The daily morning journal and courier., 1894-09-06
'HElreonayD. !. ,,
A Visit to That Very Singular Island ih
 the North Sea.

Inasnuch as Helgoland is but a'litA tie scrap of land in the North Sea, in .act not more than one-half of one
 square mile in area. 50 l will on this
 occasion write you but very short
 .etter to describe this very peculiar and unique islet.
 We left Norderney at a, m. in the
 line German steamer Cobra" the
 largest by far of all the steamers ply Ing 10 Heligoland and the Frisian Is- lands. We steamed very rapidly away
 from flair Norderney." and a pretty sight it was. too. to view this little is+
 land sink beneath the horizon. but at
 last after steering towards all points
 of the compass, in and out among the shoals where the sea broke In great
 breakers. we lost sight of the shore.
 which was crowded with people and alive with children carrying flags on poles and building sand forts.
 In my letter from Norderney I omit
 ted to mention that at Hardeney chil- dren by thousands spend much of their
 time building sand forts on the beach
 (and flying flags therefrom to oppose the incoming tide, and many of these sand forts are really of superior con struction with their outlying penta- gons and deep meats. In many cases these little forts appear as models of real forts, and seem as if Constructed by clever artillery officers. It is not at all strange that German children should build forts of sand, for their environment is always one of war, and the very thought of war, and Of sol- diers and of bright uniforms, has inn bued German youth with love of glory ever since those four thousand Giant Grenadiers of Frederick Will
 helm I. drilled with such precision on the parade ground of the Old Schloss at Potsdam and won the admiration of all Europe No doubt the impression produced by his fathers tall Grena- diers tended to develop in Frederick II. that intense love for a soldiers life which eventually placed him in such conspicuous position in the history of Europe Has the world ever known braver. or greater general than Freder- Ick the Great?
 Julius Caesar, Atilla, Napoleon, Vel lington, can they transcend the quali- ties of Frederick the Great? I think of him, as Thomas Carlyle did, as the greatest military genius that history has ever revealed to us. r Well, I find I am digressfng, so,let-us hurry along towards Heligoland. We stood right out into the open sea; no land was visible in any quarter and we steamed along in fine style: His paths are in the great watafs.r cTrulN we were on 'the great and-wtde- 'sea:'' The air was deliciously cool and invig- orating, and the sensation produced by the heaving pillows was very agreed ble as we now and then sighted and ran past those heavy red-sailed Ger man luggers, whose occupants pass their whole lives on .nthis German | ocean, and whose particular employ | ment is fishing, adopts, too, at their | profession, for their. ancestors for cen- turies have fished these same waters | in these very same unique style of | boats, whose red sails gleam afar in | the shining sunlight. T"
 These fishers are the Frisian fisher | folk, a peculiar race, very like, no | doubt to their remote forefathers, who l were. famous fishermen and skilled | boat builders as long ago as the days ! when Caesar wrote his ''Gallic .,Wars.g We sighted many steamships, great le. viathans of the deep, on their passage to and from distant ports, and it de lighted me to see the great square sailed merchantmen, with all their can- vas set, jogging along with g. gentle four or five knot breeze, nearing their home ports, Hamburg or Bremen, or bound up through the Cattegat into the Baltic Sea, deeply laden with their freight from over the seas. In this same manner I used to behold similar ships, with flags flying, coming proud ly into their destination in tropic seas.
 What ,prettier sight can there be than a fine sailing ship, with all her canvas set, running down the trades" or standing boldly into her desired ha- ven At one p. m. we saw right ahead l of us an object which looked like the great back of a whale; the captain told us this was Heligoland bearing northwest three leagues distant. We smiled at such yarn, taking his re- mark decidedly 'scuin grano salis," but as the whole seemed incapable of changing it's position we were at last forced to believe our smileless, stolid captain, and in a short space of time we cast anchor in a little bay in the most singular island in the world; the same was Heligoland.
 Heligoland (Holy-Land) is gradually being devoured by the waves Of the North Sea, and in a few years will cease to exist, or rather will only sur- vive as shifting shoal of sand, the |, sport of wind and wave This remarkable island rises from \ the sea to perpendicular height of two hundred feet on three sides, form ing a long narrow triangle, which is , called the "Oberland." On the southl ga st side there is merely 1o., a,4