The Portland daily press., 1886-03-31
OUR FOREIGN LETTER.
Especial correspondence of the Press. j
TIrNrnNn

WebHOugHt lnVerldkenW was tnei k0hln00r
Of gems in the Swiss coronet of mountain
towns; but when we compared its merited
charms with the Incompatible beauties at
Lucerne we were compelled to award the
medal to Lucerne Such magical effects of
color upon the water and surrounding hills
we never dreamed of in other chimes. We
cannot tell why the rays of the setting sun
should work such wonders i'll this favored
spot. or why the hills, which at MONDAY are
like other heaps of hard soil and stone,
should assume such asoft veil of gray, blue
and red tints. They realize the landscapes
of our dreams, or the fairy scenes upon the
stage We did not sympathize with an eX-
quisite English lady, who, in speaking Of
Switzerland said, eyes, Lucerne would be
beautiful, were it not for its gaudy and yul-
gar sunsets, which look like chromos." In
deed they do, but chromos colored by peer
less artist, whose unseen hand dips his
brush in the rainbow. The openings in the
long rows of plane trees trained and inter-
laced into arbors along the margin give
charming glimpses of the lake.
The boats, hung with yermilion or yellow
flags and awnings, lie lazily at the piers or
seem to skim by magic power the CLASSY ex-
panse which repeats every detail OF tne
scene, and makes pictures too supernal LOT
this marred and imperfect sphere Ihen
the comfort to return at night AFTER day y
excursion upon this fairy lake, TO the
"Schweitzerhoff and be treated with genu-
inc hospitality, and allowed the privilege OF
walking Quietly to ones room without being
stopped a dozen times to respond to the bow
ings and scrapings of porters and maids.
This alone puts you in loving mood toward
the whole world, and gives you an all-per-
yading inward peace Here the servants are
paid. and there is no striving to push them
selves into your notice. Doubtless there
have been many disappointed and discon-
tented hearts to bring about such revolu-
ton, but it is worth the cost to be a pioneer
in this glorious reform
This system at the Schweitzerhotf works
benefcently alike for guest, master and SER
want, as the proprietor Is compelled to pay
good wages, and demands good service in re-
turn, and gets it, too, because the servant
is not forever forsaking his post to smile and
smirk to the guests. Best of all, the visitor
leaves the house in good humor, and heartily
recommends all his friends to patronize the
peerless Schweitzerhoff. We paid our bill in
a business-like manner. There were no
gaping servants squabbling to see which
should hold the coat, or lift child into the
coach; but in strong contrast to former ex-
periences, the clerk put package of dainty
bonbons into each child's hand for souve-
mir. The cost was trif1ing, while the marked
Nd a1 oil in,
vested.
Lucerne about the hotels is as modern and
as much after the prescribed rules of archie
lecture and engineering as Boston; but the
old parts of the town are full of oddities in
human life, and queer courtyards and out
landish looking buildings. There are two
queer old foot bridges over the Reuss, kept
as antiquities, since stronger and more SYM
metrical ones have taken their place for
traffic. There are fitted into the very peak
of the roof of the Kappelbrucke bridge near
ly two hundred pictures illustrating both
the ecclesiastical and the secular history of
Switzerland. The paintings are rude; still
the traveller wonders one should put so
much labor to so ignoble purpose as the
decoration of public highway, and sacrifice
the work of his genius to such a wretched
light. Quite likely some aspiring artist did
this work gratuitonsly for the sake of APP
pricing the dignitaries of the cantons of
his eleverness, as in early times all artists
must secure the patronage of some lord or
baron, or starve and die unknown The
Muhlenbrucke contains thirty or more rep
reservations of the dance of Death" In
these, men, women and children, of every
condition of social life, are in the very
height of their enjoyment and success when
the cruel monster appears to blight all their
hopes, and Illustrate their well concocted
plans of living forever. The ancient cos
tunes and caricatures of high life make these
pictures worthy of some study.
The Dying Lion of Lueerne, whichis so ia
miliar in the photographs of art OF the Old
World is worth seeing. He is represented as
dying from the wound of the spear piercing
his side, while with his feeting breath he
egrasps the fieur-de-lis in his paw. Thor
waldsen, the Norwegian sculptor, cut it in
the side of a solid ledge of sandstone, which
would seem an imperishable monument to
the Swiss Guards, who fought SO bravely and
fell in Paris in 1892; but even this is subject
to the invincible law of waste and destruc-
ton of this world. We noticed large slices
cleaving from the lions body.
Close by are the Glacial Gardens, where
the slow processes of nature during and since
the Glacial periods have left so remarkable
evidences of the irresistible combined force
of little drops of water. Here are many pot
holes from tiny ones worn by pebbles to one
fifteen feet deep, in which is the mill stone
which has ground out its own bed. The
scratches upon the lodges define very clearly
the course of the boulders, as they were
Swept aleng by the glaciers. One boulder
bears marks Of close kinship with the lodges
upon st. Gothard, which is long distance off.
In opening this place one large stone was
accidentally split, and upon the broken sur
face is the imprint of large palm leaf
RHIGI.
A shout In ~, alo 7 marina 1oudad n