Meantime, where is the agricultural fair and cattle-show? You must know that we do these things differently in Bavaria.On the fair-ground, there is very little to be seen of the fair.There is an inclosure where steam-engines are smoking and puffing, and threshing-machines are making a clamor; where some big church-bells hang, and where there are a few stalls for horses and cattle.But the competing horses and cattle are led before the judges elsewhere;the horses, for instance, by the royal stables in the city.I saw no such general exhibition of do mestic animals as you have at your fairs.The horses that took the prizes were of native stock, a very serviceable breed, excellent for carriage-horses, and admirable in the cavalry service.The bulls and cows seemed also native and to the manor born, and were worthy of little remark.The mechanical, vegetable, and fruit exhibition was in the great glass palace, in the city, and was very creditable in the fruit department, in the show of grapes and pears especially.The products of the dairy were less, though I saw one that I do not recollect ever to have seen in America, a landscape in butter.Inclosed in a case, it looked very much like a wood-carving.There was a Swiss cottage, a milkmaid, with cows in the foreground; there were trees, and in the rear rose rocky precipices, with chamois in the act of skipping thereon.Ishould think something might be done in our country in this line of the fine arts; certainly, some of the butter that is always being sold so cheap at St.Albans, when it is high everywhere else, must be strong enough to warrant the attempt.As to the other departments of the fine arts in the glass palace, I cannot give you a better idea of them than by saying that they were as well filled as the like ones in the American county fairs.There were machines for threshing, for straw-cutting, for apple-paring, and generally such a display of implements as would give one a favorable idea of Bavarian agriculture.There was an interesting exhibition of live fish, great and small, of nearly every sort, I should think, in Bavarian waters.
The show in the fire-department was so antiquated, that I was convinced that the people of Munich never intend to have any fires.
The great day of the fete was Sunday, October 5 for on that day the king went out to the fair-ground, and distributed the prizes to the owners of the best horses, and, as they appeared to me, of the most ugly-colored bulls.The city was literally crowded with peasants and country people; the churches were full all the morning with devout masses, which poured into the waiting beer-houses afterward with equal zeal.By twelve o'clock, the city began to empty itself upon the Theresien meadow; and long before the time for the king to arrive --two o'clock--there were acres of people waiting for the performance to begin.The terraced bank, of which I have spoken, was taken possession of early, and held by a solid mass of people; while the fair-ground proper was packed with a swaying concourse, densest near the royal pavilion, which was erected immediately on the race-course, and opposite the bank.
At one o'clock the grand stand opposite to the royal one is taken possession of by a regiment band and by invited guests.All the space, except the race-course, is, by this time, packed with people, who watch the red and white gate at the head of the course with growing impatience.It opens to let in a regiment of infantry, which marches in and takes position.It swings, every now and then, for a solitary horseman, who gallops down the line in all the pride of mounted civic dignity, to the disgust of the crowd; or to let in a carriage, with some overdressed officer or splendid minister, who is entitled to a place in the royal pavilion.It is a people' fete, and the civic officers enjoy one day of conspicuous glory.Now a majestic person in gold lace is set down; and now one in a scarlet coat, as beautiful as a flamingo.These driblets of splendor only feed the popular impatience.Music is heard in the distance, and a procession with colored banners is seen approaching from the city.
That, like everything else that is to come, stops beyond the closed gate; and there it halts, ready to stream down before our eyes in a variegated pageant.The time goes on; the crowd gets denser, for there have been steady rivers of people pouring into the grounds for more than an hour.
The military bands play in the long interval; the peasants jabber in unintelligible dialects; the high functionaries on the royal stand are good enough to move around, and let us see how brave and majestic they are.
At last the firing of cannon announces the coming of royalty.There is a commotion in the vast crowd yonder, the eagerly watched gates swing wide, and a well-mounted company of cavalry dashes down the turf, in uniforms of light blue and gold.It is a citizens' company of butchers and bakers and candlestick-makers, which would do no discredit to the regular army.Driving close after is a four-horse carriage with two of the king's ministers; and then, at a rapid pace, six coal-black horses in silver harness, with mounted postilions, drawing a long, slender, open carriage with one seat, in which ride the king and his brother, Prince Otto, come down the way, and are pulled up in front of the pavilion; while the cannon roars, the big bells ring, all the flags of Bavaria, Prussia, and Austria, on innumerable poles, are blowing straight out, the band plays "God save the King," the people break into enthusiastic shouting, and the young king, throwing off his cloak, rises and stands in his carriage for a moment, bowing right and left before he descends.He wears to-day the simple uniform of the citizens' company which has escorted him, and is consequently more plainly and neatly dressed than any one else on the platform,--a tall (say six feet), slender, gallant-looking young fellow of three and twenty, with an open face and a graceful manner.