Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-09-15
Remarkable and Picturesque Scenes
Observed During the Rail-
road Journey
FROM ITALY TO SWITZERLAND,
The Winding Way Over Snow-Capped
Mountains Graphically Described
by Rev. George Hodges.
FIFTY MOST WONDERFUL TUNNELS.
A Glimpse Of the Great Lion, Thorwaldssn's World
Famous Work.



running a great race out of Italy into
Switzerland. Now day is ahead, now night
overtakes him. So it goes for seven hours.
One of the fifty tunnels is the st. Gotthard.
1t took our express train nineteen minutes to
get out of that abode of darkness.
Even more remarkable are the circular
tunnels A tunnel is wonderful enough
when it is straight, but a round tunnel is a
wonder emphasized. 1t is an achievement
indeed to make ones way into the heart of
a great mountain and to get out again; but
TO enter into the mountain and wander
around in it, and come out again with the
engine headed south when you started in
toward the north--that is worth thinking
about OF all ways of climbing a hill this
is the greatest-to climb up an
side! You look out of the car
window, and there is a little Alpine
town whose queer houses are clustered
about the parish church, and then the dark
ness overtakes the daylight; in you go be-
meath the mountain, and presently, when
YOU come out again, there is the same little
Alpine town, with the same picturesque
houses and the same church spire in the
midst of them-but now you see it through
the opposite window; or you look up, and
high alott along the side OF the mountain
YOU see train going in the same direction
in which you are going, headed for Lucerne,
and the train above hurries into tunnel
and your own train plunges into another
tunnel, and presently in the darkness that
train comes rushing past headed for Milan!
In one place there is tunnel above Iun-
mel, so that you enter the mountain near the
bottom and come out near the top, having
described the turS: of q corkscrew.
MORNING .,@aNG THE MOUNTAINS.
But the daylight is as wonderful as the
darkness. The mountains tower up on every
side with their tops among the fixed stars.
Down pour the mountain torrents, half blue
wafer and half foam, tumhling from cliff to
crag, sometimes falling like brides veil,
sometimes hurrying over the great stones at
the bottom of a deep ravine. There is snow
aloag the SUBMITS, but the mountain sides
are green with great forests, and the grass
grows in the beautiful valleys soft as a
lawn. Sometimes the Alps are so high that
you can hardly see the tops out of the car
window. Sometimes the winding valleys
are so long and open that you can look back
along them for many green mile. People
live in these high places. Swiss cottages,
like the pictures, are set among the hills.
They are built of heavy timoers, and the
roofs are laden with big stones, like the roofs
of the houses in the Tyro1, to keep the
shingles from blowing off
AT last we get TO the Blue lake, upou
whose shores is built the city of Lucerne. 1t |
is the height Of the season. Everybody is |
in Lucerne. 1t is said of Rome that if vou |
stay there long enough you will meet everyl |
body you ever knew. That NAV be eouallE /
rue ot Lucerne. 1 have been finding Pitts
burg on the hotel registers almost everyA
where this summer. Lucerne is no excep-
ton. No less than nine good people, priv
LEGGED to write "Pittsburg" after their |
names, are spending Sunday beside these
pleasant waters.
hope that some of the Pittsburgers found
1ut the meaning of that queer bit of carving |
beside the door of the old church. could |
make nothing of it. There is fierce fight
-oing on. a castle is being attacked and
;toutly defended. And in the background
half dozen robust and HORRIBLE looking
0rigands, with boards of most grewsome cut,
ire glarlng over the top of a high board
ence. 1t is very interesting and uniDtel-
isible
A SERMON IN THE OLD CHURCH.
could understand the sermon better,
hough the priest was preaching in German.
q
.hurch was crowded with hearers though
he hour was early. There were many at
entive men. Even the little children
eemed to know that something of a sober
haracter was going on, for they clung to
heir mothers skirts and kept still silence.
good many of the congregation carried
unch baskets. They had come to hear mass |
nd to listen to the Sunday sermon before
tarting off for Sunday picnic.
The road beside the old church, past the
brigands, winds up a lair hill,
.long shady lanes and pleasant paths, and
eads 10 the "Drei Linden" where YOU get
fine view. You can see the picturesque
own, with its quaint old bridges, and its
Inc of gray towers set along the angles Of
IS ancient wall, and the lake lies blue be-
ide il, and there are snow-capped noun
aims in tie background, and on the left
ises the peak of the Righi, and on the
lEht rowns the black cliff OF Pilatus. As
"u descend you pass a placard which in
ormS YOU for how many centimes foot you
an buy land on that pleasant hillside, with
II that view OF sky and hill thrown in
The best thing in Lucerne-unless the
7earv traveller were to name the Schweiger-
oi Hotels the great lion, designed by
-horwaldsen, and cut in the face OF the liv-
ng rock, larger than life Above, the
ines grow overhanging the grotto of the
ION; beneath in pool of
rater the hungry swans are sailing
bout. The lion lies wounded and diving.
great spear broken in his side, his paw
ven in death protecting the lilies of France.
here are people chatterlng and children
laying. The man who keeps the garden
here the queer stones are which some old
lacier seooped out into strange shapes, is
assing around his persuasive handbiIls.
he church bells are ringing. But you
0ok at
THAT GREAT GRAY LION
nd read the list of Swiss names written
D a roll of honor upon the rock beneath.
nd your thoughts go back to those fierce
avs IN Paris when that guard OF Helye-
ian soldiers stood at the post OF duty and
0oked death in the face, and never thought
{ playing coward. 1t was a fine, brave
eed that they did, and their memorial set
D this great rock is the stateliest monu-
lent IN Europe. There is nothing in West
linster Abbey equal to it. 1t is worth
lore than Nelson's column in Trafalgar
quare and Napoleon's arch in the Champs !
lvsees Nut together.
Every DIV who visits Lucerne goes bv
Gamer TO Flueien and bv railroad I'D the
lghl, and SO sees the most beautiful lake In
urope and enjoys the sensation of climb
lg an Alp without climbing. Lake Lu-
'rne owes its reputation for beauty to its
lores, You journey over the blue waters
nong the green mountains. And if there
company OF Swiss peasants on board the +
rat, as there was when we made the trim. :
I'd II they nave brass band with them
I'd are in good voice, as they were that fine
~, you will get concert which is worth
.Hing. The railroad up the Righi is as I
fha IL, |