Butler citizen. [volume] (Butler, Pa.) 1877-1922, 1879-09-03

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the wheat fields reminded me of the
great ones of Minnesota. Yet here |
saw but one piece of machinery. That
was turning hay which had been sub
jected to protracted rain.
Berlin, Dresden, Vienna and Mu-
nich are beautiful cities, My stay in
no one of them was long enough,
however, to justify me in attempting
to describe it, or, indeed, to indicate
the leading points of attraction, since
each of them is especially rich III his
toric monuments and matters OF inter
est to lovers of architecture, painting,
sculpture and music There are two
facts concerning each of them, how
ever, that | must record, since they
seem to me to illustrate law whose
inlexibility and force financiers and
statesmen should comprehend. They
are among the oldest of modern cities.
The period of most rapid and costly
growth of each has been since 1850,
and the progress of each was checked
between 1873 and 1875, and is still
restricted.
SOME FEATURES OF PRAGUE.
Prague is not accounted a great city,
and many American tourists pass by
it as they would by wayside station !;
yet no continental city has impressed
me more. Its situation is most pic
turesque, and, having been from the
dawn of the fourteenth century the
theatre of memorable events, it
abounds in historic monuments. 1t
has the tower from which TychO
Brahe and his imperial patron, Ru-
dolph H., watched the course of the
stars in the closing year of the SIX
teenth century. Here, too, Huss and
Jerome were born, and by their devo-
tion TO liberty of conscience and their
pious labors earned the martyrdom
which overlook both in 14l5, when
their ashes were thrown into the
Rhine. The new city-lining the
banks Of the Moldau with its gardens
and recent buildings-though beauti-
ful, is commonplace What interested
me was the old buildings, which one
sees as he ascends the well-paved
slopes which lead to the Haadschin.
Here is the Cathedral, begun in 1874 and
finished in 1885, and now being re-
stored, having been damaged not only
bv the fire of 1911, which reduced the
height of its tower from five hundred
and twenty to three hundred and
twenty-three feet, but by the artillery
brought to bear upon it during the
Seven and the Thirty Years wars.
The Imperial palace, close at hand, is
said to contain more than seven hun
dred rooms, of which the recently
refurnished Spanish and German sa-
looms are the most elegant. But the
most curious is, in my Judgment, the
vaulted chamber, in which were held
the tournaments, the great hall of
Ladislau-approached from within by
successive flights of stairs, from with
out by ascending avenues paved with
brick Not having recognized the
fact that tournaments were indoor
sports and might have been conducted
in an attic, | concluded that this was
an exceptional instance, but on visit
ing the Bavarian Mint, at Munich, i
found in its old courtyard an example
of a tourney hall, no larger than the
hall at Prague The building had
once been a palace and this old Court,
surrounded by low, but heavy and
imposing columns, and arched stalls
for guests, had been its central point
Of attraction. But, to return from a
depression, few steps bring one from
Ladislau's Hall to the old council
chamber, from a small balcony OF
which one obtains fine view of the
city, the Moldap and the venerable
bridges which span it, in themselves
quaint and instructive historical mon
uments as well as noble highways
Rarely have such momentous associa'
tions clustered about so contracted a
space as this little balcony, to which
tempted by the charming view it Of
fers, so many pleasure-seeking tourists
climb. 1t was from this balcony that
Count Thurn caused the imperial coun
selors, Martinitz and Slawata, to be
hurled. Their full-length portraits
hang upon the wall of the gloomy
chamber but few feet from the place
of their execution, and an obelisl
bearing their names marks the spot
below upon which they fell. This
outrage was the proXimate cause, i
not really the first act, of the Thirty
Years War, which, after the theI
average life of generation, was ter
minated in 1920 on the White Hill
Though it had ravaged Europe, it wa:
terminated by a desperate struggle
on field less than mile from and il
sight of the little balcony from whicl
Martinitz and Slawata were thrown
| The religious monuments of Prague
are also interesting. The Cathedra
to which / have alluded is in itself {
collection of such monuments, some o
which are very instructive as TO th'
spirit of several periods during the las
| five centuries and half Almost unde
| its shadow, but nearer the river, is tn,
old church of the Hussites, which wa
| tItCltu NY pCl uuhH ulCiNndutS pcioA'
the expiration of the century in whicl
| Huss and Jerome had been burned
And at but a short distance from thi
church, upon the river bank, is th
Jews Quarter, or Joseph stadt, wit
its synagogues. The oldest of these
erected in the thirteenth century, is a.
architectural curiosity Though quit
small, it bears traces of both Byzantin
and Gothic schools, and is, perhaps
the only synagogue in the constructio
of which the Gothic cross was eve
adopted The worshipcrs in this ver
cradle temple seem to have lived hal
moniously with their Christian con
patriots. The flag presented to ther
; by Ferdinand Ill, in l64S, in recogn
tion of the bravery displayed by tn
Jews during the siege of the city, sti
hangs in the midst of the synagogue
| II