The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1883-11-10
Memories OF Luther.

timely and interesting paper is on
Choice bits of Thuringia, Eisenach and the
! ne ancient Thurnsian valid is one Of the
most choice spots of the old world. 1t is
only few hours ride from Cologne and
Frankfort, and near to Berlin and Dresden
1t is limited territory, but full of tradi-
tional and historic interest coming down
from the Saxon conquest to the reformation
Every thing pertaining to Luther is of inter-
est at this time, and in this paper much
mention is made of him. The writer says:
mo other place is so deeply identified with
Luther. Nearly the whole of his life was
passed within walking distance of Esenach.
AT Erfurt he put on the cowl; across the
fields he travelled a monk, from one religious
house to another; in the Augustine convent
are the cells and silent confessional that wit
messed his fiercest spiritual struggles; in the
Altenstein woods he was captured, and in
Wartburg he translated the New Testament.
The most central place in which to settle
down, gather up stores OF legendary knowl-
edge and make excursions into the surround
ing neighborhood is Eisenach, the ancient
capital of the Thuringian valid"
Further mention is made of Luther in
the closing part of the article, where the au-
thor, after describing the castle occupied by
the present Duke of Saxe-Weimar, says:
"Going out of the castle and crossing the
court by way OF a lovely vine-covered arbor,
where in true German fashion the ducal
family sometimes take their coffee, we enter
through a rude doorway an ancient knights
house, in which, during the first stormy days
of the reformation, Martin Luther was held
in friendly bondage by the brave hearted
Elector of Saxony.
More than three hundred years have
passed since Luther went mp and down the
rickety stairs, but the small square room is
Just the same, save, PERHAPS more time
worn and nearer decay. A deep recessed
window looks out upon the Thuringian for
| est, where we can imagine he often sat gaZ-
| ing out over the barriers that separated him
! from his friends at Wittenberg, until inn
| patient with his bondage, he broke forth to
| Melanchthon in those turbulent letters that
contain all the fire and restessness OF his
rebellious spirit.
THE room, we are glad to say, is not filled
up and contains only few quaint pieces
| OF furniture, with portrait OF Hans and Gre
tina Luther done with Cranach's mastery
power. The miners lamp hangs on the wall,
! and near it a corundrum box carried by the
| little charity boy when he sang for pennies
| in the streets of Eisenach. Near the window
is the chair on which he sat and the table
where he wrote the extraordinary "Exposi
tions\ and still more extraordinary transla
| tons. In no other place are we brought SC
visibly face to face with Luther. Here. sin
| gle-handed and alone without the aid o.
grammars or commentaries, be accom-
plshed the greatest work of the sixteenth
| century.
Zone cannot witness the scene of his work
without the deepest emotion. The solitary
figure rises most startlinely before us, as if il
were but yesterday that he sat there ant
wrote, and going away, left after him an in
desirable sense of his ghostly presence. Ger
tain ii is that when he closed the door upor
his solitude, he shut within so much of his
immortal part as 300 years have not beef
able to expel"