The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1864-12-27
BINGEN ON TIE RHINE IN. 1854.
BY ALFRED TRAMPLE.


NJ The pathetic ballad of "Bingen on the Rhine. >,
attributed to Mrs. Norton, has little literary
merit; but, like many heart-songs, had fingered
b. long while in my ears so that when, last Au-
gust, the steamer HoheHSoHer on which was a
NfEssenger, came in sight Of the little town COM
III hemorated, found myself unconsciously re-
N keating the poem. OF all places on the Rhine,
III had most wished to visit this. Not even the
N beautiful experience of whole day upon the
y castellated river, passing the Seven Mountains,
Ehrebreitstein, Lurlei, and jutting Rhengan,-
abated my enthusiasm to stand in the streets of
II inc Algerne soldier and watch his townsfolk at
their avocatOns A hundred castles fitted BY
Y half noticed, but when the little Mouse Tower
shone Whitley in the grey waters, reused my
rseli 10 mark pleasant village nestliag at the
Il toot OF tower-crowned precipice.
AT first sight it was very prosaic A row of
> stately modern hotels, bearing such hard Saxon
v igI gIles as "The Victoria" "rhe White Horse"
Ihe Bellevue, and The Engischer Hof," stood
on the border of the river, and hid much of
the real German settlement, and when landed
rows OF walters in white aprons cried to me, in
French and English, TO enter the portal made
reverend and expensive by his ROYAL High
4 ness Prince Albert, or handed down in his
l tory and sign6oards the place where the
4 Duke OF Dt'a9EzzA drank till he was boozy.
fasslng these pretentiouS eXcresences / paced
up sinuous street, devoid of sidewalks till |
! gained the paved area or SQUARE in the hi ri of
, the place: mossyifountaiu, fed from high hill
i Dehnd the village, called the Rochers capelle
\ threw its several jets into an old stone b 4sin
whence the gossips and girls of Bingen drew their
J 1IH1klng water. Around IL rose the high stone
4 houses, yelloWishy white pierced with many
narrow windows, and boasting steep. roofs al
peaked gables, out of whose double rows of dor
Ssaers leSU2d the idle citizens. OF all the sleepy
towns had seen, Bingen was the sleepiest old
Rip Van Wrinkle would have found little change
IN 1t, had he dozed there hundred years, except
The addition of STEAMBOATS, on the Rhine, ar | the
rush OF steam cars over the Lake Bridge. And
|, as for the troops entering it with "glad and gal
n liant tread" they would have made a truly in
L credible sensation.
II entered little wne-house, opposite the foun-
|, tain, and called for bottle OF Niersein Four
n or five plethoric old fellows we're smoking porc.-
lain pipes at sundry tables, talking in their bu2zy
n high Dutch fashion, of the importance of uniting
N Germany, OF the tyranny of Bismarck, of the
cowardice of the Diet and of the general glory
y of Faderland. While the 'philosphic acuMen Of
the Teuton kind, and their domestic virtues
Wfe-strappng omitted-have always been plea
SAINT 20 me, must say that their national spirit
70 OF the windiest and "gabbiest' description.
They are like the malt they consume, al ways in
ferment and quite as heavy and inactive Since
! the feudal time, they have been singing about
German unity; but all their revolutions were
vapory, like that of lS4S, and their inertia is Of
the exuemest character. Here were the old
Bingen burghers, growing resoute over their
potatons, while above their heads hung portraits
\ of Schiller and Goethe, and the Emperor of Aus
tria, aud the Duke of Darmstadt (whose subjects
they are), to remind them that their grandfalhers
were equally noisy and empty.
But still there was something very soothing to
me in the sowness of these and their town. We
Americans push SO rreyerently towards resu IS
that the tOrpidity of these honest old souls uled
me into their own cOnt0ntedness. l joined them
IL pipe, and read the Mayence newspaper by
yhe window, and watched the blue stockings of
the girls filing their pitchers at the fountain and
wondered If they were all TO marry, and become
aHAf lie -, NHNn 4 .gll l,l..
if any of them were worth ones while to carry
her over the sea, and show how our "sOders of
the legion" go huzzaing towards the border.
A few lean dogs, whose ancestors had run
around the same fountain ia the same sedate
way, centuries before, darted now and then az a
citizen-cat or brood Of gabbing chickens, or at
some flaxen haired urchin in wooden shoes, and
for n moment made existence lively in the neigh
borhood cannot say that any beauty charmed
me, though am always susceptible. There were
many buxom damsels going to and fro, and the
largeness of their hands and feet was probably
no greater than that of their hearts but not even
the blueneSs OF their Saxon eyes, or the golden
stiletto-sign of unbetrohed vlrginity-which
pierced their braided tresses of brown, moved me
+ "om the fact that Bingen was quite picturesque,
fH' emey orderly, but cOnfOundedly slow.
IS village numbers about seven thousand
itants, though, owing TO the largeness OF
the tenements, 1t does not cover the ground of
an American hamlet Of as many hundred, and
five minutes walk will take one through its
longest diameter. IL was quite n town in the
time OF the hOman6, and IS mentioned by IaCl-
tus, while some Italian immigrants raised il to
its greatest prosperity as early as the fourteenth
= century. Here, while Columbus was seeking
new world, before white man stood upon our
continent before Boston was anything but will
derness, Bingen held this site and grew its light
wine along the terraeed precpice, and had her
little revolutions with feudal lord, bishop, and
X.A&lelts. Does it not make us q tride ashamed
~ Ugh pretensiOns to change in generation
CuM en- of the world, while this old town has
II BAN .'er and accomplished so little Believe
70 TJoa-A lw, dear reader, wi Ose experience
49, MS ~ npd '.S--CiYizatiOn travels in circle
w aad 4PrisOnH petus we can Civ, II onlyibulges
~ 4e for QHal.qi the centre, call it what we
Esl}h OF the old Z. islands liked and shortens
Akm bring the 81 ,. All our Yankee enter
"a else might haY6s 'gy, our driving metropoi-
ID there was nothiG 'sngthen the lives of our
bad character OF I'd pestilence, or subsd-
! 70 suggested his de- passions OF man any
M b iIVeigled, and so forie satisfactory civlza-
cussit a found Arnold andD1e which overhangs
d no dophtabout rhompso9 one must pay a
beeN aught in the act Tn, hospitality OF
EN sbl had asked no quesiiG'oL ones of our
against him; and upon bS Sb sri crumbling
! TO say anything in his I,Sthe, cross.
x his head: "What will heiis ID stop
M g barrRter in front of me. coed mellow
4 T." said the friend he addressed slabs
but what sOOd-lOOkins fellO 'fS snT. 9TL'apoi
NJ bat York Castle is panelled in at uA At
NJ eised good height from the groune XeT in
. u ihA sort Of gangway there is TO thu h0he
!. co"ld only see the back Of the
@A
a S,t