Weekly expositor. (Brockway Centre, Mich.) 1882-1894, 1890-12-12
sWITzERLANp's RAILWAY MANIA.
Lauterbrunnsn n Junction-Up the jung
frau In a Tube.

English people ss a body-the ma
jority Mt any rate of those English
people who really understand or care
about mountain scenery-in the opinion
of n correspondent of the Pail Mall Ga
rette, ''do not seem to be aware of or
to quite realize with what fatal rapidi-
ty the work of destruction is being
carried out in Switzerland. / have
just recently returned from a visit to
the Alps-chiehy the Alps of the Ber-
nese Oberland-and have found the
changes effected or proposed during
the last three years in many ways al
most incredible. Thus, three years
ago Lauterbrunnen was quiet little
Alpine village oycrrun. doubtless,
during the daytime by eXcursionists
from Interlaken, but still quite char
acteristic and untouched in all its es-
sential features. Now, if the projected
plans are carried out-and there is lit
tie enough reason TO entertain any OPP
posite hope-it will soon be a junction
for no less than three mountain rail-
ways to Murren, over the Wcngern
Alp TO Grindelwald, and, last and
worst. to the summit of the Jungfrau.
The line to Lauterbrunnen itself
was opened on the 1st of July; the one
to Muiren will probably be ready by
next year, and already its sleepy
pitched viaducts and hideously straight
lines have SCARED and destroyed the
beauty of the Alpine pastures which
surround and hang over the Staub-
bach. The landlord of one of the ho-
talo M Mnrrnn hownvnr ranarIc If
naturally enough, as very excellent
thing, and thinks it will lose all its
oifensiveness, because, steam being
discarded for electricity, there will be
no smoke or noise.
LAS for the Jungfrau, it is rumored
that, according to the latest design,
people are to be shot up in pneu-
matte tube in fifteen minutes! The
Wengern Alp railway is not recon-
mended, but the concession for it has
been granted - granted, to, rs a
Lausanne paper reports it, with un-
conscious irony, sans debat.
Now the path over the Wengern
Alp and Little Scheidegg is not in any
sense II route of through communica-
tion-such route already exists both by
road and rail between Grindelwald
and Lauterbrunnen-it is pleasure
track pure and simple. which conducts
the traveller by the easiest of roads in
to some of the grandest and most re-
tired of Alpine scenes. Who exactly
it Is that wants the line made 1T is
hard to say. OF the dozen tourists
have questioned | have not met with
one who approves. The inhabitants
of Lauterbrunnen and Grindelwald
can not want it, for it will ruin their
occupation of guide and porter. At
Grindelwald. indeed. a hostile petition
was signed by 500 natves-the large
majority / should imagine OF the pop
ulation Of the valley. The well-known
family of Boss, who keeps the Bar no.
tel, opposed it bitterly, but to no eff
feet. The powers that be considered
the opposition narrow-minded, and
the Wengern Alp is sacrificed sans
bebat.
THE business of making mountain
railways goes on merrily. The Pilatus
line was opened last season with a
maximum gradient of AS in 400. A
short system extends up Mount St.
Beatus ON the Thunder See. The
Niesen. the Sentis, the Brienzer Roth
horn are all to be invaded by the iron
fend. Already people travel by rail
over the beautiful Brunig, and next
year, no doubt, we shall see the line
opened up to Zermatt. The latter
achievement will not. however, be of
quite so objectional character as
some already mentioned, though peo-
pie who are whirled up to Zermatt and
Back by train will scarcely gain such
true and permanent impressions of it
as those who approach it by the old
fashioned tramp or ride up the glorious
Nicholasthal.
Moreover, the railway spells run to
the hotel-keepers at Staiden and St.
Nicholas-perhaps to those at Visp,
too. should not like to weary the
reader by mentioning at length other
lines that are projected or talked Of
Simpion. the Splungen. the Randerstes
Valley, the Great ST. Bernard, the Up
per Rhone Valley, the Chamounix, the
lines of railway to be drawn around
the shores of Brienz and Thun and the
Lake of Lucerne. In the meantime.
so far as these are purely tourists lines.
can not discover for what purpose
they are to made or who 1t is that calls
for them. Switzerland indeed seems
just now to be suffering from gigantic
railway mania, and the important
question Isl Will such a mania come
to crisis before all that is most ac-
cessible and best worth seeing in the