Middletown transcript., 1886-02-12
ATRE-GERMANIZED
STRASSB BURG.

/ It was crowded train We took on
Friday morning at the suburban sta.
tion in the Quarter Leopold to carry
US on to S.rassburg. The only extra
coach added proved insufficient for
the thrcng of waiting passengers, and
we were obliged to force ourselves in
to compartment already we'll occu-
pied. Our fellow travellers proved to
be an English traveller with his inval-
id wife and their son and daughter
on their way to Lucerne. 1t was
pleasant to hear and use again the
mother-tongue, after SO many days of
chattering French, as little by little
we felt our way towards mutual ac-
quaintance, to an exchange of views
and experiences and sentiments touch
ing dear old England and the New
England strange to them, but to us
dearer still.
Along we sped over the smooth and
double-tracked road-bed to the south
ward and the eastward, thro~g inter-
minable expanses of fine farms, always
with theinnumerable platoons of trees
every where in sight, past quaint stone
villages with their red-tiled roofs, along
winding valleys moistened and fertile
with running water, ort upon high up
lands where we could look off for
miles over country that was like one
great garden, rich with harvests wait
ing for the sickle, juicy and fragrant
with vineyards and orchards, and be-
coming memorable as we approached
Luxembourg, and passed Metz, and
left Saarburg behind as being the
scene of some Of the most terrible con-
flicts of the Franco -Prussian war of
1870.
By the time we reached Strassburg
we were in the midst of one Of the
greatest and bloodiest battle-felds of
modern times. And now the Belgian
tree was replaced by the German SOL
der, red-capped or brass-helmeted !;
and farm by fortress, until, as we fair.
ly entered Strassburg, it seemed as if
an immence intrenched camp had
opened to receive us, with all the
pomp and circumstance of war-Ger-
many having retaken this border-land
after two hundred years of French oc-
cupation, holds it with a military
hand hand gloved, it is true, but
firm. Strassburg is kernel of civil
life in she'll Of military protection.
Fortifcations command the city on
every side; infantry and artillery pa
rade its streets with bands of music
playing and banners flying. The
public square is like parade ground
the magnificent new railway station
guarded by its rows of howitzers, like
an arsenal. And who shall adequate
ly portray the consequentiality of a
German officer. with his broad breast
ed coat, buttons, and sword, as he
PAGES the streets of Strassburgs He
and his are masters of the situation.
The French may talk in whispers
here.
We amused ourselves in the even
ing at garden concert, where con-
jurer, boldly proclaiming himself from
Paris, did all sorts of impossible
things with handful of white balls;
we edited ourselves in the morning
with visit to the grand Cathedral,
and craned our necks to see the auto
matte clock perform its marvels; we
entertained ourselves between whiles
with visits to the pretty shops, with
all their attractions of carving and BIZ
jouterie, and photographs, and their
relics of German shells saved from the
dreadful days of the seige; and then
away to Berne.
Berne I shall always think one of
the most rewarding towns to visit in
Switzerland; not so picturesque as
Lucerne, with its lakes and mountains
not so reposeful as Interlaken, with
its cluster of hotels in the deep valley;
not SO modern and polite as Geneva,
with its limitations of Paris, and its
Havors of Italy and Spain not SO ro-
mantle as Chamonix, close under the
sombre sides and glistening SUBMITS
of Mount Blanc; but with perhaps a
greater variety to please the eye and
engage the mind than either one of
those far famed localities affords
Literary World.