A TRAMP ABROAD

By Mark Twain

CHAPTER I

[The Knighted Knave of Bergen]

One day it occurred to me that it had been many years

since the world had been afforded the spectacle of a man

adventurous enough to undertake a journey through Europe

on foot. After much thought, I decided that I was

a person fitted to furnish to mankind this spectacle.

So I determined to do it. This was in March, 1878.

I looked about me for the right sort of person to

accompany me in the capacity of agent, and finally

hired a Mr. Harris for this service.

It was also my purpose to study art while in Europe.

Mr. Harris was in sympathy with me in this. He was as much

of an enthusiast in art as I was, and not less anxious

to learn to paint. I desired to learn the German language;

so did Harris.

Toward the middle of April we sailed in the HOLSATIA,

Captain Brandt, and had a very peasant trip, indeed.

After a brief rest at Hamburg, we made preparations for

a long pedestrian trip southward in the soft spring weather,

but at the last moment we changed the program,

for private reasons, and took the express-train.

We made a short halt at Frankfort-on-the-Main, and found

it an interesting city. I would have liked to visit

the birthplace of Gutenburg, but it could not be done,

as no memorandum of the site of the house has been kept.

So we spent an hour in the Goethe mansion instead.

The city permits this house to belong to private parties,

instead of gracing and dignifying herself with the honor

of possessing and protecting it.

Frankfort is one of the sixteen cities which have

the distinction of being the place where the following

incident occurred. Charlemagne, while chasing the Saxons

(as HE said), or being chased by them (as THEY said),

arrived at the bank of the river at dawn, in a fog.

The enemy were either before him or behind him;

but in any case he wanted to get across, very badly.

He would have given anything for a guide, but none was to

be had. Presently he saw a deer, followed by her young,

approach the water. He watched her, judging that she

would seek a ford, and he was right. She waded over,

and the army followed. So a great Frankish victory or

defeat was gained or avoided; and in order to commemorate

the episode, Charlemagne commanded a city to be built there,

which he named Frankfort--the ford of the Franks.

None of the other cities where this event happened were

named for it. This is good evidence that Frankfort was

the first place it occurred at.

Frankfort has another distinction--it is the birthplace

of the German alphabet; or at least of the German word

for alphabet --BUCHSTABEN. They say that the first movable

types were made on birch sticks--BUCHSTABE--hence the name.