| Show THE GUAM OJD KIIISE A IJricf Description its Beauties mid Superstitions I Tii the Swiss canton of the Grissons nearly a thousand miles from its mouth is the source of one of the most beautiful I rivers the sun shines Sun upon Rung by I poets praised by tourists of all countries andbest of allloved and gloried in by the people through whose lands it i flows the Rhine certainly must not l > e I compared with other streams The Ganges whose muddy waters sweep through the torrid plains of India which annually overflows destroying the I I stock crops and lives of the poor people which worshiped as a god and which I has received into its waters thousands of I poor fanatics who imagined they were I taking the shortest route to paradise even the Ganges cannot vie with her in the feeling which she inspires in the I hearts of the inhabitants of her fertile The I valleys Ganges is worshiped as a god the Mississippi is admired for its great length the Amazonwhose path if yet imperfectly explored and which sweeps into the sea the waters of a whole continent wondered at and feared but none of these receive the love and affection af-fection which the German peasant bears to his beautiful Rhine The children are brought up to look upon it in the light of a deal friend and around it cluster the memories of the old grandparents To be separated from it is one of their greatest sorrows and wherever he may bein the far west of I America or in the far east of Australia I the German looks back to the Rhine with the fondest regret The Rhine has a noble source Two small lakes nestling in the tops of the Alps discharge their waters into a little stream which gathering strength as it I proceeds swells into a mighty river navigable for hundreds of miles For many miles broad and flowing through great plains then narrow deep tortuous rushing between mountains so near that from a distance they seem to touch then emerging into a broad noble streamit presents the utmost variety of scenes and views Rival castles look threateningly threaten-ingly across it ruined palaces lend an oldtime air to the scenes the quaint and picturesque costumes of the people whom it passes make the tourist think he is indeed in-deed in a strange land and all combined produce the most delightful results Many are the legends clustered around the Rhine Princes and kings noblemen aud ladies have left their deeds as a sacred sa-cred inheritance to the people Listening to them the traveler forgets that he is living in the nineteenth century and the tales he hears seem the occurrences of today to-day and this memory is not all the chivalric chiv-alric knights and beautiful ladies have left behind Many a ruined castle the home for years of only the bat and the owl is revisited re-visited by l its former owners Lovers over whose graves the earth has rested for centuries come again to the scenes of their wooing Foes whose swords and helmets have long since mouldered away and whose quarrels have been decided by that highest court again ply their trusty blades again hunt each other with undying animosity At times the castles are all ablaze with light it if a ball and the dancers are those who danced therein I there-in the days of the greatness of the old German empire while the mountains are I full of strange huntsmen they hunted there in years gone by Such are the beliefs of the peasantry and they add greatly to the charm of the beautiful river and let no one dare to distrust these I I old legends and ghosts For many of our most touching and beautiful legends J I have been laid low and let no one dare to invade the anctity of the Rhine To the German the Rhine and Fatherland Father-land are indissolubly connected They 1 are inseparable in his mind The Watch on the Rhine won as many victories for the Prussians in the FrancoPrussian war as did the skill and valor of the commanders com-manders I With that pong ringing in his ears i with the knowledge that were they defeated i de-feated the sacred banks of the Rhine I would Be trampled by foreign feet and I the beautiful Rhineland invaded with I all this the German soldier was well nigh I invincible and his victory a certainty i tad when the war was ended when France and the French had been laid low and all united Germany was rejoicing then wherever the German wasaU the world over an outburst of praise and thanksgiving ascended by millions of happy hearts singing The Watch on the Rhine |
