What a picture Van den Heyden would have made of this!
Following the quay, along which runs a railway, where freight-trains
were constantly passing, I enjoyed many amusing and varied scenes. On
the other side of the Trave were to be seen, amid houses and clumps of
trees, vessels in various stages of building. Here, a skeleton with
ribs of wood, like the carcass of some stranded whale; there, a hull,
clad with its planking near which smokes the calker's cauldron, emitting
light yellowish clouds. Everywhere prevails a cheerful stir of busy
life. Carpenters are planing and hammering, porters are rolling casks,
sailors are scrubbing the decks of vessels, or getting the sails half
way up to dry them in the sun. A barque just arriving comes alongside
the quay, the other vessels making room for her to pass. The little
steamboats are getting up steam or letting it off; and when you turn
toward the city, through the rigging of the vessels, you see the
church-towers, which incline gracefully, like the masts of clippers.
[Footnote A: From "A Winter in Russia." By arrangement with, and by
permission of, the publishers, Henry Holt & Co. Copyright, 1874.]
[Footnote B: The decline of Luebeck dates from the first quarter of the
sixteenth century and was chiefly due to the discovery of America and
the consequent diversion of commerce to new directions.
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