Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1919-10-02
WIESBADEN
Present Health Resort Formerly F'orti-

Wiesbaden is described in the following
bulletin from Washington headquarters
of the National Geographic society:
I'm her time Wiesbaden. nesting in n
mild nook OF the Rhine valley. has played
many parts. First she was q fortified
outpost of the far-fiung Roman empire.
later febrile Monte Carlo until the gov
eminent suppressed her notorious games
of chance. and then she became the AK
les Bains OF Germany.
With n normal population less than
that of Richmond. Va. the city expanded
70 the size of Washington. u. c.. when
her season was at its height in the lato
spring. She was versatile hostess. Co.
quoting for the visitors whose entertain
ment WAS her principal industry. she al
lured those young and nimble enough to
explore the hooks and crannies of the
hills about her and played the old mans
darling to the rheumatic. the equity and
the obese who sought relief by her boil
Ing alkaline springs.
Her municipal dress was gay and color
full. Her broad streets radiatc in a fam
like plan. sumptuous villas formed n jew
elled half circlet about her. and for plu
mage she had the most thickly wooded
district, except that OF Coblenz. in Ger
II
most every mountain has ruin and n le-
gend Least German-like, perhaps.
among German cities. visitors were re-
minded that they were in the land OF
'verbotcns and taxes by having to pay
tax for staying there after four days.
| "Wiesbaden is five miles north Of May
ence, and 20 miles east of the tabled rock
of the siren Lorelci. " is three miles re-
moved from the Rhine, but near enough
| 10 have participated In the history of that
region to which Victor Hugo ascribed a
| 'provdental Specification in European
destinies. for IL was traverscd by Caesar
Attila, Clovis. Charlemage and Napoleon
before Foch and Pershing won places in
it's gallery of heroes,
! The city's churches attest its cosmo-
politan appeal. The Protestant Markt-
kirche Is in Gothic style. with five towers
There are two synagogues, Russian ana
Anglican places of worship. and its Ro-
man Catholic Church OF st, bohitnce
memoralizes the Saxon missionary VINO
commissioned by Charles Martel. went
into Frisia in the carly eighth century
to overthrow the idols OF the heatheh
Germans.
Two men of letters are tdentined with
W-iesbaden Both lived and died there
J ana are the SuDJSSAs W SchSP'SeSeS '''S''
uments. Gustav Freytas was one OF the
scant company OF German novelists
known beyond the former empires bor-
ders. for Germany has had few Action
writer's whose works are widely read in
other lands. After his first successful
work, Soil and Haben,' had attracted at
,ention In 1855 Freytag wrote another up
holding Prussia's ambitions for German
domination and thus won place on the
staH Of the Prussian crown prince He
saw the French disaster at Sedan
| "Wiesbaden's poet, Frederick Won Bo.
densted wrote n book OF oriental poetry
which has been compared to the Omar
| Khayam OF Edward FitzCerald. and he
also translated Shakespeare's plays into
German. German scholars insisted that
the translation into The German tongue
greatly improved the bard's drama"