The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1910-08-10
H IRON STUMP.
a Quaint Legend of the Old
City of Vienna.

who will tell you that the hrst u
dations of their beloved town on the
beautiful blue Danube were laid, i'm
mediately after the deluge, by one
Abraham, a near descendant Of the
patriarch Noah; and few will admit
that it's earliest walls are any younger
than those of Rome. At all events,
it is undoubtedly a very old city,
%treasuring many old and curious
things; and though far from the old
est, one of the q~aintest Of its an
tiquities'' is the mysterious Stock
im-Eisen," or Iron Stump about
which are told tales enough to while
away many an evening in a long win
ter.
Some time about the year $50 A..
D., so runs one legend, the Emperor
Louis the Pious, o Of Cha-lemagne,
decreed that a hunting lodge should
be built for his use in the Weiner
Wald-the old Forest of Vienna.
Among those employed in this work
was Friedrich Mux, a restless young
apprentice, who, growing impatient
Of the harshness of the master lock-
smith whom he served, ran away one
summer evening to seek his fortune,
like many other young apprentices
before and since. But the luckless
youth soon lost his way in the thick
night of the deep old forest, wander
ing round and round, until at last he
fell exhausted at the foot of a great
larch tree, where he slept till day.
break awoke him. He opened his eyes,
and found, to his dismay, that he
was within a few hundred yards OF
the very point from which he had
started. Then he opened his travel
er's scrip to make a hasty breakfast,
and found, to his horror, that he had
taken with him a costly and beauti-
fully wrought nail specially designed
by his master to hold the great lock
of the imperial lodge.
Poor Friedrich was Low in a
quandary. There was no way with
which he could with safety to himself
return his unwelcome prize. If he
brought it back he would be punished
as a runaway. If he did not do so he
would certainly be proclaimed as a
thief. At last, in desperation, he
drove the unlucky treasure to the
head into the trunk of the tree under
which he had slept. There" he
said, "old larch, be thou a witness for
me when I return!" And he went his
way.
Five years later Friedrich came
again to his native city, a skilled mas
ter locksmith of great reputation.
Envious fellow-craftsmen brought
against him charges of the theft OF
the precious nail, but the old larch
tree, faithful to it's trust, proved his
innocence, the missing nail being still
in it's sturdy keeping. So Friedrich
Mux made his peace with his former
master and lived and died a respected
burgher of Vienna.
After this story became known 1t
grew a custom of the city that every
locksmith's apprentice as he departed
on his Wanderjahr-the year OF
travel as a ~journeyman that must
precede his admission to the guild as
q master workman-should drive into
the tree a nail bearing on it's head
his initials or private mark, in imita-
ton and memory of Friedrich Mux.
Thus, year after year, new Journey
men locksmiths drove their memorial
nails, until the stump of the old tree
became, as it remains to-day, a mass
of iron, so filled with nails is every
inch of it. And year by year the city
extended far into the Wiener Waldj
until at last, of all the ancient wood,
the iron stump of the old larch tree
stood alone, the centre CT a public
square.
Now in the year 1873 it came to
pass that the good burghers of Vienna
resolved to protect their famous
Stock-im-Eisen with an encircling
iron band, which band, they further
resolved, should be fastened with the
finest and most intricate lock that
could be procured. Every master
locksmith in the imperial city COM
peted for the honor of furnishing this
masterpiece, and many wonderful
c%ontrivances were produced; but
finally a tall, dark stranger, hailins
from nowhere in particular, SUBJ
mitted a lock of such SURPRISING in.
genuity and beauty that it was at
once chosen by unanimous vote OF
the council. But when the stranger
was asked to name the price of the
lock, he named so great a sum thai
the burgomaster, old Heinrich PfalZ.
simply laughed in his face. Where
upon the stranger stamped his foot in
a terrible rage, snapped the lock shut
on the staple of the iron band and
tossed the key so high in the air that
to this day it has never come down.
and finally, while the open-morthed
citizens were watching the figlt OF
the key, that mysterious stranger
vanished from Vienna, never to be
seen again!
A great reward was offered to hin
who could devise a new key to open
the curious lock.
After many trials b" the most
skilled workmen in the kingdom the
successful competitor proved to be
a young locksmith's apprentice, who