The Portland daily press., 1886-04-14
OUR FOREIGN LETTER.
A Tour Through Germany.
Especial correspondence of the PRESS
HEIDELBERG,

| through the Konig's Park, covered with
wide spreading chestnut trees to the Ko-
nig's Stuhl, where we climbed tower, from
| which we thought we could see the whole
German empire, SO broad was the arena be-
fore our eyes. We lunched at the 'SWiSs
Cottage" on the site of the sold Schloss -
not far from here is the New Schloss,' a
standing but not hopeless, ruin for two cen
turtles. 1t is lovely place, and the outside
walls are still well preserved. We were
glad to see it filled with artisans, employed
by the government, busy in restoring its for
mer magnificence, and fitting it for a nation
al museums which is the most appropriate
| purpose for which these stupendous struc-
| lures can be used. Our countrymen would
open their eyes with establishment to be
| asked on their entrance at the White House
to pay shilling to see the wine cellar, but
| here the famous tun is considered the chief
| attraction of the castle. The guard appeared
| to consider its emptiness an evidence of
| the decadence of the country's glory. We
looked like babes standing beneath its gigan-
tic proportions, which we will not attempt to
state; but we actually assembled flight OF
stairs and walked across its top. In old
! tiuico blo Stdb6S were tdAcu tAoho VI piiO
| product of their vineyards to fill 1t for the
| kings household, who drew from 1t three
| hundred thousand bottles or sixty thousand
| gallons The children touched the spring.
| which was connected with the spigot by
| clock work, when a foxs tail leaped into
their faces, which may have been trap to
register upon the dial any sly drinks taken
| without the buffers orders.
FRANKFoRT-oN-THE-MA
| Taking late train from Heidelberg, we
were lodged at night at Frankfort. In this
city are many fine statues of Goethe, Guten-
| berg and others which it is vain to describe,
rs any brief attempt to set off their admira-
| BILE points would be no more than is given
in many catalogues of art. We drove to Mr..
| Bethman's villa, where guests are welcome
| to see the statue of Ariadne, which has not
been over-estimated by critics. 1t is ex-
hibited in an alcove, enclosed with crimson
draperies, which cast a most delicate rosy
tinge, like life, upon the pure marble. We
crossed the river to the new part of the city,
to visit the Stadel museum. Here we saw
the originals of many engravings which were
the friends of our childhood, and from which
we took our first lessons in art To how
many these pictures would recall the sweet
est memories of happy Sabbath evenings,
when the mother free from care would take
down the family Bible, and be the centre of
m eager cluster Of little faces, while she inn
parted spiritual truths from pictorial pages.
| There was sob and his three friends, ''The
Wise and Foolish Virgins" 'sThe Flight
| into Egypt" the Angel breaking Peters
| chains, and many others. There were two
remarkable pictures, one John Huss stand
| ing before the bishops to answer their
| charges of apostasy; the other one we can
never forget, of visit of two bishops to the
| cell of a reformer, promising life and pardon
| if he would recant; one had hard, dark
| face, frowning upon the prisoner, and little
distrustful of his brother monk who wore
| troubled look of pity for the sufferer, upon
whose arm he had tenderly laid his hand, as
if he would comfort him, if he dared.
On the prisoners face was written
calm and resolute expression, reveal
ing his deliberate choice of death,
which came soon after by the slow
stages of starvation. In this museum are
fifties of paintings of every conceivable
inquisitorial torture of saints, too painful
to look at. You wonder how the artists
could have endured the thoughts suggested
by such subjects long enough to complete
their work.
| The Palm Gardens are one great attraction
| at Frankfort, where beneath the glass dome
| of an immense conservatory are gathered all
| varieties of palms, cacti and oriental vegeta-
| tion growing in their native luxuriance. We
thought a dinner in this miniature Eden
would be delightful, therefore we ordered a
sumptuous menu of chicken, ice cream, and
| the usual entrees, for which we waited an
hour. Some one has said that chickens at
country inns in America seem always to be
| peculiar breed of centipedes; but here the
| trouble was not too many legs but one-half
| the complement prescribed by biologists.
When the long-looked-for platter arrived we
found there was little to eats and many to
| feed from its contents; and as diversion
from their ravenous hunger, we instructed
the children how they might reconstruct the
poor fowl from the bones upon their plates.
They made themselves merry in picturing
the shamefaced biddy, hobbling about the
farmyard, a uniped, with a cranes neck,
big head and tail and SCARED breast, all
cannot vouch for the strict accuracy of the
German receipt for compromising ice cream
but we shall not be far from the mark if we
state it as equal parts of vinegar, water and
canned milk, with few drops of extract Of
cochineal. A live Yankee could amass
Stewards fortune in securing a patent to
supply few European cities with real Phil
adelphia or Portland's best ice cream and
genuine soda water with which your citizens
often long to moisten their parched lips.
One of our party often recalls his last sip of
Loring's ambrosial soda, which he INDUCED
in the day before he. babe good bye to SO
many comforts. He was told then he would
not get another such drink until he sang
"Home again from foreign shore;' which
remark fell lightly on his buoyant spirits at
the time; but tantalizing memory has often
reverted to it with unquenchable longings.
The Germans are made up of contraries,
having brusque manners and coarse tastes,
and yet they are full of sentiment, which is
often expressed with great delicacy, and
again with crudeness. We might profitably
cultivate their habit of freely expressing our
sentiments and observing outward forms of
courtesy, which from the traditions of our
stern forefathers have been regarded as evil
dence of weakness.
We became we'll acquainted with a young
English lady, who had just been in Frankfort
visiting her intended husbands family. She
was quite abashed and overwhelmed at her
reception. AS soon as she arrived notes of
congratulation and invitation and bouquets
were addressed to the young bride. She was
invited to a round of tea parties, conducted
with the greatest decorum and Difference to
age and relative claims of kinship; first to
the grandmother's house, then to the aunt's
in turn, where she met only the adult men,
bers of the family; lastly the young people
gave her a welcome. AT each table was al
ways set before her plate a CONNECTION of
some fanciful shape, sometimes little sugar
house, with pretty adornments and flag,
inscribed with sentimental verses floating
over the chimney, where even the tiny storks
were perched. Her flowers were always tied
with blue and pink ribbons, emblems of fl
deity and love. One ordeal she was asked
to pass was exceedingly practical as well as
sentimental. just as she babe goodbye
large roll of parchment was laid before her