Show OA A xv aa 4 a 4 N switzerland the way to get about the country if one has the time and energy Is 1 not by means of its R railways nor of its splendid system of diligences nor yet by automobile but simply and joyfully on foot for in order to see switzerland aright one must use his feet as well as his eyes one summer which we devoted to doing switzerland or rather a part of it in this primitive fashion I 1 still recall with a keen sense of exhilaration and delight early one morning about the middle of june with heavy hobnailed boots on our feet stout walking w sticks in our hands and knapsacks on our backs we set forth to walk from thusis over the juller julier pass into the Eng ingadine adine toward noon we snatched an hour s nap at a wayside inn after lunching on brook trout fresh from the water and vegetables fresh from the earth we stopped for the night in a little mountain village where the charge at the hotel for breakfast and a large corner room with polished bard hard wood floor hand woven and hand embroidered linen sheets and three daintily curtained windows framing mag ent panoramas of snow mountains and cas cades amounted to 48 cents each the pic tur esque little proprietress apologetically ex that the extras which we had so recklessly incurred in the way of eggs and jam tor for break fast were responsible tor for the swollen proportions of the bill it seemed like flying in the face of providence to hurry away at once so yielding to the protest of our tired feet and the combined charms of the place the proprietress and the prices we stopped another day in this little patch of paradise and started off next morning refreshed in body and soul tor for our three days trip by easy stages down into the valley of the engadine ingadine Eng adine making our headquarters in st moritz we walked all over this enchanting region seeing it in its most glorious season the month of flowers when the fields are shot with every color of the rainbow and alpine roses run riot over all the hills while starry gentians make their part of the earth as blue as the sky and pansies and but in the valley spread a cloth of pure gold for one ones s feet from st moritz we set out for a weeks walk ing trip to andermatt through one of the least tourist spoiled regions of switzerland stopping en route at little chalet hotels where we ate drank and slept with all the joy and some of the power of the virile voracious ug races of primi tive man at the top of the oberalp pass the proprietor of the I 1 otel welcomed us as noah might have welcomed the dove that returned to the ark with the first sign of dry land thus tar far the poor man told us his season had been so superlatively bad that his family had been obliged to eat meat As we were somewhat puzzled by this para utterance he hastened to explain that in the absence of guests and I 1 might add cold stor age facilities there was nothing to do with the meat on hand but to allow the family to eat it judging from his attitude we could imagine the sort of chastened pleasure with which his house hold must have partaken of this feast which while undoubtedly ministering to their carnal satisfaction betokened their financial undoing from the pass we made a side excursion to lit tie tle lake toma the source of the rhone on our way down to andermatt where we inspected as much as is allowable to foreigners the splendid fortifications which the swiss promptly erected on the st gothard pass when italian imperialism threatened to rob them of their italian speaking cantons canton the swiss army is one of the most remarkable of her institutions it is the ideal toward which the common people of every european country weighed down with taxes for huge standing ar mies turn with longing and hope the swiss have a wonderful system of militia which saves millions of money to the taxpayers and years of freedom from military service to the soldiers practically all swiss serve in the militia and re serves the training thus received would be in sufficient were it not preceded and supplemented by military training tor for boys in school and rifle practice every year by virtually the entire male maie population in this highly original and economical way lit tie tle switzerland with a population of less than three millions of people actually has at her beck and call an army of of the most martial soldiers in europe armed equipped and ready to take the field at an hour hours s notice leaving andermatt we crossed the pass into the rhone valley and in the course of the summer we walked over a number of passes the albula brunig gemmi melden Augst burg and A 4 alon typhy yawl plated from a sate safe distance but our mule had no idea of safe distance his ills one thought seemed to be to leap the precipice while the driver a frantic efforts to frustrate these suicidal and homicidal attempts were badly seconded by a pair ot of feeble and worn looking reins and a brake which at critical moments refused to work thus precipe tating the carriage upon the already overwrought and almost hysterical mule every time we rounded a corner we held our breath in terror tor for turning corners in this aehl cle cie was a painfully precarious performance when the prancing mule had safely negotiated the turn the crisis was by no means past since the carriage wheels were suffering from some internal disorder that made them slide and slip and pitch forward rather than roll while the harness being pieced with ends ot of rope and bits of was in imminent danger of collapse 41 40 at A e P X arav 11 15 wrner tete noir each with its own special variety ot of alpine scenery none of these however opened u up p a view that could compare in grandeur of form and mass and mysterious beauty of color and shade with that which stretched out before us as we reached the summit of the furka and looked westward over miles of glaciers inter twined with green valleys and surrounded on all sides bides by chain after