Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1868-12-04
For the journal.
For the Journal.
Extracts from q Letter from q North Caro-
liam now Travelling In Europe.
DRESDEN. (SAxoNY), Nov. 9, 1868.
My DEAR


We propose to write You few lines in
regard to Europe as it appears to us. But
before we begin, let us make a little re-
quest of you, that you will take pity on us
and let us see your hand writing. = :
We will probably receive it at Rome. when
if you have any ghostly petitions for our Fa-
ther, the Pope, write them out, and we
will be most happy to have them properly
presented to his Holiness.
Since writing you, we have sat with our
feet ankle deep in Summer snow on Gorne-
geat 1854 feet above the sea) and viewed
t|enty-one snow peaks and the Matter
hom towering above US and ten glaciers be-
low US. We were detained by storm four
days in the Simplon Pass by an Alpine
storm, which SO destroyed the great Sirplon
road that we had to Chamber over avalanches
and through new made beds of mountain
torrents on foot to reach Lake Magiore. We
took skiff in the streets of an Italian vii
Iage, for the first stories of the houses were
under water, and rowed through beautiful
groves and came near being wrecked up
on milestone on the Simplon road. We
took steamer, and passing the Barroroean
Islands, reached the cars by row boat at
Aroma, having seen an inundation greater
than has been known for five hundred
years.
| We passed two or three days at Milan,
and enjoyed two or three hours among the
three thousand statues on the pinacles and
spires of the Dome. We recrossed the
Alps on the wonderful Mont Ceres Rail-
road, which. having more dangers to pro-
vide against, seems one of the safest roads
in the world. We arrived in time at Berne
to see the wonderful glow of the Bernese
Alps at shutdown. for they look as if they
were mountains of white glass, lit from a
man voices in funeral dirge, the whist
ling OF the wind, the thunder Of the storm,
all produced by skilled hand upon the
wonderful Fribonig Organ. We sailed
through the Lake of Thun We heard the
Alpine horn in the valley of Lanterbrunnen;
we felt the mist at the bottom of the 800
feet of the Stanbach Falls, and came over
the Brunig Pass, to see the Lion of Lu-
bourgh clock We saw, but did not feel, the
silver claws of the Tiger at Baden; paid our
respects to the Jew at Frankfort; examin-
ed the boat mills at Mayence, and with q
bottle of wine and basket Of grapes. we set
sail On the Rhine. The guide book men
| tons the location Of Caclais bridge, the
memories Of Russian, French and Swedish
heroes who fought, bled and died on it's
banks, but what is visible to US, is its
quaint old castles, its railroad on each
| bank, with the Ornamented tunnels, vino
| clad hills, its thousands of river craft, the
active living Present. We first realized
the rigor of the resent Prussian Govern
ment, when we saw large numbers of men
engaged in improving the channel of river
which has been variegated f2r three thou
sand years.
At Cologne we saw the sluggishness of
the past with the activity Of the present.
On the one hand the far-famed Cath dral,
whose towers are to be 500 feet. have
reached only l6O, at er five hundred years
of labor and begging. On the other hand
you see the Rhine SPAWNED by an iron
bridge, the creation Of two years, whose
splendor you may il 3 me when tell you
that each end is surmounted by an eques-
trian bronze statue, that each statue must
have cost twenty thousand dollars.
AZ tuS SuL1hc Ol CiO 41SOOO WI gus "a
Cologne, we fully realized that the super
stitons of the past are yet in full force. The
walls of this huge Church were filled with
bones. the ceilings were frescoed with
bones from the thousand openings in the
gilded gratings peeped human skulls, each
with its velvet band and the "cretur's"
name worked in gilt; bushels of human
teeth basket of thorns from our Saviour's
Grown, and q piece of tho real cross
These people, and the learned fathers who
exhibited them, looked as if they expected
US to believe all this, and that these were
the bones of the people who died fourteen
hundred years ago.
At Berlin We saw the present King, o
handsome, vigorous looking old man, who
works every day as hard as any of his sub
iects We saw thousands of his soldiers,
who were remarkably handsome and intel
ligsnt looking, their dress and equipment
of the best material. About his soldiers
there was no appearance of show, even the
button was plain polished gilt, the helmet.
of polished leather, surmounted by brass
point. The country roads are all macade-
mized, the land splendidly cultivated, and
at this season We saw thousands
of mounds, which held the crop of sugar
beets; the number and size of these mounds
showing what an amount of vegetable mat
ter muSG nave Oeon prOQuceQ. COl. Ere
mont I wish that you could examine the
Cologne and Berlin railway. 1t is double
tracked and in the 1913 miles you will not
find one battered rail, nor one defective
cross-tie. The locomotives do Los show
piece of brass nor an ornament of any
kind, We saw twenty fve ton locomO- |
tive drawing 63 loaded cars, and loads that
you would not put on your cars-cars 80
feet long, 3 pair of wheels, without trucks,
moving fifty miles an hour-jt is so steady
that you can write with ease. The road is |
manned by men who have been soldiers,
and who execute orders as they are given
with promptness. This road pays Is per
cent. II We had the money and the bust
ness, with our grades, We could do like
wise. Plant grapes and the business and
money will come. You have often heard it |
said that "th8re was plenty more Dutch.
mans in Holland > you have no idea how
many Germans there are in Germany who |
want to 60 to America and they want to
go to America to own land. Here land is
worth from 5000 to So, 500 an acre. They |
do not want to go there to cultivate cotton,
corn or tobacco they want to cultivate |