Abroad again

Front matter

A aV s o >

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Chapter I

Unpleasant Recollections. — Doubts Dispelled. — Why Americans go Abroad.

— The Voice of Experience. — Sharp Practice. — Picture Marts. — Union Stores.

— Tricks upon Travellers. — Hints about Shopping-. — Prenez-Garde. — Notable Exceptions. — Bugbears of Travel. — Foreign Physicians. — Planning the Tour 1-18

Chapter II

Excursion Parties. — A Specimen Character. — A Yankee Inquisitor. — Turning the Tables. — Representatives of America. — " Most Interesting Thing in Europe." — Experts in Travelling. — Inexperienced Tourists. — Hotel Impositions. — Servants and Sovereigns. — Accepting the Situation. — Letters of Credit. — Bankers' Courtesies. — Seasoned Tourists. — A True Sailor. — Catechizing the Captain. — Steamship Experiences. — Pleasant Days at Sea. — Liverpool. — Hotels. — Torments of Tantalus. — The Circumlocution System. — Every One to his Calling 19-47

Chapter III

English Custom vs. American Requirements. — Behind the Age. — The "Wonders of London. — Old Smithfield. — Historic Ground. — Wonders of a London Market. — The Strand. — Temple Bar. — Chancery Lane. — Realizing Dickens's Stories. — Historic Landmarks. — Classic Ground. — The Knights Templars.— Temple Church. — Scene of Initiation. — Templar Effigies. — Refinement of Cruelty. — Grave of Goldsmith. — The Thames Embankment. — London Bridges. — The West End. — Restaurants. — The City 47-7j

Chapter IV

Well-bred People. — English Home Life. — English Servants. ^- Lunch. — English Stable-Yard. — Dressing for Dinner.— An English Dinner. — The Dessert. — " We will join the Ladies." — Finale of the Feast. — An Amusing Blunder. — An English Breakfast. — Taking Leave. — English Domestic Service 76-92

Chapter V

Catching a Train. — Against Regulations. — The Policeman in Plain Clothes.— Under Surveillance. — An Uncomfortable Position. — Five-Pound Penalty. 92-97

V

Vi CONTENTS.

Chapter VI

A Ride in London. — Old Holborn Bars. — Bowbells and Old Jewry. — The English Guilds. — Beckett's Birthplace. — Ballad of Beckett. — The Business Centre of London. — A Cheap Neighborhood. — Five Miles from Charing Cross. — Bethnal Green Museum. — An Admirable Institution 98-108

Chapter VII

Royal Albert Hall. — Grand Auditorium. — Well-planned Interior. — Costly Monument.— Superb Statuary. — Effective Groups. — Statue Group of America.— Art and Poetry. — Prodigality of Decoration.— Elaboration of Art. — A Costly Tribute 109-110

Chapter VIII

Rome. — The City of our Dreams.— First Sensations. — Reality vs. Romance. — Sight-seeing in Rome. — Tomb of Hadrian. — Magnificent Mausoleum. — St. Peter's. — The Grand Pavilions. — The Great Obelisk. — The Vestibule. — First View of the Interior. — Beneath the Dome. — Vast Proportions. — Kissing the Toe of St. Peter's Statue. — The Tribune. — Tombs and Monuments. — Marble Miracles. — How to visit St. Peter's. — A Village in the Air. — A Dizzy Promenade 120-141

Chapter IX

The Pantheon. — A Glorious Pagan Temple. — Vandalism. — The Capitoline Hill.

