The Portland daily press., 1881-12-24
sToDDARD.
The Beautiful Blue Danube.

Mr. John L. Stoddard is bettor than
hasheesh While there is no reaction after one
of his illustrated lectures, listening is like
dreaming Merely to follow him in his vivid
descriptions is to pass througha gallery OF word
paintings; but to follow with the pictures help
ing the descriptions has all the effect OF dream
ing of the scenes through which the speaker
leads the way.
Last nights dream was of the Danube, its
cities, cathedrals, converts, castles, old and
new; its wild, weird legends, and its grand
historic memories. The dream just bordered
upon nightmare once or twice; when near the
bead waters of the river the wild huntress;
started forth from forest depths, and vanished
only to give place TO the goblin woodman.
After Passau was left behind, we stood--in
the dream-on the battlements of the pirate
stronghold of Aggstein, and saw merchants
vessel rich prize, come floating down the
stream. The noble robber at the head OF his
band, hurried to his boats, boarded the mer-
chairman and sternly demanded the nature OF
the cargo "Silver for the Dukes treasury"
was the reply. Silver! That was just what
was needed. The order was given down the
hatchway, Bring up the metal" And up it
came, but in the form of the weapons OF con-
cealed men-at- arms, by whom the pirates were
exterminated, their leader being thrown into
the river with an iron necklace on, latter
which," said voice in the dream, "no more
was seen of him.
Soon the boulevards of Vienna came in sight,
and refreshments, after much difficulty In
finding seats, were to be had in one of its four
hundred sumptuous cafes, first introduced into
Europe from Turkey by the Austrians. SUD
denly, with the whimscality of dreams, the
figure of Marcus Aurelius stood forth in the
midst of the modern fashionables, and the Ro-
man, looking abroad on the city where he died,
was heard to exclaim "The cafe has replaced
my forum
Presently doomed up the cathedral with its
tower, ASS feet high crowned with the cres-
cent placed there TO keep the Turks from bat
tering it down. This was followed by the
parks, where the air resounded with the
Strauss values, and the face Of the great COM
poser suddenly appeared, followed at Schoen-
brunn by the grave features of the Emperor
and the fair countenance of the Empress, be-
loved by the Hungarians even more than by
her Austrian subjects.
delightfully."- bewildering succession of
beautiful scenery and splendid palaces ensued,
and once the dream led to the portals OF Cano-
vas masterpiece, the monument OF Christina,
and down among the dead men, where in the
vault of the Capuchins the departed monarchs
of Austria slept Maria Theresa at their head,
and among them the Duke of Reichstadt, "born
King of Rome,' whose sombre bronze sarco-
phagus brought into the vision the discrowned
father, yearning at st. Helena for the voice OF
the boy he was nevermore to meet on earth.
Still, with the vividness of a dream, there
appeared the fortress of Presburg, the beautiful
city of Pesth, the present capital, and then
convent by the rivers side, founded by
prince whose wifes ost veil, blown away by
the wind lodged in a hemlock, and was found
through the circumstance of her husbands
horse being seized with what modern incred-
ulity would have called the blind staggers, but
what medieval faith regarded as miraculous
impulse. Then, before the Castle of Durren-
stein, Blondel was heard singing the melody
taken up at last and finished by the familiar
voice of his royal MASTER and at lost everybody
woke up to follow admiringly the striking ver-
bal illustration with which the lecturer drew
on towards his close, and which must be given
in his own eloquent words:
''You remember it was a favorite habit OF
Hawthorne to make his characters look into
magic mirror and discern the forms and scenes
which, in past times, were reflected there. So,
as we now stand and gaze through the broken
archway of this ruined castle at the crystal
mirror-far below uS-what scenes rise to It's
surface?" Touch with imagination the CLASSY
bosom of the Blue Danube, and once more we
see reflected in its waves the shadowy hosts
dark blue depths. For, on the mountain-bor-
dered shores, filled with the odors of a mill
lion pines, the armies of great nations have
commended and gone down to death, while the
vast river rolls on perpetually the same In
spired with thoughts such as these we hear the
windings of the stream re-echo to the bugles of
the Roman cohorts as they pass with shouts of
Ave Caesar Imperator. Once more we see, in
long, phantom line, the barbarous hordes OF
Attila, the long array of Christian pilgrims,
the knights of Charlemagne, the Steel-clad
warriors of the cross, the turban troops of Soly-
man making the banks resound with their cry.
Allah il Allahl' and last of all, the eagles OF
Napoleon, all sweeping by in magical success
sion, leaving behind them memories which
have become part of the history of the stream
itself"
These warlike visions, thus swiftly presented,
the lecture ended with an effective contrast,
presented in a beautiful evening view, show
ing the river, in the present time of peace,
flowing TRANQUILITY past sleeping village, with
the moon overhead and the silver pathway of
her beams twinkling upon its azure breast.