Bridgeton pioneer., 1884-10-09
THE CATHEDRAL OF COLOGNE.
Climbing Up the Spire-A Peep AT
the World Below,
cologne Cor. Chicago News

cologne Cor. Chicago Newsl
In the afternoon we went over the ca
thedral, clear up the tall towers to the
place where the narrowing spire begins.
The towers are vast structures fifty feet
square. The tapering spire is open
work, OF stone all the way up. 1t stands
thirty feet across at the base which is
300 feet above the ground. To reach this
point you go up a narrow, winding
stair of stone, in little corner at the
rear Of the church. You emerge at the
level of one Of the galleries which are
seen on the outside of the pictures Of
the cathedral. These are screens of
stone, behind which there are passage
ways of from two to ten feet. AS you walk
along you have fine chance to study
the magnitude and beauty of the flying
buttresses, which brace the lofty
walls and prevent their spread
ing beneath the strong thrust of
the roof The guide takes you through
door and you encounter another Or
deal of winding stair. Even now you
are not at the tower, but at corner of
the transept. From this you emerge
upon higher gallery along which you
walk to the tower.
You are now nearly 200 feet above the
pavements. The houses look like mere
blocks such as children play with You
enter the tower and corkscrew your way
up another 100 feet, relieved at times by
glimpses of the vanishing world beneath
through the glass windows which from
time to time afford view. The stair
way is the tiniest possible, the stairs not
more than eighteen inches wide between
the walls. You get bewildered and
dizzy and long for some one to come
and unwind you, but still you go onward
and upward like Longfellow's young
man who came to grief advertising that
wretched imitation of curled ha ir, Excel
sior" You note with appreciation the
joining of the new work to that of
the fifteenth century. The new work
seems just as firm and just as faithful.
At length you reach the top, and what
view there is! The Rhine and fertile
stretch of country lie spread out before
you in veritable birdseye view. The
bridge of boats is crowded with people
going to the shooting festival over the
river. The procession looks like a. cater
pillar. And then that beautiful build
ing! Certainly there was never such an
other. firmly believe that the art of
architecture does not afford a more ex-
quisitely satisfactory building than this
at Cologne. And there is no way to
realize its vast proportions and the end
less detail of it's structure but to go
it.
You descend part way, and the guide
takes you into the garnet over the
groined arches of the nave, between
them and the roof. You walk along
this, and at the rear after going down
little you 60 through door into the
gallery, which is behind the screen high
up toward the roof. l believe it is the
very one from which the senator in
dodge Club made up faces at the
kneeling congregation because the guide
had locked him in there. Even now the
vespers are in progress. Stealthily you
ministering priest looks like pigmy, and
perhaps he is. The organ peals and the
music swells up grandly. The moment
is one to be long remembered. This
wonderful temple of the living God is
about 500 feet by 200. The nave is 300
feet high. The proportions and the
color-to of the interior are exquisitely
satisfactory. I do not know of any
other work of art in any department
where there is so fortunate combina-
ton of the grand and the beautiful,
coupled with such exquisite refinement
of detail 1t is a creation which one
could study for months. Best of all it
shows that in our degenerate and
skeptical age motives are not wanting
which, if not absolutely able to add
another to the worlds list of great
cathedrals, have at least been sufficient
to restore this one from decay and to
complete it after the original plan which
the artist planned more than 600 years
ago.