— Legends and Localities. — The Square of the Capitol. — The Wolf of the Capitol. — Capitoline Museum. — Hall of the Emperors. — Portrait Busts. — Sculptured Stories. — The Endymion Sarcophagus. — A Youthful Prodigy. — Preservers of Art. — Hall of the Centaurs. — The Dying Gladiator. — Marble Faun. — Classic Ruins. — Roman Forum. — The Rostrum. — The Nameless Column. — The Arch of Titus. — Arch of Septimius. — Arch of Constantine. — Borrowed Sculpture. — The Marmetine Prison. — Trajan's Column. — Unearthing Old Rome. — A Pillar of History. — An Egyptian Relic. — Convent of the Capuchins. — Capuchin Church. — Ladies not Admitted. — A Hall of Horrors. — Suppression of the Convent 142-179

Chapter X

The Vatican. — The World's Art Museum. — Obstructions to Visitors. — The Pope's Guard. — Costumes in Rome. — The Last Judgment. — A Great Artist's Great Work. — Museum of Statues. — The Athlete. — Grand Army of Statues. — Priceless Art Wealth. — Tiberius Caesar. — "A Mass of Breathing Stone." — Reading Up. — Sarcophagi of the Scipios. — The Boxers. — The Laocoon. — A Story in Marble. — Apollo Belvedere. — Lord of the Unerring Bow. — A Menagerie in Marble. — Hall of Statues. — Nero as Apollo. — Hall of the Muses. — The Muses in Marble. — A Suspected Character. — Sala Rotunda. — Hall of the Greek Cross. — Magnificent Mosaic. — Hall of the Chariot. — The Quoit Throwers. — Fatigue of Sight-Seeing. — The Etruscan Museum. — Ancient vs. Modern Workmanship.

— Etruscan Art. — Ancient Vases. — The Egyptian Museum. — The Vatican Library. — Literary Wealth. — Raphael's Masterpiece. — Gallery of Vases. — Notable Art Treasures. — Hall of Maps. — Hall of Tapestries. — Grand Pictorial Effects. — Obstacles to Enjoyment. — Advantages of Preparation 179-228

CONTENTS. Vll

CHAPTER XL

The Colosseum. — Relics of the Past. — The Giant of Roman Ruins. — The Colosseum described. — Roman Vandalism. — The Royal Road. — Architectural Skill.

A Dream of the Past. — Exploring the Colosseum. — Behind the Scenes. — The

Christians to the Lions. — Horrors of the Arena. — An Imperial Joker. — Systematic Sight-Seeing-. — Caracalla's Baths. — Ancient Popular Resort. — Palace of the Caesars. — Streets of Ovid and Virgil's Time. — House of Livia. — The Appian Way. — Tomb of Csecilia Metella. —Roman Aqueducts. — Picturesque Views.— St. Paul Extra Muros. — Constantine's Cathedral. — A Struggle with Time. — Royal Chapels. —The Santa Scala. — Ascending the Holy Stairs.— Temple of Vesta. — Bridge of Horatius. — Guido's Aurora. — Guido and Raphael 228-2G2

Chapter XII

The Pincian Hill. — Farewell to Rome. — From the Sublime to the Ridiculous. — Venice. — Exploring the By-ways. — Gondoliers. — Scenes on the Grand Canal. — Italian Music. — Heart of the Venetian Republic. — The Voice of the Bells 25:3-272

Chapter XIII

A Singular Story. — The Fearful Three. — Ghosts of the Past. — Terrible Dungeon. A Dangerous Experiment. — Venetian Prison. — Mysterious Visitors. — Prisoner of the Inquisition. — A Terrible Situation. — A Dash for Liberty. — A Chamber of Horrors.— A Desperate Struggle. — The Foe in the Dark. — A Puzzling Position. — Leaden Moments. — Trapped in a Prison Cell. — A Terrible Night. — Daylight at Last. — Vain Efforts for Freedom. — Starvation in Prospect. — Exhaustion and Despair. — Succor at Last. — The Luxury of Liberty. — " Such Stuff as Dreams are made of." — The Lady in the Case 273-29?

Chapter XIV

The Arsenal at Venice. — Remnant of a Great Power. — Maritime Importance of Venice. — Ancient Armor and Wondrous Weapons. — The Bucentaur. — Verona.

