3-011-653 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Sketches from New York: a Garten Wirthschaft, 1864. 'There is hardly a street, lane, or alley in the city of New York in which the lager beer saloon, in some of its various forms, is not to be found. The Garten Wirthschaft...is most endeared to the contemplative Teuton...Music is always a leading attraction here. From the afternoon until a late hour of night the band performs industriously in a gallery high over head; and each musician removes the ophicleide or flute from his lips only to refresh them with a mug of lager beer. In the intervals of the music the players light their pipes or cigars, and sit gravely studying the scores before them. In some of these places there is a small stage at one end, with a piano and a stout woman in fancy costume who sings gutturally to the twanging of a monstrous guitar. The company are chiefly well-to-do mechanics and tradespeople, who bring their wives, and children with them, and even the baby is sure to be treated with a modicum of the ruddy malt. The waiters deftly wind in and out through the crowd, with three or four mugs in each hand and a couple of glasses on the top. Small girls parade up and down with little trays of sweetmeat for sale...There is invariably a shooting-gallery...'. From "Illustrated London News", 1864.