Alma record. (Alma, Mich.) 1878-1928, 1894-05-25
A FAMOUS WINTER RESORT.
An Alpine village That Is without Inhsb-
itants Most of the Year.


St. Moritz- Bad, which is situated about
. mile from st. Moritz- Dorf the well
known winter Alpine resort, Is town
composed almost exclusively OF gigantic
hotels, mammoth boarding houses, or, to
give them their moro polite appellation,
pensions and gargantuan villas In tho
summer 1t is crammed with people, holt
day makers and inyalids, who come TO
drink Its healing waters, drawn together
from all points of the compass and repre-
senting divers nationalities, but in the
winter 1t is shut up and deserted. No one
lives there but IA solitary caretaker or two,
and the town becomes as silent as and
three times more cold than the proverbial
sepulcher.
The reason OF this exodus Is of course
due to the fact that St. Moritz- Bad oc-
cupics a position which renders il far too
cold spot TO be capable of sustaining a
human population during the winter time.
The town is built on level stretch Of
ground close TO the lake of ST. Moritz and
SO closely hemmed In by surrounding
mountains that the sun scarcely touches
IL at all for six months out of 12. Para
doxical as IL may seem, II Is nevertheless
true that this unique little town of gigan-
tic hotels, mammoth pensions and gargan-
tuan villas is only, strictly speaking in
habited by the people for whom it was ex-
clusively built-that is to say, for holiday
makers and invalids-for about six or
seven weeks out Of the 52 that constitute
the solar year. The rest OF that time it Is
shut up-deserted-and nothing save bust
ness or curiosity could tempt a man to set
foot in It,
The effect upon mind and Imagination
as you force your way through the huge
masses Of snow that cucumber the streets
Of st. Moritz-Ba in winter time must be
somewhat similar to that which explorers
narrate their experience on first setting
foot within the mysterious circles OF the
arctic regions. 1t Is 10 be observed, how
ever, that in the latter case this gloom
and silence, which fall like a pail, as it
were, upon the awed spectator and strike
him dumb with fear and admiration, are
unaccompanied by any of the signs and
emblems of human habitation, and, there
fore, though weird and terrible, are nat
ural enough. In the former those two feel
ings become intensified, and by conse-
quence their effects upon the imagination,
by reason of their being experienced amid
all the signs of human life and business
and in the hearts, as IL were, Of a real
though latent vitality.
The huge hotels, with their closely shut
tered windows, smokeless chimneys and
general appearance Of chronic neglect, re-
semble nothing so much as deserted pal.
aces from which all signs of life have been
cut off, all movement expressive of vitality
effectually banished by reason of pesti-
lence, crime or some other dreadful calam-
ity. The snow lies several feet deep upen
the pathways that lead TO them and upon
the roofs of these gigantic buildings. The
shops on the quaint little main street hard
by are securely closed for the winter and
TO all intents and purposes are signless.
The caretakers-a sleepy, idle tribe,
whose sole diversion seems TO consist in
being showed up and occasionally dug out
again-spend their time in dreaming one
half the day and sleeping soundly the rest.
The watchdog's bark is probably the only
sound that penetrates TO their ears, but
when night falls-and 1t falls with swift
ness and icy vengeance at ST. NORTH Bad,
of which only those who have experienced
1t can possess any adequate notion-and
all sound is stilled and all movement effec-
tually stifed beneath the iron heel of King
Frost, then is the illusion made complete,
and the stranger realizes at once that he
Is face 10 face, rs IL were, with q genuine