Wauwatosa news. [volume] (Wauwatosa, Wis.) 1900-1948, 1910-03-18
THE IRON STUMP
A Quaint Legend Of Ola Vienna.

/
| No one knows the precise age of the
| Austrian city of Vienna, although there
are plenty of patriotic NIennesc who viii
tel you thar the first foundations of
| then beloN Ell town on the beauti-
IaI blue Danube We're laid I'M
/ medIateR after the deIESe. by one
abraham. "a near DESCENDANT of the
| palrarch NOAH: and tew viii admlL that
rs earliest waits are amy younger thlu
| chose Of Rome. At ali events. il is uu-
uouhteulg "a very utd city measuring
many Odd and curious tHing,, ana.
4 though far from the oldest, one of the
qnanteSt OF lis antiquities" Is the mys-
Ferrous 'StoCh-im-EIsen, ur Iron
/ stump about which are told tales
enough to white away many an evening
| N Il long winter
/ Some time about year $50 A. H.. SO
| runs one legend, the Emperor Louis the
/ Hluus son of Charlemague. decreed thut
/ q hunting lodge should be built for his
! use IA the Wiener Wald-tue old forest
| OF Jenna. Among those employed M
/ this work was Friedrich MuX, restless
! young apprentice, VINO, growing Impa-
/ tent of the harshueSS of the master lock-
smith whom he served, ran away Que
summer evening Ia seek hlS fortune, like
many other young apprentices before and
Since. But the iuckleSs youth soon lost
! his way in the thick night of the deep
] old forest wandering round aud round
/ until at last he fell exhausted at the
| foot of Il great larCh tree. where he slept
! ull daybreak awobe hun. tie opened has
/ eyes and found, to his diSmay that he
| WAS within Il few hundred yards of the
very point from which he mad started.
! Then he opened his travellers scrip 10
make a nasty breakfast, aud found, to
his horror, that be had taken with him "A
costly and beautifully wrought nail Spe-
| ciay designed 10y his master to hold the
great lock of the imperial lodge.
4 Iuor Friedrich was NOW IN a guam
| Diary. There was no way in which ue
could with safety to himself return his
/ unweicome prize. If he brought 1t back
/ he would be punished as a runaway. ii
1 he did not do So he would certainty he
! proclaimed Il thief. At last, IN despera-
| ton. he drove the unuclly treasure 70
The head into the trunk of the tree under
which he had slept. There he said,
Fold IarCh be thou q witness for me
when / return And he went his way.
! Five years later Friedrich came again
| to his native city, Il skilled master lock-
smlth of great reputation. Euvlous fell
| loW-craftsmen brought against HIM
! charges of the theft of the precious nail,
but the old larch tree, faithful to its trust
proved his innocence, the missing nail he
| Ing still in its sturdy keeping, so Fried
llch AUX made his peace with his former
master and lived and died respected
! burgher Of Vienna.
| After this story became known it
grew a custom of the citY that every
| locksmth's apprentice as lac departed on
/ MS Wanderjahr-the year of travel as Il
| Journeyman that must precede his admis-
| sion to the gid as Il master Workman
| should drive into the tree nail bearing
| on its head his initials or private mark.
| in imitation and memory of Friedrich
| MuN, Thus year after year new journey
men locksmiths drove their memorial
nails, until the stump Of the old tree be-
came, as 1t remains today, a mass of
| iron, so filled with nails is every inch Of
/ 1t. And year by year the city extended
| far into the Wiener Wald, until at last
of all the ancient wood, the iron stump
OF the old urch tree stood alone, the CEN
/ ter of public square
Now in the year 1913 it came to pass
thar the good burghers of Vienna re-
solved 70 protect their famous Stock
i'm Eisen with an encirclng iron band,
which band, shey further resolved,
/ Should be fastened with the finest and
most intricate lock that could be pro
! cured. Every master locksmth in the
imperial city competed for the honor of
furnishing this masterpiece, and many
| wonderful ContrYanCes We're produced;
| hut finally tall dark stranger, hail
! ing from nowhere in particular, sub
mitted lock of such surprising inge-
nuity and beauty that it WAS a. once
chosen by unanimous vote Of the cuun-
ell. But when the stranger was asked
to name the price of the lock, he named
so great a sum that the burgomaster,
! old Heinrich Pfaz, simply laughed in
/ his face. WhcreupOn the stranger
stamped his foot in terrible rage.
snapped the lock shut on the staple of
the iron band, tossed the key so high
! into the air that to this day il has
never come down, and finally while
! the open-mouthed citizens were watch
| ing the flight of the key, that mystcri-
Gus stranger vanished from Vienna.
never to be seen again!
| A great reward was offered to him
who could devise new key to open the
| curious lock.
After many trials by the most skilled
| Workmen in the Kingdom, the success
! full competitor proved to be a young
| locksmiths apprentice, who, in the end,
| like all industrious apprentices Of the
old stories. is said to have married his
masters daughter Arthur Guterman
in March st. Nicholas.