The worst of it is that we must pay for their luckless attempt." "They have no middle class," rejoined Anton, proudly.
"In other words, they have no culture," continued the merchant; "and it is remarkable how powerless they are to generate the class which represents civilization and progress, and exalts an aggregate of individual laborers into a state." "In the town before us, however," suggested Anton, "there is Conrad Gaultier, and the house of the three Hildebrands in Galicia as well." "Worthy people," agreed the merchant, "but they are all merely settlers, and the honorable burgher-class feeling has no root here, and seldom goes down to a second generation.

What is here called a city is a mere shadow of ours, and its citizens have hardly any of those qualities which with us characterize commercial men--the first class in the state." "The first ?" said Anton, doubtingly.
"Yes, dear Wohlfart, the first.

Originally individuals were free, and, in the main, equal; then came the semi-barbarism of the privileged idler and the laboring bondsman.

It is only since the growth of our large towns that the world boasts civilized states--only since then is the problem solved which proves that free labor alone makes national life noble, secure, and permanent." Toward evening our travelers reached the frontier station.

It was a small village, consisting, in addition to the custom-house and the dwellings of the officials, of only a few poor cottages and a public house.