Honey dear: -
We have been playing around the town today - and the sun comes out just as we leave, alas! It is a charming situation, which you doubtless saw, but my spirit is not entirely happy because I couldn't see the Zeiss works which was one reason for coming, though I did also wish to see a smaller university town. There is a mittag pause - which lasts until 2:30 and our train leaves at 3:22, though to be sure it is 1/2 hour late which means a stupid wait down here at the station. I hope it will not also mean one of those scrambling changes.
We've enjoyed Jena much - though as always we have needed more time to really see things. I'd have liked to go up the little mountain and also to Haeckel's museum - but we had a grand time at the market, and up a little tower, and around the University.
To go back to where I left off - which was Saturday night, I guess. Sunday we went to Potsdam, by an auto trip effect - out through Wannsee where we took a boat to Potsdam which let us see maybe a hundred white sailed little boats on the lakes - altogether charming - and there wasn't a bowsprit in the lot. The rig was different from ours, as we see them at Woods Hole, but they were mighty pretty. At Potsdam we took the autos again and went first about the town to the Garrison Church where if we understood aright the old flags taken in war have been replaced by the flags of the regiments disbanded since the last war. You saw the church of course - very impressive. A very small part of the old barracks are now used - only two regiments if we understood! My German is awfully fragmentary, but it's better than my Danish - but there is much more English in Denmark than in Germany. However, we get on pretty well! We went for lunch to a mediocre hotel and then to the palaces - Sans Souci and the New Palace. I wonder how they looked when you were here, but I presume Sans Souci was the same. We went around fairly thoroughly and liked the room where Frederick fixed up things for Voltaire and Frederick's sitting room opening from the library. The decorations in that were charming and not so heavy as in some places. Do you remember the rock crystal chandeliers? The hanging pieces were shaped like this
The gardens look just like the pictures. Only I never knew there were real grapes in hothouses at the back of each terrace! Being Sunday the fountains were all playing beautifully. I don't know whether the palace used by the last Kaiser was open when you were here. It has been put back in the main to the time of its builder Fred. the Gr. but the guide tells you what Kaiser Wilhelm did in each room! "Here he ate dinner alone with the family and because he didn't like servants present, when anything was needed the old man jumped up and rapped on this sliding door and it came in." "When you look out at this view, you don't blame him for wanting to come back, do you?" Those were allusions - not in the tone of veneration at all - rather flippant. So was his story of the "shell room". You know how the ceiling is all shells &c, and how successive monarchs have built in mineral specimens, on the walls, in bands, especially the last Kaiser whose hobby it was. Several given by Roosevelt were pointed out. And in that room the royal family to the number of 50+ each had his Christmas tree! 'Twas a most amazing freak place. Now Fred. the Great with his flute and exchanging jokes with Voltaire seems a clever man, this last one, a sort of fanatic.
The gardens now are full of cherries just ripe, of goodseberries & currants, with still some strawberries. There are flowers in abundance - but not in such masses as in Copenhagen, I think. We have some grand pictures, got them yesterday, no, the day before - and everything has come out, even the little Norwegian girls & the farm yard on a rainy evening.
The day before we left Berlin I went to call on Dr. Maria Schlüter-Hermkes, Sec. of the German A.U.W. and she was most cordial and utterly charming. Husband (Schlüter) is of the family of architect S- who did that finest equestrian statue and the best of the architecture and she is descended from Thomas à Kempis! Wonderful old books, first ed. of one on Council of Trent, &c on the table. We talked about many things. The U.W. group does not wish the past back, but rejoices in the future promise. The German Federation is absolutely delighted over the Ellen Richards Prize award, especially that it is divided with a French woman - they've had luncheons and letters, &c &c. No new titles like "Ge heimrath" now given anywhere except in Bavaria - the U.W. group rather smiles and the old excessive formality. 60,000 in Berlin live more than 6 in one room. Many are starving. The tourist sees almost nothing of real Germany. Six in Council of Univ. Women, and one always in Berlin to extend international courtesy - so sorry she couldn't entertain me in some way - always did so. A reception for the Auslanders every two weeks. She herself a philosopher. Husband in the Ministry of Education and able to "let me write books and do these things." The maid and two children went with me to the station near. There are three children in all. I have names of women to see in Prague, Vienna & Munich. And it seems to me worthwhile - Dr. S-H - talked about the real help given by the I.A.U.W. in international affairs. In Czechoslovakia the two parts of the country are united by this as by few other associations, just as in Ireland. It was a privilege, that call. Beautiful apartment, out in the west of Charlottenburg. She's of the same breed as Gertrud of Klintberg.
