Beginning next week, so I
hear, they will go out into the fields and the orchards to assist in the
harvesting of the grain and the fruit. For lack of hands to get it
under cover the wheat has already begun to suffer; but the boys and
girls will bring it in.
It is now half-past eleven o'clock in the forenoon. At noon, sharp, an
excellent orchestra will begin to play in the big white casino
maintained by the city, just opposite my hotel. It will play for an
hour then, and again this afternoon, and again, weather permitting,
to-night.
The townspeople will sit about at small, white tables and listen to the
music while they sip their beer or drink their coffee. They will be
soberer and less vivacious than I imagine they were two months ago; but
then these North Germans are a sober-minded race anyhow, and they take
their amusements quietly. Also, they have taken the bad tidings of the
last few days from France very quietly.
During the afternoon crowds will gather on the viaduct, just above the
principal railroad station, where they will stand for hours looking down
over the parapet into the yards below.
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