— Street Scenes. — Roisterers of Verona. — Montagues and Capulets. — Juliet's Balcony. — Tomb of the Capulets. — The Verona Amphitheatre. — Modern Performance in an Ancient Circus. — Delia Scala Family Monuments.— A Murderer's 3Iausoleum.— Scenic Streets. — Relic of the Middle Ages. — Cathedral at Verona. — Church of St. Anastasia. — The Tyrol. — A Night in Botzen. — Tyrolean Scenery. — The Alps again. — Innspruck. — An Amphitheatre of Alps.— The Golden Roof. — Historic Beauty. — Royal Felicity. — Ambras Castle. — Andreas Hofer. — Spider- Web Pictures.— The Court Church. — Giants in Bronze.

— The Silver Chapel. — A Grateful Picture 298-337

Chapter XV

Seeking Companions.— Post Horses for St. Moritz. — Memorable Mountain.— Perilous Position. — Route to the Engadiue. — The Finstermunz Pass. — "The Day we Celebrate " in the Alps. — Hoch Finstermunz. — Wonders of an Alpine viii CONTEXTS.

Pass. — Tarasp Springs. — The Engadine Valley. — Samaden. — Hans Christian Andersen. — St. Moritz. — A Fashionable Resort. — Crowded Out. — A Miniature Hotel. — Scenes at the Springs. — Study of Characters. — Improving an Opportunity. _ Romantic Ride. — Bernina Brook. — The Morteratsch Glacier. — The Albula Pass. — From Mountain to Valley. — The Schyn Pass. — Gate of the Via Mala. — The Splugeu Road. — Arrival at Prague. — A Hurried Visit. 33S-373

Chapter XVI

Dresden. — Protection of Art Treasures. — Japanese Palace. — Museum of Porcelain. —Streets in Dresden. — The Dresden Gallery. — Raphael's Madonna.— The Holbein Madonna. — Masterpieces of Great Masters. — Old vs. New School. — Art Treasure House. — The Tournament Hall. — Historic Armor Suits. — The Saloon of Costumes. — An Aladdin's Cave. — The Green Vaults. — Costly Burlesques. — Jewels sown broadcast. — Court of the Great Mogul. — Dresden Beer Gardens. — Americans in Dresden. — Berlin. — Unter den Linden. — Statuary in Berlin. — Old Friends in a New Place. — The Brandenburg Gate. — The People of Berlin. — Public Buildings. — Streets and Shops. — Thiergarten. — 3Iausoleum at Charlottenburg 371-407

Chapter XVII

The Museums of Berlin. — Allegorical Illustrations. — Gallery of Gods and Heroes. — Hall of the Emperors. — The Antiquarium. — Classic Antiquities. — Ancient Gems. — Antique Coins. — Picture Galleries. — A Wealth of Art. — Kaulbach's Frescos. — The Reformation. — Tower of Babel. — Battle of the Huns. — The Greek Saloon. — Unknown Antiquities. — A Monarch 1200 B. c. — Egyptian Historical Halls. — "In Thebes Streets Three Thousand Years Ago." — Prussian Historical Relics. — Frederick the Great. — Glass and Enamel Work. — Curiosities of Art. — Potsdam. — Sans Souci. — The Orangery. — A Monument of Justice. — Inside Look at Royalty. — The Five Palaces. — Berlin to Hanover. — House of Leibnitz. — A Beautiful Drive 40S-443

Chapter XVIII

Amsterdam. — Dutch Windmills.— Dutch Characteristics. — Canals of Amsterdam. — Drawbridges and Canal Boats. — Peasant Women. — Commercial Importance.— Canals to the Sea. — Magnificent Public Work. — Dutch Agriculture.— The Palace. — Rembrandt's Night Watch. — Old Dutch Masterpieces. — An Excursion to Broek. — A Cow Saloon. — Dutch Cheese-Making. — Dutch Farm-House. — An Immaculate Village. — The Hague. — Statues and Monuments 443-163

