Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1918-12-02
STRASBOURG
FULL OF HISTORY
Wealth of Story Behind Cap
itol Entered by French
Marshal Foch

"Strasbourg was a town of Ger
many, the capital of the Imperial
Province of Alsace-Lorraine, and a
fortress of the first rank" SO the
guidebooks used to describe it, and
they would assuredly go on to tell
that it is situated I'm n fertile plain
at the junction of the I'll and the
Breusch, some $40 miles southwest
of Berlin and so miles east of the
French frontier. After all such a
description, for conciseness, at. any
rate. could not well be improved
upon; but there is a wealth of story
behind it all The Ill and the
Breusch. as they have flowed to-
gether at Strasbourg through all the
centuries, have seen much history.
They are undoubtedly the oldest
features in the old town, although
their actual waters may have been
ever the most transient of visitors.
They were there before Strasbourg.
They were there when the Roman
legions marched through the passes
of the Vosges on to the fertile
plain" and captured the Celtic settle
ment which spread itself over the
land where Strasbourg now stands, |
and they are there to-day joining |
hands and moving on together to-
ward the Rhine.
Tho gHnDrlllN r
their custom. replaced the Celtic
settlements with Il fortified station.
They gave it the name of Argen-
toratum, and in after years II be-
came an important military post and !
the headquarters of the Eighth Le-
gion. 1t was here that the Emperor
Julian. for a time in the fourth cen
tury, stemmed the tide of the bar |,
barian invasion by Il decisive VIC
tory over the Alemanni; but about !
fifty years afterward. Argentora-
tum and the whole district now
called Alsace fell into the hands OF I
that people. Later on, toward the
end of the fifth century, the town /
passed into the possession oil the
Franks. and il vas the Franks VINO /
gave it its present name. Chrls-
tianitv of course, came with Clovis, /
the Frank; and it was chiefly IN /
consequence of its ecclesiastical an
ficulties that Strasbourg gained such |
prominence in medieval times. The
Bishops of Strasbourg were princes
of the church. not at all gwen 10 !
democratic views, and they early Tell
foul of the good citizens of the town. I
Strasbourg had prospered as inc
years had passed. Its citizens had
grown wealthy, and the more me
Bishop tried to assert his authority
the more firmly were the citlzens
convinced that such ecclesiastical
rule was inconsistent with their full
developments And so from nrotest
added to protest they went 20 open
warfare. The conflict was finally
decided, by the battle of Oberhaus-
bergen i'm favor of the citizens, IN
1862. and Strasbourg gained "A full
recognition of its position rs II free
imperial city a status which had
been conferred upon II by the Ger
man King, Henry of Swabia.
once freed from the dominance
of the church. Strashourg set about
organizing an internal revolution.
It's citizens had always favored the
democratic view of things, and the
government of the city was not DEM
ocratic enough to satisfy them, so
toward the middle of the fourteenth
century they secured the admission
of the guilds to the municipal coun-
ellis. Thereafter Strasbourg flour
ished more than ever, and when IT
had to make the choice between the
old and the reformed religion in the
sixteenth century, it listened readily
to the preaching of Martin Bucer,
accepted the teachings of the Re-
formation, and, through all the
troubles which followed, was pes
cuIiarly immune from the miseries
endured by so many of its neighbors,
far and near. So its history comes
down to the memorable day in 1851,
when Louis XIV, marched against
the city and not only seized 1t. but
in spite of all protests, kept poses
sion of it, and had his title con
firmed and recognized by the Peace
! of Ryswick in 1897. The next great
incident in the history of Stras-
bourg was its siege and capture by
the Yrussians in the Franco-Prus-
sian war of 1901. The siege
lasted seven weeks, and the city,
with it's garrison of 1900 men, nm
ally surrendered on September 2S,
1870. As to the rest of the story
the world is perhaps more generally
familiar with it than with the story
of most cities.-Christian Science
Monitor.