Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1871-11-29
CAUGHT IN HIS OWN TRAP.

What glorious thing it is to have {
holiday! a little allotment of time al
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 sig
nifcance " of the Licinian Rogations
nor any shock fall upon you, if you be
a man of business, from alarming. tel
egrams respecting the fall of Utopian
ConsoIs, or the unhealthy depres-
sion " of the Cloudland-Alantis Grand
Central 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 Kenilworth on the half-yearly holi-
| day, damped only by the horrid recol-
lection that work begins again next
/ day, up to the wearied merchant-prince
/ who follows cut his doctors prescrip-
ton Of "complete change of scene" by
making Rome or Switzerland as like
London as possible for two months
every year.
Somewhat after this fashion chad
felt inclined) ] might have sollloquized,
as sat looking down upon the good
town of Heidelberg from the terrace of
auberge, perched upon - projecting
| bluff, in which few soidisant invaids
play at curing themselves by eating the
| greatest possible amount of curds and
whey. And, certainly, the scene before
me deserves more than passing
glance. Above rose the green, slopine
crest of the KonigstuhI, with all it's
waving woods, upon which the fading
sunshine fingered lovingly; all around
lay the leafy hillsides, between which,
like thread of gold, glittered the
winding stream of the Neckar; i'm
mediately below me lay the narrow
streets, and tall, grim houses of the
quaint little tom, above 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 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 clutcE
it. Turning to look for the owner,
find myself face to face with quiet
pleasant-looking old gentleman il
], frilled shirt and black-silk stockings
the very image of the Glass Dwarf IL
Wilhelm Hauff's "Kaltes Herr :" evi
IDENTIFY man of some note by the re
spect with which the habitues make wa,
for him.
"Many thanks, mein Herr" says tn,
| old man, as l restored his errant heaC
: gear. Pm not quite so supple now a
| was when [ took the prize at th,
, Freyberg Volksfest, forty-three years
ago, before 1 even thought of becoming
professor. It's only you English wht
can keep your training forever.
"How did you guess that [ was al
Englishman?n asked I, somewhat sur
, prised; for, indeed, with beard like :
pasha's, and face bronzed by the SUI
of Egypt and Syria, my appearance Ii
anything but Anglo-Saxon.
'FNo one but an Engishman woulC
r have caught that hat as you did," ans
wered the professor, with a little chuck
ling laugh; cts just in their nature
to jump up and run after anything tha
passes. All! if you English would only
employ your irrepressible energies il
the cause of science, what might yor
not achieve but no; you do not care
to learn"
$ Do us the justice to believe, Her
Professor, that the nation which pro
: duced Bacon and Newton has still som,
reverence for science"
/ " They are mighty men, " replies th'