The Portland daily press., 1892-12-28

with the great printing ESTABLISHMENTS
are the all absorbing objects of interest
to the visitors.
The stock exchange in Leipsic is the
printers Bourse, where people all over the
world gagged in the sale and manu-,
facture of books, assemble at stated
seasons and discuss and transact busl-
ness necessary to the trade. There are
three hundred booksellers shops and
eighty printing offices in town, wnlle
booksellers in all parts of Europe have
depots, whence they send books all over
the world.
On the Grimmacher Strasse, is Auber-
bachs cellar, which is at present wine
shop, but is celebr ted as the scene OF a
part of Goethes Faust. 1t has curious
old paintings on the walls representing
the traditions in which the play was
founded. In this same street, are severa,
other very ancient houses. Schiller had
a house near here, as he HAD in so many
other cities. And not far from here on
side street Richard Wagner wac born.
In the vicinity is the Pleissburg; the old
part of the city, where the Battle or
Leipsic was fought, when Napoleon'ss
army of one hundred and fifty thousand
men were obliged to retreat with only
ninety thousand. But the most striking
old Romische House which contains an
cient classic frescoes illustrating scenes
from Homer and other early writers and
scenes from legendary history.
weimar.I
Weimar used to be the homo of paint
ers, poets ami scholars and in no place
can day be spent surrounded by more
classic associations. Here Goethe and
Schiller live again, standing together as
they did in life, now in their united mon
ument, and in their old retreats.
Herder and Wieland seem to smile at
you in marble and whisper of the days
when Duke Charles Augustus called
| around him the choicest spirits of the
age. Rooms in the houses of each of
these may be seen that echo with memo
ries, which to the scholar make of an
otherwise monotonous town city full of
| historic romance and song and rife with
| the genius which has so long slumbercd
except in the memories of men.
Is also pervaded by the spirit of the
past, for it is a city which has stood
still. Luther again walks it's streets as a
monk and begs from door to door as a
part of his priestly duty, asking aims of
the very companions, who had been his
friends of yore.
In the principal square we looked
from the windows our hotel and saw
| him. still noble in marble as he really
was in life. On the fine pedestal of the
| s,f, @r~e,
| his life, and taken from the most inter-
esting epochs in his career. On one side
we see him the last night before he be-
came a monk, feasting and rollicking
with his friends. In another relief these
friends are present at the door of the
convent to inquire for him, but the hard
ened old monks shut the door in their
faces.
A third relief presents Luther kneel-
ing before these monks, sick after his
HASTINGS and lingering privations. The
monks are saying in German You shall
not die, but live to announce the word OF
the Lord more fully" How fully, the
stirring scenes of the next forty or fifty
years bare witness, the clashing of arms,
the persecution of the innocent, and the
final triumph of right.
All the events of Luther's life repre-
sent him very human, very natural and
wholly unaffected, so that his heroic char
ter shines forth on such background
much more resplendently than that Of
MANY other reformers. whose characters
were 80 stilted and warped by narrow.
ness and prejudice, that one can often
times hardly regard them as more gener-
Gus, than those who prosecuted them.
The convent at Erfurt S very inter
esting place, being very large and mas
sive. and now used for an orphan asylum
since as an outgrowth of the Reforma-
ton, at present all seems Protestant
here, as we'll as in the greater part of the
TIL ringian Forest.
But the most classic place in Erfurt is
the university now called the Temple
where Luther acquired that vast knowl
edge and culture which afterwards rem
dered him SO finished and scholarly q
man. This building is uniq lie in the
carving about the doors and vaultings
being unlike anything found IN architec
ture elsewhere.
But the accommodation for travellers
in these old places is no better than il
the DAYS when Luther lived and studied
and so after spending one night there
we babe the town farewell, fastening OF
to Eisenach and other resorts in thu
1.-THE Thuringian Wald.'
After enjoying the tonic contained il
the air of Saxon Switzerland, these for
ests seem damp and chilly, especially i
one happens to arrive just as pouring
rain storm is setting in. Therefore get
ting glimpse of what those much fire.
quented places, Friederichsroda, Wuther
Ruhla and other villages more remote
might be, if the sun shone over theil
hills and through the trees, we hastenec
on to Eisenach, just in time to see thu
clouds lift above the ''Wartburg,' the
stronghold in the hearts of the people Q!
that town.
The Wartburg and Eisenach.
In all the world to the jewellers il
Eisenach, there is nothing worth possess
ing SO dear as this castle on the heights
overlooking the town. 1t embodies al
the past and present glories OF the city
being rich not only in "reminiscences OIL
Luther, but in the real and legendar.