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The Upper Rhine : Mayence to the Lake of Constance
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76

DOMESTIC MANNERS OF THE PRUSSIANS.

The mention of " Sauer-kraut " reminds us that almostevery eatable in Prussia is acid, for even the hares arestuffed with onions and baked in vinegar; and in a trueRhenish house you get sour soup (made out of sorrel)—■sour bread, (a black Compound that would create a riotin an English workhouse)—sour cabbage—sour jams (forthe fruits are pickled before the sugar is added)—sourwines—and even sour treacle.

Now the experiments of Dr. Stevens during the cholerahave proven that acids have the effect of blackening the blood,and you can positively sec in every Prussian's face that thefluid which trickles through his capillaries has been renderedmuddy by the quantity of sour things he is accustomed toswallow.

The mode of serving the dinner, even in the most refinedestablishments, consists in cutting up every one of the viandson a chopping-board at a side-table. Here each Joint or birdis removed from the dish on which it is brought into the" Speisesaal," and having been placed on the bare block iscarved, one after another, without the least cleansing of thewood — boiled becf, wild duck, roast veal, chickens, pork, hare,&c. —■ no matter how dissimilar the character of the food.Nor have even the most fashionable people yet learnt to lookfor a change of knives with every change of dish — the samebeing kept for fish, flesh, fowl, and (even though the stewsreek of garlic) the one " Messer " retained and used for thepudding.

rate of \d. for 2 dozen. Cherries cost \d. to Id. per Ib. Apples are 20 gros ( 2s.)for 50 lbs. Gooseberries, 1 penny the pound. Grapes, \d- to 2\d. the Ib. Wildstrawberries, 2d. the plateful. Plums, ^d. to 2d. the hundred. Walnuts, lid.to 3J. the hundred. Pears are the same priee as apples : currants as straw-berries, and chestnuts as walnuts. Almost all the fruit, however, is deficient inflavour.