Chapter XIX

Rembrandt's School of Anatomy. — Paul Potter's Bull. — Gems of Art, — Dutch Historical Relics. — The "House in the Woods." — Scheveningen. — A Dutch Watering-Place. — Magnificent Railway Bridge. — Back to Paris. — Guide-Books. — Good-bve to the Reader 4(33-474

ABROAD AGAIN

Chapter I

Abroad again ! What ! have you forgotten all those wretched days on shipboard, when, stretched out in your otate-room, weak from sea-sickness, you longed so much for t)he comfort of your sweet chamber at home, where there was no mingled perfume of ocean and oakum ? Home, where you could put your foot down with a certainty that xhe floor wouldn't reel away from you ; where wash-bowl and pitcher and towels would stay in their places, and where everything on the floor didn't slide about, and everything hung up didn't swing back and forth till the sight of it produced nausea?

Have you forgotten that vow you registered, that, having seen Europe once, you were satisfied, and that books, and engravings, and lectures, and descriptions would satisfy you in future ?

Do you remember telling friends that the best thing to make one appreciate a good home was to be away from it for six or eight months, and that one of the most agreeable sights you saw on your last journey was the spires of your native city on your return trip ? Do you call to mind those wretched days in the cabin of the steamer, during the gale, when no one of the passengers went on deck but an old sea-captain, who was going to Liverpool to take command

2 UNPLEASANT RECOLLECTIONS.

of a ship, the travelling" agent of an English mercantile house, who had crossed twenty times, and the young American who had served in the navy ; and how we all thought if we only got ashore safely this time, we nevef would be caught in such a predicament again ?

Do you know how wretched it was to be ill at a Tyrolean inn, with no one nearer than a hundred miles who spoke your native language, and a doctor, whose French was worse than your own, to attend you ?

Have you forgotten the swindles of hotel-keepers, the fatigue of diligences, the brevity of German beds, and the liveliness of Italian ones ; the indigestible messes on some inn tables, and the garlic flavor of others ; the bother with luggage, quarrels with couriers ; the back-aching inspection of picture-galleries, the lies of the valet de place, and the omissions of just what you wanted to know in guide-books ?

To be sure you have ; but, like those bitter tonics which we swallow with a shudder, these memories only serve to rouse a fiercer appetite than ever.

The memory of sea-sickness exists but as a disagreeable dream, and you feel confident now that your knowledge and experience will make you to combat it successfully. The humdrum life of home has become monotonous. You feel that the first journey to Europe was merely preliminary — necessary to teach how you ought to travel to see it sensibly. And now you know how to travel abroad, how much better and more thoroughly will you see everything ! Books, engravings, lectures, forsooth ! What are they to seeing the place itself? What scores of interesting things you saw in Westminster Abbey, old St. Paul's, the Venetian palaces, St. Peter's, among Roman ruins, and even on the Parisian boulevards, that the letter-writers and the book-makers never think of writing about.

Appreciate a good home ? To be sure you do. And the very thing you mean to do now is to buy something abroad to decorate it with and show your appreciation. There

DOUBTS DISPELLED. 3

were those bronzes in Paris that you always regretted not taking; there was that picture in Florence that you find, after all, you might have afforded ; and those Roman mosaics and antiquities, which, if your trunk had only been larger, you might have bought ; and then, those — Ah ! but next time you will look out for all those things. You mean to do good shopping as well as sight-seeing.

The gale ? Well, that was only two days' discomfort, after all ; and how pleasant were the next three days after it ! How everybody was on deck, and how the ocean seemed to have got smoothed down as flat as a table-cloth ! All the passengers were at the cabin-table, and several young men, who had been sick till then, absolutely smoked cigars after dinner ; and the deck was steady as a rock.

How the old sea-captain, when asked if we had been in any danger, said, " Not to such a ship as this ; " and how the agent of the English mercantile house told the lady who had vowed "if she only got on shore this once, she never would go on the ocean again — never! 7 ' the story of the Irishman on shipboard in a storm, who vowed a gift of twenty pounds to the Virgin Mary if he was permitted to reach land safely, and, being reminded some months after of the nonpayment of the vow, shrewdly remarked that "the Vargin wud niver " catch him " on the say agin."

