Neustadt.

At Neustadt I made my home for half a week whence I took excursions into the country.  One day I went to Drachenfels, walking about 16 miles in the woods, where I had nothing but paths and guide-boards to lead me; but the latter are found wherever two paths meet, so that I could easily find my way back again.  In order to meet these people in every sphere of life, I used to go out to see the poor men and women work in the fields.  One Saturday afternoon I struck out from Landau toward the Haardt Mountains with a view to put up for the night in a certain town that I saw on a distant hill.  When I had come a short distance, I overtook a little maiden whom I asked the name of that town, so that I might ask the way thither if I should come into a valley where I could not have pointed it out any longer.  I pleased the young girl very much by presenting her with my card, and induced her to use her glib tongue volubly in telling me about their schools—­what they studied, how long the terms last, &c.  She would get along very well in our Pennsylvania German dialect.  When we parted, she skipped away and proudly showed the card which she had received from an “American,” to one of her schoolmates (?).  Here one may see women hauling hay and grain with cows, though I also saw some men use horses.  Toward evening I met a peasant of Boechingen, who had finished his work and was about to return home.  On learning that I was an American, he asked me to accompany him to his village, saying that Kirmes had come, the great jubilee season of the year when all the churches were being re-dedicated, after which ceremony the people would go to the public houses and keep up dancing and drinking wine and beer from Sunday noon till Monday night, and that I could therefore see a great many Palatinates together in his town I asked him what hotel accommodations their town had; to which he replied that there were several hotels and he would conduct me to a good one.  On reaching the place I accompanied him first to his home and was introduced to his family.  I had here one of those opportunities, so rare to the traveler, of seeing the kitchen arrangements of the middle and lower classes.  When we came to the hotel he asked the landlord for a room for me, who immediately came to me and explained that on account of the great “Fest” (anniversary) he had turned all the spare rooms of the house into coffee-rooms, “but,” said he, “though I know that Americans are used to good accommodations, I can only offer you the Fruchtkammer (granery) to-night, where I have a good nice bed for you, however, if that will suit you.”  The homelike cheerful tone and conversation of the landlord at once captivated me, and when I looked at the large house and saw all his rooms already filled with guests enjoying their wine and beer together, after the German fashion, I soon decided to stay with them.  The room which he gave me was a very large one in the second story