade-ground, is remarkable for its size, and presents a magnificent exterior, especially in the evening, when hundreds of lamps stream through the windows and light up the park in front. The interior is of corresponding splendor, and when the vast hall resounds with the music of the grand orchestra, and is filled with a gay crowd rustling in silks or satins, or lounging in the hall, or whirling in the giddy waltz, it is certainly a scene to intoxicate the youth who frequent it in search of adventure, or to drink in the poison of seductive and deceiving, although bright and fascinating eyes. Should the foreigner visit this scene on one of its gay nights, he may get a glimpse of the depths of Berlin life. Many a veil is lifted here. This splendid scene has its dark side. This is not respectable Berlin. This whirling, laughing crowd is frivolous Berlin, whether of wealth, extravagance, and folly, or of poverty, vice, and necessity. The prostitute and the swindler are on every side. Formerly the female visitors were of good repute, but gradually courtesans and women of light character slipped in, until at length no lady could be seen there. And the aforesaid foreigner, who lounges through the rooms, admiring the elegant and lovely women who surround him in charge of some highly respectable elderly person, an 'aunt,' or a '_chaperone_,' or possibly in company with her 'newly-married husband,' seeks to know the names and position of such evident celebrity and fashion. 'Do not you know her? Any police officer can tell you her history,' are the replies he receives. There is a class of men at this place who perform a function singular to the uninitiated. These worthies are the 'husbands' of the before-mentioned ladies. They play the careless or the strict cavalier; are Blue-beards on occasion; appear or keep out of sight, according to the proprieties of the moment." From the same writer we extract the following sketch of a DANCING SALOON.