The Washington herald., 1915-09-12

his arrow into the breast Of the Haps
burg bailiff
Across the lake rise the mountain.
OF another canton with another ia.
bled foe of the Hapsburgs. This other
hero of Swiss neutrality. with a still
nobler fame. is enshrined at STAINS
that strange. little. out of the world
capital of lower Unterwalden. There
| for only an hour a day, the winter
/ sun peeps between the Brisen and
the Stanserhorn and casts its feetin.
rays on the monument of Arnold Win.
kelreid. The bespectacled, sour-faced
kill-joys of history and travel may
shake their doubling heads over the
story that Arnold gathered to his
| devoted breast the spears of the Aus
trian vanguard at the battle Of Sem
| homestead and his coat of mail to
prove the stirring tale of the hero
| ism of its villager.
| These fables are no less real than
the noble mountains which form their
background. For. like George Wash
| ington's little hatchet, they only tell
the truth in pictures which the SIM
plest minds may understand-that
| those bold mountaineers would lay
down their lives and offer up their
children rather than wear the yoke Of
foreign Caster.
First Declaration of Independence.
In the course of a sail of but lit
tie more than two hours on Lucerne
you see virtually all of the Switzer-
land that first threw off the supersr,-
ton of kingcraft. For the four forest
cantons. which alone overwhelmed the
Hapsburgs and spread CONSERVATION
throughout morarchical world. form
the shores of the lake. The little can
ton of Uri was the first. There the
nation was born. In the next little
canton of Schwyz it was christened
These two Joined hands across the
in 1921. and issued the first declara-
tion of independence. the first neutral
ity proclamation of their age.
Those banded cowherds dared TO
warn the princes of Europe, that they
had united to defend themselves
within the valleys and without. with
might and main. against one and ALL"
pledsin8 themselves that their union
shall endure forever, God willing"
And that treaty between "the people
of the valley of Uri. the democracy of
Schwyz and the community of the
mountaineers Of the Unterwald" has
outlasted empires and kingdoms. For
the Hapsburg throne alone is the
senior Of the Swiss confederation
among the governments of Christen-
dom. Yet even today, in spite of rail-
roads and tourists, those three little
parent cantons together have less
than 100000 population
History Through a spysla.s.
Take the funicular from the lake
shore to the top Of Mount Rigi. and
there the story of the classic age of
the Swiss is spread at your feet Off
to the northwest, hardly ten miles
away, a little silvery lake wrinkles
amid the green. velvet slopes of the
of Schwyz. There for the
first time. a band of peasants afoot
knights in armor and won
the battle Of Morgarten just 500 years
ago this fall.
The Swiss gained the victory by
using the only ordnance that nature
had given them. hurting an Alpine
avalanche down upon the proud and
foe. AS that roaring
torrent of stones and trees suddenly
crashed upon them, panic ran through |
the cleaning ranks of the hosts of |
Duke Leopold of. Hapsburg. Some were
crushed, some were drowned in the |
lake. many were hewn down by the |
strange halberds of the Swiss. and |
the rest fed the field.
Austria now deigned to make a |
treaty with the triumphant farmers. |
and recognize their league as a mem
ber Of the family Of nations. Lu-
cerne was glad to join her valiant |
neighbors. and then the confederation
the four forest cantons.
with all the shores Of the Lake of I
Lucerne within it's sovereignty. Zu-
rich and Berne next knocked for ad.
nittance. Soon there were eight can