| Show THE SAINTS IN GERMANY v germany august 1896 to the editor inasmuch as our beloved president elder george C has paid us a visit I 1 give you a brief account of the enjoyable time we had thinking it may be of interest to some of your readers munich has been and is the scene of a little disturbance in our branch caused by a girl turning against us and gratifying her anger by telling some dome slander slanderous Oui untruths un truths about us and about her folks who are members of the church to the or clergyman of her district the result was that brother olson and I 1 and some of the members were invited belore before the police court judging from the questions put to us they have an idea that we are here as agents for the church trying to get people to come to utah they still have some very peculiar ideas about the mormons cormons and look upon us with a certain degree of fear for which we cannot blame them owing to the many false reports which have been circulated against us after undergoing about an hours questioning we were released and told that we would hear from them again in a few days after an elapse of four days an officer came from police quarters with what we thought would be a repetition ion of the old story viz orders to leave tt tie e kingdom but to astr surprise it was a copy of a law of 1872 under which the mormons cormons Mor mons as it showed forth had no right to hold any kind of religious ceremonies and for every time broken in the future would be subject to fine and banishment this is the first time inthe in the history of bavaria that we have been given any consideration whatever it seems as though they were unable to prove any of the false dalre charges entered against us by th the e minister and cheref therefore ore we were warned to comply with the law our president visited us and he talked matters over with an attorney of the government as to the possibilities of our getting freedom of speech but the attorney ad us to make no attempts and was utterly useless as lung as the present party viz the clergyman party holds the reigns of government and inasmuch as president lund advised president to be cautious in making any attempt as betit yet it was con eluded clouded to do nothing at present our little branch being very much pleased over brother Na egles arrival we appointed a meeting for sunday afternoon july to be held in a forest about lour four milis miles out of the city at the appointed hour we sat down in the shade of the towering pines and listened to as good a sermon as could have been given and we all felt that though we were being persecuted yet we were blessed by being able to be hearers of the word of the lord and partake of the holy spirit in the evening we held memorial services in honor of the deceased apostle abraham H cannon these were moments of deep sorrow as brother abraham is as well known by older members having filled a mission here in germany and left many warm friends to mourn this departure on wednesday day J uly I 1 accompanied compa nied brother to where we found brother john and isaac R barton working very very earnestly in trying to spread the principles of life and salvation but the conditions here are similar to those in munich as both cities are under catholic rule and religious freedom has ba not yet reached that point which allows us the privilege of proclaiming our doctrines openly however the tendency for religious freedom for all sects is growing fast and it is only a question of a lew few years when the laws will be such that every sect will have the right of proclaiming their belief though the clergy party is fighting it very hard from a historical point ot of view the city of is very interesting dating back as far as the verb romans omans in the center of the city is an elevated sand and stone hill known as the burgo PK it was here that the romans are said to have built their fort it was also used in the middle ages as a place of refuge during times of war no less than thirty emperors of germany have made it their place of refuge on this bu buca ir is a well feet deep cut through solid sandstone this was dug a the eleventh century when blasting was unknown to the world and occupied thirty years in digging from the bottom of this well lead two subterranean passages one to the old court house the other to the church yard the former is open to this day jn in the court yard of the castle which stands on the top of the burg is a celebrated linden tree planted in the eleventh century thus making it eight hundred years old this tree filled its measure cf creation about two years ago when it ceased shooting forth its buds upon the advent of spring from this elevation one can see where wallenstein the leader of the catholic forces during the thirty years war had his army in trenched against the besieging protestant forces under king gustave adolphus of sweden who after an unsuccessful attempt of eleven weeks to break through the entrenchment moved his army towards the north where in the battle at lutzen he won the day at the cost of his hil life here is where luther and spent many days during the reformation was one ot of the first cities to throw on off the dominion exercised over them by the papal authority at rome a blessing which prevails in nearly entire germany except the kingdom of bavaria where its bonds are still felt I 1 had the privilege of riding upon the first railroad built in the empire which connects this city and the city of furth about six miles to the north this road was built in the year 1835 this city is as is well known the toy manufacturing city of the world at present there is being held a fair here which is a depre sen tation of the dif different terent industries of bavaria and very interesting to visit today I 1 return to munich to bid my friends farewell rewell ta after which I 1 will be appointed to a new field of labor this season is very rainy and the farmers have a very hard time in gathering their crops the climate is much cooler here than in utah 1 ALBERTS ALBERT S ERICKSON |
