The Emporia news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1859-1881, 1870-07-29
NUMBER 80
RHENISH PRUSSIA.
The Cities and Towns Along the Rhine
IFrom the Chicago Tribune

Inc CItleS ana Towns Along the Rhile.
From the Chicago Tribune.l
Rhenish Prussia, Napoleon's objective
point, is divided midway by the Rhine,
and comprises an area as large as the
State Oflndiana. containing five millions
of people. 1t includes, on its left bank,
the cities of Troyes. Cologne, Cieves.
AK la Chapelle, Boon and Cohlentz
The population of all this territory is as
distinctly German as that on the east
side OF the Rhine. and, indeed. there are
more German-speaking people on the
Acknowledged French side ofthe border
than French people on the German. A
river is seldom natural boundary be-
tween two peoples, and is far oflener a
band of commerce, uniting in one the
populations on both its banks. II has
always been so in this instance. France
never having extended her language or
institutions to the lower Rhine, and only
advancing her standards there, when,
under the First Napoleon, they waved
also OH the Elbe and the Danube.
Passing down the Rhine, the first O err
man city the traveller reaches on the left
bank, is Bingen. just above Bingen a
clesr-detined spur of mountains called
the ''Scharlach," run some distance on
either side into Germany and France,
forming the natural divide" between
France and Prussia. Westward along
this highland runs the German jurisdic-
tion and language, and from Bingen
down the Rhine to Holland the cities
are, and have always been, largely Ger
man. The title of France to Holland
and Belgium as part of the 'left bank, "
is quite as natural and well-founded as
to the Prussian territory for which she
now proposes to fight.
Coblentz, the fortified capital of the
Prussian province of the Rhine, is a
town of 22,500 population, with stone
bridge across the Moselle, and one OF
boats across the Rhine, uniting il with
the great fortress of Ehrenbreitstein on
the right bank, constructed by CarnOt
and Montalembert, and capable of ac-
commodating 100000 men. Coblentz
has so long been a point of refuge for
French fugitives and emigreS that, for
this reason, it has more French blood
than any other of the Rhenish cities. 1t
is, distinctively, however, a German
town. The futility of the pretence that
the Rhine can be Il national boundary
between France and Prussia, is seen in
the fact that no military power could
no d the town to France, if Prussia re-
| tanned the castle of Ehrenbreitstein on
| the opposite bank.
We next come to Bonn, world re-
nowned for its great university, which
has an annual grant from the Prussian
government of 100000 thalers. whose
university buildings are the finest in
Europe or the world. and whose library
numbers 10000 volumes. No German
| city is more thoroughly German than
| Bonn, where Beethoven was born, Won
| Schlegel lived, and Niebuhr died. Its
| historic associations date back prior Ia
The Christian Era. From the terrific
| fortitude with which it has again and
again been defended through eighteen
centuries, it, no doubt, in any regular
siege, would hold the largest army seri-
ousIy in check. Under the dominion Of
the First Napoleon, the university was
| closed. To make the Rhine national
boundary would destroy the city o.
| Bonn.
Fifteen miles below Bonn. on the left
bank, stands Cologne, or, as the Ger.
mans spell it, kolm, so called because
the Emperor Claudius, about twenty
| years after the death of Christ, planted
a ''colonv" in honor of his wife, the
Empress Agrippina, who was born here
It is a fortified capital, and contained, il
1860, with the small town of DeutZ
across the river, which is properly d
suburb of Cologne, about l05,500 in
habitants. 1t is well known to us fol
its manufactures, the chief of which is
the Eau de Cologne. and is attractive to
travellers for its magnificent cathcdrals
| and their works OF art.
! Dusseldorf lies upon the right bank
of the Rhine, but SO closely associated
in its manufactures with Crefeld and
other towns on the left bank as TO make
| the Rhine bond of union and COM
merce between them, rather than line
of separation. It is chiefly celebrated
| as the center of the art union for Rhen-
ish-Prussia, and has been under Prus-
| sian dominion for centuries. In 1855 il
contained $1,000 inhabitants, and was
the capital of a district on both sides oil
the Rhine, numbering 100000.
! The last Prussian town Immediately
on the left bank of the Rhine, before il
enters Holland, is the half-Dutch town
of Cleves, the center of a ''circle" of ten
thousand inhabitants. 1t came into the
hands of the house of BrandenburgI
| (Prussia) in 1899, and has since so re-
manned, except when conquered by
| France in 1905, and until re-ceded &c
Prussia, by the treaty of 1915.
| The local subdivisions or provinces oil
CoblentZ, Cologne, and Dusseldorf lie
on both sides of the Rhine, showing
that not even in the narrewest poiitica
sense has the river ever been a line o
division between States or districts
When Napoleon made Murat the ''Duk,
OF Berg" and assigned him a dukedou
on the Rhine, his dukedom crossed the
river instead of bounding on it. OF
the Rhine, the left bank" is thickl,
studded with cities and considerable
towns, including Creves, DusseldorfanC
AK la Chapelle. The last is near tn,
border of France, and was the birth
place and residence of Charlemagne, anG
is the most nearly French In its associa
lions OF any of the towns of Rhenish
Prussia. Any conquest of RheniSh.
Prussia implies the subjugaiion of thu
whole OF it. the east as well as the ives
bank. and the humbling of Prussia Il
her former condition as one among tn,
many petty and diminished German
powers.