Ashtabula telegraph. (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1874-1880, 1874-09-12
AsHTABUIA OHIO, SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 12, 1874
AwsTRRD.VTo FRANKFORT.

AMSTERDAM To FRANKFORT.
UTREcHT-THE JANsENIsTs-THE CA
THEDRAL TOWER AND THE PUBLIC HALL
CoLoGNE-ITs HIsToRY-THE GREAT CA
| THEDRAL-HOLY RELICs-THE ELEVEN
| THOUSAND vIRGINs-THE RHINE-HoW
THE GERMANS HAVE FOUGHT 1900 YEARS
FOR ITS PossEssIoN-THE INTERESTING
PORTION OF THE RIVER, RETwEEN BONN
AND BINGEN-oLD FEUDAL CASTLES THE
ROBBER BARoNs, THEIR DEPREDATIoNs,
AND THEIR ovERTHROW-THE VINEYARDS
OF THE RHINE-FRANKFoRT THE CRADLE
| OF THE RoTHsCHILDs.
Special Correspondence of the Chicago Tribune.
FRANKFORT. JULY &c. 1874
After leaving Amsterdam for
Frankfort, which is about 800 miles
distant, the country is low, fiat
plain, striped with bitches filled with
stagnant, water, as far as the eye
can penetrate III every direction.
The surface of the soil is l6 feet be-
low low-tide level of the ocean, and
more than 40 feet below the highest
tides. On approaching Utrecht, 25
miles from Amsterdam, the country
presents slight undulations of sur
face, which are ancient sand ridges
thrown up by the action. of the sea
and winds when the shore-line ex-
tended that far inland.
UTRECHT
is situated at the forks of branch
of the Rhine: one fork. called the
Vecht, flows to Amsterdam; the 9TH
er, called the Old Rhine, flows past
Leiden into the sea near by. Before
A. D. $50, the main stream of the
Rhine flowed past Utrecht; but af-
ter a great inundation which destroy
ed 100000 lives, it turned its course
into the present main outlets, the
LEX and the Waal, one of which
flows past Rotterdam, and the other
past bort. Utrecht contains about
10000 inhabitants, and is the resi-
dence of many of the Dutch aristoc-
racy, on account of not being subject
to danger of inundation. The Hol-
land Mint is there. 1t is also the
headquarters of, the Jansenists, a
sect of dissenters from the Catholic
Church, who objected to bull of
Pope Alexander VII which con-
demned as heretical certain doctrines
taught by Jansenius, Bishop of |
Ypres. About 10000 persons ad-
hered to the Bishop; but the sect is
decaying and now greatly reduced,
not numbering more than 5000.
Negotiations are going on with a
view to join the Old Catholic sect,
recently started by those who refuse
to accept the Papal-infallibility dog
ma. What the particular point of |
difference was that. separated the
little Janseist sect from the Mother |
Church, nobody has been able to in
form me, as the point seems to have |
been forgotten, while the schismatics |
continue their system of worship |
from the force of long habit.
The most conspicuous object in
Utrecht is the
TOWER OF THE CATHEDRAL,
which is s27gfeet high, and 20 feet
square at the base,-built in 1882. !
From its top can be seen almost the |
whole Kingdom of Holland, on a
clear day. Amsterdam, the Hague,
Rotterdam, Breda, bort, Leiden,
Arnhem, the Zuyder Zee, the chief
outlet branches of the Rhine, besides
hundreds of villages and canals, and |
thousands of revolving windmills,
are all within view from this exalted |
lookout. The high lands away to |
the eastward, constituting the an
cient shore line of the ocean. can be
traced for long distance. The Pub
lie Hall is still standing, in which |
was signed the Act of Confederation
in 1879, which declared the Seven
Provinces of Holland free and indie
pendent of Spain and all her evil
deeds. The Dutch reverence the
old Hall even more than the Ameri-
cans do Independence Hall in Phila-
delphia, and it cost their forefathers
a much bloodier and more desperate
struggle to achieve their independ-
ence than 1t did ours.
Utrecht is at the geographical
centre of Holland, but the Dutch
Government preferred
THE HAGUE
for the Capital on account of its
more secure location from invasion, |
and its greater salubrity, being near.
the ocean, and sheltered from the
west winds by the high sand-ridge
along the sea-shore. On this "dune,"
or saiRtridge- 9 miles distant, is the
famous Dutch watering or sea bath
ing place, called Scheveningen, to
which thousands of the wealtl Ter
classes of Hollanders resort every
summer. The space between it and
the Hague is planted with pine trees,
which alone can exist on the barren
sand-plain, and they have a hard
Struggle for life" " -szati' -
From. Utrecht to the German from
tier is about SO miles. This tract of
country is called Guelderland, the
Capital of which is Arnhem, town
of 10000 inhabitants, and the dis
trict around which is termed
THE "DpTCH PARADISE"
on account of the remarkable fertili-
ty of its soil, and the fact that the
streams in the canals flow of their
own accord, without the propulsion
of windmills.
The water in the bitches is, there
fore, less stagnant and sinking than
that in the lower lands farther to-
wards the sea. The fields are dense
ly populated with fat cattle and
long wool sheep, and the crops of
grain and grass are Of the most lux
priant description. This part of
Holland is not below the ocean-land,
except at very high tides; but it is
in constant peril from the spring
freshets of the Rhine, which often,
by reason of ice barriers, overfows
its artificial embankments, and
sweeps away inhabitants, cattle, and
habltations.
At the point where the Rhine,
just after entering Holland, divides
into the WAL and the LEX, are
erected