punch and hot coffee were in the
ascendant; and there were more cigars
smoked in an afternoon on the Jungfern
Stieg (the Maiden's Walk) than would have
stored the cases of a London suburban
tobacconist.

These may, perhaps, be reckoned mere
idlings, but there were occasionally official
doings on the Sunday, which might have
been national, if Hamburgh had been a
nation, but which no doubt were eminently
popular. Two such, I remember; one a grand
review of the Bürger Militär; the other the
public confirmation of the apprentices and
others, and the conscription of the youth of
the city. The former was a trying affair.
Some twelve thousand citizen-soldiers had to
turn out, fully rigged and equipped, by early
dawn, ready for any amount of drill and
evolution. Many were the stories—more
witty than generous—of the whereabout of
their uniforms and accoutrements; as to
their being deposited in Lombardian hands,
as wholly used up since the last grand field-day
some three years before. Such furbishing
as there was of brass ornaments and
metal-buttons; such an oiling and sand-papering of
brown muskets, and such a rearrangement of
blue tunics which, after all, did not match in
colour, length, nor appointments! Fortunately
our warriors did not burn powder; and there
was enough of military ardour among them
to carry them through the fatigue of the day.
It required a great deal; for, like other
military bodies of a late day, the commissariat
department totally broke down, and
citizens were kept hungering and thirsting
upon the blank, dusty plain within half-a-
mile of stored-up abundance. The confirmation
of the apprentices and the conscription
of the young men was a more serious
matter. It took place in the great square,
where a stage and pavilion were erected; all
the authority of the senate, and the services
of the church were united to render it solemn
and impressive. It was a source of deep
interest to many of my own acquaintances,
more especially to the young cooper who
worked underground at our house, and who,
just released from his apprenticeship, had
the good or ill fortune to be drawn for the
next year's levy.

There was one institution, not precisely of
Hamburgh, but at the very doors of it, which
exercised considerable influence upon its
habits and morals, and that of no beneficial
kind. This was the Danish State Lottery,
the office of which was at Altona, where
the prizes were periodically drawn upon
Sunday. The Hamburghers were supposed
to receive certain pecuniary advantages from
this lottery, in the shape of benefits bestowed
upon the Waisenkinder of the town, who,
like our own blue-coat boys of the old time,
were the drawers of the numbers ; but the
advantages were very questionable, seeing
that the bulk of spectators were the
Hamburghers themselves, and the great prizes
of the undertaking went to swell the
Danish Royal Treasury. Portions of shares
could be purchased for as low a sum as
fourpence, and the Hamburgh senate, in self
defence, and with a great show of propriety,
prohibited the traffic of them among servants
and apprentices : which prohibition passed, of
course, for next to nothing, seeing that the
temptation was very strong, and the injunction
very weak. It was a curious sight to witness
the crowd upon the occasion of a public drawing
in the quaint old square of Altona ; a
pebble dotted space with a dark box in the
centre, not unlike the basement of a gallows.
On this stood the wheel, bright in colours
and gold, and by its side two orphan boys in
school-costume, who officiated at the ceremony.
One boy turned the wheel, the other
drew the numbers, and called them aloud as
he held them before the spectators ; while
the blast of a trumpet heralded the
announcement. What feverish anxiety, what
restless cupidity might be fostering among
that crowd no man could calculate, and
certainly, to my mind, there was no worse
thing done on the Sunday in all
Hamburgh than this exhibition of legalised
gambling.

Of course the theatres were open, and we
of the working people were not unfrequent
visitors there. But let us thoroughly understand
the nature of a German theatrical
entertainment. There is rarely more than one
piece, and the whole performance is usually
included in the period of two hours—from
seven till nine. The parterre, or pit, is a mere
promenade, or standing-place, in which the
few seats are let at a higher price than the
rest of the space. The whole of the arrangements
are conducted with the utmost decorum:
so much so, that they would probably
disappoint some people who look upon the
shouting, drovers' whistling, and hooroar
and hissing of some of our theatres, as part of
the legitimate drama. On the Christmas day,
when I had the option of getting gloriously
fuddled with a select party of English friends,
or of entertaining myself in some less orthodox
way, I preferred to witness the opera of
Norma at the Stadt Theatre, and think I was
the better for the choice. Hamlet was the
source of another Sunday evening's gratification
(an anniversary play of the
Hamburghers, and intensely popular with the
Danes), although with unpardonable
barbarity the German censors entirely blotted
out the gravediggers, and never buried the
hapless " sweet Ophelia." In the gallery
of the Imperial Opera-house at Vienna,
liveried servants hand sweetmeats, ices,
and coffee about between the acts; and
although the Hamburgher theatricals have
not yet reached this stage of refinement,
there is much in the shape of social
convenience in their arrangement which even we
might copy.