FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   115   116   117   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   126   127   128   129   130   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139  
140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   153   154   155   156   157   158   159   160   161   >>  
n tooth which he was keeping for the skill of the first American dentist. For natural sublimity the Rhine scenery, as they recognized once more, does not compare with the Hudson scenery; and they recalled one point on the American river where the Central Road tunnels a jutting cliff, which might very well pass for the rock of the Loreley, where she dreams 'Solo sitting by the shores of old romance' and the trains run in and out under her knees unheeded. "Still, still you know," March argued, "this is the Loreley on the Rhine, and not the Loreley on the Hudson; and I suppose that makes all the difference. Besides, the Rhine doesn't set up to be sublime; it only means to be storied and dreamy and romantic and it does it. And then we have really got no Mouse Tower; we might build one, to be sure." "Well, we have got no denkmal, either," said his wife, meaning the national monument to the German reconquest of the Rhine, which they had just passed, "and that is something in our favor." "It was too far off for us to see how ugly it was," he returned. "The denkmal at Coblenz was so near that the bronze Emperor almost rode aboard the boat." He could not answer such a piece of logic as that. He yielded, and began to praise the orcharded levels which now replaced the vine-purpled slopes of the upper river. He said they put him in mind of orchards that he had known in his boyhood; and they, agreed that the supreme charm of travel, after all, was not in seeing something new and strange, but in finding something familiar and dear in the heart of the strangeness. At Cologne they found this in the tumult of getting ashore with their baggage and driving from the steamboat landing to the railroad station, where they were to get their train for Dusseldorf an hour later. The station swarmed with travellers eating and drinking and smoking; but they escaped from it for a precious half of their golden hour, and gave the time to the great cathedral, which was built, a thousand years ago, just round the corner from the station, and is therefore very handy to it. Since they saw the cathedral last it had been finished, and now under a cloudless evening sky, it soared and swept upward like a pale flame. Within it was a bit over-clean, a bit bare, but without it was one of the great memories of the race, the record of a faith which wrought miracles of beauty, at least, if not piety. The train gave the Marches another, and la
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   115   116   117   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   126   127   128   129   130   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139  
140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   153   154   155   156   157   158   159   160   161   >>  



Top keywords:
Loreley
 

station

 

cathedral

 
denkmal
 

American

 

Hudson

 

scenery

 

Cologne

 

finding

 

familiar


strangeness

 
baggage
 

wrought

 
driving
 
miracles
 

ashore

 

beauty

 

tumult

 

strange

 

slopes


purpled

 

levels

 

replaced

 

orchards

 

steamboat

 
Marches
 

travel

 

boyhood

 

agreed

 

supreme


corner

 

thousand

 
cloudless
 

evening

 

soared

 

finished

 

upward

 

orcharded

 

Within

 

Dusseldorf


memories
 
railroad
 

record

 

swarmed

 

escaped

 
precious
 

golden

 
smoking
 
drinking
 

travellers