The weekly intelligencer. [volume] (Lexington, Mo.) 1891-1901, 1892-07-16

dlstlnct. The rest of the party came
up in time to witness this remarkable
appearance. On reaching the ridge of
the mountains summit all our figures
or superhuman size appeared to be
projected on the mist in the direction
OF Gottingen. Arising from this phe-
nomena are the many beautiful super
stltlous German legends of the ssGIant
OF the Broken" detailed at length un-
der the heading of the .sInlluence of
elevation upon asthmatics' in another
chapter of this volume. Now as one
travels south to mountainous Switzer-
land and Tyrol the legends of the peo-
pie grow loftier arising from their more
elevated position. The Tyrol is one of
the most exclusively mountainous,
countries in Europe, containing a
smaller relative proportion of open
country than Switzerland. This physi-
cal circumstance has had great effect
upon the character and political fortunes
OF the inhabitants. The Swiss like these
are mouDtalneers, but do not possess
their noble characteristics, because
Switzerland is less assailable and is not
cut up into small divisions, in which
highly-wrought spirit of patriotism
the great source of Tyrolese character
Cannot be so intensely felt. The
Tyrolese have preserved spirit of in
dependence through a long series of
years, for which they are entirely in
debted to their geographical position
OF conqueror5. A handful of men can
defend some of the most important
mountain passes against whole army.
The lofty imagination of the ryrolese
is co-existant with their elevated habi-
tation upon the mountain sides and
submits communing with the skies.
Who has not felt the blood 60 bound
ing through his veins after ascending a
mountain and viewing from lofty
peak the world beneath him. How one s
| spirits seems to soar aloft and keep
pace with the flight of the eagle. Thus
while in the deep and dark gulches of
the Tyrol and Switzerland into some of
the ravines and gorges of which the
direct sunshine never steals, the cases
OF strange melancholy, idiocy and
hideous deformity are such as to startle
the traveller. Contrawise upon the
mountain tops the intelligence and
physique of the inhabitants are most
nearly perfect, and their imaginations
and inspirations are as lofty as their
own sky piercing glaciers and :he soar
ing OF the birds of freedom. The fol-
lowing beautiful legend is an out
growth of this peoples elevated situa-
tion and their consequent high senti-
ments.
On the SUBMITS of the mountains
there, there grows little white
flower shaped like star, called the
Edelweiss. 'Tis very rare and hard to
find. About this flower the legend
runs that ''once upon time there was
a lady s' pure, so sublime, SO heavenly
minded that throughout all her CLINE
no suitor was found worthy to win her
SO at last she was metamorphosed into
star-like flower as white as the snow
and placed high up on the mountain
tops close to the snow she SO strongly re
sembled. Though all men vainly sigheo
for her, they were, however, partly
consoled to see her so loftily placed
there forever TO be the type of tina
womanhood that is most lovely; anC
because the flower could only be founc
through peril and toll and an upward
struggle, it became a saying through
out the cantons around in defense of i
that he who would win the love of tn,
highest and noblest would be one o
the first to begin the upward ascen
and be the most successful in pluckins
the Edelweiss, So at last it began t.
grow sacred to betrothals as the orange
blossoms are the marriage vow, till a
length no fair lady might be won unit
her lover himself had gone alone t.
scale the perilous heights searching fol
the precious Edelweiss. And many f,
brave and gallant lover endured untolc
hardships or lost his life among tht
mountain tops in search of the preciou:
flower, and no lady could merit any
higher honor than to have the littl'
white flower as her own emblem thrown
at her or placed in her gentle hand ano
like the Scotch white heather it told
in itself the old sweet tale that will
still be whispered by brave and bolt
gallants in the ages that yet are com
ing, for if the lady took his offering tn,
happy lover knew he might look fol
hope, and if she placed it in her girdl'
or on her bosom her lover knew tha
she forever was his.
| World-famed are the Tyrolese war
hlers. Living upon the lofty peaks ant
crags of the mountains, their voices
are developed to halloo and signal eacl
other, and one of their amusements il
to sound their voices, hallooing ant
listening to the echo which come bach
several or a hundred times perhaps, ac
cording to the numbers and respectiv,
distances Of the surrounding peak
which reflect back the sound waves
each succeeding echo fainter than tn
one before. The warblers have songs
throwing their voices out upon the air
loud and clear, the echo answering an,
the warbler then continuing the son;
often making several different sound
before the previous echos have fade,
away, and combining several echos to
gether, one recent, one less so, other
still older, ETC., all different sounds
but the echos blending one into tn
, other produce most beautiful musi
cal effect, sound which only tn
,, mountain peaks and rocky cliffs engen
der, warbling being an outgrowth o
this peculiarly adapted mountainou
4 country.
Apoplexy, the climatic influenc
2 upon this affection will be mentione
t although the subject hardly come
g within the scope of this work, com
e pounded OF many parts a mans bod
: is performing many offices so diversi
P fled in nature, that there is, perhaps
E no extensive train of phenomena in tn
A universe that does not find its counter
= part in his organization, crowned witt
e other and higher faculties of sense an
i intellect, far removed from anythin.
1 observed in inorganized matter. Thi
a completely and completeness of tn
= human body almost justifies the ancien
e opinion that 'man was mIcrocosmus-
g an abstract or model of the world.
;, For dust and ashes as he is, who ca
S survey the RUNS of the human frame
e the bare skeleton to which it is at las
S reduced, and in clothing it with muscl
!. and tendon, artery and vein, delicat
g and ineessant chemical action, force
}, adjusted for circulating fluids, and pre-
h ducing motion, sight and all sens
g affection, passion, thought-the histor
s of all it may have done and suffered
s without feeling world wrecked i
d space, planet in all its alterations
It offers less interesting spectacle tha
: the phenomena manifested by tn
human body by reason of an apoplec
:, tic stroke. The disease proving fata