The New York Herald Newspaper, September 27, 1874, Page 6

6 or SUMMER LIFE IN EUROPE, — THE GERMAN SPRINGS. + RECOLLECTIONS OF KISSINGEN. Its Beauties, Mountains, Histo- ries and Legends. Bismarck as a Mower of Gras Life and Allurements at Vichy. HOMBURG AND ITS —o——_— The American Colony on the Rhine. SPRINGS, VICHY. pea Nees be Vicny, August 27, 1874. Were my style as fresh as an English girl’s com- plexion [ should tail in giving you an exact Idea of the cool softness of the atmosphere enveloping these lingering summer days at Vichy. people here who have been to Spa, and who, hay- ing done so, think they are justifiea in shrugging their shouiders at thia little town and deciaring | that its casino and theatre and amusements gen- | erally pale before the splendor of that celebrated watering place; but they cannot repadiate these golden, glowing days—days when a vast peaceful- nessa falls upon everything, and a}l the harsh and ugly things of life seem to be padded in wadding and stowed away. At least two meanings are given to the word ‘season’ as used here. The one is that which Js applied by the average visitor, who insists upon coming in July, because then the hoiels are at ‘Deir fullest, the toilets at their “fasnionabdiest,”” and the opportunities tor firta- tion most free and frequent. But this ts an inter- pretation that is despised by the resident physt- clans, of whom there are aboat twenty employed by the thermal establishment administration. What a Vichy physician means by a season is any duration which will effect a cure, or an amellora- tion where a cure is impossible. He will tell you that i! there tg any choice of months it lies within the six weeks extending ‘rom August 15 to Oc- tober 1. The vast majority of those who come here do so for health, and the grand difficulty which the physician has to combat 13 that of in- ducing them to remain long enough to give tne bathing and drinking a fair trial, Oficial writers set down twenty-one days as the minimum in most instances, and sixty as the aver- age term in serious cases, But this is a kind of advice to which the ordinary Invalid refuses to listen, Afcera few tumblerfuls from Les Célestins or La Source d’Hautertve the sheumatic sufferer is apt to ignore that network of painin which he has been labyrinthed and in- sists upon having his walking papers after the lapse of fliteen days, He acts as though ne believes that a gallon or so of minerai water has the power of creating @ new constitution that shall supplant the old and enable nim to rebegin life under the most brilliant conditions, It is the same with the white looking Amencan ladies, who throug hither with figures etiolated, like sx n flowers. You see them coming to the tabie d’/i0te witnout appe- tite, pretending to swallow soup and trifling with abit of chicken. Fresh air, early hours, bathing and drinking the waters begin, after a fortnight, todo something for tnem; but by that time they are tired of Vichy and become enamored of Ems, or Carl-bad or 8ome other !amous watering plac and forthwith the bills are paid, the trunks a! packed, the doctor’s claims are settied and pro- testations disregarded and the waters of Vichy know tnem no more. INVALID FLIRTATIONS. Looking down the long lines of a full table a’hote, who has not been struck by the contrast between be maladies of the individual guests and tae gusto with which they att the bill of fare? Ihave never seen this contrast more strikingly exempli- fled than at Vichy, where only two meals per day are furnished, the déjewner at ten o'clock and the dinner at baif-past five. hours; and you may be sure that at those periods appetite comes into full play. You may walk throngh the parlors or visit the baths and springs, or repair to the casino and its numerous salons at all ower hours and find them crowded; but atthe epochs I have mentioned every public resort be- comes suddenly deserted and life at Vichy is con- centrated in the sade-d-manger, 1am at loss to think what the theories of the physicians here are in regard to the diet necessary for dyspepsia; for I have seen with my own eyes putients suffering ‘rom that disease abandon- ing themselves madiy to the deiigntsof fromage @lacréme anu apparentiy without suffering any subsequent inconvenience. I have seen the pain- jully obese glutting themselves through nail @ dozen courses and then folding their napking and rising with the air of having pertormed a duty for which society