The Democratic press. [volume] (Ravenna, O. [Ohio]) 1868-1901, 1885-08-20
German Customs.
Brooklyn

A correspondent of the Brooklyn
Eagle, travelling in Germany. writes:
1t was a warm, still, summer Sun
day-it often secms as though nature
was more peacefully disposed on fiat
day than on others-when we sailed
forth to scale the Appolinarisberg-
This hill is crowned with a four-tow-
cred Gothic church adorned with fres-
Goes. Some sort of religious feast day
was being observed on the Appolinaris-
berg. Pilgrims, who haunt the place
and have done so since Appolinaris'
head was buried here, were ascending
the road in their best attire, and bow
ing and kneeling at the stations of the
cross placed beside the way.
Flags fiuttcred about the terrace that
the church stands on. and crowds were
entering the edifice. We stepped in,
glanced at the fine frescOes, heard the
organ, and would have attended little
of the service if a man had not crept up
to us and expressed determination to
have fees. We concluded then that the
Rhine was better worthy OF our atten-
ton. Fees everyw here. Oh, the curse
of them! In churches, in galleries, in
palaces, in museums, in railroad sta
tions, in restaurants-fess! fees! fees!
You nav them to the army and tho
navy, the clergy reach for them. no.
bility and even royalty sends its lack
eys after them; guides, porters. clerks,
landlords, loungers, train hands, po-
licemen, drivers, customs officers
confound the beggars! Peasants were
gossiping about the terrace, looking so
picturesque and so like figures out of
the grand opera in their Sunday dress
that We half unconsciously put our
hands in our pockets to pay for that
exhibition, TOO, but we were not as
sessed.
On the contrary, they made way for
us beside them on the wall that pre-
/ vented visitors from rolling down the
steep hill into town, and then stared at
our modern clothes rs cnriously as we
looked at their quaint, unhandsome
costumes. There was spring up
there, too, and nobody on hand to col
lect fees from the drinkers. SO the Un-
daunted who thought it Appolinaris
| water, and who surmised that the bar
keeper in attendance had stepped In to
hear mass and was liable to emerge at
any moment and charge him half q
dollar, drank himself almost into an
illness. There was a reason, however.
for this seeming abnormal thirst In
Europe the water is generally bad. and
ice is to be had by none except the
rich, SO that beer and wine. being good
and cheap, are common drinks, as tea
is with US; but for real thirst there is
no such palliative as water, and beer
and wine seemed only to augment our
drouthy condition.
| Whenever we found water that was
not green with stagnation, yellow with
drainage, or gray with mud. we inn
bibed it with the tremulous eagerness
OF topers. There is good water in the
Scotch hills, the Welch mountains, the
English lake district, some of the
Khenish highlands and the Alps. We
found it bad elsewhere, and no trouble
Sc ms 10 be taken topurify the supply
of the towns. Among the things that
we tenderly dwolt upon when, far from
home and friends. we talked of joys
| that awaited our return. wero ice water
and pie. Water is regarded by the
European-not every European. either
as good for washing purposes, while
as to pies, he is as ignorant of that so,
ductive Wand as he is of buckwheat
cakes, sherry cobblers. or political lib
| erty.