, 1885-07-21
CUSTOMS AMONG e GERMANS.


Good Drinking Water.
Foreign Cor. brooklyn Eagle.
II was a warm. still, summer Sunday
1t often seems as though nature was
more peacefully disposed on that day
than on others-when we sailed forth
to scale the Appolinarisberg. This hill
is crowned with n f~our-towered Gothic
church adorned with frescoes. some
sort Of religious feast day was being OBJ
served on the Appolinarisberg. il
grims, who haunt the place and have
done 50 since Appolinaris head was
buried here, were ascending the road in
their best attire, and bowling and kneel-
ing at tho stations Of the cross placed
beside the way.
llags duttered about the terrace that
the church stands on. and crowds were
entering the edifce. We stepped in,
glanced at the tino ~frescoes, heard the
organ, and would have attended a little
OF the service if n man had not crept up
to Us and expressed Il determination TO
have fees. We concluded then that the
kline was better worthy OF our atten-
ton. ces everywhere. q. the curse
OF them. In churches, in galleries,
in palaces, in museums, in hotels, in
railroad stations, in restaurants-feesl
fees, fees. on pay them to the army
and the navy, the clergy reach for
them, nobility and even royalty sends
its lackeys after them; guides, por-
ters, clerks, landlords, %loungers,
train hands, drivers, policemen, GUS
toms o.hcers-confound the heggars.
Peasants were gossiping about the ter
race, and looking so picturesque and so
like figures GU of the grand opera in
their unday dress that we half uncon-
s%ciously put our hands in 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 obviously as We
looked at their quaint unhandsome cos
tunes. There was a spring up there,
too, and nobody on hand to collect fees
from the drinkers, 50 the Undaunted,
who thought it A%ppolinaris water, and
who surmised that the barkeeper in at
tendance had stepped in to hear mass
and was liable TO emerge at any mo-
ment and charge him half a dollar.
drank himself almost into an illness.
There was a reason, however, for this
seemingly 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 and coffee
are with us; but for real thirst there is
no such palliative as water, and beer and
wine seemed only to augment our
condition.
Whenever We found water that was
not grsen with stagnation, yellow with
drainage, or grey with mud. we imbibed
it with the tremulous eagerness OF to-
pers. There is good water in the Scotch
hills, the Welsh mo ~ntains, the English
lake district, some of tho khenish high
lands and the Alps. We found it bad
elsewhere, md no trouble seems to be
taken to purify the supply of the towns.
Among the things that we tenderly
dwelt upon when, far from home and
friends-we talked of oys that awaited
our return-were ice-water and pie.
Water is regarded hy the European-not
every European, either-as good for
wa hing purposes, while, as to pies. he
Is as ignorant of that seductive Wand as
he is of Duckwheat cakes, sherry cob
blers, or political liberty.