Every German Newspaper Is,
I Believe, To Be Found Here.
The Society lay in their stock of wine, which
is of the best quality; good cooks and servants are kept.
Dinners go
forward from one to three. You dine a la carte and pay the amount of what
you call for to the waiters. Coffee, liqueurs and all sorts of refreshments
are likewise to be had. Supper, likewise a la carte, goes forward between
nine and eleven. The evening before supper may be employed, if you chuse,
in cards, billiards, or reading. Very pleasant and useful acquaintances are
made at the Ressource, since if a foreigner renders himself agreeable to
the gentlemen who frequent this society, they generally propose taking him
to their houses and introducing him to their families. After an
introduction, you may go at any hour of the evening you please: but morning
visits are not much in fashion, since the toilette is seldom made till
after dinner, which is always early in Germany. There is no getting dinner
after three o'clock in any part of Dresden. Besides the Ressource there
are several other Clubs here, such as the Harmonic and others. The public
balls are given at the Hotel de Pologne twice a week, viz., one for the
Noblesse and one for the Bourgeoisie. None of the female Bourgeoisie
are admitted to the balls and societies of the Noblesse, and only such of
the males as occupy posts or employments at Court or under Government such
as Koenigs-rath, Hof-rath, or officers of the Army. It is therefore
usual, when the Sovereign wishes to introduce a person of merit among the
Bourgeoisie into the upper circles, that he gives him the title of Rath
or Counsellor; but this priviledge of being presentable at Court does not
extend to their wives and daughters. All the Military officers, from
whatever class of life they spring, have introduction de jure into the
balls and societies of the Noblesse, and are always in uniform. But when
they attend the balls of the Bourgeoisie, it is the etiquette for them to
wear plain clothes: at the balls of the Bourgeoisie, therefore, not an
uniform is to be seen. I observed by far the prettiest women at the balls
of the Bourgeoisie, and very many are to be found there who in education
and accomplishments fully equal those of the Noblesse, and this is no
small merit, for the women in Saxony of the higher classes are extremely
well educated; most of them are proficient in music and are versed in
French and Italian litterature. They seem amiable and goodnatured and by no
means minaudieres, as Lady Mary Wortley Montague has rather unjustly
termed them; for they appear to me to be the most frank, artless creatures
I ever beheld, and to have no sort of minauderie or coquetterie about
them. Beauty is the appanage of the Saxon women, hence the proverb in
rhyme:
Darauf bin ich gegangen nach Sachsen,
Wo die schoenen Maedchen auf den Bauemen wachsen.
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