Weekly Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1853-1861, 1856-12-25
Correspondents ofthe Sentinel.
LETTERS FROM SWITZERLAND
AND GERMANY.

CoLcaSx, October, 9th, 1853.

no. 7.
Co1cesz, October, 9th, 1853.
Mt DEAR N =
told you In my last letter that We mad
arrived at Msyence but our stay there was
90 short and 50 fully occupied with sight
seeing that I had no time to describe to you
that ancient and beautiful city. 1t Is the
most important town in the dominions Of
the Grand Duke Of Hesse Darmstadt and
one Of the strongest Notifications Of the Ger
man Confederation. 1t is garrisoned by eight
thousand Russian and Austrian troops, aud
commanded by governor. elected alternate
iy from these nations for a term Of five years.
To the antiquarian, who has timc 20 seek
among the dust and shadows Of the Past for
the footprints Of the dead ages, it is one of
the most interesting places in Germany, for
II was fortified Roman camp thirty-eight
years before Christ Fwenty-four years
later, Drussus, the son-ln-law Of Augustus,
laid tke foundations Of what is now Msyence,
by the erection Of the Castle, called Castellum
Moguntiasum which was the most impreg-
nable and important Of the Roman forti6ca-
tons on the Rhine. The foundations Of its
strong towers and the remains Of the aque-
duet which supplied II with water, and which
was once supported by Eve hundred pillars.
are mute witnesses, to this day, of the gent
Us the industry and the power Of that Won
derful people who came from sunny Italy
and planted their eagles amidst the vandal
hordss in the forest and Businesses Of this
northern land.
Our first visit was paid 10 the Cathedral,
an imposing pile. but more interesting on ac-
count Of its great age and the. strange vicissi-
tudes through which it has passed, than for
Its ARCHITECTURAL beauty. It's construction was
commenced in s78, by bishop Willigis. Six
times II was more or less damaged by fire,
and each time restored and enlarged in the
style Of the epoch, so that at present it is an
illustrated history of the architecture which
prevailed in the thirteenth, fourteenth and
fifteenth centuries. In 1898 it was bonn
bardsd and burnt by the Prussians later il
was used as a hay magazine by the French |;
and, in, 1904, restored again to its proper
uses. After the retreat of the French, at
at Leipsic, six thousand soldiers were lodged
in ii, who burnt the chairs, tables and every
thing that was combustibls, to warm them
selves. During the seigs of 1914 it was con-
vertsd into slaughterhouse for the garrison,
and afterwards into a storeheuse for sal. and
grain 1t was restored in 1920 to its present
form, and no one who looks at its rich stones,
elaborate carving and gorgeous gliding would
ever imagine the dangers through which its
strong old walls have passed. tits $50 feet
long. 40 feet high and its vault is support
cd on SO columns. These columns and the
walls are all ornamented with monuments OF
the Electors, Archbishops, and canons Of
Mayence, in stone, in marble and in bronze
Some are adorned with crowns, wreashs and
heraldic quarterings others with beautiful
female figures weeping bitterly, and little, ia,
angels holding scrolls bearing the name, titles
and deeds of the dead. A few are well de.
signed and finely executed, but the greater
number overlaid with meaningless ornamentl
and strained allegoricaI representations.
We found several groups of wretched look.
ing women in different parts of this old
minister, on their knees, scrubbing the mar
bic floors. They raised their hollow eye
with cold, hard look as we passed, and ther
betook themselves to their labor again, crawl
ing over the wet floor with their reakins
brushes and trailing their tatters behind them
looked at their wasted forms and hungry
faces and wondered il the money expended
on the tombs of these princes and prelatei
might not have been better invested in the
endowment Of some sort of institution for
TIE benefit Of the poor. What avails ttha
.hess men were rich and Jared sumptuously
evsrY e.y they have gone the way of al
the esrih. What avails it that millions o
acrins vent to purchase rich marbles to COW
or thei- senseless DUST and long epitaphs tC
com nosiorate their names and their virtues
The ma-bles ara only regarded as church or
naanents, and the epitaphs are never or rare
ly -sad: But the poor have lived, suffered
and died in their ignorance, bequeathing thei
degraded condition to their children and to
their children's children, and the conse
quences, ike dark wave in the ocean o.
life. will roll on to the shores of eternity.
For hours we wandered through the Ions
aisles and over the stored pavements of tn,
adjoining cloisters; now looking at the bra
zen bsptismal font behind the eastern altar
which bears the date Of 1923, then trying tt
decipher an ancient edict engraven on tn,
bronze doors which confers certain privileges
on the town as a recompcnse for the
fidelity and valor displayed by its citi
zens IN the rescue Of the Archbishop
Adalbert First from the captivity il
which he was held by the Emperor, Henry
Fifth it is dated 1135. In the galleries
leading to the cleistsrs, we found the tomb
of the last of the Minnesingsrs, Heinrich
Won Meissin, called Frauenlob-"Praise the
women" He died in 1913, and his bier wal
borne by the fair hands of eight noble ladies
who poured hbations of wine on his grave
while hundreds of others covered it with
flowers and watered it with their tears. There
are two monuments to his memory now. The
one in gres-rougs, which bears his portrait il
bas relief, and the date of 1888 was modelled
after the original, which was broken some
three centuries after his death; the other wa,
erected by the ladies of Mayence in 1912
1t was executed by Schwanthaler, in whit,
marble, and represents in bss relief the coffir
of the poet, ornamented with three crowns
one Of oak, one of ivy, and one of laurel
with a ,zorn an ueening at the head I thirl