HAMBURG: GENERAL IMPRESSIONS 71 



and an excelleni grammar by Jos.' Eusebio Gomez de 

 Mier, both upon friend Grafe's recommendation, who is 



now employed in a local hook-store.* 



Grafe and others assure me that the 1 Spanish Language 

 is very easily mastered by one who is studying not mere- 

 ly for pastime but Tor a purpose. The whole construc- 

 tion resembles the French and the irregularities are said 

 to be much better classified and less subject to excep- 

 tions. Thus I hope to make good headway, though self- 

 instruction is said to be of slow progress. Where there is 

 a will there is a way. Time will surely not fail me during 

 my long trip. 



It just occurs to me that there still remains a bit of 

 Bertha's curiosity to be satisfied. Tell her that the 

 "glass-street" which she has heard others mention is not 

 altogether a myth, but looks different from what the 

 sound of the word would suggest. One finds here out- 

 side of regular thoroughfares -by land and water— quite 

 a number of passages for pedestrians only. These are 

 intended to facilitate communications in large blocks and 

 are, in reality, tunnels within said blocks, having the ap- 

 pearances of streets, with stores, cafe's, etc., which gener- 

 ally receive their light through immense arched transoms 

 which top the sides of these tunnels. They are called 

 passages, for instance, the Exchange, Arcade, Praetz- 

 nian's and many other passages. The Hotel de liussie 

 on the Jungfernstieg is thus tunneled, having a glass 

 bridge transom that measures ninety by three hundred 

 and fifty or more feet, so that this immense opening in 

 the five-story building looks at the first glance like a 

 large hall, the sides of which with their finely polished 

 plate-glass windows give the whole — particularly when 



*The memory of Gomez de Mier is still cherished by many who 

 have been benefited by his teachings as has the translator. A 

 noble soul, who devoted his busy life to the service of his own 

 native land by increasing its foreign commercial interests and 

 thereby cementing the union between two -'"eat nations, yea hem- 

 ispheres. Prof. De Mier spent many of his best years in I lam- 

 burg, where, as he expressed it, every foreigner feels at home. 



