The Iola register., 1891-10-09
OVER LAND AND SEA.
A Reminder of Kansas-'sThe Blue Alsatian
Mountains'' = Heidelberg and Its Great
Castle Frankfort and Wiesbadea-
Down the Rhinestone Legends.
HEIDELBERG. GERMANY, !
mr. O1 1sQ1

HEIDELBERG, GERMANY, /
Aug. q, 1891. !
It is three honrs and a half from
Baden Baden to Heidelberg, and the
road for nearly all the distance Lies
through the broad and beautiful
Rhine plain, as level as Kansas and
as green as England. Away on to
the left, for half an hour or so after
we start, lie "the blue Alsatian noun
tains;n but they fade away soon and
for an hour or more there is nothing
to be seen but the quaint red houses,
the men and women gathering in the
fields, and the level reach OF meadows,
bordered with fruit trees and broken
only at long intervals with small
fields of hops, gracefully trailing up
their tall poles, and with little patch
es of luxuriant tobacco. But the hills
come in sight again before the journey
is ended and we find Heidelberg
crowded by them into the narrowest
of valleys which it shares with the
bright, swift Neckar.
Heidelberg, as every body knows,
has two "big things, the University
and the ruined Castle. The Univer-
sity is one of the oldest in Europe,
having been founded in the fourteenth
century, and is honored the world
over. 1t is vacation time now. though.
and there is nothing to see but the
outside of two or three large but en-
tirely plain stone buildings. The Cas-
tie is always on exhibition, however,
so went up there this morning, al
though it was pouring rain, in COM
| pany with a score or more of equally
devoted sightseers. I thought the
railroad up the Rigi was steep; but 1t
| is a dead level compared with the
road which carries venturesome pass
engers up the Heidelberg hill ard
which I am sure makes the ascent at
an angle of fully 45 degrees. To ride
up in car is like going up in bal
loon, and to come down is like falling
except that you light easy. We went
to the top first, to u jutting point that
they call the "Molkenkur"-which
means literally the "Milk-cure," but
which as practically translated means
beer garden-from which, in spite OF
the rain, we had a splendid view OF
the ivy-grown ruins below, and the
narrow town and the shining Neckar,
and the walled-up vineyards on the
opposite sleeps and the great Rhine
plain away to the south. Then We
took the car again and fell down to
the half way station whence three
minutes walk brought US to the Castle.
The Castle was founded-to be "guide-
bookyn awhile for the sake of being
clear-by the Count Palatine, Ra-
dolph 1, in the latter part of the 18th
century. 1t continued to4be occupied
as residence and stronghold by his
successors for some 400 years and was
continually Strengthened and extend
ed during all this time. In 1859 il
was taken by the French who set il
on fire and did their wicked best te
demolish it. Thirty or forty years
later 1t was entirely restored by the
elector Carl Theodore, but in 1764 il
was struck by lightning and finally
reduced to the ruinous condition in
which it now remains. One needs te
remember this history, needs to re-
member that for a period of nearly 5Ot
years autocratic princes expended here
the revenues of a kingdom, to be able
to understand how it was possible fol
so stupendous structure to be piled
Iup. The walls are of vast extent, en-.
closing many acres of ground, and in
spite of lightning and gunpowder and
the tooth of Time they still tower
nearly hundred feet high, solid and
straight as the day they were built
The outer walls are 20 feet thick al
the base, and they were laid with
mortar of such a quality that they are
now practically one solid mass. A
part of the tower, a huge block weigh.
ing many tons, was blasted off by the
French in 1859, and fell a hundred feet
into the moat., The fall did not frac.
ture it and it lies there to-day like one
piece of rock. When those old Ger.
mans built they built for keeps. In
one of the rooms are collected great
many things that have been found in
and about the ruins;--spears, battle
axes, primitive blunderbusses, stone
canon balls, fragments of old armor,
and innumerable other articles of like
nature. But the greatest curiosity
greatest in more senses than one-in
the whole Castle is the Great Tun, in
one of the cellar rooms. This tun is
simply an enormous wine barrel. I
do not know its exact dimensions, but
it holds $1,000 gallons. Its slaves are
nearly, if not quite, foot thick and
every thing about is in like proper
tion. There is rallied platform on
top and a fight of stairs leads up to it.
The tun used to be filed every fall
each of the Electors subjects being
required to contribute tithes of wine
for that purpose. 1t has not been fill
ed now for more than q hundred
years, but it looks to be just as water
tight, or wine tight, as it ever was.