Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1878-10-24
TERMS. 90 PER YEAR
WHOLE NO. 1854.

1 n
! and he finally became reconciIed Il
bis brother. They lived together in
one OF the castles and had . good
! time all their. lives, while the limo
centand much injured faithful wife
got what comfort she could from q
Life passed within the narrow walls
Of the convent. It'll could ha had
the shaping of this legend | should
certainly have rewarded the beauti>
full woman with first class emperor
for q husband and had her spend her
days In both the castles, and made
Conrad carry water on his back
from the Rhine to the. castle Is hours
per day and given him cold beans
and crusts of bread from the ser.
wants table Us
| Towering nearly 400 feet above ST
Goar is the castle of Rhenfels, tn .
largest and most imposing ruin on
the Rhine. Opposite st. Goar are the
lofty rocks of the Lurlei, and here the
Rhine is the narrowest and most
winding in its course, and has a
depth of IS feet. Upon this noun.
tam dwelt syren who appeared
with wondrous form and beauty and
lured passing sailors to- destruc.
ton IN whirlpool at its base.
| Around the first bend in the river
a bridge OF rocks in the bed of the
stream, visible ut low water, is called
the Seven Virgins. In the neighbour
ing castle ct Schoneberg, long since
in ruins, lived tho seven beautiful
daughters of a brave knight. They
played the mischief with the hearts
OF tho noble young mon in the sur.
rounding country and ended by jilt-
ing them all. The stony hearted
firts We're one day on the river in
boat, when the god of love, enraged
at them for their unwomanly con-.
duct, wrecked their frail craft and
sunk them in the river in order. |
presume, TO soften their hearts. But
they seemed never to hava relcnted
bat rather to have petrified and are
now sad warning to all young la-
dies never TO refuse an eligible young
man.
Above Caud, on ledge Of rocks
IN the middle OF the river is the small
and we'll preserved castle of Pfalz
which has only one entrance. and
that reached by a ladder. 1t was
built tor the purpose of Ievying toll
on passing boats.
| Above Torch rises high and near
~ perpendicular rock, called the
Devils Ladder, which a knight il
said to have scaled by means of a
long ladder built by dwarfs, in order
that he might rescue fair lady who
had been abducted by evil spirits.
From this point to BiDgen, q dis
lance OF some seven miles, there are
from nine to twelve ruined castles
in sight all the time, ending with the
| celebrated Mouse Tower of the cruel
Bishop Hattie, built on a ledge of
rocks in the bed of the river. Mrs.
| Norton's familiar poem "a soldier of
the legion lay dying in Algiers," has
made Bingen famous, Above here
the character of the country changes
very rapidly; the hills recede from
the river, and we are in the finest
grape aad wine section of the Rhine.
The famous Johannesburg vineyard.
OF 40 acres, which produces the
finest wine on the river. is just above
| Bingen. In lis best years it has
given it's owner a revenue of $1,000
per acre.
From Bonn to Bingen there are
ruins of large number of watch
towers, of which we have made no
| mention. These were generally
built close TO the river and were us,
ually circular. The vine is Guilt
waited all along the Rhine wherever
there is a southern exposure, and
rhe suddenness with which the vine-
yards change from one side of the
river to the other, as the stream
changes its direction, is very notice
able to an American. In many
| places the hilIsides are terraced up
to tho very top and planted with the
vine. This is particularly the case
with the great mountain opposite
Biugen, where the expense of pre-
pairing the ground, and there are
| several hundred acres of it, must
have been thousands of dollars per
| acre, The whole Rhine distric!
shows long continued and careful
cultivation.
The American naturally institutes
compsrison between the Rhine and
| the Hudson, and travellers are not at
all agreed in their preferences. There
are plain practical men who look
upon a ruined castle merely as an
old stone pile, and for whom the
scenery and the legends have no
charm. They cannot see a prosper
GUS city or good farm from Bonn
TO Bingen, and SO are loud in their
denunciations of the Rhine as one
of the many swindles to which
trt velsrs are subjected in a foreign
land, and profess they wonld enjoy
a ride along the Erie canal better.
Such men ought not to waste their
time and money abroad and disgrace
respectable Americans in the eyes of
foreigners. From Bonn to Bingen,
a ride up the river of some eight
hours, the traveller is constantly
interested in the ever changing pic.
ture before him. The narrow, wind.
ing river, the steep hills rising often
abruptly from the water, the scores
of ruined castles nearly all with
their legends, the watch towers and
modern castles nearly all with their
legends, the watch towers and mod
ern castles one or more of which are
almost constantly ia view the quaint
little German villages crowded in
between the hills and the river, and
the strangeness Of everything one
sees, makes the day up the Rhine
one of the most enjoyable the travel.
er will have abroad. The river is
not 30 large as the Hudson, and
hence does not have that grand and
powerful sweep with which the Hud-
son flows along, 1t the reader can
imagine some ninety miles of the
/ -,ror tx xhc u.Jn-r 49, W -