Show OHAE3OKG HELIGOLAND Englands little Island onthe Coast t of Germany a Heligoland is the last bite of a large flat cake which Neptune has been gradually gradu-ally throughout centuries unnumbered un-numbered There are two or three mouthfuls lefta triangular slab some 200 feet high a mile long and onethird of a mile broad at the base and this its it-s calculated the seagod will finish up in 2dUU y earsa fact we need not worry ourselves about for the present The natives and the German summer visitors call it Heligoland a name which sounds somewhat profane to English ears but they name it thus in good part and an conscious of evil The small local guidebook guide-book tells us that the island possibly derives its appellation from the Scandinavian Scandi-navian king Helgo of Lethra in the dim old legendary times and if we are not satisfied with that explanation we have the choice of Heiliges Land the Holy Land so called from the fact of wholesale conversions to Christianity having been effected here by Lindgar in the eighth century At the risk of being reminded by the few that Queen Anne is dead I will venture for the many to state that the English took possession of the place in 1807 it having previously belonged to the Danes It was not much good to the latter and we wanted it as a refuge for our ships in the stormy north seas during the stormier days of the first Napoleon The nativesabout 2000 in numberare easy to govern for the British do it with a governor at 500 pounds sterling a year whosehouse by the by is in a sad state of disrepair and six coastguardsmen with as many muskets and telescopes the latter continually con-tinually sweeping the horizon for smugglers smug-glers or the French who do not come As a sea wateringplace Heligolandis in my humble estimation not far off perfection nature and man having cordially cooperated in its construction The little streets and little houses squat and firm as though crouching from the mighty winds which often sweep over the island are scrupulously clean the former always neatly paved the latter much addicted to gay oil paint and gayer gardens brilliant with stocks marigolds pinks and other oldfash ioned flowers There is the Oberland for those who do not mind a climb and down below at the base of the triangle formed as it were of the crumbs of the halfeaten cake is the Unterland the two regions being connected by an excellent broad staircase in zigzag Across the water about a mile away is a long sandbank i where the bathing goes on there are I hand machines horses being as rare as elephants in Heligoland and the genders gen-ders are isolated as a pedantic Scotch pewopener once said to me The bluff winds and waves of the north give a wondrous appetite and energy so that one can understand the brave deed of the vikings who once hung about these parts and doubtless attacked one another out of pure excess of animal spirits It is questionable however whether these heroes fared so well after their aquatic exploits as does the modern Curgast after braving the deep There possibly was not much material comfort here in the good old freebooting times but today we have brown beer and solid Hamburg cooking to still the cravings of an appetite whetted bv sailor sail-or swim Besides there is a good deal going on to amuse the touristmusic theatre balls fishing seabird shooting and the like How Jittle is this charming strip of English soil known to Englishmen There are six British visitors here now all told You can live comfortably for 12 to 15 marks say shillings per diem and you can gethere from London via Hamburg and Cuxhaven under thirty hours London Telegraph |