Ashtabula telegraph. (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1874-1880, 1874-09-12
Whole Number 1888
tai determination, which was known

total determination, which was known
as the
CONFEDERATION OF THE RHINE"
whose numerous and formidable ar
mics, attacking the castles from the
rear or the heights above them, cap
tured one after another and burned
or dismantled them. The contest
with these land-pirates was long q
desperate one, but the Iaw-and-Or-
der party was finally successful
against personal liberty in uprooting
and destroying its bandits, as well as
in demolishing their nests and free
ing the river from their depredations
which had continued for several
centuries, commencing about the
time of the first Crusades, and last
ing until the end of the fourteenth.
century. Some of the strongest of
the castles were afterwards repaired
and converted into fortresses by the
German rulers: that of Rhinefels,
the most extensive ruins on the
Rhine, withstood a long siege by
French army in 1892. A few of
them have, of recent years, been re-
paired for romantic summer-residen-
ces of German mobiles, One called
the Eagles Nest," is occupied a
short portion of the year by Prince
Charles. 1t stands on a iutting
point in most picturesque position.
But, after all that has been writ and
rhymed about the romance and beau
ty of those ancient castles, they have
been greatly exaggerated by the po-
cts and romances, and it requires
little stretch of the imagination to
arouse much enthusiastic wonder
over their black and broken old
walls, crumbling turrets, or villain
GUS origin and purposes.
All the way up the Rhine, from
Bonn to Mayenee, the hill and noun
tain sides, where the sun falls at
noon, are covered with
VINEYARDS.
The steep places are terraeed, as one
sees along the Valley of the Rhine,
in France. In some places there
are twenty-five to thirty terraces,
one above another, like flights of
stars. At one point counted thir-
ty-two, extending from the rivers
edge 1000 feet upwards. Each ter
race is supported by strong wall of
solid masonry, and the height from
one to the other, as well as the width
of the strips of ground, varies In ac-
cordance, with the steepness of the
mountain side. Some of them are
80 feet high and not ten broad, and
others are the reverse of these tg-
ures. At some places the vines are
carried up in baskets on the heads Of
the culti1ators- generally by women
and earth is also conveyed thither
by the same means. From all winch
the reader may form some iI,fea OF
the labor required to cultivate t.3e
far-famed Rhine vineyards. The
best wines are produced from the
grapes grown on the right bank of
the river, as the rays of the midday
sun fall perpendicularly on the
slopes of that side, but ObliquelyOn
the other side. The slatY debris Of
the mountain sides seems to be pc
culiarly favorable to retaining at
night the heat of the suns rays, and
the finest favored and richest red
wines are only produced under such
circumstances. For 100 miles up
and down and for so on each side Of
the Rhine, among its mountains, on
sunny hill-sides, the grape is grown
Within this broken and mountain
GUS district of upland is produced,
perhaps four-ifths of all the VINE
made in the German Empire.
A GREAT CENTRE
for the manufacture and storage Of
wine is Frankfort. There are scores
of wine-merehants in this city, who
have stored in their vaults millions
of gallons of what in commerce Is
known as Rhine wines. Some of the
vintage dates back to the time OF the
last campaign with the Fr9neh,; IN
1914. The best dealers do not pre-
tend to offer in the market or re-
commend their wines until they are
FIVE wears old. A certain per cent. is
added each year to the price of
wines. Thus, a vintage of 1s6Ow
cost double as much as one In 1870.
II is bv this means the dealers are
enabledto keep their wines for an
indefpite period of time. They feel
no particular desire to selhas long as
the price of their wines is increasing
by. 10 or II per cent. annually, as
they can make no better use OF their
capital than to let it ferment and n
zen in their wine-Yaults.
Some observations intended re-
speet1ng this great headquarters of
the Jewish bankers and the.
sscRADLE OF THE RoTHCHnD FAMILY"
as Frankfort is called, must be post
poned with the single refnarkth that it
Is one of the finest looking cities in
Germany and is filled with Germans
from America, who, having made
their fortunes in New York, Boston,
Philadephia, San Francisco, Chicago
and other American cities, have re-
tur ned here to spend and enjoy
them, while, at the same time, they
hold fast to their American citizen
ship for the sake of the privileges
and exemptions it affords them. Is
this fair? J. NJ.
The Thousand Islands.
What are called the Thousand
4hn ST I.awranca Yrs1har