FOREIGN TRAVEL.—NO. 15.
THE PASSOVER, AND THE STRASSBURG CLOCK.
At this Passover celebration we were at Pitisti, a city of some 15,000 people. The feast lasted for three days. Religious services were held in the morning, and for the rest of the day the people enjoyed themselves the best they knew how. On a hill at the edge of the city there was a large gathering, the most grotesque I ever saw. There had been erected some eight or ten swings of a very peculiar kind. They were made after this fashion: In the ground, some twelve feet apart, were set two crotched posts, twelve feet in height. A large stick, rounded so that it would turn easily, was placed in these crotches. Four mortises were made in it at each end, and arms, perhaps eight feet long, were put through. At the end of these arms a cross-piece was fastened, and hanging down below these cross-pieces were two rude chairs, eight in all, for persons to sit in. By means of large handles placed at the end of the large central axle which lay in the crotches, men turned the whole thing over like a huge wheel. The chairs were swung so that they would hang down perpendicularly all the while. Men were rolling these huge wheels over, while their living freight of eight persons were sometimes sixteen feet high in the air, and then down almost to the ground.
The sight of ten of these huge wheels all turning over at once, with their curiously dressed occupants, was indescribably ludicrous to me. They had some tents pitched, and persons in hideous masks made sport for the crowd. They had rude bagpipes and drums for music. Eatables and drinkables, candy, cakes, etc., were plentiful.
Remember that these were special religious holidays, lasting for three days. This will perhaps give you a good idea of the religious habits of the people. Formalism and pleasure-seeking together make up the religion of large portions of Europe. On these feast days and holidays, the business houses are usually closed, and the people cease their labor, and have what they call a goodtime.
One strange costume I had almost forgotten to mention. It consisted of a sheepskin cap with the wool on the outside, and a sheepskin coat with the wool on the inside. It was rather a greasy-looking dress.
Many countenances that we saw were 'anything but beautiful and refined. But lest my readers should get a wrong impression, I must not forget to say that there were many intelligent and interesting people in Roumania, who would not do discredit to any country. Many of them can speak French, and they compose the better class. The valley of the Danube is a fine country, containing excellent soil. The birds are protected, so that they have become very tame. The people build their chimneys with a flat space on top for the storks to build their nests on. The storks return year after year, and rear their young in the same place. This is as it should be. Man, the strongest and wisest of God's creatures, should care for and protect the defenseless, instead of shooting for sport any of God's created things.
While we were up in a dizzy tower, we could see the storks and their nests in all directions. Some storks were flying about, and they looked as if they would surely fall, and be dashed in pieces. But they sailed around us as unconcernedly as though they were walking on the ground. But we must not forget to say a little concerning the famous Strassburg clock, though it has been described so many times that it hardly seems worth-while to speak of it. The clock stands in the lower story of the Stirassburg cathedral. We had the privilege of being present at noon, the most interesting time for observing the workings of the clock. We found perhaps two hundred persons there, waiting, like ourselves, to hear the clock strike. A fine-looking gentleman, dressed up in official style, sought us out, and asking if we were strangers, took us to a favorable place, and explained to us the wonders of the clock. We were, of course, much pleased with his civility and condescension; but we lost a little of our appreciation of his courtesy when we found out soon after that a franc was expected of every such one.
The clock gives the seconds, minutes, hours, changes of the moon, all the principal feast days of the calendar, the changes of the seasons, and the positions of the planets for an almost unlimited number of years. It is so constructed as to regulate itself for a long period. In the face of the clock are three little galleries, one above another. Below the lowest one, the symbolic deity of each day steps out of a niche,-Apollo on Sunday, Diana on Monday, etc. In the first gallery, an angel strikes the quarters on a bell, while a genius at his side reverses his sand-glass every hour. Higher up, grouped around a skeleton which strikes the hours, are four figures,-childhood, youth, manhood, and old age. These successively strike the quarters on a little bell.
In the highest gallery there is a figure of the Saviour. And at noon, each day, after the other figures have performed their work, miniature figures of the twelve apostles come around in front of the Saviour, and, one by one, make a bow to him; while he bestows upon them his benediction. By the side of the clock, perched high up, is a brazen cock. As the apostles commence their work, he flaps his wings three times, and gives a shrill crow. When they are nearly through, he crows again; and just before the last one passes, he flaps his wings three times, and crows again, making the echoes ring through the old cathedral. He does his crowing quite naturally, and it was remarkable and amusing to see him do it. There was a famous clock here as early as the thirteenth century. In 1571 Dasypodius made a clock similar to this one, which run till 1789.The present one was made from 1838-42, by Schevilgue, a Strassburg clock-maker.
This city of Strassburg has a library of 500,000 volumes. Guttenburg here first began his experiments in printing, which resulted in such great benefit to the world. There is a monument of him in the city. Kleber, one of Napoleon's greatest generals, who was assassinated in Egypt, also has a monument in the city. He was a native of this place.
Leaving Strassburg, we traveled northward along the beautiful valley of the Rhine. The steep hillsides are terraced in a wonderful way, and vineyards everywhere greet the eye. Probably there is no river in the world which abounds in more beautiful scenery. Hoary ruins of old castles, as well as castles better preserved, appear from time to time. The train will not let us stop, but hurries us on till we reach Cologne-" Koln the Germans spell it and pronounce it.
This is a fine city of nearly 150,000 people. It is the largest in Rhenish Prussia, and one of the most important in Germany. It dates from about the time of the Christian era. A Roman colony was planted here by the mother of Nero, though there was already a small city here.
In A. D. 308, Constantine the Great built a stone bridge over the Rhine at this place. After many quarrels between the archbishops and the citizens, municipal independence was gained in 1288.We could see but little of the city between the time of the trains; so we gave a hurried visit to the cathedral, the principal point of interest. Externally, it is one of the finest cathedrals we have seen in Europe; internally it is not so remarkable.
The foundation of the present building was laid in August, 1284, but the structure was not completed till August, 1880. The sum spent upon it between1842 and 1880 was $4,500,000. At its dedication, it was honored with the presence of the Emperor William, and nearly all the sovereign princes of the German Empire. It has a very prominent situation, and can be seen a long distance from the city. It is built in the form of a cross, the nave being flanked with double, and the transept with single, aisles. The total length is 444 feet; the breadth, 201 feet; the height of the walls, 150 feet; the height of the roof, 201 feet. The height of the central tower above the transept is 357 feet. The height of the larger towers to the end are 512 feet. They stand side by side, the highest of any in Europe. This great mass of stone is covered over with a great variety of turrets, statuary, and all sorts of figures, and the whole presents a most imposing appearance. Internally, there are many cathedrals which excel it. The largest bell in it is called the Koiser loche. It was cast from the metal of a, cannon captured from the French in the last war, and it weighs twenty-five tons. A very fine iron bridge crosses the Rhine at Cologne, on which cars, teams, and foot-travelers pass.
UNCLE IDE.