We have taken HARPER'S YOUNG PEOPLE from the beginning, and we
enjoy it very much.
It is just nine years since we left America. Six of these have been
spent in Paris, one in Freiburg, in Baden, and two here. We like
this city exceedingly. It is very beautiful and interesting. In the
"Judengasse," the principal street of the old Jewish quarter of the
town, in an ancient rickety house still standing, were born the
ancestors of the wealthy Von Rothschilds. Near by, in a similar
house, Boerne was born. Goethe's birth-house, in another street, is
more respectable, and full of souvenirs of Germany's great poet.
The opera-house here is as beautiful as the one in Paris. Other
attractions are the Palmengarten, the Zoological Garden, the
forest, the river, the cathedral, picture-galleries, museums,
historical buildings, monuments, and the renowned and graceful
sculpture of Ariadne on the lion's back, by Dannecker. The town is
encircled by the "Promenade," a zigzaggy avenue of green woods,
lovely lawns with flower beds, lakes, fountains, statues, etc., at
the place of the old fortifications.
There are numbers of Hebrews here. They have many noble traits of
character, and some we know are more Christian-like than many
Christians. Besides that, they are very intelligent and quick. We
have plenty of friends among them, and we like them very much.
I have two sisters and two brothers. We all go to school, except my
elder sister, who studies at the Conservatory of Music, of which
the great composer Joachim Raff is director, and which counts among
its teachers Frau Clara Schumann and the violinist Hermann.
My baby brother, who was born in Paris, understands perfectly
French and English, but will speak nothing but German. He attends
the Kindergarten. I take lessons on the violin, and in drawing,
elocution, Italian, and "the grand dialect the prophets spake,"
Hebrew.
I love Longfellow, and I feel so grieved at his death! I have a
precious autograph of his, written expressly for me; it is the
first verse of his beautiful poem, "Excelsior," and his name.
I think, upon the whole, that America is the best country in the
world. However much we are attached to Europe, we will be glad to
get home. Papa is now in New York; he has crossed the Atlantic
Ocean twenty times.
Would the editor or any of the readers please give me a list of all
the different inventions and discoveries made by Americans, and
oblige their loving compatriot,