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128 A STROI/L THROUGH BERLIN.
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Transcript
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
? A Gai^Ery Carried Over The Street On A...
course of lessons . Only in Hearing * again the day ' s starting- point in the most ancient quarter , the original city of Berlinnow called
, the Konig ' s-stadt , a moment must be spared for the chief relic of antiquity which the Berlin of to-day retainssole waif from legendary
, ages which has been borne upon the waves of time and stranded on the shore of the present . This is merely a simple stone cross
standing * before the door of the St . Marien Church , and to which it is said an ever-burning lamp was once affixed , -which the Berliners
were bound to maintain in unquenched brilliance on the spot where their crime was perpetrated , as a perpetual penance for having *
ferociously murdered a priestly dignitary , who was endeavouring- to persuade them to a _chang-e of rulers . The name of the victim , the
for exact the office whole he story held , , preserving the date of throug the murder h all , changes all are variousl the traditionary y given ,
remembrance of an interdict which once hung for many years over the capital , is involved in the obscurity of ante-historical timesbut
, it is this very mist which has gathered round it which invests the rude cross with its special interest ; all the more heightened too ,
by its being lit up by a _g-leam of the supernatural , since five small holes seen in the solid stone are said to be the mark of Satan ' s grip
, when he made an _ineffectual attempt to carry off from the repentant sinners the appointed means of expiation .
But rarely indeed does any object occur here to carry the mind Iback . into the far-gone past , for no time-worn piles of ancient
architecture , no venerable cathedrals , no grim old fortresses , or hoary halls of justice appear , as in most large cities which reckon
their genealogy by centuries , to attest that for ages past a ruler had governed and a people fought and prayed upon the spot . Of
all the forty churches scattered over the town , not more than three or four date from earlier than the 17 th century , and two or three
half-hidden towers at the back , are the only parts of the Schloss that bear visible marks of antiquity . It would seem that the
ancient Berlin must have utterly passed away , and the modern Berlinthereforehandsome as it undoubtedly is , yet lacks entirely
, , that depth , of interest which age alone can give . Neither yet is there any of that animation and liveliness which mostly
characterize a town but recently sprung into existence , for this is no spontaneous outgrowth of the necessities of an advancing age , but
rose rather , whole districts at a time , at the fiat of individual wills , aiming rather to improve the appearance of the capital than to
afford accommodation to the citizen . Hence the population is but small as compared with the number of dwelling's , and the streets ,
clean , regular , and well built as they mostly are , have generally a rather deserted lookand but a few steps from the great centres of
, business or fashion , are found quiet even to dulness . The substantial-looking , large , though not very lofty , white houses , which form
the superior streets , turn mostly their sides rather than their gables
128 A Stroi/L Through Berlin.
128 A STROI _/ L THROUGH BERLIN .
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Citation
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English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), April 1, 1863, page 128, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01041863/page/56/
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