The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-12-07
The Bruin City IN the Heart OF He1vetja

glass in his right hand and keeps time
to the stroke with wand in his left hand,
and in accord with this movement an up
right bear mods his head. The third
growing of the cock completes the per-
formance.
Many of the continental customs. so
strange to the Americans eye, are in
vogue here. The street cleaning brigade
is composed entirely of women and tho
besom is ubiquitous. The dog as beast
of draft is greatly in evidence and he
trots along in harness with his master or
mistress drawing the flat milk and wine
casks peculiar to the country. He is of a
much larger breed than the dogs noted
in Belgium or Holland and is invariable
muzzled and noted that he never cheats.
Though his master may not be observing
him the faithful canine never shirks his
duty but pulls away as though his life
depended upon his labor.
The Swiss love their dogs and In the
Museum of Natural History in Berne
saw the stuffed remains of Barry. the
celebrated st. Bernard dog that had
record of saving 4s human lives. No Car
negie hero can equal this and photographs
of the faithful canine are on sale In the
shops of the city
The glory of Bern Is it's Munster, q
cathedral dating back to 1421 and crown
ing magnificently situated rock and
surmounted by its wonderful spire over
800 feet In height
The rock is now known as the terrace.
It towers abruptly over hundred feet
above the Aare and has been greatly
ornamented as a park. Elevators carry
visitors from the thoroughfare which
flanks the river to the top of the terrace
free of charge. The terrace Is adorned
with many statues in which the bear fig
ures as an helmet bearer and here also
once stood wooden figure of st. Chris
topher, with which is connected curious
legend. The image was placed there
after silver communion service had
been stolen from the cathedral with the
simple faith of the people that the saint
would mount guard over ecclesiastical
property. But this holy presence seemed
to be of no avail as the communion serv-
ice for the second time fell prey to thieves
and the citizens resolved to punish st.
Christopher for his lack of due vigilance.
The statue was removed from its promi-
nent position and placed in an obscure
niche of the cathedral tower. But this
was not the end of his disgrace for as
he was put directly opposite the fountain
of David he lost his name and became
known as Goliah At that time tradition
had 1t that ST. Christopher invariably
rained cakes down upon the people when
he heard the Munster clock strike the
hour of noon. So anxious was a lady
of the city to preserve this legend of the
cakes in the minds of the youth of Bern
that Just before the removal of the statue
of the saint she had cakes showered from
the tower down upon the heads of the
school children just as the clock struck
IL. This lady lived to pass the century
mark and when In 1897 her one hundredth
birthday was celebrated the cathedral
chimes rang out a peal of joy in honor
of the event
Upon the cathedral terrace it is the
custom for the citizens of Bern to as
semble at certain hours of the week and
listen to the exquisite music of the cathe-
dral carlton. Tt might be mentioned here
that a carlton differs from a chime in
dSiiuSu dS liS ptilS dit SIdliohhIN ant
greater in number The bells are fixed
tuned and sounded by the hand upon q
keyboard or by machinery Inc number
of bells in a chime never exceeds 1;
while those in carlton range from 4(
to GO. Formerly the carillons of the Meth
erlands were famous. but they have been
forced to yield precedence 10 those OF
England. The carlton of Antwerp con-
sists of the 60 bells, that of Bern 50.
The Bernese historical museum Is n
most magnificent structure of the me-
diaeval style and its interior is as in
teresting as its exterior. In truth ona
never feels so snug as when inspecting