will be the better. And if the appe- tite of sick people is a singularity then firtations and otber varied efforts atter enjoyment are still more interesting—interesting, 1 mean, as 3 psycuological study, showing how much even Mormid human nature will go through for the sake artly of amusement, partiy ol coniorming to con- entionality. Here is the gentleman wuo 13 ob- liged 10 /00t tt in ist slippers quoting poetry to the lady whose Malady coi sirains her to @ constant use of the iron spring de Mesdames and there is the youth with an adectiou of the heart making Jove to the young lady with an affection of the liver, ‘In the pa you see the monsieur whose blood bas become impoverished with too much alpumen holding a sentimental conversation with the demoiselle whose tip arises from a viclous assimiiativo of sugar, Tne Party with engorzed viscera cannot be happy without the presence of the friend witn shattered digestion, and M. Pavillon, who suffers from ar- ticular roeumatism, is miserable unless he bas the company of “mon am! Pifard,’’ who is almost desperate with colique hepatique. Let us be vhank/ui that toings are so arranged in this world that amc’ % less than prosperity, draws people togetier. e ea me at Vicay it is pleasant to know that people from all the nations bf the earth are there too; vat a gentieman, crim- Boued by the torrid sun of Sumatro, is on my fight; that @ beautiful leader of fashiun, sickly with pales couleurs, 18 On ty icit; that & Russian princess sits opposite, and that convalescent Soutn Americans, Spaniards, Canadians and Americans fre scattered misceilaneously around, It would be an excellent idea to pass around a polyglot edition ol Pope’s “Universal Prayer” tor grace at Meal time. VICHY VS. SARATOGA. A season at Vichy means something different from a season at Saratoga. Saratoga is a little fail of big hotels, and the chief difference between wand a city proper is that in the latter are no mineral waters gushing fresh irom their native springs. The greater part of those who go 10 Saratoga do not go there after heaith. [tas an aiwost unsurpassed reputation, ater its kind, as & fashionable watering place, and of the few who go tuere really to urik the waters many remain in order to show their toilets. But Vichy is one ofthe great rallying points in the word jor the aMicted, who are not en bonne santé and who are wliling to make some sacrifice in order to attain that blessing. Consequentiy, Dumerous instances oi invalids who have not suMcient patience to give the piace a good trial, the goudess Hygiea is more rever- entiy worshipped at Vichy than in nine water. ing pia Ouv of ten, At Saratoga you drink promiscuously and miscellaneously, and it does Dot seem to matter a great deal whether you drink early and often or whether you never drink at all. But at Vichy your incomings and outgolugs are watched over by @ service medical; or, at any rate, rou repair thither so fico with the reputa- ion O1 the place and with your own ignorance re- B.ecting the kind and quantity of water you are to imbtbe and batue in, tliat as 4 matter of course you apply for advice to one of the score of doctors Who constitute the administrative service. are English or American and do not speak French, of course you select one of the several physicians | jamiliar with your vernacalar. Ii you are wiliin: to proceed helter-skelter, without advice, no ali culty will be found so far as the springs are von- cerned, for all you have to do is to present yourseif among the crowd ihe jountaums, Bos i the paring estav- ‘There are | | and vin rouge in waiting, together with an obliging These are tae regulation | city | in spite of the | if you | Us"iment the first question that the head man asks | croizetre and Mme. Nathalie, both from the Com- ! you ls whether you nave got the doctor's order | édie Francaise, are yet to come. The theatre at- | preseribing the kind of bath required, There are | tached to the casino 1s the theatre par excellence | six natural springs of miperal water at Vichy and | at ee A Tuere. indeed another one, seed | three artesian, @ natural are named La Grande | the Theatre des Vari¢tés, seats in which cau be | Grille, Le Puits-O +0) 1, Lucas or | bad jor one, two or tpreg franes, but it ia not ex- Tes Acadian camara nak ona cad Les | tensively patronized A ichy visiiors, | Célestins. Ofthese the first five are warm and | CONVERSATION aT VICHY, | the last cold. The three artesian