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Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science - Volume 12, No. 31, October, 1873 by Various
page 14 of 289 (04%)
appears to have passed his life, and was more surprised than edified
at sight of the large allegorical family with which the sculptor has
endowed him. In the same church I had the misfortune to see in
the boxes a pair of horrible mummies, decked off with robes and
ornaments--a count of Nassau-Saarwerden and his daughter, according to
the custodian--an unhappy pair who, having escaped our common doom of
corruption by some physical aridity or meagreness, have been compelled
to leave their tombs and attitudinize as works of art. In Kleber's
square I saw the conqueror of Heliopolis, excessively pigeon-breasted,
dangling his sabre over a cowering little figure of Egypt, and looking
around in amazement at the neighboring windows: in fact, Kleber
began his career as an architect, and there were solecisms in the
surrounding structure to have turned a better balanced head than
his. In the markets I saw peasants with red waistcoats and flat faces
shaded with triangles of felt, and peasant-girls bareheaded, with a
gilded arrow apparently shot through their brains. I traversed the
Street of the Great Arcades, and saw the statue of Gutenberg, of whom,
as well as of Peter Schöffer, the natives seem to be proud, though
they were but type-setters. Finally, in the Beer-hall, that of the
dauphin, I tasted a thimble-ful of inimitable beer, the veritable beer
of Strasburg. Already, at half-past eight on that fine May morning,
I persuaded myself that I had seen everything, so painful had my feet
become by pounding over the pavements.

My friend the engineer had agreed to breakfast with me at the hotel.
When I entered the dining-room with the intention of waiting for him,
I found two individuals sitting at table. One was no other than the
red-nosed Scotchman, the Eleusinian victim whom I had watched
through the bottle-rack at Épernay. Of the second I recognized the
architectural back, the handsomely rolled and faced blue coat and the
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