Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1902-01-02
GERMAN TOWN PICTURED.

The Beautiful Service in One of Its
Churches.
1t has been a great change from the
rush and hurry Of Paris to the quiet
of this old fashioned German town
From horn blowing automobiles, gong
changing tramways, whip cracking
coachers and screaming street VEN
doris, to a town without a single tram
way Of any kind, few horses and fewer
donkeys, and never a street cry-the
latter is against the law made the
change in II hours, and am still en-
joying the peace l found on the 18th.
The town Of k, aside from quaint
twisting streets, sedate looking dark
red and brown houses, and an air Of
stability, is unattractive, for it is a
place of manufactures, and the SCOT
and smoke from huge chimneys be-
CRIME what otherwise would be a
clean city. Even as it is, the women,
with noble courage, scrub and wash
and scOur, morning, noon and night
The population consists Of the owners
families, principally their children,
give life and noise to the otherwise
deserted streets. The tap, tap, of lit
tie wooden and hob-nailed shoes is
heard all day, as the sturdy little
owners trOt to school, home to dinner
and back to school. Steel, furniture,
and the carding of wool are the three
principal Industries. In the time of
Frederick the first) Barbarossa, k
had social Importance, the king having
his castle here, which he occupied
often. Today the castle is ruin, and
the town what I have described it.
Only four people own private car.
riages, and yet it is a desirable resi-
dence, town that in spite of its air
of working for its living, still bears s.
mark OF refinement, and a certain ele-
gance of age and stability. The sur.
roundings may perhaps account in
part for this, for on every side rise
forests of pine trees. One can drive
for miles in any direction over most
lovely roads, through woods carpeted
with game for the hunter, flowers for
the botanist, and vistas Of green alley
and shady glen for the lover of ma
ture.
The two Protestant churches, one
OLD, the other new, are both artistic
and beautiful, and yesterday I heard
in the new church, as it is called,
service worthy one of our best Fifth
avenue sanctuaries; a sermon equal
in eloQuence and fervor, and the
strength Of its appeal to anything /
heard last spring from New York pull
pits; an organ played as no one ever
hears it played outside of this music
loving and music-knowing country.
The singing by the congregation was
absolutely perfect, the seven or eight
hundred voices seeming as one, and
rising and falling by instinct to the
melody and sentiment of the hymns.
The sun has shope ever since
came here, and I have wandered
about, one morning at the market
place, watching the buying and sell
AANso' Si-CIAiSA Al anu Jul VI SIINSl anu
square, buying hot chestnuts, and sit
ting to eat them on a cold stone
bench, and losing my way and finding
it again by asking one of the hand
some policemen who stand at every
other corner. Driving when tried of
walking in the one open victoria the
town affords, far into the country,
stopping at some old fashioned coffee
house for cup of the hot drink, this
people love quite as much as they do
the beer SO talked of, returning to the
city as the sun sets over the tons of
the dark pine trees. AS | saw it
then, Hooked like q dark red ruby
set IN ring Of shaded green enamel.
The Neues KirChe alone shone lighter
than the buildings around it; grace
full and perfect in line of architecture
1t stands like a finely cut diamond in
a ruby heart, and we could hear it's
silver-toned bells ringing out the re-
hinder that Sunday was at hand. that
the sun was going to rest, and that
weary mankind had now also to do no
work until the holy day was past
Correspondence of New York OBJ
server.