Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-03-23

Where the burned Hospice Of St
GothaTd Stood.

From the New YSx Tribune.
Had the hospices ID the, summit of the
Pass Of st. Gqkhard in the Alps. which
was burned the oth@ day. been destroyed
Twenty-Five years. ag6At would have meant a
greater loss tdsthe travelling world than
It does now. 3reviqps to the opening of
the st. Gothard Tunnel, in 1882 all the
travel from Lake izcerne to Lake Mag
giore lay over the carriage road which
winds from F1Velep, at the end of Lake
Lucerne. up ti$ous2 the valley Of the
tumultuous Reuse to. the summit Of the
Pass Of st. GothafO Now the railroad.
passing through az tGnnel nine and one
fourth miles long dnasf the pass. has robbed
1t Of much of its Importance.
This was not the first hospice on the pass
to be destroyed. The original hospice was
erected in the early part Of the fourteenth
century, when the archbishop Of Milan sent
q monk to this wild height to minister to
the spiritual as we'll as the physical wants
OF distressed travellers. larger hosptce
was erected three hundred years later. 1t
lasted only twenty-five years. however. and
in 1852 the archbishop and the canton of
uri replaced it. One day. in the year 1775,
the friars who were stationed there heard
rumbling from the mountain side above
them. 1t was an avalanche gathering head
way. The hospice lay In Its path, and In q
few moments had been swept away. It's
in 1799-1SOO. The parish OF Afrolo, which
lies on the south side of the pass, where the
railroad energies from the mountain side,
built in 1884 the hOspice which was de-
stroyed last week. This was a massive and
roomy building Winter there lasts about
eight months, and fires are often necessary
In the brief summer.
The st. Gothard road. after passing
through short tunnel, bursts out on
grassy plain just under the summit of
the. pass. The transition from the wild,
rocky scenery Of the Devils bridge at the
lower end Of the tunnel. only few hum
dred feet away, Is SO brief that the con-
trast adds to the beauty Of the plain.
Black yawning portal. thy soul to alright.
Yet beyond it there smiles but land of delight.
Where the autumn in marriage is met with the
spring.
So Schiller wrote of the approach to this
the winter and spring in this valley. how
ever, the snowdrifts on the roadside are
often from thirty to forty feet high and
they sometimes remain throughout the
summer. The pass beyond is a desolate
scene, the messy ground being nearly COW
cred with stones. The passage in winter
and spring Is by no means free from dan
ger. The descent to Airolo Is much ex-
have been crushed out by them. At one
part of the pass a party of glaciers from
the Val Colanca, who persisted In pushing
on from the hospice in spite of the warn
ing. were buried beneath the snow. Since
the opening of the railroad the pass re-
mains practically closed in the winter.
The neighborhood Is William Tells coun-
try and it Is the scene Of Schiller's play,
Wilhelm Tell" Near the point where the
Reuss joins the Lake of Lucerne is Altorf.
Tradition points this out as the scene Of
the exploits Of the Swiss hero. Nearby Is
the village of Burglen, his reputed birth
place. At Altorf is said to have occurred
the familiar incident of the shooting of an
apple from his sons head at the COM
mand of the tyrant Gessler. Tell is sup
posed to have ended his life in the neigh
fitted his life. Aoheret all his life, he died
like one, for a child had fallen into the
Shadchen torrent. He attempted to save
It and gave up his own life In the attempt