of the house, and, though there were large heaps of grain and different kinds of farming implements there, the end where the bed stood was clean and inviting, considering the circumstances.  There was no lock at the door, but the landlord’s honest face and assurances soon put me at ease about that matter.  He told me that I might place some barrels against it, however, if I felt so inclined, which of course I did.  There was a lady in that town who had been spending her time in Philadelphia for several years, but who had on this occasion come home to Boechingen on a visit.  An invitation was sent to her in the evening already, asking her to come to the hotel where an American was waiting to meet her, and early on Sunday morning she met me in the coffee-room where we spent the morning.  One’s partiality to the English language seldom displeased me in Europe, but as this lady was a native of that part of the Pfalz whose people spoke a dialect more like the Pennsylvania German than I heard anywhere else, I insisted upon conversing with her in “the dialect.”  The landlord who did not understand any English was with us most of the time, so that out of respect for him she also felt constrained to speak German when he was present, but whenever he left us she would speak English, the language of her new American home.  She had visited Allentown, Pa., and was well acquainted with the resemblance of the Pfaelzish and the Pennsylvania German dialects.  I went home to Neustadt that forenoon and attended the great Pfaelzer Saengerfest (the annual Concert of the Palatinate Choirs).  The city was splendidly decorated with flags, and the “Fest” was a grand success in every respect.  From Neustadt I went to Speyer, and a day later to

Heidelberg.

Heidelberg was the only place where I found lady ticket agents at the railway station.  The station is a very large and important one, and the positions held by those ladies are of great responsibility.  In Continental Europe, it is the ladies that transact most of the business in almost every city.  Hotels, stores, shops, cafes, drinking stands, &c., are generally managed by ladies.

Heidelberg was the last city in which I felt that I was hourly seeing the cousins of the Pennsylvania Germans.  Here still, I did occasionally see one who not only favored some of our people in form and features, but whose voice and accent also spoke of kinship.  I had heard persons speak in some parts of the Pfalz and particularly around Boechingen (about 10 miles S.S.W. from Neustadt and 25 miles W.S.W. from Speyer) from 50 to 70 per cent of whose words corresponded to the Pennsylvania German.  Duerkheim, Landau, (and some say, Kaiserslautern too), are good examples.

The old renowned university of Heidelberg has 800 students, and a library of 200,000 volumes and 1,800 MSS.