In the silver refinery, as has so frequently happened in life, I could get no glimpse of the precious metal.  In the mint I succeeded better, and saw how money was made.  Beyond this I have never been able to advance.  On such occasions mine has invariably been the spectator’s part, and I verily believe that, if it should rain dollars from heaven, the coins would only knock holes in my head, while the children of Israel would merrily gather up the silver manna.  With feelings in which comic reverence was blended with emotion, I beheld the new-born shining dollars, took one in my hand as it came fresh from the stamp, and said to it, “Young Dollar, what a destiny awaits thee!  What a cause wilt thou be of good and of evil!  How thou wilt protect vice and patch up virtue!  How thou wilt be beloved and accursed!  How thou wilt aid in debauchery, pandering, lying, and murdering!  How thou wilt restlessly roll along through clean and dirty hands for centuries, until finally, laden with tresspasses and weary with sin, thou wilt be gathered again unto thine own, in the bosom of an Abraham, who will melt thee down, purify thee, and form thee into a new and better being, perhaps an innocent little tea-spoon, with which my own great-great-grandson will mash his porridge.”

I will narrate in detail my visit to “Dorothea” and “Caroline,” the two principal Clausthaler mines, having found them very interesting.

Half an hour away from the town are situated two large dingy buildings.  Here the traveler is transferred to the care of the miners.  These men wear dark and generally steel-blue colored jackets, of ample girth, descending to the hips, with pantaloons of a similar hue, a leather apron tied on behind, and a rimless green felt hat which resembles a decapitated nine-pin.  In such a garb, with the exception of the “back-leather,” the visitor is also clad, and a miner, his “leader,” after lighting his mine-lamp, conducts him to a gloomy entrance resembling a chimney-hole, descends as far as the breast, gives him a few directions relative to grasping the ladder, and requests him to follow fearlessly.  The affair is entirely devoid of danger, though it at first appears quite otherwise to those unacquainted with the mysteries of mining.  Even the putting on of the dark convict-dress awakens very peculiar sensations.  Then one must clamber down on all fours, the dark hole is so very dark, and Lord only knows how long the ladder may be!  But we soon remark that this is not the only ladder descending into the black eternity, for there are many, of from fifteen to twenty rounds apiece, each standing upon a board capable of supporting a man, and from which a new hole leads in turn to a new ladder.  I first entered the “Caroline,” the dirtiest and most disagreeable Caroline with whom I ever had the pleasure of becoming acquainted.  The rounds of the ladders were covered with wet mud.  And from one ladder we descend to another with the guide ever