We missed the Egyptian collection & the Pergamon marbles because the collections are open only three days a week and we didn't take this in - knew they were free only those days. Saw the Picture Gallery - and 'twas fine, but not like the Louvre or the National Gallery - nor as enjoyable as this Dresden one, though so much larger. But I'm getting to see a little more in the sombre Cranachs, though I fail to see the charm of Adam & Eve, naked!
We went on to Jena on Monday, July 9, and found it located like Williamstown! The first hills we have seen. We had only a little time, but we enjoyed much the University and the Planetarium where everything happened, especially a waltz of the planets (not so designated) when the movement was speeded up! Did you see one of those things? It sure was a complete Astronomy in one lesson, and most effective. The position of the sun's path among the constellations was as Miss Randolph would say "well told."
Prague, July 14. It's so hard not to be able to write on the trains - so much good time, and one doesn't want to stare at the scenery every minute on most journeys. I'm going back to where I left off.
In Jena we chanced on the weekly market with the Rathans square absolutely packed full of everything from nightdresses to wienies - he same being cooked over a grill in the open. We went around the whole show - lovely flowers, but never up to Copenhagen. We found a find old tower and got two keys as big as the doors from a funny photographer and went up for the view. Jena made us think of Williamstown both when we arrived by night and when we looked out from the tower[.] We got into the University where the big aula is new - plain & nice. The best things were the Senatus room where the doctors are examined and the faculty room where there is a magnificent picture of a group maybe 100 yrs ago - giants in the earth intellectually I should say. Haeckel's museum was to far out for our time, alas.
We infer that the porter who carried four of our bags on a strap dropped the two big ones - anyhow he pulled out my handle entirely, roots and all, and Alice's at one end. We had thorough work done in Dresden in repair!
Got to Dresden in the evening of some day or other, maybe the 10th, and on the way had to umsteigen twice, awful nuisance. But blessed be porters! They haven't failed us yet. We stayed at a Pensim [?] near the station - luggage trundled over - a house in what was once a fine street. Pictures taken of the painted furniture. White stoves to the ceiling. Good food, though not too abundant and probably monotonous. When we went out we carried three huge keys, big bear for the street gate, middle-sized bear for the outside door, little bear for the landing door. Breakfast in our rooms - which were huge. All with two meals, breakfast & supper, for 7 1/2 marks. We had dinner both days on the Brübl terrace above the Elbe - entrancing view!
Dresden we surely liked - 'twas so much more flexible than Berlin - and elegant withal. The picture gallery was a delight even without the Sistine - which of course is wonderful. I went twice to the gallery, the second time while Alice had a tooth filled. And I saw the Green Vault, which she didn't - and those bric-a-brac are entertaining. The guards weren't as impressive as the silent watches standing in a cage at the Rosenborg in Copenhagen, under the mantle, but they were about a good deal. I'm all for carved ivory and a crystal goblet!