What was two days' homesickness at a Tyrolean inn ? One must have a bilious attack somewhere. As to hotel-keepers, let them try any of their games on you now — old, seasoned traveller as you deem yourself! You know more of cafes and restaurants now, and can avoid garlic messes without difficulty. Couriers you will have none; and galleries and museums you will inspect more leisurely, and valets de place shall be made to know their place.

In fact, when one has set his heart upon doing a thing, especially if it be something that he has thought he should not do, it is really astonishing what a number of reasons he can bring forward to sustain his change of opinion.

4 BENEFITS OF FOREIGN TRAVEL.

To one fond of travel, or to a person of any degree of education and culture, the European tour is a source of never-ending enjoyment, months and years after it is over. With how much more interest do you read of events that transpire in the old world, that are enacted in the very streets or in the historic buildings that you have visited and fixed in your mind while sight-seeing ! With what new beauty do copies of statues, pictures, and busts become imbued, after you have seen the grand originals ! With what fresh attraction is history invested, or even novels, the scenes of which are laid in those countries, cities, or very spots that you have crossed the ocean to see !

Enthusiasm in the returned tourist should never be mistaken for snobbishness, as it sometimes is by those who have never been abroad. I confess, before having travelled abroad, to have sometimes thought of those who had, and who were eloquent over the artistic beauty of foreign pictures, the magnificence of ancient architecture, and the grand conception that created celebrated statues which they expatiated most eloquently upon, over some wretched and familiar plaster model, — that their admiration might be affectation, and their expatiation but a parade of where they had been and what they had seen more than their less travelled listeners.

On the other hand, there are foreign-travelled snobs who are as amusing to sensible persons as the home-travelled members of the same genus. The latter will be readily recognized as those who are continually telling when they were last at Saratoga ; or that General Bustah remarked to them in Washington ; or that " our carriage was ordered in season for Senator Swyndell's reception." They'ask you if you don't think Sharon Springs a prettier (!) place than the White Sulphur, and if you have many friends at Long Branch. " Chawming place, Newport; but, if you'll believe it, we took a cottage at Niagara Falls last season."

The foreign-travelled snob is fond of referring to when

TRAVELLED SNOBSo 5

he was in Vienna, or Paris, or London ; and how much it cost for the opera ; and of his having a courier ; or being in Rome with the Highbreds ; or "Came down to Geneva with Finifines ; " or of the ride he took in the " Bowar des Bolone " with Colonel Throdice. He never refers to libraries, statues, museums, or pictures, except that he may halt opposite one, perhaps, in your drawing-room, squint knowingly at it through his closed fist, and ask where you " picked that up." This class of snob, male and female, travels and visits celebrated places, as it does at home, not to perfect itself in knowledge ; not from a desire to see localities and historic places of which it has read and studied ; not from any admiration of sculpture, painting, fine arts, or natural scenery : but because it is the fashion; or, rather, it thinks it out of fashion not to have been in Europe.

The lady snob of this class is better posted on dressmakers and milliners in Paris than she is on the natural scenery of Switzerland, and will be better able to tell you of her reception at a royal " drawing-room," — for which she obtained tickets through the moneyed influence of her husband, and which cost her no end of expense, — than to describe an Alpine mountain pass that she has journeyed over, an Italian picture gallery that she has sauntered through, or a cathedral that she only remembers from having lunched with a party with whom she went to see it.

Another class of travellers are those whom you would say, were it not questioning the inalienable right of the universal Yankee, had no right to be abroad. And, indeed, it might be better for our country if they had never been permitted to travel. These are a class of people practically ignorant of their own country and its institutions, and whose only knowledge about others is that they are "foreign parts," that " Queen Victoria lives in a palace, and the Pope of Rome in St. Peter's," and who are amazed to find

6 WHY AMERICANS GO ABROAD.

that the people of Italian cities are not dressed like the brigands in the picture-books, and those of Switzerland like the characters they have seen represented at the circus or on the theatrical stage.

