The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1871-10-26

My vaulted ambition took me to the
very top, and came near leaving me up
there. The journey up the staircase
through the square part of the tower
was only fatiguing without being in the
least degree dangerous, and it afforded
an excellent opportunity for observing
the apparently frail character of the
structure, through whose openwork in
terstices the wind blew fercely. The
exquisite carving and decoration up
here is seen by but very few, yet is elab-
crate and is as beautiful as any in the
lower part of the church.
At last 1 came to the balcony where
two hags-the black and white of Prus-
sia, and the tri-color of Germany-had
been flung to the breeze Immediately
| after the Prussian occupation of the
city. The breeze had not received these
banners very kindly, but had reduced
them to long stringy tatters, SO that
from below they looked like punches of
preposterous shoe-strings, very uncom-
Portable and very much out of place.
At this point begins the inclination
of the spire, which appears from the
| platform below to be series of steps
leading to the top of an elongated pyra-
mid, while from the street it looks like
a number of tiny projections ornament
ing rather short steeple. These ap-
parent steps or projections are, however,
each as large as an ordinary man, and
| the little staircase winds in and about
them in manner which, however in
| genious, is by no means reassuring to
the nervous. BY felicitous architec-
tural arrangement, person in mount
ing this staircase is at one step inside the
spire and at the next step outside of it,
with the great round globe itself SEEM
ingly several miles below A fly would
probably not be perturbed in this posi-
ton; and creatures like Quasimodo, who
had had long practice on the precipitous
towers of Notre Dame, might even feel
at ease.
have heard it said that individuals
in such an elevated sphere of duty as this
have often felt almost Irresistible yesrn-
ings to let go their hold, launch out into
space, and fling themselves down to
earth. Such, l can conscientiously say,
was not my experience. On the contra
ry, 1 felt an utterly irresistible inclina-
ton to cling to the steeple itself, and to
avoid, as far as possible, any Topographic
Cal observations of the earth beneath
what time my blood was frozen in my
veins by the horrible antics of the guide,
who hoped up the spire from projection
to projection, like an agile fowl, without
any apparent appreciation of the awful
possibilities contained in the law of
gravitation.
To get upon the final narrow balcony
which encircles the steeple just below its
top land from the street looks only like
a graceful little ornament), one has to
take a step which requires the faith of
Abraham himself. The spire up here
has grown so small that you can almost
put your arms around it, while it seems
absolutely certain that it must blow over
in the very next blast of wind. Yet, at
such a moment, you are asked to stick
out one foot in the direction OF the Rhine,
and then land it on point of stone
about on level with your forehead; to
bring the other foot somewhere else, and
to clutch hold with both hands of some
thing which the guide says is just above
you and all this on the outside of the
highest spire in existence, with the wind
blowing like mad, the whole world
many miles below your feet, and COM
Portable people on safe sidewalks looking
at you through opera-glasses
When it is all done, according to
Hoyle, you find yourself on a narrow
ledge protected by low stone balus-
trade. The houses of the city of Stras-
burg lie clustered about the base of the
cathedral, with their roofs dotted with
innumerable dormer windows, the burnt
district presenting hideous gap in the
fair symmetry of the town, and the
ruins of the theatre, museum, prefecture,
and library conspicuous for their extent
and desolation. On three sides stretches
the vast, fiat Alsatian plain, and on the
fourth lies the Duchy of Baden. Quite
near are the two villages between which
the Prussians planted their most des-
tructive batteries, and far beyond lies
that France which year ago claimed
Strasburg as her own. ..E
In descending the spire there is va
riety in the nature of the sensations
aroused. Climbing up you can cling to
the stonework. Coming down you seem
at every step to be about launching
yourself into space. You feel as if in
your own person you were exemplifying
by some inconceivably uncomfortable
process the theory of centrifugal force,
and once down to earth again the
thought how sweet it is to grovel here
below suffuses your countenance with
grateful glow of loving appreciation.
w.F.w