CHAPTER XI 



HAMBURG 



HAMBURG, with a population, in 1906, of 802,793, is 

 the fourth most important seaport, ranking next to 

 London, New York, and Liverpool in the value of its 

 commerce. It is, as its citizens are proud of saying, 

 a free city, with a peculiar and very satisfactory form of 

 municipal government. 



The administrative departments of the city are car- 

 ried on under the direction of a board, or committee, 

 composed of the legislative branch of the municipal 

 government. At the head of the committee is a 

 senator who, like all the senators of this little republic, 

 is elected for life by an elective council. Under this 

 committee are the salaried professional chiefs. 



From being one of the unhealthiest of cities, Hamburg 

 has become one of the most sanitary. Exposed to an 

 exceptional extent to the danger of epidemic 



The Regen- 



diseases because of its extensive shipping, an erationof 



admirable system of sanitary regulation has, 



in late years, reduced the danger of infection to a 



minimum. 



For many years Hamburg suffered from an unen- 

 viable reputation for unwholesomeness. No less than 

 fourteen epidemics of cholera occurred here between 

 1831 and 1873. An epidemic of cholera in 1892 made 

 the city particularly notorious to Americans, for it was 

 from Hamburg that the disease was sent to New York. 



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