The annual spring and summer rush of tourists from America to Europe has now come to be almost an American fashion, and doubtless there are many who make the trip simply to be in the fashion ; but we are not at all inclined to join with the opinion of some of our American journalists who ridicule and scold their countrymen for spending money abroad, laboriously figuring up statistics, showing how much American gold is disbursed by American tourists to English and Continental hotel-keepers and merchants, and lamenting that so large a portion of our means should be expended for foreign luxuries instead of articles of domestic production, and condemning the moneyed American because he does not expend all his money in his own country.

Americans who have money to spend and time to spare like to go to Europe, because there are more historic, artistic, and natural sights to be seen, and more easily seen there, and also because they can obtain some things which are utterly unattainable at home.

If the American in his own countiy desires to spend the summer at the sea-shore or a watering-place with his family, owing to the shortness of the season and the determination of landlords to make a handsome profit each season, he finds the expense very nearly as much as a three months' trip in Europe would cost him. And what has he had for the money at home ? Small, inconvenient rooms in a great caravansary of an hotel, where the attendance is abominable, the extra charges frightful, the place noisy with brass bands, "hops," and various fashionable excitements from picnics to prayermeetings, to make the blood more fevered in the heat of summer ; while ill-cooked food, the confusion of constant arrivals and departures, and the utter absence of any of that restful quiet that the body craves, cause him ^.re the season

THE VOICE OF EXPERIENCE. 7

is over to long for the quiet of his own home, and wonder why he deserted it. It is not to be asserted by any means that there is no discomfort in European travel or hotels, for off the great lines of travel routes the same annoyances exist as in America, but, as a general thing, at the great popular resorts a far more satisfactory return may be had for the money expended than in this country.

There is so much useful information that can be given by one who has been " over the route " to those who are about to start, and, moreover, as every one who has travelled abroad knows, there are so many dearly bought experiences that might have been avoided had the advantage of a little instruction from an expert been enjoyed previous to setting out, that the author feels warranted in commencing this work with a few hints to travellers upon minor matters. They are the results of his own personal experience, and may be of value to those who visit the localities here referred to. First, on the ever prolific subject of shopping abroad. Jewelry and pictures, to those who have the money to spend, are generally among the most attractive objects that claim attention. The price of jewelry in London is frightfully high. Geneva is the place for that article : first, because of your surety of getting the genuine 18-carat gold ; and next, because they are a community of jewellers there, and labor and living are cheaper. It should be understood, however, that watches can now be made better and cheaper in America than in Switzerland.

Diamonds the Parisian jewellers think they can sell as reasonably as any dealers in Europe, but I rather favor the honest Dutch dealers of Amsterdam, the headquarters of diamond-cutting in the world, and where I have seen the finest diamonds — not in the royal treasuries — I ever looked on, and where diamond-cutting and dealing is as much a specialty as watches in Geneva or gloves in Paris. Here at Zenten & Jouen's, a solid old jewelry house at 438 Herrengracht, as their Dutchy old card says, I looked on dia-

8 JEWELRY AND PAINTINGS.

monds that were as dewdrops upon the velvet into which it seemed they would momentarily sink and disappear. So charmed was an American senator with these gems and the quiet courtes3 r of the dealers, that a few thousand dollars gave his wife that coveted possession, a pair of solitaires, which the Parisian jewellers were compelled to admit they could not excel in purity or compete with in price.

Beware of gold-mounted coral ornaments or gold jewelry in the Piazza St. Marco in Venice. The former, which are palmed off on the unsuspecting buyer, are often not over three or four carats fine ; but you will buy pounds of glass beads at the bead factories of the Queen of the Adriatic, recollecting, however, that the ivory inlaid furniture, at the old bric-a-brac stores that guides entice you into, that looks so pretty there, will drop to pieces in your own drier climate or furnace-heated house.

