Fairhaven herald. [volume] (Fairhaven, Wash.) 1890-????, 1892-04-06
THE GEGENssuae g7.r1s.

An Interesting Medieval legend Of d
structure Over tho Danube.
Few towns, l fancy, combine within theb
walls so many buildings of interest and 80
many memories dear to mankind as Re
| gcnsburg, We sat down upon the nave.
menJ in the market place to muse of these
Things, our backs TO q church wall and our
hats full of freshly picked strawberrie-
| from the basket Of an equally fresh peas
ant lassie, who delighted in seeing us eat
her fruit Bat the monument most inter
esting to canoeist is the stone bridge
I claimed by RegeRsbRFgers TO be the strong.
est in the world.
AT any rate, the span between the piers
~ no WIDER than the buttresses, and the
! river PUSHES through so turbuleHtIy as In
create very risky looking whirlpools and
rapids below The engineer troops of In
golstadt have to take pilots when they pass
TINS town, and we were strongly urged TO do
the same, but we had no room and conse-
! quently determined to try for ourselves,
we succeeded by choosing the right hand
arch, ana our success was in spite of the
ueVll' Tor ms share in its construction was
very great, as every Danube sailor will at
test.
The story runs that while the cathedral
was IN course Of construction the chief
architect intrusted to a very clever appren-
tee the task OF making this bridge The
young man felt so confident that he offered
70 span The Danube before his master had
finished the cathedral. But he finally
FOUND that he had undertaken too much.
Tor the sacred pile went up with great
sOeadlneSs, while the bridge moved with
great dlthculty. The youngster finally
vented his discouragementi ia blasphemous
wishes that the devil might take over the
job.
No sooner spoken than a venerable monk
appeared and offered to do the work. In
his sandals were cloven hoofs and a tail
whlsked under the sacred garb; but never
theless bargain was made and it was
agreed that when the bridge was done the
devil was to have the first three living
things that crossed.
The devil kept his word. All the mate
rial came to hand with such devilish rapid
ity that the morning broke upon a com
pleted bridge.
Il was May Day, and Of course great
crowd was present, each eager to be first
IN crossing 50 new and magnificent thor
'NSHi''iS' L ht utNll' ucuEnUu with ms
bargain, rubbed his hands under the sec
ond arch from the shore and waited for his
victims.
stop" said the architect to the crowd
stand back In the opening Of this bridge
we have solemn ceremony to perform be
fore it can be pronounced safe. Jacob"
said he, with a wink to his foreman "let
the strangers take precedence"
At these words a rough wolfdog.
followed by a cock and a hen, was set at
large, and crossed the first arch of the
bridge. At the same time a dreadful noise
was heard under the piers. The mangled
remains Of the three animals flew i'm all
and the devil was seen to dis |
appear, screaming, Cheated, cheated of
my feeW The monks now sprinkied holy |
water on the bridge, and the happy people .
rejoiced,
The second arch Of the Repensbura |.
Bridge, as if to prove the legend, is still /.
7avagely bent upon destroying the boat /.
man ventunng beneath il; and as we had /
no desire to measure the strength of our
paddle with that of the DEVILS pitchfork.
we carefully avoided it, and advise all .
others TO do the same.-Poultney Bigelow .
n Harper's.