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Show LmAtBistdu , ' xv My I V " ?! I 4! I! I 1- -tlj 'aiiMtinrttr?'"' -1T"irfi-ri--'inli rm v -lnHTirt-in rvir il ''"" "---r 11 4 at Jiw A Young Llechtsnstelner. Prprd bjr tha National Oeotrapbla 1 SucUty, WublUKlou, D. C WHEN Prince Jobnn II ot the little principality of Liechtenstein Liech-tenstein died a few weeks ago In bla eighty-ninth year, there came to an end the longest reign la the West since tbe days of Louis XIV of France, seventy-one years. But more than tbe reign of Johan ended. Under provisions which this fatherly monarch bad made, his little moun taln-rlmmed domain ceases to have a princely ruler and becomes vlrtuully a part of Switzerland. ' , If you are a map traveler, Liechtenstein-bound, follow tbe castled Rhine, skirt tbe Black Forest to Basel, awing east past the Fulls to the shed at Fried rlchshaf en, and you are on the Lake of Constance, or Bodensee, shared by Switzerland, Austria, and Germany. Turn south for 20 miles up tbe broad valley between Switzerland and Austria and yon reach the northern tip of the principality princi-pality of Liechtenstein, which for the next IS miles looks west across tbe Rhine, , To reacb Liechtenstein In person requires self-discipline. One must leave Paris and Switzerland behind and stop short of Vienna and Budapest Buda-pest Forego an evening in Parts, be aboard the Budapest sleeper Just before be-fore 9, and before luncb time you wlli arrive at Buchs, Switzerland. A few miles to the east you will be set down at Sehnnn-Vaduz, the division line station between Schellenberg " and Vaduz, once separate units and fiefs of the Roman Empire. To the right the narrow plain be tween mlle-hfgb mountains and tbe Rhine stretches away toward Surg-ans, Surg-ans, off the south tip of the Lilliputian land. To the left is tbe "low coun try." .... rises aflove the looms of an allied weaving mill equipped wltb the latest apparatus for humidifying the atmosphere. atmos-phere. - The raw cotton comes from America. The clotb Is sold In Budapest Buda-pest The 300 weavers come from the valley towna and down from the Trlesenberg. Views of Mountain and Valley. ! South of Trlesen there Is little evidence of man's works. At Bulzars a Inrge memorial church and a rock mass surmounted by Burg Gutenberg, never captured, but now need as a hotel, are dwarfed by the Mlttogspltce and the Falknls, and are almost Inst In the broadened plan whence a valley road mounts Luzenstleg. At the foot of the Swiss Flascherberg, which balances bal-ances the Schellenberg, is Klein Mels. Tbe small cluster of homes Is merged Into a green plain cut by a white road leading to the Kletn-Mels Trubbarh bridge, one of the four-covered wooden wood-en structures which furnish communication communi-cation with Switzerland across tbe man-timed Rhine. To north, the arms of the Y confine a wide triangle of level, marshy land, with three small groups of houses spaced across Its farther edge. Above them rises the Schellenberg, a low rolling hill dwarfed by flanking mountains. moun-tains. Above Schaan towers a wild rock face, scared and - torn by time's shrapnel. Closing In the southern end of the landscape Is the Falknls group, almost as rugged. Between the 7.1 K0-foot K0-foot Kuhgratspltze and 8.420-foot Falknls the country's backbone dips to a scant 0.AO0 feet, so that one can took across this saddle to the Naaf-kopf, Naaf-kopf, whose 8,441 feet, shared with Austria and Switzerland, marks the highest of a dozen or so more-than- mlle-hlgb peaks In this pigmy prln- i . One who thinks of the principality as a part of the Swiss customs union expects this small mountain-side atute to be west or tbe Rhine, leaning against St Gotten Instead of hanging hang-ing to the shoulder of Verarlberg. But political changes hurdle a river easier than mountain-high mountains do. Until 1019, free Liechtenstein was economically allied to Austria. The "K. K.,H denoting kaiser and king, on the Schaan post office, though partly obliterated. Is still visible. - Agriculture and Industry. Here the Rhine is no romantic river for deep-wnter sailors, with a prima