sources are La | Ordinary people ought not to be expected to Source d’Hauterive, La Source de Mesdames, and sbine in conversation, The Vichy bathers and ‘ofthese are cold | drinkers are ordinary people, and IT do not know ot Tengen, these there are | that they should be blamed for talking a great into the general | deal about their ailments. Alter we have drunk and La source du Pare. | and the last lukewarm. | three springs which do not enter calculation. d La Source Intermitrente, | bathed lor a week or 50 we know we have is gs — ecabimsement Thermal, and ts | imbibed and abporbad a cert Topartia ot car- anolagous in its mineral composition to La Source | bvonic acid and bicarbonate of soda and potassa, to | du Pare, but has aot yet been thrown open to the | Say nothing of sulphates or phospates, tts only aural after breakiast and dinner, and even dur- g those meals, that we should fall to comparing notes, Smith is anxious to kuow whether Jones r enjoys @ carbonic acid gas bato or an ascending One of the springs most (requently prescribed tg | douche, and Brown, who takes second class baths, La Source de |’Hospital. Its two other names are for which he pays two franca, triumphs in the fact | Rosalie and Gros-Boulet. It ts situated in the | that he gets only one peignoir less than Robinson, centre of the Place de Hospital, close in the rear | Who paya one iranc more jor baths of the ol the casino, has a taste of sulphuretted hydrogen premiere classe. A, who inhales ten litres and 1s used for nervous diseases, congestions aud — of oxygen every morning before breakfast, is hemorrhages. Like ail the other springs it has | burning to discover whether it 1s incumbent upon several girls and women tn attendance {rom early | him to give the waiting woman two sous alter ‘tn che morning until seven at night, Those girls each sdance dinkalation, and B, who had are named donneuses eau (givers of water), | to wait half an hour before his turn cam Their invariable dress isa blue striped gown and | Of regrets that de wasted a five irane piece upon white cap, In more than one instance the don- | the head batgneur, neuse 18 Very young and very pretty, but in the people, to whom you find yourself speaking for the majority of cases she 1s approaching middie age, is first time talk about their diseases, 13 one of the bronzed, deep furrowed and swarthy and fre- most singular characteristics of iife at Vichy. quently has a clearly defined mustache. How ber aris must ache, one would think, by the time seven O'clock comes aud the last glassia is | public. The otter two are named Lardy and Lar- | Bava: ‘and are located on private property on the | road Vichy to Abrest. ate ENES AT THE SPRINGS. ot vulgar people- coarse, foreign and mincing American women, nouveaus riches, Who need edu- | scooped up! But she betrays no evidences action in order to bear their wealth with grace, of jatigue. Any reader of these lines who has and that familar specimen, seen among all na. | drunk from UHOpital will remember the young | tlonalities, who too ignorant of own donneuse ‘here, with clear brown eyes and dark | ignorance ever to acquire good breeding, skin aud lithe, active form, with a certain natural MISCELLANEA, | gruce. How deftly she rinsed the glasses, how | Vichy has a history, Julius Cesar set up the | skilluily she scooped the water, how impartially | frst thermal establishment here, and here Lous XL, in 1410, founded the Monastere des Célesting. In 1787 Mesdames Adélaide and Victoire of Franc came hither for their neaith, and a thermal estab- lishment was erected, In 1814 Mme. la Duchesse @Angouleéme built a similar establishment. It she waited upou those who came, how periectly she | | deserved the infrequent centime that found its way | into her hands! And then the crowd which comes to this spring, how heterogeneous aud mixed it | 14, with a countess proffering her delicately enamelled glass beside some horny-handed work- | man in a blouse, @ priest elbowing a bourgeois | while waiting for his turn. Health is democratic, and the springs at Vichy place every one ov the same footing. Mme. la Baronne has no right to take precedence of this poor bonne unless the Baroness came drst. And 80, if I feel piously in- | lis instigation that the stone dike was erected clined the water of Vichy furnishes me with are- | Which protects the springs of Vichy against the flection trom Scripture, for it 1g without money | encroachments of the