Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1875-10-20
A LADY TOURISTS
Three Months In Europe with
Professor LOOMS.
no. g.
FLORENCE, July %, 1873.

Just one month to-day since we left
New York, and were we to measure
time by events ii might seem six months,
so much ground has been passed over
and so many wonders of the Old World
have We beheld. The natural scenery
of the Swiss and Italian lake regions
has given a great stretch to our ideas
of the beautiful world God has made,
and the works Of the old masters have
ennobled our views of art inspiration,
teaching us the great lesson that pulpit
oratory is designed to teach, the near
ness Of truly aspiring soul to the
Source Of all Inspiration. The hush of
forty voices as we entered the Angelo
chapel of San Lorenzo this morning,
and our silent tribute to the works of
Michael Angeles, ''Day and Night" and
Morning and Evening"" expressed
more than pen can describe the effect of
that miracle Of art, the statue of Lorenzo
di Medici. l greeted that broOding
image as 1 would return to the last look
of dear friend passed away. For seven
years it has been fixed in my memory,
and now my heart feels relief after the
pilgrimage is once more accomplished.
But must return to the starting point
where my last letter closed.
At six O'Clock A. NJ, on the 18th of
June we left Brussels by rail for Cologne.
The journey of seven hours through the
richest valley of Belgium, passing many
important manufacturing towns, and
stopping at the Spas and fashionable
springs long enough to catch the spirit
of the places and frequenters, was a
most agreeable way Of resting from the
wearisOme walks and climbs We had in
the city and through the old towers of
Brussels the previous days.
Indeed, the whole distance of our
hundred and fifty miles by express
seemed but a pleasant summer-morning
excursion, and when we reached the
Prussian frontier the custom-house Off
GERS were so impressed by our jollity
that they used their chalk pencils freely
on our forty bundles and forty trunks
without so much as lOOsening a strap.
The picturesque scenery through the
district covering the ground between
Liege and Cologne received full share
of our admiration, and on our arrival at
Cologne we were i'm a lively condition
to enjoy the views of the Rhine, that lay
out before us, from the windows OF ouI
airy hotel; and after most appetising
dinner, we followed guide through
the great Cathedral with rapt attention
to his descriptions of the many efforts
and discouragements, fresh struggles
and renewed energies, by which the
enormous Gothic structure has attained
to its present majesty. Six hundred
years of labor and thought are embodied
in this architectural monument, and
still workmen are to be seen lifting arch
on arch and stone on stone, while moon
light and sunlight fall with peculiarly
beautiful effect on the time worn base
of the grand old Cathedral.
Our devotions concluded here, we
filed through the narrow and proven
bially unclean streets of Cologne to the
bones of eleven thousand virgins. My
want of appreciation and reverence in
this smultitudinOus collection may be per
haps, attributed to the whispered sug
gestion of one of our forty ladies, 81
wonder if the virgins had eleven thous
and trunksn' The terrors Of the custom
house were still impressed on the mind
of this acute observer.
Photographers and print mongers suf
fered an astonishing innovation, and ths
large family of Jean Maria Farinas were
i'm ecstacies at the orders for Eau d,
Cologne, that dinned i'm their ears til
street lamps were glittering under thu
boulevards of shrubbery and inviting u
to gardens where music soothed oul
savage American breasts to calm, ant
aided considerably in the needful pre-
paration for a quiet sleep preparatory t.
our next days never-tO-be-forgOtten sal
up the Rhine.
am ashamed to say was agreeabl!
disappointed in the Rhine. What righ
had l to anticipate disappointment? Th'
songs of poets, the fables of geniuses
the pencils of painters, the favorit
legends of historians have been exhaus
ted i'm descriptions of the Rhine, and We
there are people living who expect o
fear to be disappointed when they se
it! Oh, how far it exceeds all idea
that poet, painter, historian or novelis
can conjure for the Imagination. WheI
we took the boat at seven in the morn
ing. sunlight and a delightful breez
favored us, and the beautiful gay excur
sion steamer was soon filled with partie
of English, French, German and Anne
rican tourists. 1t was remarked on tn
Rhine and lakes of Switzerland that tn
Germans predominated and were some
| times quite as enthusiastic as our owl
party when outbursts Of pent up emo
ton would occasion general cry o
\ admlratlon or uellSht.
The banks of the Rhine are not to b
spoken of as the banks of any othe
river. Grand old castles and villa
have terraced fiower-beds and grant
embankments overshadOwed by trees to
old for record. Towns, villages an
cities vie with each other in decorating
with architectural and floral Ornamen
tation, the streets that border on tn
Rhine. The mountain sides are clothe
with vineyards from the sandy beach t
the very peaks Of their lofty summit:
Islands and inlets look like the livin
grottoes of fairy people of the Rhine
A far of ruined tower casts its mos
impressive shadow on the Rhine. Th
fortress of Ehrenbreitstein, the roys
castle Of Stotzenfels on its proud roc
400 feet high, the Drachenfels, all WEI
made to honor tie river whose golde
e II. ~