The Portland daily press., 1891-12-28
NUNEM BERG.
A Quaint Old Town which has been asleep
for Centuries.
Especial Correspondence.]

BALE, SWITZERLAND, Nov. 10.
On leaving Munich felt some of the re-
grets of home devastating, everything is
is so congenial and absorbing there. Every
body partakes of the spirit of the place,
and SO that morning the cars were full of
interesting people who had halted at Mum
ich on their way from different resorts In
Austria.
But the company and the country through
which we passed and the "reminiscences OF
the sights were all so pleasant that before
anyone believed so much time had elapsed,
just before midday the train pulled into
the station at Nuremberg finding us with
budgets and packages in no condition to
alight. Before we we're fully disembarked
| discovered that we had left the new be-
hind and were about to enter city already
asleep for centuries.
NUREMBERG A CITY OF THE PAST.
People of course knew al! about Nurem-
berg; they know, no doubt, that the dwell
ers therein were put to sleep centuries ago,
aud that the multitude Of sight-seers from
other lands cannot even arouse them from
their nappings. Rip Van Wrinkle sits
there figuratively as In our dramas and all
the hustle of the world outside does not
disturb him.
The fairy maiden put to sleep by q spell.
who has In all traditional ages and
countries fallen into the same dull trance,
to be awakened by the chivalrous Prince
who dares and braves everything for her,
still sleeps on, waiting the magic touch
which will make of Nuremberg city Of
today and which will rob the old world of
almost its last stronghold OF poetic phantasy
and primitive Quaintness. People know
all these things about Nuremberg, they
know Ii one wishes to take an early morn
Ing leave, he must look out and not get
locked in. unless he can bride the grim
janitOr for possession of the great key to
one of the city gates.
But as much as people have heard of this
weird city their Imagination cannot COM
pass the mythical quaintness of 1t as
whole unless they see it and are left in it
and get some of its weirdness into the hem
OF their garments. 1t Is not wholly unlike
the old Roman relics, 1t Is almost super
natural. 1t is prehistoric, 1t is mythology
cal, 1t is like the old excavated cities which
went down SO long ago in volcanic up
city condemned for its sins to nights q
century long, and 1t Is now waiting for its
tenth decade OF nights to pass TO give 1t,
Its one day of living, vital history. 1t Is
all In the past one lives in Nuremberg
whether for day, week or month, for
whoever enters there shuts out the present
and future and energies covered with decay
and cobwebs. But like everything ephe-
neral and unreal, 1t is fascination.
Lots wife would have stood no better
chance than In leaving Sodom, for every
man as well as woman looks back. not
once or twice but many times regretfully
10 attempt to describe lG would be like
swinging open the gates of fiction or like
crossing In Charon's boat to the other
side.
THE ANCIENT CASTLE BURG.
This old castle, which looks down on the
red roofs and charred tiles, is the oldest
place of which one ever dreamed. It con-
tains everything which all the old castles
of Europe together have inside. Conrad
IL. built 1t and Frederick Barbarossa en-
larged it. The access to 1t is like storming
fort or mounting bastion.
Although 1t was occupied as royal resi-
dence as late as 1856. it has nothing Of the
present century In It's equipments. In the
courtyard there is lime tree In whose
shade Cunigurde the queen wife of some
Emperor Henry III sat in 1902 A. ID. and
under whose branches In the years imme-
dlately following the laws were exponnded
In the audience chamber are some
pictures of the old masters of Kraflwohl
and HolDein and a stove that might have
come out of the ark instead of the dark
ages.
SOME MONUMENTAL STOVES.
But when one speaks of stoves, don't let
it convey to the mind anything of iron,
that looks as If it were for healing purposes
but imagine to yourselfa structure quite
as high and half as large as large draw
ing-room. made in ornamental fashion of
porcelain. Some of them are shaped like
the base Of the Effel Tower and resemble
In their construction costly mosaics. The
shape is always artistic or curious. These
old ones in castle Burg are fantastic and
have quaint designs like Sanscrit or Ara.
bic aud figures ancient in character either
NEUROLOGICAL, barDaric or biblical. These
stoves are not made to keep fire In but to
heat up like brick oven and warm by the
radiation from the stored up heat. A large
one Will warm q room for three or four DAYS
when once heated, in moderate winter
weather. And these old ones in this
castle, may still possess soma of the heat
of the religious and political controversies
Of the ages In which they were built; tradi-