The Brookhaven leader., 1885-08-20
CUSTOMS AMONG THE GERMANS.
A Religious Feast Day-A Search for
Good Drinking Water.
TForeien Cor. Brooklyn Eaa

rForeign Cor Brooklyn EagIel
It was a warm, still, summer Sunday
it often seems as though nature Was
more peacefully disposed on that day
than on others-when we sallieI forth
to scale the AppoIinarisl erg This hill
is crowned with a fOur-towered Gothic
church adorned with frescoes. some.
sort Of religious feast ay was being OBJ
served on the Appolnarisberg. il
grims, who haunt The place and have
done so since Appolinars head was
buried here, were ascending the road in
their best attire, and lowing and kneel-
ing at tue stations of the cross placed
LeSide t e way
llags uttered about the terrace that
the church stands on, and crowds were
entering the edifce We stepped in,
glanced at the ne frescOes, heard the
organ, and would have attended a little
of the ser, ice if man had not crept up
to US and expressed deter inati0n to
have fees. We concluded then tnat the
hne was better woxthy of our atten-
ton. eos everywhere. @, the curse
OF them In churches, in galleries,
in palaces, in museums, in hotels. in
railroad stations, in restaurants fees.
fees fees. ou pay them to the army
and the navy, the clergy reach for
them, noliity and even royalty sends
its lackeys after them; guides, pCr-
ters, clerks, landlords, Ioungers,
train hands, drivers. policemen, GUS
toms o GERS -confOund the LeggarS.
Peasants were gossiping about the ter
race, and looking so picturesque and so
like cures out of the grand opera In
their unday dress that We half uncon-
sciously put our hands in our pockets to
pay for that exhibition, too, but We
were not assessed.
On the contrary, they made way for
US beside them at the wall that pre-
vented visitors, from rolling down the
steep hill into town, and then stared at
our modern clothes aS cu~louSly as we
looked at their quaint unhanlsome cos
tunes There was spring up there,
too, and nobody on hand to co lect fees
from the DIR nderS, O the ndaunted,
who thought 1t Appollnaris water, and
who surmlSed that the barkecper in at
tendan t had stepped in to hear mass
and was liable to emerge at any II O.
ment and charge him half dollar.
drank himself almost into an illness.
There was reason, however, for this
seemingly abnormal thirst. In uro e
the water is generally bad, and ice is to
he had hy none except the rich, SO that
tecr and wine, being good and cheap.
are common drinks, ao tea and co ee
are with us: but for real thirst there is
no such palliative as water, and beer and
wine seemed only to aug uent our
condition.
" heneycr We found water that was
not gr en- with stagnation, yellow with
dra mage. or grey with mud, we inhibited
it with the tremulOus eagernrss o to-
pers. There is good water in the Scotch
nils, the Welsh mo ntains, the lngliSh
ake district, some of the henISh high
lands and the Alps We found it bad
elsewhere md no trouble seems to he
taken to purify the supply of the towns.
..mong the things that we tcnderly
dweit upon when, far from home and
trendS-we talked of Oys that awaited
! our return were water and pie.
ater is regarded the European not
every European, eithcr-aS good for
Wa hing purposes, while, as TO pies he
is us ignorant of that seductive Wand as
he is of ruckwheat cakes, sherry cob
blers or political liberty.