Along The Rhine

Milán, Aug. 4, 1895. Dear JIr. Editor :- Frankfurt was the last resting place of your globe-wbeeler, and from there we departed one fine aíternoon with a good breeze against us but good roads. We were still in the reirion of licenses and numbers and bellsso we rode to the first town and walked through it, rode to its successor and took another walk. You won't belikve it, but they are so mean in this country that tlieir laws not only compel you to lead the awful bike through a town, but they lay out the town along the rnain road - every house - and stringthe towu out for a mile. It is terrible the measures that they take against the noble sport. We passed Darmstadt with its statue to Grand Duke Ludwig somebody and some ducal palaces, and finally some fossilated ideas about bicycles. We did'nt love anybody, we were unhappy we said unpleasant things and wished ourselves in the land of the free. Soon we were in BAYAKIA. The dialect changed and the people hanged as well as their houses. The beams are exposed on the outside of the buildings. They go through some conrentional zig-zags and are then filled in between with piaster and bricks. Some liouses are thatched, some tiled, and 3ome have boards. The roofs are gothic in form and have a window in the sentre for the upper room. AYe wanted to reach AVorms that night, but, tired and foot-sore we gave up in a small town Biblis where we sougbt the best hotel. That bed chamber haunts me yet. They CHABGED I'S EXTB V Cunningly because we were foreiguers and after paying our six cents apiece we were led by a hag with a dim, flickering candle to a crooked struclure used asstairs. Our hideous guide mumbied and chattered and conducted us to a gothic room 6x9 with strips of paper fluttering from tlie wall. One window in the inclined ceiling was over one bed. The BEDS DEFY PORTRAYAI,. They were covered with a yellovv colored sheet to hide dirt - and above this a mattress common to Germán beds. Beneath was a something made of corn stalks. A grotesque chromo of the Virgin Mary hung on the wall. There was a tin wash dlsh and a crippled stand which should have been pensioned and let off duty long ago. Needless to say we did not disrobe. No, we put our nightgovvns on the yellow pillows to keep our heads from the dirt, we placed the mattresses intended for covers beneath us and crawled to the dizzy heights of the bed to sleep a troubled sleep. THOUSANDS OP HISSERS. YVhen we left the town on the following morning our progress was actually hindered by a flock of over 1,000 geese driven by an evil tempered old witch with a whip. The throng filled the road swarmed into every open yard and hissed and fluttered as we struggled through. We soon reached AVorms after crossing the Rhine on a bridge of boats. Theboats lie side by side and have a platform resting upon them. AVhen boats pass, several bridge boats are allowed to fioat out of the chain and then are hauled back. AXCIEXT WÖRM8. Worins is one of the most ancient of Germán cities. Towers of the medieval walls are extant. History has written mucli on its venerable brow. Charlemange lived there. Luther met Charles V. and the six Electora there at the famous diet. We hunted out the Luther monument - very impressive - and the palace where Luther made bis defense. Tlien with a glance at the cathedral, we tnounted our wlieels and rode away to new flelds for sight seeing. The roads are very straight for long distances between large cities. The only curves or turns are in small towns and it is enough to MAKE AXY KOAD SQUIRM To get in a small Bavarian town. On the main street in front of every farnior's house (for all farmers live in town) is a huge manure heap and usually piled about the pump. This feature, taken with the dirty children, streets paved with huge stones and the general dirty piaster exterior of the houses constitutes a very unpleasant picture. AT MANHEIM We paid the 3rd two cents that we had spent for crossing the lihine. This time, over a bridge with magniflcent portals. We visited the Ducal Palace, wtiich is a cluinsy, dirty old structure, and then rode on to Heidelberg, the famous university town. Here two Americana inforcued us that the students were duelling at the Hirschgasse, or students tavern. AVe hurried up there and bonght a lunch so that we njight watch the excitement vvith an excuse. They fight savagely there and his cheek laid open six inches, and cuts and pricks, and blood were plenty. It was a savage scène and the palé faces of the defeated as their friends led them away, will haunt me long. Lady friends of contestants awaited anxiously the outcome and drove away with them in hacks when the struggle was over. HEIDELBERG Is wonderfully situated for scenery, at the mouth of the mountainous valley of the Neckar ; and its pride, the magnificent old castle, adds not alittle charm. That eradle of science, its old university, is most venerable with its antique air and rather ruined appearance. The students in their various class caps are very picturesque as tliey wander about town in groups. When we left the town enroute for Karlsruhe, an old farmer kindly pointed out the tower of the Speyer Cathedral. It was flfteeu miles distant but plainly visible. The Rhine Valley from Mainz up to Basel is a long strip of level plain, twenty-five miles or more in bread th. We have been riding in the fertile valley on both sides of which rise a range of mouutains which we approach very close, now ou one side and now on the other. CARLSRUHE IS A RESORT And the gaiety of the place at once impressed us. At the gate of the city we went through our usual programme of looking up our places to visit and arranging our line of march through the town accordiiigly. Au oki palace and an art gallery, and a gay street was all we saw, and Uien found our way out toward Baden Baden. The füllowing day we saw the strangest sight we had witriessed. In a sniall toivn, we met a funeral procession, weird and aweing enough with the chant of the priest and the slow tolling of the taell as they neared the church. An aged priest led, followed ]y two boys in a red garb, and a woman apparently the mother of the dead child, carrying the coffin balanced upon her head. It was a most pitiful sight. I don't need teil about BADEN BADEN. So famous a watering place and its location at the entrance of the Black Forest is too well known. lts "drink hall" and old castle are interesting as are also the 50,000 annual visitors of whom we seemed to see all in one day. Late in the afternoon we stopped at a bakery in a sinall town to buy a bun or two which would sustain us until supper. The baker's daughter was a charming dainsel and the indecisión which Harry displayed in choosing biscuit was alarming. After we we re on the way several miles, he wanted to return and buy more biscuit. We compromised, however, by watching some bare-footed peasant girls gathering sheaves of wheat. The Rhine valley bristles with GERMÁN FORTIFICATIONS. Every town or city of any size is surrounded by several moats and walls aud has a citadel, but at Strassburg we were nearly lost in the intricate network of fortiflcations. Soldiers are drilling constantly for every sort of contest. We savv them running in perfect lines, guarding as in war every gate, and even the neighboring forests were the scène of marching and drilling. The Strassbourg cathedral is famous. For me, I eau never forget it, I flxed my much scarred tire in front of it while Harry took his turn seeing the interior and clock. The crowd was as great as a poliücal speech could draw. I could hardly get air enough to fill the pneumatic tube. The University where Goethe graduated is here, and several magnificent buildings as the Imperial Palace and Temple Neul. Gutenburg is claimed by this city also and has a flne monument.