Ashtabula telegraph. (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1874-1880, 1874-08-08
HISTORIC CITY,


HISTORIC CITY,
its annals are meagre and uninterest-
ing. Previous to the present centu-
~ it was a second-rate, dull German
town, which owed its origin to
some storehouses erected on the
spot for the reception and sale of
salt brought from Salzburg, on the
Austrian border, and its name to the
monks who owned them (Moenehe).
After the termination of the Napo-
ieonic wars the King, Lewis, who
himself was poet and artist, and
had a consuming passion for paint
ing, statuary, bronzes, and architec-
ture, devoted the remainder of his
life, and all the money he could
spare from his own income and take
from the scanty revenues of the
State, TO the establishment and de-
velopement of the fine arts in his
Capital. 1t is really amazing to see
what one man had accomplished in
a short lifetime, among a people so
prosaic and poor, exhausted and de-
pleted by long and bloody war,
and in country of such limited re-
sources. When he began his i'm
provements, in 1916, Munich sup
ported in poverty a population of
10000; when he died, thirty-one
years later, it contained 100000 peo-
pie, living in frugal comfort, amidst
profusion of works of arts. His
son, Maximilian, who inherited
some of his fathers tastes. followed
his example, but turned his attention
rather more to the scientific than to
artistic pursuits.
The first thing King Ludwig
Uewis) did after the war was over,
and Bonapart safely "jugged" in st.
Helena, was to pull down the un-
slightly old wall, and fill up the deep
ditch, which had circumscribed and
confined his Capital; the next, to
open several wide streets through
the town, and to lay out the sub
urbs into wide ways, little parks,
and squares, and large building lots,
on which the citizens were encour-
aged to erect dwellings in modern
style. His next work was to supply
the place with plenty of pure water,
for purposes of publication, public
fountains, and greater safety against
fires. Then he converted a forest
which belonged to the State into
A GREAT PUBLIC PARK.
There was strip of bottom-land
adjoining the city, through which
flowed the little River Isar. 1t was
4 miles long by half mile wide, and
heavily covered with a variety of
forest trees. He layed it out in the
English style of parks; excavated
several meandering rivers in it, and
a large lake or boating-pond at one
end by drawing the water from the
Isar, building mounds and elevations
with the removed earth; and LAID
out numerous driye-ways, bridal
paths. and walks through it
Taking advantage of the fall in the
Isar which is a rapidly-fowing
he establised several beanti-
fnl cascades and falls on his minia-
ture rivers. Statuary were inter
spersed, and stone seats were conve-
niently placed for tired pedestrians.
On the highest artificial hill he erect
ed beautiful little temple, model
ed after the form of the Temple of
Vesta in Rome. Several other tenn
plies are scattered through the park,
and a handsome pagoda was erected,
where The military band plays sever
al times week and on Sunday az
Bath houses were erected
On the lsar, for the free use of the
dusty or perspiring citizens. At the
upper end of the park, in the edge |
Of the town, laid "Hoftarten" for
the smokers and beer r-drinkeFs, where |
of them may be found ey-
cry pleasant evening, quathng ther
favorite beverage, and putting their
pipes to the accompaniment oi a
n wspaper During summer al
Jernoon and evening at Munich may |
be seen riding and promenading IN
the cool aud refreshing shade OF the
grand old trees, many Of which are