The daily morning journal and courier., 1895-03-05

On His Way to That Famous Spot he
 Passed Most Magnificent Mountain
 Scenery, some of Which, he Says, Words
 Cannot Begin to Desoribe-A Pathetic
 Incident.
 Dresden, Feb. II, 1895.
 To the Editor of the JOURNAL AND COURIER;
 There are many roads leading to Ven
 ice from the four points of the compass;
 the beautiful queen of the Adriatic can
 be approached by the iron rail or by
 steamer up the great gulf branching
 north from the Mediterranean, but to
 my mind the grandest and most sub
 lime approach to this beautiful city is
 by rail from Vienna, which is four hun
 dred miles to the north. There are two
 splendid railroads between Vienna and
 Venice. One is via Gratz and Trieste,
 over which trayeled some years ago,
 and 8 magnificent route it is; the other
 is via the little Italian village of Pom
 tebba.
 Both of these routes lead over the
 Semmering Alps and are renowned for the beauty of the scenery along their line of travel. We bought our tickets via Pontebba, and leaving the railroad station quite early in the morning, we crossed a wide plain for about fifty miles, passing very many pretty villages, where many handsome villas were to be seen built upon con- spicuous situations.
 We rushed rapidly through the wine district, admiring the broad fields cov- cred with green vines laden with rich clusters of grapes. Austria is celebra- ted for it's abundant and excellent wines, and the value of the product of Bohemian, Austrian and Hungarian vines is something fabulous. Near the Schneeberg, which is over seven thou sand feet high and visible from it's base to it's summit, is to be seen the ancient castle of Seebenstein, one of the many properties of that famous prince among land owners, Prince Lichtenstein. The Semmering railroad is one of the finest in the world; it leaves the plains at the little village of Gloquitz and gradually and slowly ascends to the hamlet of Klamm, nearly three thousand feet above the plain; here is a partly ruined castle owned by Prince Lichtenstein; it is situated on steep precipice. We pass over viaducts and crawl through long tunnels constantly ascending, and at last, after passing through a tunnel one mile long. we reach the highest part of the Semmering, the boundary between Austria and Styria, and then the descent. Words are simply inadequate to give any idea of the magnificent scenery at this point.
 It seemed as if the old Titans had been hard at work and had piled "Peli- on" upon "Ossa" and Alps upon the summits of Alps"
 Grand and majestic mountain sides stretched far upward clad with magnif- cent forests to the very limit of vegeta- ble growth, and bare cold rocks stretched still heavenward, which seemed to tell of primevaI ages. Love " valleys wound far below us through which running streams seemed ever to glide, rejoicing to rush into the em- brace of the ocean, which like load stone attracts the waters from every stream and river, and which strange to say, although it's longings are constant y gratified. is never filled or satisfied. Far below us we notice pretty villages with their miniature white houses stretching far away and splendid farms 'ejoicing in abundant wheat fields. It earn that the quality of the wheat grown in Austria, more particularly in { Hungary, is the finest known in the { yorld and the Hungarian process" of l milling wheat revolutionized the mill { ng industry of the United States and ( ther countries. All of the large four z ng mills in the United States have ( dopted the Hungarian process" for i obvious reasons. s All about us the scenery is very beau 2 iful and varied; as we advance the sur l oundings increase in loveliness. Rare l y are mountains seen in such com t ined majesty as here. At every step | eauty alternates with grandeur. The f jews remind me of the words which r 'arlyle put into the mouth of old "Teu- g "The savage peaks all r lowing of gold and amethyst like t iant spirits of the wilderness, there in s heir silence, in their solitude ever as b Il the night when Noah's deluge first c ried.' The engineers were brave men g build this iron road through and W yer these mountains their hearts, like r le bold sailors of which Horace sang, it were clad with triple steel" If the D scent of the mountains was so grand, p le descent was even more so as we W ,emed almost to fly through the air. a 7e passed many places of interest, n resorts and watering places, b ith famous and fashionable sanitari- ir ms. pt Loeben, which we passed on our jour- b; ay downwards, is a lovely place with tf orious view stretching far away into G 1per Styria. At this town the negoti- bl