River Aller. and without price, like sunshine and air all the Uspices the ratlroad brancn from Vichy to Saint worid over. | Germain des Fossés was bullt; a large boulevard, RIDES AND WALKS. | amply shaded, was traced around the town; new No one, except the despiser of life in general, | 8treets were laid out and hotels apd cottages con- can trathtnily say that Vichy 1s devold of lovely | 8tructed, rides and walks. Pedestrians do not abound here. At good hotels the price of board and lodging et The man who 1s hardy enough to ascend Saint | Vichy varies irom ten to fifteen francs per day. Amand, called, out of complaisance, @ mountain, Good and comfortable living 18 not easily to be is regarded with respect, and the woman who had for less than ten Irancs, First class baths are | would do so (I have seen only one make the at- | three fraucs per day, gas baths and inhalation one | vempt, and Ido not think she was an American) | franc, Any one can live comfortably at Vichy, would be looked upon with veneration. But there enjoying every reasonable juxury and paying for are plenty of donkeys to be hired here for afew almost everything except doctors’ lees, for $23 or | sous, and they are such strong, patient, enduring, | $26 per week, though this will not admit of ex- good-tempered beasts that | wonder at their being delivered over, as they have been, to the tender , Ing or tue constant use Of carriages. These are mercies of the children. A really lovely view | to be hired for two francs and twenty-tive cen- awaits any one who goes tothe top of la cote, Saint | times aud three francs per hour, according as the | Amand, tO say nothing o! the inevitable café noir CaTriage has one horse or two. About 20,0W) people arrive here every year; quite enough to give the place @ thorough support, There is a circulating | Hither Mme. de Sévigné repaired in 1676, and hence she wrote some of her most charming let- ters to her daughter, Above all, the late French Emperor did more for Vichy than any one else. He first came bere in July ol 1861, and it was at | personage who is ready to give you the uso ‘of a passibly good telescope for whatever | library called the Berne Library where you can you choose to give him in return. Mounting to the | get a good choice of novels, moral and immoral, roo! of the little square house there you find the | trom Miss Mulock in English to M. Paul de Kock in snug little village of Vernet hidden away atthe | French, There are donkeys to be had by the very top of the hill. Far below, at your feet. winds dozen, an abundance of haggard old beggar the sinuous Allier, with its many islands tulted | Women, & dwarf whom Barnum wight covet, and with willows and’ guarded by regiments of pop- | WNo is politeness itself when you throw him a sou, ars. At different points of the compass you see | Spanish women besteging hotel doors to sell their richly vineyardea St. Yorre, with its mag- nificent park, wnole forests of fruit trees, the road | Sages,” headquarters for children’s toys, peasant- to Nunies, with its double range of buttonwoods | esses who swarm into the hotel corridors aiter and sycamores; the antique manor house Known | breakfast and dinner with iminense bouquets | as the ChAteau d’Abrest, and in the extreme dis- | which they sell for a franc and halt apiece, kiosks tance the blue chain of the Forez and gloomy Mon- | 8d booths without number, where straw baskets, ticello, begirt with sombre pines. Another walk is | china ornamen:s, Japan rifles, photographs and towards La Montagne Verte, situated inthe mid- | Vichy souvenirs of all kinds are sold at dle of the meh viueyards o! Creuzier. From the , mgh prices, and there ia a wondertully patient top of the mountain—if your patience lasts until | aud polite lady in the box: office of the you climb to {tt—you see Vichy and Cusset, | casino, who 18 at her post from half-pas¢ jooking extremely small; the villa an seven In the morning until Dearly midnight, and the park of Landemarriere, belonging to | Who is the very ideal of urbanity and business M. Francois Larbaud; the villas Belvé- | promptitude, there ig the delightiul ‘inally, dere and Thibault, the celebrated rock St. Vincent, | scenery of Vichy, which overcomes and neutral- and even in extremely clear weather the towers | Ics the artificiallues of existence here. When of the Cathedral de Bourges and de Clermont-Fer- | one 1s forced to be away for a ime from a phase of rand, le Puy-de-Dome