. Romantic Germany. -boat that showed no symptoms of twen-tieth-century progress. I paid a single pfennig to aboy, who fished a chain from the water, hitched him-self to it, and walked me across to the Bleihof, wherewaterways lured in four different directions. I grewfond of that ferry, its ragged official, its rough, sim-ple passengers, and fell into the regular habit ofbeing walked to the Bleihof at dusk to watch througha maze of masts and ropes the color fading from thewestern sky. The belfry of St. Johns would darkeninto one of Rothenburgs matchless wall-towers. Oneby one the lights of the
. Romantic Germany. -boat that showed no symptoms of twen-tieth-century progress. I paid a single pfennig to aboy, who fished a chain from the water, hitched him-self to it, and walked me across to the Bleihof, wherewaterways lured in four different directions. I grewfond of that ferry, its ragged official, its rough, sim-ple passengers, and fell into the regular habit ofbeing walked to the Bleihof at dusk to watch througha maze of masts and ropes the color fading from thewestern sky. The belfry of St. Johns would darkeninto one of Rothenburgs matchless wall-towers. Oneby one the lights of the opposite shore would throwwavering yellow paths across to beckon me back. A little below the Crane Gate squats an old, roundtower called the Swan, which wears a sharp-peakeddunce-cap of red tiles. It is a pathetic reminder ofthe Teutonic Orders final attempt to keep DanzigGerman; for when the citizens seized the Crane Gateand fortified it against them, the Knights began thisround tower near their castle, saying: 34. DANZIG Bauen sie den Krahn, So bauen wir den Schwan. (And if they build the Crane,Why, we shall build the Swan.) The castle vanished with the order, and the Swanto-day is smothered breast-high in small houses, thesmallest of which testifies to the cosmopolitanism ofits tarry guests by the sign Stadt London Near the Fish Market, where the little Radaunerushes with a loud noise into the Mottlau, the quayhas been prettily christened Am Brausenden Was-ser (By the Roaring Water). This is the favor-ite haunt of longshoremen, sailors, and the famousDanzig sack-carriers, herculean figures with theirwide blue pantaloons and their swathed calves. Andbeside the quay belongs a flotilla of dusky fishing-boats, draped with many-colored sail-awnings andwith funnel-shaped nets that hang drying from thetips of the masts. Before parting from a city to which I have grownattached, I like to stand on one of its high places andsee in one. sweeping glance what it is that I am leav-ing. I
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, booksubjectgermany, bookyear1910
