Great Falls tribune., 1889-01-09
NOTED IN GERMANY.
Opinions of Great Falls Mercl,an,
Miller, s=s'4.

|
Appended are some extracts from an
interesting letter which Mr.. Dickerman
has received from Mr.. H. O. Chowen,
who is now in Germany:
Well, here we are at last in Deutsch-
land, and it is thoroughly Dutch can
assure you. Ayres and are both writ
ing at an old-fashioned mahogany escrit-
oire we found in our bedroom here in
the Alberti hotel by the light Of candles,
mounted on candle-sticks that would
grace an altar In fact, the top Of the
candles are so far abSve us that but q
| faint glimmer comes down to us here be-
low, and have almost made up my mind
to send down for an empty beer bottle,
but am afraid it would be considered sac
religious to say 50, nothing of "bad FORM"
in fact, have had it pretty well drum
med into me by number Of information
al drummers, whose acquaintance made
on the steamer, that would save myself
any amount Of trouble by doing in Ger
many as the Germans do-in Germany.
We had a delightful voyage. The cap
tain said that everything considered it
was the pleasantest trip of the 284 he had
made with the same boat. The table was
very good; in fast several who had cross
ed often in other lines said that both the
attendance and cuisine excelled that of
any line they had travelled by. Four
meals day, and I took them all in. I
thought Of you at dinner every night and
wished that you and Charlie could be
with us through the 10 courses. Music
accompanies meals.
We passed through anumber Of villages
on our way up and very picturesque they
are. As you probably know, the peasant
farmers de not live in the fields they cul-
tivate, but their homes are huddled to-
gether in little villages, scattered few
! miles apart all over the country, and some
very charming glimpses we caught Of
these villages from the car windows. The
houses are picturesque to the extreme
They are built for the most part of red
brick and the walls are paralelled off in
| different ways by white or brown beams,
which seem to have formed framework
| for the walls The high and very slop-
| ing roofs are either Of red or brown tiles,
| very corrugated, or covered with a rich
green sod, looking like a we'll kept lawn.
Even the many -paned windows, grouped
together in II gable or dotted here and
there along the sides, impress one with
1 their fitness in harmonious whole; for,
had these little houses been built solely
for the purpose Of being picturesque,they
would have been just as they are. And
| grouped together in little grove,
as they generally are, they ara
a delightful bit of color in
an otherwise rather monotlnous land
scape, the only other relief being the
long arms Of that characteristic Of all
4 Dutch landscapes, the old wind mill, or
the spire Of a church in some more pre-
tentlous village in the distance. The
4 first thing saw this morning on poking
my head upon deck, was one Of these
old wlnd-mills, it seemed like an old
friend, "they look SO much like their
4 pictures" and felt like reaching out my
hand to it and crying shake"
i have just been chucking fuel into the
four-story stove that looks as though it
4 had been erected to the memory Of some
4 former occupant of this room now de-
funct, and as I did so. the dim outlines
i of two sleeping arrangements, piled cell
ing high with feather beds-one to sleep
under reminded me that was making
this letter tlresomely long to you if not
to myself.
But want to tell you what we saw
just before coming in to write my letter:
We went out to take little stroll about
town-a queer old place it seemed to US
narrow streets, not more than 20 feet
wide, sidewalks that would hardly admit
Of two walking abreast; gabled roofs on
: all the houses except large public houses
and even these do not have flat roofs.
Not flat roof have we seen in town.
While running around we ran across an
acquaintance made on the voyage who
{. was with a resident friend, and upon
I their suggestion we went with them to
the Rathhaus and thence into the wine
cellar, which extends from beneath il
under the street and far beyond. This is
said to be the most famous wine cellar in
the world, and we'll it may be. The
Rathhaus was built in 1405 and this Gel
Ter commenced and finished not long
afterwards. 1t contains nothing but
Rhine and Roselle wines-butts! They
! showed us first four big tuns holding
from is to 36 thousand bottles each
"only about 100 years old'' our guide
said. Then we went into the vault o.
! side, each labeled with the name Of tn,
apostle. and holding wine about 200 years
old, that in the Judas cask being con
. sidered the best. Adjoining this is {
= beautiful little room added comparative
I ly recently. The ends Of this room are
i covered with fine paintings and the side
are furnished il hardwood and agains
these are cabinets holding old cut glass
g In the center Of the room is a table AMI
\ around this table, once a year, the sena
q tors are allowed to sit and drink of win
! from the Judas cask, Of which no on
|else is ever allowed to taste. Next w
went into still gloomier vault than TIL
first one and here is the famous Ros
s wine-so called because Of an immens
rose painted on the roof over it-pf tn
] vintage Of 1868. Some one figured tn
cost Of this wine in 1884, based upon tn
$, prices sold at the year it was made wit
n compound interest up to date at currer
! rates It amounted to over $ls, ,OOl
i Marks IA cents each) per bottle or "a
marks per drop. Some one handed me
bottle Of it and was so agitated that
almost let it drop. In this same vault az
! 10 or is other tuns filed with wine frol
~ 200 to 225 years old From here we Wer
y into the main vault lined with Wines {
IS less note, in the end Of which are thre
big tuns holding about $500 bottles each
two containing wine over 15O years OH
the. other having been emptled 3
N Napoleon l., when here. We then Wei
/. i now come to the practical part--int
y the cafe in connection and at the Res