St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1879-11-28
NUMBER SEVEN.

NUMBER SEVEN.
A Famous German Watering Place-No
more Gambling Beautiful Churches
Frankfort the Main and its Sights
Heidelberg and Neckarsteinach-
Duelling Among the Students Heidel-
berg Castle-Ihe Great Ihn-An
Enormous appetite for Wine.
HOTEL SCHREIDER,
HEIDELBERG, Germany, July, 70.
wIESBADEN.
This is the largest and one of the
most fashionable of the German water
ing places, and until the end of 1872, it
shared with Baden-Baden and HON.
bourg the unenviable distinction of be-
ing one of the worlds great gambling
resorts. The CuIsaal with its great
wealth of spacious and gorgeously
decorated saloons, was fitted up eX-
pressly for the accommodation of the
fashionable thrOngs who formerly came
here Ostensibly to drink the waters but
in reality to indulge in the exciting
pastime of playing roulette and rouge ct
nOir. At the close of 1872 gambling
was abolished at all the German spas
by royal edict, and well it was, because
it had become q national disgrace.
Hotel keepers and shop keepers tell of
the good old days when guests were
more numerous and more liberal, but
the air of Wiesbaden has been purified.
The hotels are very numerous and some
of them are large, while many of the
summer visitors prefer the retirement
of private boarding houses, or lodgings,
of which there is no lack. There are
several hot springs from which the wa
ters are drank, and the systematic
morning visits to the chief of these
seems more generally in vogue here
than i'll Baden-Baden, where the sum-
mer population appears to be nearly as
great. The TrinkhaIIe of Wiesbaden,
however, is not the handsomely en-
bellished building that Baden-B Baden
boasts, but only a little open-sided
structure standing over the chief spring
and approached by an arcade. A band
stand is upon one side of the arcade
and here concerts aIe given every
morning at six o'clock. The chief charm
of the city is the handsome Cursaal,
where concerts are given every after
noon and evening, and the neighboring
park, which is of great extent and very
handsomely laid out. In front of the
Cursaal, extending down to the hand
some Wilhelm strasse, is an open space
with fountains, and this is hanked by
cOlOnades of glittering shops. The En-
perOr has great struggling palace here
which he sometimes occupies for a few
days, and there are one or two other
chateaus belonging to the nobility. The
Protestant church, which is fine Gothic
structure, with five lofty spires, is one
of the most imposing edifices within
the town, and a Greek chapel which
stands upon the side of the Neroberg, IL
commanding hill just outside the CITY,
and which was erected by the Grand
Duke of Nassau as mausoleum for his
first wife, Russian princess, is also
very beautiful. The latter edifice is in
the form of Greek cross and is sur-
mounted by one large and four smaller
gilded domes. The interior is entirely
of marble, and there is a beautiful mon
ument to the Duchess, which was exc
cuted by HOpfgarten.
FRANKFORT T-ON-THE-MAIN.
The Taunus railway, by which we
journied from Wiesbaden to Frankfort
on-the-Main, is one of the oldest in
Germany, having been built in 1888.
We left Wiesbaden in the morning and
spent several hours in Frankfort before
proceeding to Heidelberg. Taking car
riages at the station, we had a long
ride under the guidance of our indefati-
gable conductor, Mr.. Gray, who took
especial pains to explain every impo,-
tant point visited. We visited the
cathedral, the ROmeI, where the Ger
man emperOrs where chosen in the old
days, the Judengasse, where the head
of the Rothschilds family was born, and
where the Jews were formerly locked
in at night, the Goethe, Schiller and
Hessian monuments, the old bridge,
and the Ariadneum which contains
Dannecker's beautiful group, Ariadue
on the panther, work of art familiar
the world over through copies and pic
lures. We spent sometime in viewing