Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1873-02-03
TOUR IN EUROPE.
The Editor of The Journal:

and in visiting her charming lakes and noun
tains, and the great iron workshop up and
down the Clyde, Greenock Glasgow, &c., and
Britain, Edinburg. The elegant Eugene and
Prince Imperial were the recipients of a
warm ovation at the time. Thence my trip
lay through Newcastle, York, and a rich gar
den Of 400 miles to that miniature world Lon
don. Here, besides the vast buildings. mu-
seums, parks, halls, churches, and castles one
loves to visit, l was permitted TO enjoy a
week at the Wesleyan conference in City
Road Chapel, the cradle Of Methodism. Also
a very high wedding, Wilson's at West end,
and very low one of poor barefoot couple
at East End. Then through fat. Flooding
but heroic and glorious Holland, where Mot
ley by his faithful story of their struggles and
victories, has made himself the most popular
man living. Crossing the Rhine l spent
few days at Antwerp, at Brussels rival in
manners of Paris, at Cologne famed for the
90 distinct smells, and her vast, still growing
Cathedral, and on up the vine-clad valley of
the Rhine, amid grotesque old towns and ro-
mantle castles and monasteries which are
perched on every high cliff to Mannheim.
Thence my path lay East through the wild
Thuringian forests of Germany, Lu,her's re.
gion at Eisenach to old castle Wastburg where
he slung an inkstand at the DEVILS head and
ink at the Pope's, Weimar, Gotha where lives
the duke, brother to Prince Albert, the old
University at Halle to Berlin, great capital of
the great power of Europe. Here saw the
review Of the grand army which conquered
France, by the Emperors of Austria, Russia
and Germany attended by their snowy reti-
nues and the three renowned diplomats of the
age Gortchakof, Androssy, and Bismarck,
and Dukes, Princes, Kings and Generals by
the hundred. notable gathering. The
world may not look on its like again in q hun
| dred years. AT Potsdam and Charlotten-
burg are royal residences which defy descrip-
ton. Thence We (my Scotch cousins were
with me- took our journey through Saxony,
studying all the splendid art treasures oftheir
museums, Austria, over the Tyrolean Alps
by one of the widest railway passes that has
|
to antique. quiet, beautiful Venice. Over the
Apprentices to Florence by another fearful
ride we enjoyed this little earthly Paradise q
week and soon found ourselves under the
shadows of mighty and imperial Rome, and
were perplexed to tell which was more mar
vellous and interesting, ancient and broken
or modern Rene. 1t is hard to imagine any
more impressive scenes than the ruins Of
Palatine hill, the baths of Titus, Caracalla
and hundreds of others, of Trajans forum,
and the peerless Coliseum. Nor can anything
vie with the grandeur of some of the build
ings, especially the churches of modern Rome,
St. Paul's, ST. John, Lateran, the Pantheon,
St. Moggoire, and many more erected by a
barefoot, and ignorant constituency, are SO
vast and respondent as to make American
churches look poor and mean. The Vatican,
with its eight acres Of buildings, in the GEN.
ter Of which rises huge, magnificent St. Pet
ers, is also rich in every work Of art and taste,
and although its present occupant surlily
turks within as prisoner of state, he is as
free to go and come as any Italian, and this
vast pile is his home. My stay at Naples
was short. Pompeii just exhumed from its
ashen grave must be seen. Vesuvius modify
smoked away while we were in sight of him.
and heprovokingly postponed bit of shake
down he got up till the day after our depar.
ture. A long sea-sick ride with short stops at
Civita Vecchia and Leghorn, brought Us to an.
tique Genoa. From the fort on the mountain
on whose sides Genoa is embroidered, there
is prospect of sea, city. mountain and dell,
which would repay long pilgrimage to find.
Milan is a geat handsome city, with the most
commodious arcade to be formed, and Ca
thedral wrought in such minute and delicate
patterns of white marble, and such elaborate
ornamentations that it looks like poem in
stone. 1t is a fascinating vision. One item
can give the reader an idea of its extent and
beauty. From little cherubs to colossal
champions there are 2700 statues in and on
the temple in marble. Over the Alps by
Simplon Pass we plodded through two feet of
snow while the thermometer was 30 at Rome
the 18th of Oct. At Geneva the sober speech
and heavy signs of the people attested their
grief over the death of the great and good DR..
D'Aubigne. Paris we found Inundated but
not humble, sorrowful but not repentant.
Vast and hideous ruins inside and outside,
the government of Theirs holding on by the
fears and hates of factions, universal suspic-
ion of what is to come, and unanimous hate
of the Germans rife in the air, were the prom
inont features of the gay city, as if with torn
and soiled dress, dishevelled hair, empty
purse, fearfnl jealousies and headache, she
were contemplating the scenes of last nights
hideous debauch Their follies and sins
ought to produce conviction and reform while
they excite the commiseration Of the world.
The best comment on the awful German,
whom they load with barbarous epithets, is,
that not jewel, or painting, or statue, in the
Partisan treasury was carried away or dis
turbed in gallery or church, by the army of
occupation. A short ride in a mean boat
across the channel, long one in = splendid