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Show THE world has awaited, with dread, the time when the French armies might reach the environs of Strassburg and begin be-gin to bombard that ancient capital of Alsace-Lorraine, because then one of the most marvelous works of civilization will be exposed to destruction de-struction or great damage. This is the cathedral of Strassburg, an architectural archi-tectural glory, "one of the choicest Gothic visions ever dreamed of by a master mason." During the war of 1870 the Strassburg Strass-burg cathedral was rather badly damaged. dam-aged. The French established a military mili-tary signaling station in the immediate immedi-ate vicinity, which drew the shell fire of the Prussians. As a result, the magnificent spire was torn from top to bottom, and one projectile, grazing the cross on the top, bent it sidewise. This happened on the 24th day of August. No sooner was the war at an end, however, than the Germans set about the business - of repairing the damage thus inflicted. The task occupied oc-cupied ten years, being r.ot completed until 1SS0. Dates From the Eleventh Century. It is an interesting fact that this celebrated structure occupied the site of an ancient heathen temple dedicated dedi-cated to Hercules. Indeed, the image of the god is known to have been preserved pre-served within its walls, as a historic memorial, up to the year 1865, when It disappeared just how is not satisfactorily satis-factorily explained. The heathen temple tem-ple was demolished in the fourth century cen-tury A. D. The Christian fane that took its place was of wood in the seventh century; cen-tury; later it was of stone. It was partly or wholly burned half a dozen Death strikes the hours, while an angel, an-gel, seated above, turns round an hour glass which he holds in his hand. At stroke of 12 the apostles appear in single file and pass before a figure fig-ure of Christ, bowing. The Savior blesses them by raising his hand, while the cock crows and flaps his wings three times. Strassburg Once a Free City. Strassburg marks the locality where the River 111 divides into five branches. It has 125,000 inhabitants, and the old part of the town is most interesting to the sightseer, some of the houses in narrow streets (dating (dat-ing back to the middle ages) being embellished with wonderful wood carving. carv-ing. The city is connected with the Rhine (two miles to the east) by canals. It is a center of high roads between Germany, France and Switzerland Switzer-land and at the junction of other canals which connect the Rhine with the Marne, and the Rhone with the Rhine. The place is the seat of the imperial governor of Alsace-Lorraine, and the headquarters of the Fifteenth corps. Like Metz, Strassburg was in former days governed by a prince bishop. But in the thirteenth century the then German emperor made it a free city. It had at that time 50,000 inhabitants a population deemed huge and, being a very important trade center, it was already rich and prosperous. Then it was that the principal facade of the great cathedral was built. One of Town's Features. Strassburg, like Metz, was an ancient an-cient Roman military post. The Romans called it Argentorat,''m. It is today enormously strong, Icing defended de-fended by 14 forts and inner ramparts. I , s-V S t i ''f, ( i miii Iff!!!:'. iJ'jirf i",m , a i" lis ' ' , ' -"?Ahyi GUTNBURG PLATZ times (destroyed by lightning iu 100?), and as often rebuilt. As it stands today, to-day, it was completed in 1S39; but the oldest portion dates from the beginning be-ginning of the eleventh century. It is considered the noblest creation of ecclesiastical architecture in Germany, its only rival in that country being the equally famous cathedral of Cologne. Co-logne. The astronomical clock which adorns this cathedral is the most celebrated timepiece in the world. It dates back to 1352, and originally was graced with statues of the three wise men and the virgin in wood, together with a cock. At the stroke of every hour the wise men bowed before the virgin and the cock crowned and flapped his wings. It contains a perpetual calendar, indicating in-dicating all the various holy days (movable feasts), such as Easter, and regulates itself in leap years. It shows the movements of the planets, the phases of the moon anil eclipses of the sun and moon calculated for remotest times. Figures representing represent-ing the four stages of life, grouped around a figure of Death, strike the quarter hours. Childhood strikes the first quarter, Youth the second, Manhood Man-hood the third and Old Age the fourth. There are also freat works for flood ing the approaches, as an additional discouragement to an enemy. An iuteresting feature of Strassburg is the great number of storks which build their huge nests on the chimney chim-ney pots. Oddly enough, these birds never seem to establish themselves for breeding purposes anywhere except ex-cept on human dwellings. Nobody would ever think of disturbing them in any way. On the contrary, a house holder thinks it a great sign of gooc luck if a stork picks out his roof toi for a nest. It is very curious to see them teach their young to fly. Toward the end of August all thf storks start on the same day south ward, bound for their winter quarters in Africa. In March they return, pre ceded a week or so by a single stork pioneer, and their arrival is always hailed with joy. Apparently they in variably take up the same nests yeas after year. |