and les Monts-Dores. But | life which has Broadway on one side of it and the riding and driving are much more in fashion, and | Bowery on the other, it 1s pleasant to have nature the pretty little village of Cusset, not quite so to iail back upon. And here there is certainly a Jarge as Vichy, 18 one of the nearest places, Then | large sylvan background. The very songs oi the there 1s Les Malavaux, a valley whose environ- | people have @ wildwood touch im them. Every- ment reminds one of scenes in Switzerland or | thing in them 1s pastoral and nothing is Tony Savoy, and on the road to which you encounter a | Pastoral. vast excavation known as the Devil’s Well. L?Ar- doisiére ts @ very pleasant little plateau, not lar off. where at an excellent restaurant the Sichon KISSINGEN. trout is one of the delicacies provided, Hard by — — ta the vilia Thibault, the summer residence of the eldest son of M. Louis Larbaud. who created the industry known as barley sugar and Vichy choc- olate, St. Yorre, another favorite point to visit, ls a@ thermal Station, situated at the foot of the mountains that command the Chateau de Bourbon Busser. It contains an intermittent spring that flows every twenty minntes, and that is the coldest, the most gaseous and the richest in mineral priucipies of all the springs in the great Vichy basin. The Chateau de Busset is situated oniy acouple of miles from St. Yorre. It hasa Mstory to the e#ect that just 500 years ago it was owned by Gaillaume de Vichy, that from him it passed into the possession of the house oi Allégre and finally into the hands of the Dnkes of Bour- | gogne, of whom the present proprietors are the | descendants, through the marriage of Marguerite | @Allégre with Pierre de Bourbon Busset. The | actual possessor at present is M. le Comte Charles | de Bourbou Busset, eldest son of General Fran- gots gosepn. Chatcldon, a small village Which preserves @ medirval aspect, is noted own lor its iron waters and fora feudal chateau KISSINGEN, August 29, 1874. Kissingen—qnict, charming, tuyllic, monotonous | Kissingen—has attained sudden and, to its innabi- tants, véry unwelcome notoriety. The Kissin- genites have been trembling in their boots for the last three or four days In fear that Prince Bis- marck, not feeling safe among them, and watering places not yet being admitrea by international treaties as sacred trom the blow of the assassin, woula pack up and leave their city jor better pro- tected springs. waters is in itself an advertisement of incalculable value for them, and if the King of Bavaria comes to visit them they believe their future will be as- sured. One wouid imagine, judging by tne fame which exported Kissingen waters have all over the world, that the place had really some impor- whose construction dates a8 far back as 1103, tance, instead of be!ng what it !s—a little, sleepy, | 4g the property of M. Tapon Chollet, Finaily, the pleasant city, having some 3,000 or 4,000 natives | SE ear ener anion: pain aee ae | and as many guests, who, as 1 write this, about ten | peta anuply repays Inspection. ieisan she poe | oclock in the evening, are nearly alin bed and | session of the Orleans family, who pass a part of | fast asleep—yea, this hour or more, Kissingen | every summer there. The interior 13 decorated | has not yet attained to the character and dig- } with remarkable peanty, rich paintings and ar nity ofa “luxus bad.” It 1s one of tne most eco- | mor and a large collection of antiquities. The : | grand saloon, the library and the royal chamber | NOmical watering places ia Germany, which fact are embelisnea with unique magnificence, and | may be, perhaps, accounted for in the scarcity of the chapel, to which you pass on an elevated ter- | americans and English. Of the 4,000 guests re- | race, contains anumber of fine windows, repre- | Senting the three theological virtues. The park corded up to the present time as having visited the city, only 900 were foreigners; and of these 250 | is superb, the air is wonderfully fresh and the | walks are extensive. Isbelieve this furnishes the were Englisn and ninety Americans—for the most part German-Americans. The majority of the pest of excursions within easy reach of Vichy. | AMUSEMENTS AT VICHY. Pcie is an re le Poneate eal it~ guests hail irom Berlin. Two-thirds of this ma- | discourses something besides Offenbach. Rain or " | sunshine a concert is given at hal!