Sledging in Berlin.

Cromwell Argus, Volume III, Issue 132, 21 May 1872, Page 7

Sledging in Berlin.

The following sketch is by a correspondent of the London Daily Tdejraph : A fictitious liveliness, that will melt away under the breath of the first southerly w n 1, has been for the last day or two imparted to this most melancholy of cities by "the tintinnabulation of the bells, bells, bells," which are incessantly ringing, day and night, in every quarter of the German capital. An eruption of bells has broken out all over harness of every description ; the late droschky horses, now attached to clumsy sledges very much resembling old-fashioned country pondpunts, are attended, as they hobble along, by joyful sounds that seem to mock the utter dolefulness of their aspect and gait. An adjutant's horse is a low-spirited beast, as a rule ; but, compared with a Berlin droschky horse, he is a very Joe Miller among horses. There is a deep and abiding moumfulness about the latter quadruped that seldom fails to impart itself to him who hires a hack conveyance in this city with the purpose of saving time. An Irish friend, driving down the Dinden with me the other day, in one of the ramshackle old wind-traps that are called by a name which, on the banks of the Neva, is synonymous with a Mazeppa-like sort of locomotion, observed, as we jolted along, " Barring we stopped altogether, I don't see how we could go any slower than this." Tlr's may sound like a bull, but it aptly described, I assure you, the rati of our progress. The droschky-horse has attained the minimum of speed consistent witli physical movement, and is, moreover, the most sorrowful-looking creature in the universe. To hang him with bells is indeed a mockery. Bis every stumble is announced by a merry chime ; he tinkles as he halts, and peals when he falls down. The typical Berlin sledge is a squire, puntlike box, the bottom about six inches from i the snow, fastened on two stout w r ooden bars I curved like inverted carriage-shafts ; inside, I two leather-covered seats, and a rough horsecloth for the knee 3of the "fare." On the box, which is level with the said seats, a gloomy-visagod being sits, in blue camlet, ! with an indefinite number of futile capes, and a tall, glazed, chimney-pot hat bearing on its front a huge brass number at once staring aid ghastly. Before him is a weird j and wizened quadruped, of shattered constitution, whose legs are mere figures of speech., slack in the loins, heavy-he uled, and apparently broken-hearted ; generally a cast cavalry troop-horse, out of w:iich a conscious and thrifty Administration has taken all the " go" worth mention before selling it for three or four pounds to a purveyor of locomotion. Very old, feeble, and down upon his luck is that unhappy boast; true, he is never over-driven, for his Jehu invariably allows him to moon along at his leisure ; but j even the wabbling stagger which he conseienjtionsly performs when called upon for an j effort appears to cost him painful exertion. Droschky horses grunt; and well they mav, poor wretches ! They had a pretty rough | time of it when they were "in the service": I they begin troop-work when they were three- | year-olds, before their spines wjre thoroughly \ stiffened ; they slaved away for seven or eijht years, with as few holid ys as the soli diers who successively bestrode them ; and, I when age and infirmity came upon them, un- | fitting them for regimental dutv, instead of being pensioned like two-legged warriois, or mercifully converted into ruddy and toothj some sausages, they are transferred to new ; owners, who make them work from twelve t > | sixteen hours out of toe twenty-four, and i give them just enough of food to keep body ! and soul together. It may fairly b 3 doubted {whether a Prussian horse o c plebehn extraction ever enjoys a full "blov-oat" of oats j from the clay of his birth to that of his death, unless lie has been fortunate enough to take i part in a campaign in an enemy's countiy j A. droschky suits his appearance— eqniis and j equipage are worthy of each other ; but in a | sledge, associated as is that vehicle with ideas jof velocity, space-devouring, and earthspurning, lie is a dismal anomily.