chain of snow covered cloud capped mountains in an ocean of sunset glory on our walking trips it was interesting to watch the faces of people who passed us in dill bences carriages or automobiles some as they whirled by looked down upon us with plutocratic scorn others with indifference or surprise but those who realized what they were missing must have envied us as we strode along inhaling great draughts of pure ozone stopping to rest or read or eat or sleep whenever we wished and always carrying with us the exultant sense of personal physical triumph over this proud old alpine world but we were by no means total abstainers from the pleasures of occasional drives which lent added zest to our tramps one drive which we took over the griesel pass Is indelibly impressed on my ray memory having blistered our feet on the trip to the griesel Ilo hospice spice we limped ig into the hostelry and requested the proprietor to send us some liniment quick to take advantage of the situation he inquired whether we would not like a carriage for the rest of the journey to Mel MeI ringen it Is not much more expensive than the dill gence he explained and of course there are many advantages in having one s own private equipage the picture he drew of us rolling along in luxury proved so attractive that we at once fell in with his suggestion when our turnout was announced we re descended in state preceded by the porter the concierge the proprietor and the head waiter all of whom had lent their distinguished services in the mat ter of the carriage transaction and had been re warded accordingly so great was our conster consternation on being told that a rickety vic victoria torla drawn by a braying mule was our much vaunted equipage and so ludi crous was the whole situation that we were too nonplussed to protest moreover the mule was braying so vigorously that any remarks we might have made would have been hopelessly swallowed up in the noisy confusion at of our exit such a ride as that would be hard to duplicate at any price the road twisted and writhed along the precipitous bide side of a deep gorge through which poured a mountain torrent this gorge rag sufficiently awe inspiring even when content t about an hour art aft er we had started hearing the diligence with its six sure toot foot ed horses coming up at fu I 1 speed we mod estly directed the driver to tur turn n aside hoping the passengers would rould be enjoying the scenery too much to have any eyes tor for us but just as the dill gence came abreast of our equipage the mule having no taste tor for obscurity lifted up his voice high above the noise of the waters raters aw and I 1 the star tied tourists turning with one accord to I 1 look 0 0 k back at us passed speedily out of our sight in a gale of 0 laughter dy by this time suffer ing more from wound ed pride than from blistered feet we mechanically chani cally repeated the words of 0 the ho tel proprietor A carriage Is not much more expensive than the diligence and of course there are many advantages in having one s own private equipage the last days of summer were now gone and according to our original plan our pedestrian tour had come to an end but when the time cam earn to get into a stuffy train at meir ingen and return to the smoke and bustle of civilization we de aided that it was impossible to leave switzerland without at least one snow mountain to our credit accordingly instead of securing railway tickets we engaged two guides and set off for the ewig ehorn a mountain which Is only 11 high but which commands one of the finest pano ramas in the high alps and in good weather ac cording to baedeker presents little difficulty to adepts unfortunately however by thus starting artine st from a point only 2 feet above sea level we gave ourselves a climb of 9 feet which is over 2 feet more than from the hotel to the top of the Jung frau we slept that night on straw between huge woolen blankets in an alpine hut but built by the swiss alpine club for the free use of all passers by As we were drenched from walking all day in the rain and there was barely enough wood on hand to make tea and heat our canned soup we were forced next morning at tour four 0 clock to get into icy clothes there Is nothing more dangerous on such trips as this than new fallen snow which conceals the crevasses yawning in the glacier beneath wo we were all roped together and as the head guide sounded the snow with his ice fee axe at every step our progress necessarily was slow and monotonous but when the ice fee ax suddenly re healed that we R e were on the brink of a sno v covered crevasse which was a veritable death trap we realized that our guide s precautions were neither perfunctory nor excessive A few minutes later an avalanche carrying tons of snow ice and boulders came tearing down about five ards to our right but so stimulated were we by the altitude and the novelty of the situation that we felt no emotion save a sort of intorica Into sica tion of ecstasy and awe in enera direction as far as the eye could reach was ras a region of dazzling white of lifeless endless winter we we were tired and cold and hungry and wet ret but our keenest and dominant sensation was one of exhilaration A new aspect of nature had been opened to our view cold she was ras and cruel in this mood but incomparably beautiful and pure and when at last we turned our faces toward the familiar lower levels it was ras with a feel ng of exultation that this once at least it had been our privilege to tread these cor riders of flowing ice to hear the thunder of the avalanche to gaze face to face upon the Jung frau the queen of the bernese alps with her court of snowy giants and to enter as it were the very holy of hohes holies of this mighty temple of na ture lure to which pilgrims flock from the en ends s 0 of the earth a temple not built with hands whiter than marble as enduring as the world itself and reaching to the very heavens |