Knoxville weekly chronicle. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1870-1875, 1870-08-03
LETTER FROM EUROPE.
berlin TO Drcsden-Tic Tomb of Humboldt
-Prussinn Soldiers Target Shooting
An ArmOry.
DRESDEN. July 10Th. 1870.

what find even in these The intention !
is simply TO give the skeleton of Il trip !
which have leisurely contemplated and !
am now making, with my time limited to
twelve weeks.
In visiting any royal city, the traveller
will be sure TO visit palaces, castles, Kings !
theatres, Kings museums, Kings colec-
tiOns, Kings garden, and perhaps Il church,
a college, etc, of the King all of which |
are common enough i'm Europe with its
hundred thrones, hut altogether unknown
in America and very attractive to Ameri
can sight-seers
! wrote you last from Berlin, where
stayed six days and was engaged most of
the time in seeing the aforementioned
characteristics of royal cities, and which /
shall not describe, at all events, until
have seen enough of them TO be able 20
institute comparisons. My most pleasant
visit there was to the house and tomb of
Alexander Won Humboldt about nine
miles west of the city. The drive thither
was over level and smooth pike, shaded
the entire distance by grand old lines and
chestnut trees, which some King had set
out fifty or hundred years ago. In the
immediate neighborhood of Humboldt's
house, or rather palace, the scenery is
charming. The shaded walk, the flowers,
the garden. the interior furniture and de-
corations, were Just my ideal of the sur
roundings of a savant, whose life had been
spent actively and whose travels had been
worldwide. Antique statuary, unearthed
10y himself, and books, paintings and libra
ry fixtures, We're all in harmony with the
place, whose very atmosphere seemed
freighted with character and greatness.
BY the road side, half way from Berlin TO
''regel.n the name of Humholdt's house,
were extensive barracks and any amount
of Prussian soldiery. Some were busy at
target practice, with nine inch, rihed,
breeeh- loading cannon, which | had the
curiosity to examine.
From Berlin, three hours TO Leipzig, a
medieval town somewhat modernized by
new suburbs, and containing II population
of over one hundred thousand, on an area
but little if any larger than that of Knox
vile. Here | found Prof Allen, of our
University, attending the lectures of Gus
tins, the noted philologist. Wewent togeth-
er to the tower of the castle TO look down
upon the city and away over the almost
| level country, with the Pleisse, Parthe and
| Elster rivers winding into the horizon.
! The roofs are all red tiles the houses front
every way, and we cannot trace the streets
in their courses through so-called courts,
| which are nothing more nor less than pas
| sages through the first stories of the build
ings. In fact, some of the main thorough
fares are half in the house aud half out
doors. Imagine a spot where brick-kiln
! was burnt twenty years ago, and where the
| bats have been suffered to lie i'll peace,
with little green peeping up occasionally,
and you have Leipzig in miniature, as seen
from the castle The roofs are all steep, and
! the ground all taken up, and the poor
washerwomen have to stretch their lines
beyond the wallis The people all live
very comfortably, and ] don't know how
! they manage to do it. The buildings are
four stories to the caves and then three
more stories lighted by doTmer windows,
and all full of heads and flowers. Every
body at leisure, or at all events, not i'll a
hurry. Men and dogs pulling carts through
the streets loaded with every conceivable
species of merchandise, and looking as if
they had been pulled for a great many
years BY the way, the dogs do pull first
rate. I've heard the phrase, " worked like
a dog" and guess it originated this side of
the water.
From Leipzig TO Dresden, three hours,
through q country that becomes Il little
billy towards the last. And in fact, Dres-
den is in sight of Saxon Switzerland,
where about twenty miles square of the
Lusatian mountain are quite as rough and
wild as the Smoky and little more rocky.
Dresden is beautiful city as it should be,
containing, besides many other valuable
collections, the finest picture gallery north
of the Alps, and having charming situa-
ton on the river Elbe, which divides il in
two parts, which are connected by two
stone-arch bridges each five hundred yards
long. In this galley, there are many
original pictures by Raphael, CorregiO, III
tian, Rubeus, Rembrandt Jardaens, and
other great masters. | noticed, also, q
small but striking Madonna by Pisano
painted over six hund ed years ago, when
our ancestors knew nothing whatever OF
art.
To-day have been through the palace
looking principally at the 4" Green Vault, p
and its rare works of art and jewels, one OF
which, an onyx, is the largest in the world
and worth thirty thousand dollars. One
room, thirty feet square is lined with case,
ofiewels. There are q dozen swords, bear
ing about fifty diamonds apiece, another
dozen canes, another Of Sceptres, sevcra
! crowns, vases, ETC., etc., all crowned WIZ
jewels and amounting IN the aggregate Il
! twenty million pounds sterling IheH
! was the Queen's jeWelry, and enough OF II
: / am sure, to crown htf.
In the Kings museum Is q promenade
at least two hundred yards long, and iacin.
it on either side are Knights clad in armor
a mounted ON spirited-looking woodei
horses, with boquet of swords, arrows
> pistols etc. on the wall behin'
each of them, the whole arranged chrome
logically" When Rome shortened he
u swords, etc The first powder guns wer
: fired by a sort Of flint lock arrangement
: and instead of a flint a piece of Ignite
, punk or wicking was pulled very slowl
II and gracefully down into the pan whic
d held the nriminp Next came crude az