The morning call., 1891-03-15
THE GOTTHARD
In MIDWINTER.
An Interesting Letter From SFitzer-
lands Upper Story.
In Valley in the Heart of the Alps in the
Canton Uri That Is Five Thousand Feet
Above the Level of the Sea.
ANDERMArr Switzerland. Jan. IA 1891

| - ~~~ ~S-'
! ANDERMATT (Switzerland), Jan. IA, 1891.
Dear 1fr. Editor: Involuntarily on glanc-
ing at the heading of this letter your first
question will be. "Where is Andermatt P''
! Let me answer the question for you as brief
| ly as possible.
In the first place it is nearly five thousand
feet above the sea level, and nestles in a
valley away up in the heart of the Alps of
| Canton Uri, one of the original strongholds
| of Swiss independence The linen of Uri,'
as every one familiar with the his
tory of Helvetia's liberties knows,
| played most important part in the great
events which gave birth to their little
! Republic, now nearing the seventh century
of its existence. The valley in question is
the fertile basin of former lake, some eight
or nine miles long and varying from enc to
| two miles In width; ia 1t snow-ciad peaks
| hem it in On all Sides and its level pastures
are trayerel by the Reuss, which, finding
| its outlet by the famous Schoellencn gorge,
rushes down through valley of the widest
and most picturesque grandeur to empty its
waters into the placid Lake Of Lucerne.
Even the prolonged cold of winter at this
uONo bOJ cbOp lto INV hhu tilC
winter is long here; it lasts generally tor
eight months. Snow! there is snow enough
| here, and ice too, to start a miniature
| Attic zone. or polar circle, with. Snow,
| snow, snow every where! on the fields, the
roads, the hOuSetOpS, the fences, the trees,
the mountains, ubiquitous panoply OF daZ-
cling, hewidering virgin white. 1t is cold,
too; that is, if you look at the thermometer,
which marks on fair winters day such as
this some 100 or 15o above zero (Fahrenheit).
L said, however, you must look at the ther-
mOmeter in order to become aware of the
fact, for a grander or more genial winters
day. warner, more generous midwlnter
sun, buer, softer or more cloudless sky |
never saw i'll New York, in LOuisiana-no,
not even in Naples itself.
ON THE FOURTH FLOOR.
Now this hotel in wh'h | am passing my
brief stay at Andcrmatt--thc BelitVue-iS
one of half dozen to br found hers and
would you believe me?-it has winter cure
guests. And really the place is so comfort
able that, had brought more baggage along,
| should actually be tempted to pass week
| or two as a cure-gueSt, too, iii this upper
| fourth floor OF Switzerland There is an air
| of warmth and comfort in the house that
makes one 10th to leave it. and l doubt not
| that in the dog-days, when we in the low
| lands are swelterlng, people up here are
smiling i'll their sleeves and as cool as Gu
cumberS. | rather envy these cure
They must be Joey BagstOckS" in their
way, suspect.
My first care on arriving was to have
look about the Dcrf, if by that unpretentious
title one may designate ADdermatt with its
800 dwelers OF course the church is the
first place to visit. and here, though the edi-
flee is by no means imposing. it has special
antiquity as dating back to the Lombard
epoch and what is more it has curious,
though | cannot add attractive, feature, SlIli-
liar to that which attracts so many strangers
to the Church of the CapuchinS in Rome,
namely, charnel-house decorated with the
skulls and bones OF departed humanity
While on this subject. | may also mention
that in the cemetery at village called Baar,
in Canton Zug, halfway between the lakes
OF Zug and Zurich, there is a mortuary chapel
similarly decorated, though but seldom WIS.,
tied by strangers
IN ANDERMATT.
The houses in Andermatt are all in the
chalet style. implanted, with projecting
caves, much-carYed woodwork, immature
tower-baIconies before the windows, and,
standing apart from each other. anu each
projecting at a slight angle toward the main
street. The latter is narrow, and follows
the circular line Of the base Of the mount
aims. The signs show curious patr0nymicS,
and are partly in French, partly in German.
As everywhere in Switzerland, the school
house Is one of the best and largest
buildings in town. 1t and the church.
spire prominently catch the eye of the ap-
preaching stranger. The people look sturdy
and hearty and are clad as warmly as Lap
landerS. The fact that it is high up IN the
mountains and away from the big towns
does not prevent the small street boy from
'hitching on" with his sled behind your
Portland cutter and stealing a ride, just
as his bOyish colleagues do in the world
below. But the driver here is:more good
natured and is not apt to surprise the culprit
with u crack Of the whip around his neither
integrements, rs most weil-regu ated drivers
will sometimes do. The small boy ''has il
good" up here in this respect
Really it doesn't take long to make ones
self acquainted with all Andermatt in-
Guiding its collective "culs de sac" purlieuS
and suburbs. But there remains another
inspection yet to be made, the surroundings,
and they are well worth inspecting. This
zig-Zag roadway which you see mounting the
ascent there on the left of where we entered
the village, going up and up and up, with its
Serried rows OF stone posts to mark its
outer border, is the Ober-Alpine pOst-road
to Chur, or CORE as the French call
il, thirteen hours distant by diligence.
The great peaks close by are the
Baezberg the Mutthorn and the Badus;
from the latter's summit reached, with a
guide, in five hours. one sees an almost
numberless array of peaks of the Grison,
Bernese and Wallis Alps; further beyond
there to the right is, however, the most in
terestng point of all, the Gotthard summit
and Hospce. What history that Uospice
has of the good monks unseltish devotion to
belated wayfarers, of the wantonness of the
French soldery, who tore it down in the
campaign of 1899 to make tirewOod, of
Goethe's two or three visits, and of all the
other thousand and one incidents connected
with the coming and going of the 10000
travellers who annually passed by that way
between Switzerland and Italy before the
wonderful GOtthard Railway was opened
ALI, CHANGED.
But now all is changed The monks are
gone and there is only weather station up
there from which we in the world below
get daily reports by wire. There are two
men shut in by the snow up there. i asked
the Uri Jehu who drove ME up here how
they passed their time up there. 'Fressen
und saufen" was his laconic reply. There
is a story people tell-though for which
can't vuuch-that one winter the two had q
falling out about some triiing matter. and,
though they ate, drank and slept in the
same hut, didn't speak a word to each
other for fifteen days. Imagine, though,
how joyful the reconciliation must have
been to both of them after fortnight of
fierce looks and blank silence. At all events
1t is apparently all sunshine up there to-
day, and one is tempted to regret that the
historic peak, smiling there in the sunlight
is for the nonce inaccessible.
There is one other fact in connection with
Andermatt which may serve to give the
reader some idea of its elevation. Directly
under it, and a thousand feet under it at
that, pass S the famous nine-mile tunnel of
the Gotthard Railway piercing the Alps
mel, by the way, which cost about twelve
million dollars, and required the labor
of $500 men daily for eight years in its con-
s.ruction. Railway building in these Swiss