Morning journal and courier., 1881-07-30
The Forest Season in Germany.
A Harveat-TIme for Teutonfc Hotel
 Keepers.

A Harveat-TIme for Teutonfc Hotel
 Keepers.
 Correspondence of the Pall Mall Gazette.l
 On Saturday next, the 9th inst, the door of every school and class room throughout the Fatherland will be closed for two months, and every forest resort will speedily become crowded as Margate and Ramsgate. What the seaside is to ourselves, the forest IS to our German neighbors and though the sea- son properly speaking only begins with the long vacation, the harvest of hotel keepers ln these parts began a fortnight ago. Not only Eisenach itself, which is close to some of the most charming sylvan scenery ill the world, but the neighboring resorts and watering places are already full to overfowing-Ilm nau with it's fair, wide valley, Goethe's fla vorite holiday ground; Liebenstein, with it's glorious beech woods; Friedrichroda, amid sombre pine forests, and many more Eisenach, however, is the forest re- sort, par excellence; for whereas the places before named possess mineral springs, there is no attraction here but the forest. The tens of thousands who flock hither from June till September come for the sake of the wooded crags, the gold-green valleys, the fewery glades, the narrow combes, the beech and fir woods, which may be described as Eisenach suburban scenery, since it is all at our very doors. Hard, indeed, were 1t to exaggerate the delicious surroundings of this little Thur ingian town, in which Luther went to school as a child, while for those who can give up the cosmopolitan comforts of Anglo. Germany ii e., Rhineland, the Saxon-Switzerland, etc. there is the compensation of seeing German life under it's most social aspect. Holiday making here levels, at least for the time being, all social distinctions, and people immediately on arriving lay themselves out to please and to make what IS called ''helse Bekanntschaft, or travelling acquaintance. A young German friend of mine assures me kI, of <, 1,i vQluabIA frl6n0SliDS have been thus formed, and such easy coming together of all ranks and classes, so unlike anything seen in England, is very pleasant. The out-of-door life and liberation from daily routine dispose every one to genlahty and socialbeness. The prices of Thurlng1an hotels are moderate, and barring their noisiness, they are to be commended, though of course to no one in search of luxury. There are, however, drawbacks to the forest season ap
 parent to German minds ass well as my owu. Alas the Thuringer Wald is fast losing its primitive naturalness, and is in many places being thinned to an extent alarming to econ omists. Ten years ago when l visited the eastern portion, nmenae was approached by road only; now railway has been made to Goethe's familiar spot, and so to others. formerly still more retired, Rubia and Friedrichroda while moro are in con- temptation. But for the firm opposition of the Grand Duke, steam tramway would have been made alongside the fine wooded hill crowned by the imposing pile of the Wartburg Nor have we named the worst evil We must now quit the beaten track to find ourselves in the real forest, from what ever point we set out-i. e., forest without names scratched on the trees, sandwich-pa- pers orange peel and other suggestions of Hampstead Heath. As drove the other day from the charming valley of Eisenach to- ward the closeshut valley of Ruhla before named, my companion told me how great were the changes that had taken place here within the last 20 years. Absolute clearings have not been frequent, but 6 general thin ming out of the forest perpetually goes on, the wooded hills around Eisenach being scantily clothed with trees by comparison with their former condition. We see, on our way through these fragrant pine woods, mo- bIe trees at intervals marked out for destruc- ton, while the ground Is as bare as deal floor. So dear is firing that the poorer peasants will go for miles in search of chips and branches, literally gleaning the forest as if it were 6 wheat field. Again, os- tensibly for the convenience of pedestrians, roads and pathways have been cut much too numerously in all directions, to the great de- vastation of trees, and also lending 1t an ar sifieial look. Hardly a wayside flower is now to be found in region possessing an un- usually rich flora; not only tourists carrying away whatever they can find, but ragged beg gar children-beggars, am sorry to say, abound in Germany-are permitted to strip the rocks of the lovely little stone-pink and other flowers for sale. Every school boy moreover learns botany, and carries with him into the forest green tin box into which are ruthlessly put, not only the flow l CTS, but the roots. Of course, in out-of-the- way hooks and corners abundance of flowers l may s~;u be found but along beaten tracks I note an extraordinary change within the | last ten years-on the first drive through the