The daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1873-1877, 1874-08-05
Germans on . Pleasure Trip.

I'm the Rhine from Cologne to Coblentz,
with a party of noble German fellow pas
seneers. all bound for Ems. The saloon
steamer glides up the fosming stream IN
der n warm June sun, ripening the corn.
fields on the river banks, and making. the
cranes, as yet small as peas, swell and col
or, In the vineyards. A pink and white
awning has been set up CD deck, q band is
~. v;ns one Of Strauss waltxes, and q kell-
par rrshes mo the cabin stairs with glass
achonnes of cool beer, into which those
ladies' gathered near the wheel will dip
their pink lips IS bravely as the gentlemen
who escort them. Que would rather see
ham suck sherry COOLERS through a straw,
or try that luscious French drink of straw
berries, sugar and champagne, or at least
triAe with vanilla ices, but these things are
unknown on board: and, after all, if the
ladies choose to drink the beer, which rem
ders feminine features plump as pretty
pudding apples, they have the right, for
do they not all belong to kurtah'g society?
The gentlemen are counts and barons to a
man, and dressed in grey with felt hats Of
wondrous shape. They stalk about with
the easy suppleness of ramrods, like men
little used to civilian gear; and the ladies
are Frau Grain Won Rosenbaum, Frau
Grain Won Re;selied, and Fraulein Won
Lachenspiel, who lead fashion and every
thing else worth leading in Berlin. They
are arrayed in silks mauve, blue and cher
~, these ladies-things most appropriate
for travel-and, judging by the attention
which the young Captain Won Reiselied, the
Countess brother-in law, pays to Fraulein
Irma Won Lachenspiel, the Countess sister,
it is evident that he is smitten in that
quarter. The elder Herr Won Reiselied.
the Countess brother, is one of your old
stock Germans, who smiles only at marked
intervals but his brother, the Captain, is
a true ladies' man, who can click his heels
together for a bow as no other Prussian
can, who waltzes half an hour by the clock
leads cotillions, trolls out his part in a
duet, and has a fund Of anecdote, banter
and conuudrums most choice. Hank tC
him describing how, during the war, he wa
billeted in a French chateau where there
was a venerable footmah in spectacles wht
had served the family forty years, and who
one night mysteriously brought him his
mistress poodle, and conided the ANNA.
to his honor. He was p%ursuaded, good
man, that nothing hut this would save
''Toto'from being requestioned and eaten
and, as he explained with all a French
mans grave chivalry, the death of thi
dog, monster, would bring disgrace on IN,
white hairs" German ears are well at
tuned by this time to anecdotes of thi
sort, but they never fail to make fair list
eners' laugh gleefully-and not, mind, Wild
that noiseless lip laughter Of polite French
women, but, with gay tinkles audible afai
and buoyaut as healthy weather. For a
which, conversation does not hinge only o
camp stories, for English novels (muc
read in Germany, native metaphysics, til
Catholic question, aud the health of Bi,
marck are all prattled over in turns b
these we'll informed but not frivolous Ia
dies. On and on shoots the steamer
ploughing up burrows of white, glancin
by repeated clumps of wooden villages
gabled towns and new riverside hotel.
The band exhausts Strauss, and takes t
Offenback, Godfrey and Metra a dinner
bell rings, and draws down half the pas
sengers to a prolonged sitting over no
meats, new potatoes fried, and iank bottle
of Rhine wine; then the afternoon mel
casting broad sheets of purple light ovt
the nobl river, the boat darts by til
Grand Hotel at Coblentz, and reaches tn
landing stage. Groups of Prussian SO
diers, blue and white, hang about wit
brown-skirted factory girls and iaxel
headed schoolboys to see the passenger
disembark, and above, the wo forts, Cor
s~tantiue and Alexander, which the Frenc
shall never have gaze proudly and s
curely down at the tract Of matchless Ian,
scape where the Rhine and the Mosel
blend their waters.-Fai Mall Gazette.