London can hardly be said to be a desirable place for an American to purchase oil-paintings in. Good ones bring higher prices there than in any oih^r city on the habitable globe. It appears to be headquarters for water-color pictures, which are just now in high favor, and, if the lovers of that style of art wish to have their very hair stand on end with astonishment, let them ask the prices of some of the productions of artists of acknowledged celebrity in this line of their profession.

I am inclined to believe that Americans find Brussels and Florence more profitable picture marts than any other cities in Europe. In London the wealthy tradesmen and the nobility never seem to question price, if the painting is by a known artist, and they want it ; and the prices obtained when some well-known collector's gallery is sold, are positively astonishing.

Care should be taken by inexperienced purchasers of pictures on the continent, to make their agreement to include packing and delivering on board steamer at Liverpool, Bremen, or whatever port they intend their purchase shipped

SHARP PRACTICE. 9

from, and free of all consul, port, or express charges ; otherwise he may receive his purchase in America with a very handsome charge of extras for boxing,-bill of lading, consul's certificate, insurance, and even, as in the author's case, from a Hebrew merchant, of five per cent, on the value of the painting for " reimbursement " or guaranty of the sightdraft's passing through his hands, and a few francs more for postages. It is almost useless to attempt to purchase any good picture that is exposed at the exhibitions in Paris at anything like a bargain, as sharp picture-dealers, alwa} 7 s on the lookout for any painting that is likely to sell, or that is from the pencil of any artist of reputation, purchase them of the artist, or arrange to take them as fast as produced, or to sell all his works through their house. The purchaser is thus forced to pay a round sum to the middleman, unless he has some friend, familiar with the artists in Paris, who will go with him personally to their studios, and find some who are not hampered by any such conditions.

French artists who have pictures at the exhibition are also very much like their shopkeeper countrymen, thinking that if a visitor, having seen their production, has thought enough of it to come to them with a view of purchasing, especially if the visitor be an American, he will pay a high price, and therefore often lose a sale by the extravagant figure which they put upon their productions, or make one to an experienced purchaser at a third or perhaps half the price originally charged.

One sees in Paris, though, it must be confessed, some of those superb specimens of the modern school of French art that cause him to think that the price which may be demanded is none too great a reward to the genius that created them. However, let the inexperienced purchaser engage the service of a trusty friend and expert in purchases of this kind, unless he is so abundantly supplied with cash as to render price no object.

In Dresden, the beautiful paintings on porcelain and an

\Q PICTURE MARTS.

elegant description of water-color, are sold. "The Chocolate Girl," " Rembrandt and Wife," Raphael's " Madonna," " Cherubs," " Madonna and Child," and other familiar masterpieces, are copied upon porcelain with that beautiful finish for which this style of painting is noted. All along a street called the Prager-Strasse are porcelain-picture stores, some of them kept by decorative artists themselves, who will copy paintings for you to order, or copy miniatures from photographs in the beautiful style of porcelain painting, if you give the color of the eyes, hair, and complexion of the subject, ■ — at a price ranging from fifty to one hundred marks each. But beware of paying in advance for any such orders, as the promises of a Dresden porcelain painter are as "false as dicers' oaths."

Rome is so well understood to be a city where pictures of artists and works of sculptors, of different nationalities, who are sojourning there, may be purchased, that I will not go into details. The tourist, if he be an expert in pictures, and has an eye for an opportunity, will often find excellent ones in cities not specially noted as art centres, but where artists live or go, who send forward their works for sale. Dtisseldorf, Hamburg, Antwerp, Verona, Amsterdam, The Hague, Munich, Bremen, and other cities, some of which might sound more oddly to experts as places to find good pictures, nevertheless produce and contain them, and many is the good and rare one picked up off the beaten track of fine-art travel.