| Show wanderings in tyrol hard fare and labor compensated by meal and rest on mountains summit special correspondence by the end of december 1903 peters and I 1 had grown thoroughly ired of munich and its fog and con eluded to try the effect of a little pas oral atmosphere we spent about our hours one bleak day discussing anous plans for an outing only to ive them all up as being beyond the cope of our pocketbooks when a man s allowance comes on the fit benth of the month and bills have to tie paid the twenty ninth Is a very aad time to talk of a vacation but we eit the need ot a change of climate so concluded to try the effect of a talking tour on our lagging spirits we left our quarters at 4 clock on the morning of the twenty ninth w ath ao more idea of our ultimate destina alon than had columbus when he first sailed out to discover a new world we finally struck the however and after studying the time card bought two third class tickets innsbruck and return no persons unacquainted with third lass travel of the continent can ap preci ate the various emotions that as sailed us as the countless scents aris ing from a bundled lunch baskets struck our nostrils and but for our pipes we must have been smothered before the end of the first halt hour we attracted but little attention dur ing the first stages tor the Mu enchner s a cosmopolite and tal es scant notice at any one but by the time we reached the an border we had begun to feel like circus freaks hard fare at innsbruck at last after countless changing of ars we reached innsbruck and at once began a systematic hunt tor peters had visited the place before but as his acquaintance with the town s hostelries hostel rles was allm ted to the Europ alscher hot rates en crowns a day and up he did not prove to be of much assistance we finally landed in the garthaus Gas thaus zum goldemen Gol denen sonne where tor the sum at 40 cents we were allowed to rest our bones in the most abominably ard bed mortal ever struck daybreak the next morning saw as on our way anda after fourteen hours of hard tramping we landed at the gasthoff zum lutz in the stub aithan the queerest combination of paradise and pig pen it has ever been my fortune to discover A stone tab let over the door announced that in the year eighteen hundred and some thing prince otto of bavaria and queen somebody of somewhere together with their respective suites had spent the night there the exterior was far from but we concluded that it roy alty had been able to stand it we could so we waded through the mud puddle that surrounded the entrance and asked for beds with many fore bodings we climbed the rickety stair case with thought of those dreadful innsbruck beds uppermost in our minds we were most pleasantly sur therefore when the cirtin ushered us into a large chamber of immaculate appearance in the corner of which stood two snowy beds piled high with downy bett decken four teen hours of steady walking over rough alpine trails is a bit wearying and we were very glad to have our dinners which cons sted of wiener zel and ein glass helles served to us in bed up the mountains the next day we spent resting peters giving up most of his time to making sketches of the inhabitants four clock isea years morning saw us on our way alpine climbing had always been a bit too strenuous a pastime to appeal to either peters or myself but the bracing air of the tyrol had fired our lagged spirits and as we forced our way along the snow covered paths we laid elaborate plans tor an assault on the Matt erhorn the following summer my outfit consisted ot a heavy tweed suit mountain boots a bright red sweater which attracted the envy of all the peasants we met an old slouch hat and an alpenstock peter s rie was much the same we had taken the precaution to slip a couple of rolls into our pockets and these reached the summit and proceeded to thaw out our feet the only members that had suffered from the cold in front of a rousing fire which we built in one of the franco austrian alpine association shelter huts after melt ing a little snow in peter s hat the only receptacle that we could find we proceeded to make a meal of our rolls no ten course dinner ever served tasted halt so good as did those two halt sour lumps of coarse bread and when at the conclusion of our frugal repast we filled our pipes and lay down in the doorway to enjoy our aft er dinner smoke we both felt more like monarchs than we ever hoped to again although our muscles rebelled at the thought of getting back to work we both 1 new the dangers ot alpine climbing after dark so binding hand of straw onto our shoes to keep the snow from caking on them we started on our homeward way by the time we had reached the out sl arts of the wood the sun was al church in tyrolese alps ready low and the distant howl ot the timber wolf acted as a wonderful stimulant to our tired muscles we had no desire to try our hands with these denizens of the forest and for a number of miles we hit only the high places trusting to providence to keep the wolves occupied else where and paying scant heed to the dangers of the ice coated path by 10 clock we had reached the settle ment and after eating a prodigious quantity of fried sausages we climbed aloft to our welcome couches and rapidly passed into the realm of dreams statue of tell at althof furnished the means of subsistence during ohp day our progress was somewhat retard ed by the underbrush at first the paths had been turned into long runs and were so sl apery that we were anable to obtain a foothold but as we neared the glaciers the country rew more open till only a solitary pine tree raised its ambitious head here and there once out of the shade of the trees the sun began to grow uncomfortably warm and we began to shed clothing until our thin cotton undershirts furnished our only attire from the waist up to one who knows nothing of the atmospheric conditions in the tyrolese alps the idea of climb in a glacier in such scanty wardrobe will appear startling in the extreme but no summer sun in arizona was ever hotter than was the face of old sol on that mid winters day frugal meal enjoyed about 2 clock in the afternoon we |
