The Sunday herald. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1866-1887, 1880-06-27
MARK TWAIN.
A Town of the Middle Aecs-Icccnd Of
Dilsbcrg Castle.
A TRAMP AHRoAp-yI.

TRAMP AHROAD-VI.
a Towu Of the Middle AgcA-I.cgcnd OF
Diisbcrg Castle.
Dilsberg is a quaint place. 1t is most
quantity and picturesquely situated, too.
Imagine the beautiful river before you; then
u few rods of brilliant green sward on its OPP
poste Shore then a sudden hill--no pre-
paratory gentlyrising slopes hut sort of
instantaneous hill-a hill $50 or 800 feet
high, as round as bowl, with the same
taper upward that an inverted bowl has, and
| with about the same relation of height to
diameter that distinguishes n bowl of good
honest depth, hill which is thickly clothed
with green bushes, comedy, shapely hill,
rising abruptly out of the dead level of the
surrounding green plains, visible from a
great distance down the bends of the river,
and with just exactly room on the top of its
head for its stccpled and turreted and roof.
clustered cap of architecture, which same is
tightly jammed and compacted within the
perfectly round hoop of the ancient village
wall.
| There is no house outside the wall on the
whole hill, or any vesiige of a former house;
all the houses are inside the wall, but there
| isn't room for another one. II is really fin
ished town, and has been finished a very
long time. There IL no space between the
wall and the first circle of buildings; no, the
village wall is itself the rear wall of the first
circle of buildings, and the roofs jut little
over the wall and thus furnish 1t with caves.
The general level of the masscd roofs Is
gracefully broken and relieved by the dom.
| MT tsy ta,r ,,f al
tall spires of couple of churches; so, from
a distance Dilsberg has rather more the look
of a kings crown than u cap. That lofty
| green eminence and its quaint cornet form
quite striking picture, you may be sure, in
the flush of the evening sun.
We crossed over in Il boat and began the
| ascent by narrow, steep path which
plunged MS at once into the leafy deeps of
the bushes. But they were not cool deeps
by any means, for the suns rays were wei
tering hot and there was little or no breeze
to temper them. As we pantedup the sharp
ascent, we met brown, bareheaded, and bare
footed boys and girls, occasionally, and some
times men; they came upon us without
warning, they gave us goodday, flashed out
of sight in the bushes, and were gone as
suddenly and mysteriously as they had
come. They We're bound for the other side
of the river to work. This path had been
travelled by many generations of these peo-
pie. They have always gone down TO the
valley to earn their bread, but they have al
ways climbed their hill again to eat it, and
to sleep in their snug town.
II is said that the Dilsbergers do not emf
CRATE mucli they find that living up there
above the world in their peaceful nest, is
plcasanter than living down in the troublous
world. The 700 inha bitants are all blood
kin to each other, too; they have al
ways been blood-kin to each other for 500
years; they are simply one large family, and
they like the home folks better than they
like strangers, hence they persistently stay
at home. 1t has been said that for ages Dis
berg has been merely a thriving and dill
gent IDIOT factory. saw no idiots there,
but the captain said, " Because of late years
the government has taken to Juggling them
of to asylums and otherwheres; and gov
ernnlent wants to cripple the factory, too,
and is trying to get these Dilsbergers to
marry out of the family, but they don't like
to-"
The captain probably imagined all this,
as modern science denies that the intermar-
rying of relatives deteriorates the stock
Arrived within the wall, we found the
usual village sights and life. We moved
along a narrow, crooked lane which had
been paved in the Middle Ages. strap
ping, ruddy girl was beating flax or some
such stun in little bit of n goods-box of a
barn, and she swung her hsil with a will,
if it was fail; was not farmer enough Ia
know what she was at; frowsy, bareegged
girl was herding half u dozen geese with a
stick, driving them along the lane and keep.
ing them out of the dwellings; a cooper was
at work in shop which know he did moi
make so large thing as hogshead in, for
J there was not room. In the front rooms OF
the dwellings girls and women were cooking
} or spinning, and ducks and chickens Were
waddling in and out, over the threshold
picking up chance crumbs and holding
pleasant converse; very old and wrnkled
man sat asleep before his door, with his
chin upon his breast and his extinguished
pipe in his lap; soiled children were play.
} ing in the dirt everywhere along tile lane
! unmindful of the sun.
Except the sleeping old man, everybody
; was at work, but the place was very still
} and peaceful, nevertheless; so still that til,
! distant cacl;le of the successful hen smOtt
, upon the ear but little dulled by interview
ing sounds. That cOmmOnest of village
sights was lacking here-the public pump
with its great stone tank or trough of limped
water, and its group of gossiping pitcher
. bearers for there is no wei! or fountain 81
5 spring on this tail hill; cistarns or rain
{ water are used.
Our alpensocks and muslin tails com
PEELED attention, and rs We moved through
the village we gathered considerable pro
r cession of little boys and girls, and SO W,
\ went IN same state to the castle. 1t prove,
to he an extensive pile OF crnmbling walls
: arches, and towers, massive, properl,
D grouped for picturesque effect, weedy, grass
: grown, and satisfactory. The children actet
as guides; they walked us along the top o
Il the highest wall, then took MS up into
: high tower and showed us wide and beau
) titul landscape, made up Of wavy distances o
a woody hills, and nearer prospect of undu
o lating eNpanses of green lowlands, on thu
@ one hand, and castIe.grsred prags and ridge
: ON this other, with the shining curves of til,
: Neckar flowing between. But the principa
: show, the chief pride of the children, wa
f the ancient and empty well in the grass
h grown conrt of the castle. Its massive ston
= curb stands up three or four feet abov
g grand, and il whole and uninj ured. Tn
o children said that IN tho Middle Agsa Vii
i well was 400 feet deep, and furnished all TIL
J. village with an abundant supply of water
a in war and peace. They said that in tina
g old day its bottom was below the level of tn
g Neckar, hence the water supply was mex
n haustible.
= But there We're some who believed it Ia,
I never bttli wei ~ All, anu WAS htNt
k deeper than II il now-eighty feet; that q
n that depth subterranean passage branche'
e from II and descended gradually to a remot
o place in the valley, where it opened int
# somebody's cellar on other hidden recess, an,
=. that the secret of this locality is now lost
g Those who hold this belief say that hereil
@ les the explanation that Dilsberger, besiege'
J., by lilly ana many soldier before him, wa
never taken; after the longest and closes
sieges the besegers We're astonished to per
ceive that the beseged We're AS fat and heart
', as ever, and as we'll furnished with mum
u tons of war, therefore it must be that TIA
a Dilsbergers had been bringing these thing
in through the subterranean passage all tia
time.
The children said that there was in trut
u a subterranean outlet down there, and the
y would proveit. So they set great truss q
. straw on fire and threw il down the well
y while We leaned on the curb and watche
| tl.ag II t.,a. L