The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1913-12-21


trolls. and the home of romance, music
and legend, is divided into three do
mains, Austrian. Italian and Swiss
Tyrol but it is all charming to the
most intense degree.
Nowhere else is the lover such
knight; In no other country do the ma
tionaI songs so move the soul, ana
around the dazzling peaks of 1ar-
famed ranges gather no such enchant-
ing legends as those associated with
the superb heights of the Tyrolean
mountains.
Innsbruck Is the capital of this fairy
land and it is verify a city of enchant-
ment. I have never strolled down It's
Maria Theresien strasse. the principal
fhoroughfare, without entertaining
visions of the Pied Piper of Hamhn
as they floated through my dream-raV-
fshed brain. While this dron musician
is not connected with Innsbruck 1t Will
be remembered that he led throng
OF children. dancing to the notes OF
his magical flute. into q mountainsids
that opened to receive him ana ms
Juvenile encourage and this Maria The
resien strasse appears to conduct the
pedestrian right into the snow-capped
monster that lies just beyond the city
s-sd transforms the street into real
cnl-da-sac In my fancy always hear
tho patter of the little ones feet and
the seductive tones Of the wizards
melifluent flute.
Tho sidewalks of this thoroughfare
ure thanked with those quaint arcades
peeuliar to Switzerland and the street
butts up against this rocks that rise
thousands of feet into the air. The
top of the mountain Is covered with
perpetual snow and half way up the
heights are large summer hotels which.
when lighted at night, twinkle down
upon the city below in true fairy-lilSe
fashion from lanterns that seemed sus-
pended In the sky.
One cannot visit the city without en-
pertaining the feeling that no Is COM
pletely shut in. but his cage as GID
cd one and tho bars that eonfine MIN
nre bars of enchantment. with the
towering mountain In such close prox-
unity tho streets OF Innsbruck seem as
though they were threading a pit. In
the winter tho snow ig sometimes piled
up seven feet high and yet under tho
covered arcades one trayerses the trot-
toirs without discomfort or impeding
While most of the houses are of the
quaint German type the architecture
of many of them Is that of the roeocco
style and at the end of the principal
thoroughfare, en- face the mountain,
is the strange s"Go1denes Dach1.'
Gothic balcony covered with gllded
roof. This strange piece OF srehitee-
ture was constructed by Count Fred
.riclz of Tyrol in the fifteenth century
at a cost OF 10000 ducats to disprove
his accredited title. frederick With
the Empty Pooksts,"
Nowhere have I seen a river with
more rapM food than the Inn, upon which
stream Innshrucl5 lis situated and from
which It receives its name, The current
sweeps by with a mad frenzy as IL its
entire existence was concerned In IT'S
finishing it's Journey to the SEA, The mar
vel TO me 10 what demon OF magic as
SISTED the engineer in the construction of
its piers or what occult power stayed the
swing OF the tide to suffice for their I'M
planting.
Close to the river hanks are some of
the citys leading hotels and the lead
to permit the guests engaging in con-
versaSion that will not be drowned by
the rush and roar of the waters. The
romanese-loving Goethe was for some time
a guest of one of these hotels, the Cold
ner Adler, and his winestube. as It is
called. is pointed out with much satis-
faction by the proud host.
Innsbruck was the residence of Maxi.
milan, the last OF the Knights who
journey all the way TO Client to wed tho
beautiful Mary of Burgundy, and his bride
with flowing treHses mounted upon
snow-white paif rey, met him in the streets
of that city as she dismounted TO give
him kiss. It is said that tho royal
father of Max. lmilan was too lazy to
open door and one of his feet was
amputated by re ason of a blow he once
gave a portal in his impatience to pass
through.
To revel in real fairyland one must visit
the Hofkirche of Innsbruck Here Is to
be seen those ma sterpieces of the artist
yischer of the sixteenth century-2s bronze
statues of heroic size OF Maximilan's
contemporaries and ancestors in the
guise of mournere and torch bearers
grouped around the central tomb.
Probably the most imposing of these Is
Theodore, that romantic hero who figures
In the legends of Germany and the annals
of wierd chieftains. That terror of the
sky who sweeps athwart the heavens
upon a black charger when the Storm
clouds scudding overhead and lurid
flames are seen coursing the over-hang-
Ing vault. The chief is armed cap-a-pis
and IN contemplation of the statue one
feels as though 1t We're living entity
ssarbarity and nobility are mingled in the
same mould, knighthood tempers the saw
age and though he Is resting in dreamy
revery 1t needs but the voice of the
tocsin or the larum of the war trumpet
to arouse him to the action of a demiurge
In close proximity poses Arthur, who
stands at attention and reflects all the
glory and the prestige OF the knights of
the Round Table That same Arthur who
started Sir Galahad upon his quest for
the Holy Grail, who welded the mar
Vicious sword Excaliber. who welded tho
fair Guendolin. who was betrayed by
Iauncelot That same Arthur, who in the
bitterness of his betrayal cried out, 1T see
Him In the Towering fields; 7 note Him
In the setting of the stars. but in His
ways with men I find Him not" that
same Arthur who now sleeps In the mag
zeal isle of Avalon and who is not dead