The New Orleans daily Democrat. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1877-1880, 1878-08-18
A VISIT TO THURINGIA.
FROM THE GERMAN,

/
FROM THE GERMAN, 4
| ThurIngia Is o beautiful country, at least so
thought some years ago, when visited iton
| n summers vacation. We arrived at the little |
| town of Eisenach, In the middle Of the night, I
and beckoned to the solitary droschke of the |
station to drive us to the best hotel. Packing |
ourselves and our luggage, against all rules |
of prevention OF cruelty to animals behind
q pair Of horses that would have@afforded o |
suitable match for Pharaoh's lean cows, we
rolled over the unpaved streets OF the quaint
little town. After repeated knockings ct the
door OF the ''Kron Prtnz," 81 blind somewhere
up III the second-story was cautiously opened,
and O. white night-cap appeared, from under
which strong masculine cried: 'Im gottes
wiIlen seien sic doch still, disturbing
the peace Of the town, what under the sup
do you want ut this hour OF the night, speak
outl' Thus encouraged TO bo,u,ly SPEAK
impossible, worthy SIR. answered mine
host, in quite an altered voice., "all our rooms
are taken, but can recommend you to rooms
80 saying, he gave me necessary stg alF r
this time to be landed before b low house,
just beneath the famous Wartburg, and pro-
badly near the very spot where Luther was
conducted by the masked knights up to tho
old castle. A fat peasant, with o tallow can
die In his hand that the wind nearly
blew out opened the door for, us and
showed us up u ladder, steep and narrow
enough to lead us unto the paths OF righteous
ness, but which only brought lis before bare
! room over the stable, and containing for oil
furniture two beds and q couple OF broken
chairs. We tried to lock the. door, but IL
robberies committed in just such queer
places rose up before mo. The night, how
+ ever, passed quietly, and the next morning
Q We prepared to ascend the Wartburg. VI
; inkstand he had thrown at the devil, and we
i sat down before his window and tried, as we
+ locked out upon the lovely scene before US, to
= summon uD oil our reC0llectiOns OF the time
OF the Reformation. We examined the Won
t. derful Gobelin tapestry representing Venus
4 and Tannhauser and 1t seemed almost, III
~ gazing at them, as II the old times had come
- - watching at the foot of the Wartburg the pill
{ grims as they passed on their way back from
II the holy city, and scanning eagerly their
4 eountenanceB, till hopeless look came into
r. the hope of seeing Tannhauser grew fainter
h and fainter Again the chords of Wagner's
"a "Pilger Choir" arose, and the castle seemed
!, alive with the voices of the old mi,nne-singers
70 -Walther Wonder EN- ogelsreide, Wolfram Won
II Eschenbach, Gottfried Won Strassburg, and
# oil the rest of the merry band. do not know
n how much further / might have lost myself
,e rambling as was In the past Il my friend nag
- mo suddenly back to the realities OF life by
10 announcing it was now O'Clock and time for
ri our table dhote. 50 we hurried down to the
j. hotel, paid very small bill, enjoyed, ou1
g in u comfortable outrage for toul
ID across the country, to stop !ikt
le the shaking Quakers when the spirit |
r. laughing peaceful country, with pretty greet
W round backed hills, picturesque cottages
~ with clinging vines, running, ripping
f. + streams, and meadows dotted with grazing
al cattle. Here and there ruined castle, dllap
10 dated and only fit for the owls to builG
~ their nests ill., still overlooks the villages
I'd like the ghost OF memory Of q time wno sI
r. very landmarks are slowly dying away: The
nj peasantrY are q simple people, Gllngng II
Ia their old customs and keeping their nationa
tn costume, learning sometimes to read ant
write, but no more and are happy because
" knowing less they expect less, and are suits
no lied rs an old peasant once told me, to live il
a the position the good Father placed her. Ih'
. Duke Of SAKE Meiuingen has lovely hunt
o. ing lodge, which we passed in our drives, AM
60 q pretty villa near Liebenstcin, which he bun
~ for the little actress, 'de de&c sons,'' whom
ord he married O. few years ago, much to the nor
to ror OF the nobility We finally took up on
Is quarters at little village that happened t.
Of strike our fancy because the Block Berg wa
" in full view. and the walks and drives arount
20 it we're most tempting. Here we stopped 70
,ir six weeks never even hearing q Word 0
n French or English, and scarcely ever seeing
any OJneT LIltlu tfl5 IlIltDfLftIb5
sir perhaps sometimes stray Berlin banke
re with O. family of children. The peasan
r. women still spin and wear short kittlcs, an
ne work and live and dis very much III the sam
&c way as their great-great-g randmothers OF tn
MI fifteenth century, and know little more tina
eGl they did, except that DR. Martin Luther
ma their saint now, and that his portrait hang
u.s. up i'll all the plain little whitewashed churci
to es, and the people seem to dislike all sen
blance of Roman Catholicism. At the en-
in Of our six weeks we started for Weimar; sa'
he the lovely park planned by Karl August an
Goethe; say the great poets little ',gartte
nj and the thought OF Fraulein Won La:
W. bergs sad death came over us. How
ion her love for q Swede- Wrangel-she ha
,ed sought her death in the waters OF IL
as river, and how she was found floating pa!
Lck Goethe's house with q copy OF "Werther' l
her hands Walking little further on v
be- came across an enormous rOck, placed IN tf
ed most beautiful part OF the park; ark In III III
in and wrote the following. lines dedicatlng tt
of rock to the nymphs OF the park:
ar Und dem liebenden gonnt. vas linn begegr
AS sein Gluck
chen versagen,
Jedem. der euch vertrant, hulfreich und tros
lick zu sein.
PERHAPS the nymphs heard his prayer Il
six years afterwards. In the summer of III
tho he met there his future wife. She was then
TO fresh girl withdark golden locks and laug
,ed ing eyes, known as Christiane Vulpius, az
Aft she first met Goethe with petition In b
nes hands for her brother. But now good-by
ri dear Thurjngia and its host Of recollection
mt thatI sometimes think by some magic CHAIR
like the water of the fountain OF Trevi, fl
,ds the heart with a never-endng longing TO r
ted WISH the lahd Oh Ihelf oiieh-
of --~$ o -
Be wise-exercise and bahe moderately
lld fresh running water,
lat
ere CLEARANCE SAllE.-nssST5. " II. byIne " W
ts NO. 165 Canai street. VIII ollsf us wteh a Lss