The best thing about Dresden was Fräulein Hörig, friend of Alice's sister. She's in the "Ministerium" (with a capital M) for Social Service, herself a nurse and in charge of the t.b. sanatoria groups of young people and children. She has visited "the Cooks" in Hartford, about 1906 (?) and had been up to Mt. H-. She came to tea, took us to meet a doctor at the Hygiene Museum, where I wanted to buy things for the lab. He took us to a grand exhibition not yet open to the public in what used to be the Saxon king's place for exercising on horseback! Exhibition quite wonderful in the skill with which everything is arranged, as at Berlin. There are many models where the spectator turns a crank and something happens, e.g. the movements in respiration. Also we saw the workshops where the famous Spaltehaltz transparent preparations are made, and models, too. The former are first pickled, then (one step omitted here), then decalcified with HCl, dehydrated with alcohols, cleared in xylol and mounted in wintergreen oil. All is done so carefully! Other prep. also and bones bleaching in the yard. There were girls pouring the wax into moulds for models, and others painting the models.
We were also taken by Dr. Neubert to their new museum and teaching centre in process of construction, not at all a modeover barracks! 'Tis a huge thing with courts and so much space. The "man on the job" took us up every ladder and on every slab of cement I feel certain. No structural stell except in the reinforcing of the cement! 'Twas a h-o-t day and Fräulein wilted perceptibly! But this was not all she did - oh, the orders were managed most easily. She invited us to tea at her home, a delightful father, formerly a school inspector, and a frail old mother. They have only four rooms, a bed in each one - and they have lived in some luxury. The Fräulein is a person of consequence - her salary is $1,100 - her rent about like mine, minus the heat &c. Food costs less. But there is no doubt about the crowding in Germany - we keep hearing about it. She took us to a new settlement on the edge of town, a "garden city" thing. Nobody can live there who has not children - they are keeping the children well! Little apartments, a few better 2-family houses, all with gardens, but only certain things may be planted, to keep the style the same. Fruit-trees, vegetables, flowers, all flourish.
And more - the "Ministerium" got a certain Dr. Rade to take us on a half day motor trip yesterday to a castle in the Saxon Switzerland now a lodge for the association of young people who tramp the country. A teacher must take his class (or hers) off on 6 all-day tramps a year. They register a month or more in advance for space in these hostels. This one had over 800 beds - the frames used for soldiers in the war, the mattresses sacks filled with straw. The castle was a rubber-baron affair, later a prison, since the war used for these "wandering youth". Girls & boys. Some come for a week or two and study chorus-singing or something else. Germany is all dotted over with these things 116 or 160 in Saxony alone. They were to be a day's tramp apart, and many routes are possible between them. We saw one crowd come in much less well-groomed than our crowds, but cheerful, even though 'twas hot and their packs heavy. The old castle is on a parapet place, accessible only as we went up, I think. - Too sleepy to write more, but this was only yesterday - I'm catching up!
Sunday, July 15
This is the fourth really hot day - almost unprecedented in Prague we learn. Also dry - but I'm not. Fortunately they make good lemonade with a charged water basis and I comsume it in large quantities - and the drinking water in the Hotel Berànek is wonderfully cold and refreshing. England is 84° - and we must be well over 90°.
Well - That ride in the Saxon Switzerland was great. The Dr. took along his little wife and his dictionary for 'tis 20 yrs since he was in England, and he found words at lightning speed! The little wife was the merriest thing you ever saw, in a low neck, short sleeved henna dress with four ruffles ending above her knees. Everybody liked her and she hailed them all like a merry child. We met the leaders at two hostels and their wives, also one of the upper council, and important gentleman in a blue coat, yellow knickers no socks, embroidered galluses - on his way with an equally astonishing family to swim. Everybody swims! The rivers Elbe & Moldau are not sewage polluted like ours.
We saw the scenery as much as the speed of the car permitted - anyhow the abrupt slopes of Liltenstein & Köningstein and some more, and wound down a series of hair pin curves into a deep valley, then up to our robber baron's castle. We were given two dozen postcards and a pamphlet as well as drinks - I can show you more anon. 'Twas one of our best experiences. We were put on the train at Schandau and came on to Praha (= Pra - - - - a) in the evening, very hot, but a grand show trip.
