May 4th, 1873. Fine.

The famous city of Frankfurt was for many years the political seat of the assembled body of German states, just as the thirty-seven republican states of the United States of America sited their Congress in Washington. To the south and east of Frankfurt lie the fragmented states of southern Germany, to the north and east the fragmented states of northern Germany. On our journey here from Hamburg yesterday, we passed through five or six states, but there are many other small states in the mountains and plains to the north and in Saxony, which adjoins Frankfurt to the east, and then Bavaria lies over the mountains to the south.

Frankfurt-on-the-Main is so called to distinguish it from Frankfurt-on-the-Oder in Prussia. Since it is a fine old city, the various quarters are built in the old style, with narrow streets which do not run straight. It is full of old buildings, although they do not have the beauty of white façades. In the centre there is a wide avenue, and all around there are ramparts in the shape of a star, with long, narrow flower-beds here and there. A wide road runs along the top of the ramparts. From the banks of the Main one has a view of the wide expanses on the opposite bank and of the distant mountains, while the clear river flows by under a long bridge.