donna mermaid parading her tresses before bobbed-haired tourists It Is a shallow stony torrent bed, now dry-In dry-In spots, now foaming with the force of Alpine glaciers. Man has taken the river in band, overcome Its meander ing habits, and confined it between prosaic, though curving banks. Between the Rhine and the sway back ridge of Liechtenstein Is a narrow nar-row plain .devoted to bay, corn and grain, with orchards here and there, stately poplars marking some roads sad vineyards on tbe gentler slopes At the place where It curls up to cliff and mountain meadow, a road, split Into a T by the Schellenberg, unites the valley towns from Ruggell and Schaanwald to Klein Mels. Schaan, with 1,400 inhabitants. Is at the focus of the three branches and the short international road to Buchs. Its chief landmark Is a shnrn-splred shnrn-splred church whose architect borrowed bor-rowed Inspiration from the needles of rock above It , To the right the mowing-machine blade of a saw-tooth factory roof cuts the green of pine and beech. Farther soutb is the capital, wltb the' otd chateau, founded on Roman ruins, hanging over It like an eagle perched above Its nest and looking at the eggs between Its feet To the right of the castle the bottle bot-tle green forest veiling the foces of half domes upon whose tops are pleasant pleas-ant plateaus, merges the broken pattern pat-tern of the rolling Trlesenberg, whose chalet groups dot a park-like region between barren terminal mountains. Below Is Trlesen, from whose one factory fac-tory chimney Rhur coal smokes when winter ties up the otherwise Inexhaustible Inex-haustible water power. The mowing-machine blade between Schaan and Vadus edges a splnning-wlll splnning-wlll roof. The Trlesen smokestack cipuuiy. , At the sag In the rtdge the crosscountry cross-country road saves a few feet of height by means of a short tunnel Joining the populous Trlesenberg with the deserted slopes of the Sam-Ina. Sam-Ina. valley. In summer one walks through this dripping tube, from the hush of hsyflelds to the sound of grazing cattle swaying melodious bells. The Samlna valley, narrow, thickly wooded for the most part, nnd lightened light-ened at Its bottom by a sliver-green, Impetuous river, cannot he seen from the Swiss slope, hut as the observer Includes In his view the heights beyond be-yond It he can safely he said to command com-mand the entire country In one glace. Travelers Can Set It All. Probably , no other state except Monaco has been seen In Its entirety by so many people. Neither Andorra nor San Marino Is so advantageously placed. Every visitor In the Swiss society so-ciety resorts of Davos and St. Mortis could look the length of the principality principal-ity from Rnrgnns before his train turns south away from Liechtenstein. The traveler to the Lake of Constance and Cermany passes the whole land In review. The passenger train to Innsbruck Inns-bruck and the Tyrol or the trl-weekly Orient express rides the rails that separate Liechtenstein Into the highlands high-lands and low. Schaan, express stop and metropolis, metrop-olis, has plate glass windows In which ready-made gowns In late styles are displayed, though the women usually spend their money for durable ginghams. ging-hams. One shopkeeper has tempted fste by keeping modern millinery. The homely Inn at Vaduz might not please fastidious travelers. , The only running water Is In a stone trough outside one's bedroom window. Yet one looks back on It with longing. What If the lower hall was a thoroughfare thor-oughfare for half the town I Even so humble a capital must have Its Peacock Pea-cock alley. The bed was clean and comfortable. The food, too rich and plentiful for all but active folk, was designed to satisfy one who had traveled trav-eled along mountain trails. From the first day. one becomes a-cttlzen. a-cttlzen. Man. mnld. and child, all look over one with keen but friendly appraisal. ap-praisal. And rhat a deltght It la to pass this Informal Inspection and be greeted with the password, "Oruss Oott." usually shortened to "Sgott." with neighbortlness compressed even Into that short syllable! |