Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1884-09-11
The River Rhine.

BERLIN, GERMANY.
The German loves the Rhine, and
it is natural that he should, for
among all the beautiful rivers that
course the earth it is one of the
loveliest in simple beauty and wealth
of natural scenery. The deepest
richness of its beauty grows on the
traveller with time. Its beauty like
the Alps is not superficial, but Sc
rene and quiet, abiding deeper in
memory the longer the eye fingers
on its landscape. Along this river
through the many centuries of its
existence have transpired the various
scenes of the Teutonic race. Here
thousands of warriors and heroes
have lived aud died. Songs Of war
and poetry have swelled to the ca.
dence of music. It's rippling waters
have wandered by scenes of love
and romance for forty generations,
1t has witnessed the yoicing and
struggling for liberty of hardy men
for a 900 years. 1t has passed
through periods of fierce contentious
when its waters flowed red with hu.
man blood of battles lost and won
on its banks, aud periods of beauti-
full repose when its valleys had a
quiet, rosy blossom, and from the
bloom of its banks went up the fra
GRANGE which spoke Of peace. 1t
has now flourishing on its banks a
progressive science and art where
once the sayagery of the lash and
the club Of barbarism swung to the
impulse of passion.
1t may be asked, whence comes
the worldwide fame of beauty in
this river? Why have all classes
and conditions of people sung
praises to it? The peasant, poet,
philosopher and traveller alike have
told its tales of scene, attraction and
picturesque beauty.
The reason lies first in its inherent
natural beauty. Grandeur bespeaks
itself in the steep decliyity of it's
rock-ribbed mountains and hills. 1t
is wild and weird, at times, by the
jutiug up on its banks Of some
great mass Of mountain rocks. Some
lonely peak, like "A sceptered hermit,
stands in the distance, hoary with
age, sublime in the struggle Of its
own power.
At times it is bewildering in its
variety and quick, successive com
plex scenes. The river flows through
a level tract of country, and the
stream is generally quiet and slow,
but at times it flows rapidly around
short curves, between deep gorges,
with high, rocky hills on either side.
Active geological changes are very
manifest along its banks, adding in.
terest to scenery. In some of the
high hills facing the stream the rocks
lie in folds like the waves Of the
sea, almost as exact in layers as the
leaves in an onion bulb, I. G. in the
cooling and contracting Of the earth
crust some Of its crust fell lower
than others and thus forming folds
An other reason Of the Rhine's
beauty is the labor spent on its
banks. Miles and miles of its banks
are nicely walled up with stone.
Bridges Of the finest and most cost
ly structure span it in many places,
often = to at a single town. Mon
uments Of art and commemoration
are numerous and beautiful. Here
at Bingen,
"Whero my fathers sword and mine,
Hang ON the walls Of Bingen, dear Blngen on
the Rhine"
is situated q "National Denkmaal"
(monumen0 to commemorate the
victory over the French in 1870. It
is just finished. 1t is one of the
finest and most colossal pieces of art
to be found in any country. II is