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The Upper Rhine : Mayence to the Lake of Constance
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198
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198

DOMESTIC MANKEES OE THE HtTJSSIANS,

Englishmen know füll well that these mere muscularmarks of respect can be imitated with case, and tliereforeassumed by tliose who are really impressed with tlie veryopposite feeling to that which tlieir gestures would signify;and assuredly on tlie Continent, though all indulge in thecaricature of bodily emotions, none for a moment believe insuch displays.

Further, it is uncongenial to the nature of an Englishman,on bis first introduction to a stranger, to pretend to anyexccssive veneration for a person with whose character heis most probably wbolly unacquainted.

Foreigners, howeyer, think differently on such subjeets,and we have seen a Parisian beau go half-way down tlieBoulevards, with bis hat in bis band, as, bowing, he j abberedthose social taradiddles called compliments to a couple of be-crinolined old dames, whom, perhaps, in bis beart be waswisbing at the bottom of the Seine.

In Prussia, it was formerly tlie fasbion to see which couldoutdo the otber in the enormity of bis gesticulations when anyacquaintance was recognised in tlie street; for tben literally abowing-match commenced, and be was considered the mostpolite who by bis perseverance obtained the last scrape.

Matters are hardly carried to such an extreme now-a-days,even in a nation which bas made less progress than any otherduring the past Century. Nevertheless, you find in theRhenish capital at the present time a style of manners tbatcarries your mind back to the days of Louis Quatorze; for thewould-be elegance of the German gentry has all that burlesquestyle of grace about it which formed part of the old " Minuetde la Cour,"

It is still a custom in Coblenz, if a party of gentlemen beWalking togetber, and one of tbcm bappen to mect a friendby the way, for the wbole of the Company (though utter