This hotel is rich - it has atmosphere! I'll inclose the pages of the prospectus if I can find a big enough envelope for the letter. [not with the letter] There are mosaic lambs all around to denote our market origin. Clean, & dirty! But Praha is full of soft coal and impeccable cleanliness would be difficult.
Yesterday morning Margaret Porter came around and she and Alice's friend Mrs. Purkuye (husband related to the great neurologist Punkinje who died 1872 and who used so many chickens in his experiments that his wife was much put to it to find a use for them!) have scarcely left us. In the forenoon we went to a most interesting arts & crafts museumes [?] where the peasant costumes and embroideries are displayed - even more extraordinary than I ever imagined. There are rows and rows of Easter eggs painted in elaborate designs - painting them is a part of the school program. The figures of the peasants are arranged as in the groups in the N.Y. museum and if only the white sleeves &c would stay clean they'd be wonderful. There are rooms, too, with electrically lighted fires and so many painted chests - fewer inlaid. We're crazy to see the stores!
The Kr = 3.20 cents or thereabouts and a grand salad & lemonade costs $.27. Taxis high - all else cheap. We went in the p.m. on a sight-seeing trip and had a good guide as well as our girls. 'Tis a most interesting place and all the comments we get on national independence are good ones, though the hotel man complains of the taxes. They had a perfectly good royal palace with 600 rooms all waiting, unused for 300 (?) years. Masaryk has a small section but with a heavenly view of the city, and there are two state halls, one said by the guide to be the largest in Europe with a flat ceiling, 48 x 24 x 12 metres. The courtyard is all torn up because they are finding Roman ruins down below, and they are struggling to finish the cathedral, right in the palace, so to speak, before the anniversary in 1930. The cathedral will be fine, I think - most of the nave 16th cent (they call that "new") the transepts and choir 14th. If it hadn't been so horribly dirty from construction I'd try to go again. In the palace is an old hall - coronation chamber - with most extraordinary and poor vaulting. This has an early painted Renaissance wall about 2 in. behind the present one from which they are removing recent (18th cent.?) frescoes at the moment, and also a Roman wall still deeper in the masonry. The history of Bohemia is one thing I want to read.
John Huss everywhere, and an old Rathaus with admirable vaulting and a mechanical clock. There's a Waldstein palace, still in the possession of the family, with 3 rooms as the great Count used them. For his writing desk "an American offered $300,000 but of course the family didn't sell." It is tortoise shell and gold &c - most elaborate. His bathroom was down some 3 flights, a dark grotto effect, with a shower bath! From this there is a portico like the Palazzo Vecchio, fronting the garden, now not much kept up, though the family pays $70,000,000 kr. taxes yearly - seemingly able to have a garden à la Versailles, only small. This cement used for the grotto bath room and certain walls is stuck together with eggs. The surrounding town had to furnish them - over 1,000,000 for a not very long stretch were required. One town didn't wish its eggs to break so it boiled them! And the epithet "hard-boiled" over here means stupid.
Last evening a woman from the academic group came to call - a privat-dogent in the German university. There are 3 the Czech the largest. Her English was very limited, but I think she said the Germans & Czechs had one Asso. Univ. Women, though two parts. The 2 groups mix little. She has worked on insulin & now on absorption - expects to come to Boston and I must look her up - name Dr. Laugecker, pharmacology.
This morning we went with Mrs. Parkuye to a big catholic church in Purkuye Square, now renamed. 'Twas all modern & much decorated, but it seemed good to me. This afternoon we go to an out-of-door presentation of the Bartered Bride, Smetana. We were going by trolley, but somebody wanted to take Mrs. P- to dinner, so we go by taxi - easier, but I hate to have her spend her money so. We took the girls yesterday, but we did not want them to take us about. However, Alice did a lot for this girl at Simmons. And the taxi has given me time to finish this!
There was news in the London Times of a new issue of Cyperus stamps, said to be very fine, and I shall try to corral a few.
We start - much, much love - Abby -