The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1886-11-13
Correspondence Baltimore County Union.
A FIRST VISIT TO EUROPE.
PAPER No. 2


Ones first experience of railroad travel on the
European continent is likely to be memorable and
perhaps worth recording. Armed with the assur
ance that "only English snobs and American fools
travel first Glass; we buy second class tickets and
wait until the doors opening upon the platform
shall be unlocked We find it hard to realize that
the low, unsubstantial looking vehicles which we
see through the window railway cars, and we
smile somewhat contemptuously to note that the
distinction of class accommodation lie solely in
the character of the upholstery used in a compart-
ment, or in the absence of any whatever; third
class seats being BEAR second class being cushion
ed in cheap reps, while those of first class
finished in cloth.
At the latest possible moment the doors are
opened and there is a rush and scramble, the
confusion being increased by the necessity guard
against getting into the wrong Compartment
After several fruitess efforts to find room we are
showed by that pompous official the guard, into
stufy cross wise section, having two long seats
facing each other, with accommodations for five
on a seat and finished in reps of a hideous green.
The day is sitting and there are but two windows,
one in each door, and not the smallest sign of
ventliating aperture elsewhere. We fain to
humbly take what is left to us in the way of seats
as the fate of war, those by the windows having
been already secured by more experienced travel
ers, but our patience is put to a test and
fill the air of our imagination with unuttered
epithets of denunciatory character when we find
that those fortunate individuals are bent not
upon catching all the breeze possible, but upon
keeping the windows closed, nearly so, the ma
tive Belgian, and the Germ too for that matter,
being as much afraid of fresh air as if it held the
poisonous exhaations of the tabled Upas tree.
In the six hours ride to Cologne there are no
less than three changes peculiar and pleasant? )
little feature of European travel-and at each of
these our baggage has to be lugged (no wonder
tha Enc
there being no checking system such we
have-by an individual who has to be found and
feed for the purpose, and who, to add to the diff
Guilty, is known a "portier" at one station and
"dienstmann" at the next, according to the lin
guistic "bias" of the section of country; and woe
betide the unfortunate traveller who has not both
names at his tongues end.
Cologne is wonderfully like Antwerp-that is
the town-with its narrow streets, its snowy shops
its open market places and its marvellous cleanli-
ness. But the people How different then are
One good look at their honest, open faces and
kindly confidence at once takes the place of the
guarded supiciousness with which the Belgians
inspired us.
The "Dom" German for cathedraD seems to
make the town. The word is used as a prefix to
the name of almost every place of municipal prom
inence, and the reverence of the people for the
glorious structure seems to have animated the
very houses themselves, for crowded together as
they are in other parts of the city they seem to
shrink away in awe from a too familiar nearness
to the sacred building, leaving great open space
about it in the very heart of the town.
In attempting to describe any of the great
things of earth an almost paralyzing sense of in
ability to do justice to the subject must inevitably
seize one, hence it is not surprising that should
feel that there are no words in any tongue ade-
quate to the description of this epic poem written
in the language of architecture, this embodied
elimination of the genius of Gothic art. One can
only feel that it is the capitalization of the spirit
of alteration that has existed in all ages and that
the slender, lofty arches are the symbols of the
Joined hands and uplifted arms of the giant souls
who in all the worlds history have truly worship
ed God.
To say that its spires pierce the air to the height
of over five hundred feet, that its nave measures
nearly three hundred from floor to arch, that its
walls are miracles of architectural strength, that
its flying buttresses areS marvels of ightness and
grace is but to multiply words without giving the
faintest idea of the impressiveness of the whole
One must be subjected to the optical delusion
which is the effect of its perfection of symmetry
and then be walked to the fact of the enormous
dimensions of those pillars that look like slender
columns, of those arches that scarcely broader
than delicately pointed leaves to properly appre-
ciate the subtle beauty that lies in such perfect
adjustment of proportions to properly reverence
lneBeulus IudJ cOulu cOucelNe OI sucu
that could plan such a structure.
But alas there is spot too sacred for the des-
ecrating tread Of that monster the cOmmon- place,
and while shver to think that Napolean once
used this building of buildings as hay barracks,
shiver still more to find that the elevating
power of its beauty, the instructive influence of
its historical interest prostituted to mercenary
ends, and that certain red gOwned, be-capped
or be sceptered functionary stands guard unre
mittingly at the door of entrance demanding our
money our departure from the holy edifce
1t was our privilege to stand within the choir
precincts during the celebration of "high mass"
and to realize the powerful impressiveness that
comes from hearing sacred music,
Where, through the long drawn aisle and fretted
vault,
The pealing anthem swells the note of praise"
The grandeur, the dignity of this wonderful
structure fill the highest ideal of architectural
beauty. All other cathedrals must suffer by com
parison with this As emerged for the last
time from beneath its perfect arches we said to
our own hearts "we have seen giant; henceforth
all men must seem as dwarfs" NJ. A. G..