Daily Yellowstone journal., 1891-07-17
PRAoUEo HISTORIC BRIDGE.

The Destruction Of the Famous Karls-
brucke Recalls Noted Events.
To write a history Of the Karlsbrucke
would be to write the history of Prague
during the past FIVE centuries. This,
indeed, we're well worth the doing, for,
though the Old World Is rich in his
toric cities, few are more interesting
than this wonderful old town, with its
stately buildings, its quaint old houses
and beautiful gardens and its memories
of illustrious men and women-of
Huss and Wallenstein, of Maria Theresa
and her implacable enemy, Frederick
the Great How many times these and
others scarcely less famous have passed
to and fro over the K~arlsbruckel
Prague was the favorite city of that
splendid monarch, Charles ", the
s~tepfather If the empire, but the father
of Bohemia" He established her cele-
brated university and beautiied the
town in many ways. besides laying the
foundation of the Karlsbrucke, in 1857,
For $50 years the work went on and
when finally completed, In 1907, 1t was
Justly regarded as a triumph of the en-
cheering skill of the age.
Even today few bridges are worthy
Of more admiration than the old Karis-
brhcke, with its grand old Gothic tower
and its sixteen noble arches spanning
the beautiful Moldau- AS time went
on statues and groups of figures were
grouped on the buttresses of the bridge.
The oldest of these, a large stone cruel
hx, with images of the Virgin and St
John, was built with money vrung
from the Jews Short services were oc-
casionally held before the cruciiG.
Another curious group, showing the
suffering souls in purgatory, commem-
grated the dreadful visitation Of the
plague. But the most interesting OF
the statues is that of st. John of Mepo-
muk, the patron of bridges and the
saint whom all Prague delights TO
honor. st. John, so the legend tells
us, was the ~confessor of the lovely
Queen of Bohemia and refused to re-
veal the secrets of the confessional &c
her Jealous husband The cruel Wenzel
commanded him TO be tortured, and
afterward he was thrown from the
Karlsbrucke at night into the rushing
Moldau. Whereupon the body Of the
good priest, instead Of sinking. con
tinued 20 float until taken from the
water. while five brilliant stars lowered
over il. The statue represents an as
cetic figure holding a c%rucitiX and
around the head are arranged the five
miraculous stars.
One fingers longest al the fine old
tower at the entrance 70 the bridge. II
by some spell like that used in the Ara
bian tales we could unseal the lips OF
the sculptured figures who look down
so calmly from their lofty station, what
tragic tales they could tell Of the many
times the tide Of battle has surged
across this bridge. During the stormy
days Of the Thirty Years War it was
the Gene of many conflicts, and for ten
year the heads Of twelve Of Bohemia's
Protestant mobiles swung in iron cages
from the tower. Later the citizens OF
Prague rallied 10 its defense against the
Swedes and held it for three long
months. till the peace Of Westphalia
ended the war. When Frederick the
Great invaded Bohemia it was the scene
of a bloody struggle, and as lately as
the revolution of 1S4S a famous barn.
cade was built there by the students
But the DAYS of the Karlsbrucke are
numbered Three of its arches were
carried away by a swollen river, and
the collapse of a fourth renders its de
~struction inevitable. Begun as the
night of the Middle Ages was beginning
to roll away, and finished in the dawn.
ing light of the Reformation, the old
bridge falls just rs the Twelfth century
opens before the world--Macon Tele-
graph.