Democratic Sentinel, Volume 17, Number 12, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 April 1893 — A Nation of Stair-Climbers. [ARTICLE]

A Nation of Stair-Climbers.

I jailed upon American friends in Berlin at that hour when solid midnight sets in here (six o'clock), and when, in response to a ring, the heavy iron door opened with a soft click, there were revealed a few steps, and beyond there was darkness I did not know on what story my friend dwelt, having only the dumber of the house. After striking several matches it appeared that those sought did not dwell on the first or second floors. More matches were struck, and at last the name appeared/ There was nothing to say about so strapge an adventure. It is the way of the town. One has to get the hang of dark stairways or stay in first-class hotels. A residence is not a house, but a series of apartments, connected and separate frcrn other. There is a common stairway, and it is guarded by a porter, who watches the one front door, behind which, at various elevations, are half a dozen well-estab-lished families. There are probably four floors, with room for a family, perhaps two of them, on each floor. You come to an iron and glass door, say fifteen feet high, and ring a bell. You are at once under inspection from the lodge of the invisible porter and if he regards you as eligible he pulls a lever or turns a crank and the Bpring latch is withdrawn. Then you ascend to the floor where your friends are at home and ring another bell and you can enter a private hall, though often on this hall there are several parties who merely know each other as neighbors. This is the way to concentrate population and encourage architecture. 1 know a young man who has not been in Berlin long, and has a fancy for counting the steps he climbs to see his friends. The number of steps ranges from fifty-three to one hundred and eleven. The average height of eligible apartments is about seventy steps. There are fine accommodations in abundance at the height of one hundred and twenty-five steps. The mother who starts to get a sleepy boy out of bed these mornings may be said to have a rousing time. —Philadelphia Times.