The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1871-10-06
CAUGHT IN HIS OWN TRAP.
From Every Saturday. Sept. l6.

What a glorious thing it is to have q
holiday, a little allotment of time all
your own, upon which you need pay
duty to no man living, and within the
compass of which, if you be a scholar, no
one can plague you about the date of
the Hegira, or exact political signif-
cancen of the Licinian Rogations nor
any shock fall upon you, if you be a
man Of business, from alarming tele-
grams respecting the fall of Utopian
Consols, or the " unhealthy depression"
of the Cloudland-Atlantic Grand Cen
trail Railway. Surely there is no one
living who does not appreciate such a
furlough, from the fourth.form boy who
over-eats himself at Warwick or Kenil-
worth on the halfyearly holiday, damp
ed only by the horrid recollection that
work begins again next day, up to the
weared merchant-prince who follows
out his doctors prescription Of ICON.
plete change of scene" by making Rome
or Switzerland as like London as posi-.
bic for two months every year.
Somewhat after this fashion (had |
felt inclined) | might have soliloquised,
as | sat looking down upon the good
town of Heidelberg from the terrace of
the "Molken-Kur,"-a little wooden
amberge, perched upon a projecting
bluff, in which few SoidiSant invalids
play at curing themselves by eating the
greatest possible amount of curds and
whey. And, certainly, the scene before
me deserved more than passing
glance. Above rose the green, sloping
crest of the Konigstuhl, with all lis
waving woods, upon which the fading
sunshine fingered lovingly; all around
lay the leafy hillsides, between which,
like a thread of gold, glittered the
winding stream of the Neckar; imme-
diately below me lay the narrow streets
and tall grim houses of the quaint little
town, about which the vast red towers
Of the castle stood out in the glow of
sunset like pillars of fire and far out in
the plain beyond, breaking with its
shining curves the monotony of the
vast green level, could Just descry
the broad, smooth flow Of the parent
Rhine.
But at this moment my reflections are
broken in a sufficiently unromantic way
by the conclusion of q huge steeple-
crowned hat, which, driven by the
wind, ricochets off my shoulder, and is
Just rolling over the brow of the hill,
when | spring forward and clutch it.
Turning to look for the owner, / find
myself face to face with quiet, pleas
ant-looking old gentleman in frilied
shirt and black silk stockings, the very
image Of the Glass Dwarf in Wilhelm
Hauff's "Kaltes Herr evidently
man of some note by the respect
with which the habitueS make way for
him.
Many thanks, mein Herr" says the
old man, as | restored his GRAND head
gear. "I'm not quite SO supple now as
was when ] took the prize at the Frey
berg Volksfest,* forty-three years ago,
before | even thought of becoming q
professor. It's only you English who
can keep up your training forever"
How did you guess that | was an
Englishman ?" asked |, somewhat sur
prised for, indeed, with beard like q
pasha's, and face bronzed by the sun
of Egypt and Syria, my appearance is
anything but Anglo.Saxon.
No one but an Englishman would
have caught that hat as you did," an.
swered the professor, with little
chuckling laugh it's Just in their ma
ture to jump up and run after anything
that passes. An if you English would
only employ your irrepressible energies
in the cause of science, what might
you not achieve but no, you do not
care to learn"
Do us justice to believe, Herr Pro.
fessor, that the nation which produced
Bacon and Newton has still some rever.
ence for science"
They were mighty men," replies the
old gentleman, with a reverential bend
Of his grey head "but am speaking
of the nation at large, not of few ex.
ceptional celebrities. Ach Himmell
what a set they are, those English A
fin life they led me when first began
to practice medicine, down yonder in
SaXony. The first thing in the morn
ing king king at my door. What
is itT An Englishman, who has
broken his leg in trying to climb the
Teufelshorn, which no one ever ascend
ed yet ! set the Herr Englander's
leg, and leave him pretty comfortable.
Not half an hour later, king king