-past eight in jority, again, appears to have an Ota Testament the Morning and at half-past two in the afternoon, | type Of physiognomy. The rest are shopkeepers, lasting for an hour each time, When the weather is fine it is given in one o/ the kiosks in the park; when it rains, under the verandah openmg out of | the casino, We ear selections from sach com- posers a8 Marn, Elie, Nicolo, Métra, Liauzun, Ca- rafla and David, ag well as’ trom Gungi, Auber, Rossini and Donizetti; and thoagh the music 18 , not so good as that provided by Mr. Thomas or Mr. Gilmore it is quite good enough jor tne amount paid for it—ten centim: the price of a chair in the park, or nothing whatever, provided you are a subscriver to the theatre and casino. This subscription, by the by, 18 very cheap. By paying flity francs you are entitled to the use of the casino, and @ reserved seat (place nunvratée) at all the periormances at the theatre for one month, besides a park chair during all the concerts, and at the corresponding muaical per- Jormances at Les Célesuna, a garden surrounding the spring of that name in the southeastern quar- ter of the town, The privileges of the casino are, ireedom to use the well-appointed reading room aad to consult the papers there trom ali over the world, including the New York HERALD, from seven in (he morning until eleven at night, with writing materiais furnished gratuitously, and bll- liard rooma and salons de jeur on the opposite side of the corridor. The card tables in the salons de jeus are always crowded, but gambling is nov and priests with small incomes, NATURAL BEAUTIES OF KISSINGEN. Nature has done everything in her power to make Kissingen an attractive piace of sojourn, and where she failed the Kings 01 Bavaria came to her aid, The scenery about the city partakes of a quiet, idyllic character. high, but pleasantly wooded and crowned with ruins and legen The little river Saale flows ing mavy a gem of beautiful scenery all along its course. Kissingen for over two miles to the salt evaporat- ing establishments. And it does not lose ite idyllic character when it enters the city, It passes demurely under the bridge and to the rear of the Conversation House through the Kurgarten—in its waters the delicious trout, on its surface the poetic swan, The city itself, or And then, of course, there is the due proportion | ‘The Ireedom with which | 882 to repair the springs, | Was bere the illustrious Fiéchier spent bis youth. | poor wretches who did not waut to make 4 change in the method of going to the biesse: hunting grounds, and who had « special king for old Odin and bis'pleasaut way of sending out bis bewutiful Vaikyrs to etch the elect of them to Walhalla. Who can blame the old heathens for having been @ little stubborn. From the ninth to the thirteenth century Kisaingen grew up and be- came fortified with woats und walls and towel and nobles lived there and in the castles that bi sprouted up on every hilltop about, Foapanty’ ‘ar broke out, and &) at their Le el te and desiro, tes around, for which they finally got very severely unished. Then the Bishops of Wuraburg took interest in the place and rented the salt works and erected bats, until the Thirty Years’ War broke oak and the Swedes visited tne valley of the Saale, and after beleaguering the city of Kixeingen would bave taken possession had not Peter Heil, vhe pezsant, had such a good head, It was at his advice that, when the Swedes were storming the piace, the peasants nad collected all their bee hives (iuil of bees of course) upod the walls and cast them among the assailanis, and Kissingen Was saved. So at least says the legend, MODERN JMPROVEMENT. However, when the Swedes left the people had to build their salt works again and the long evap- ‘s full | Oratora of hawthorn twigs through which we water trickles. Frederick Karl, of Schdnborn, be- and through bis exer- tions the famous Rakoczy was discovered in 1737, and he bailt the old Kurhaus, which is now used asa hotel and restaurant. In 1506 Kissiugen be- came & possession of Bavaria, and from thistime Gates lis preseut prosperity. The old walls and towers were removed, and the present shady promenade made, and then Ludwig I. bulit the arcades and the Conversation House, a oridge over the Saale and a Protestant church for the guests, and beautified the city in many other ways. Gambling Was abolished in 1848, having existed since 1500, In 1860 the large royal baths were erected and in 1856 the theatre, And the bathing and water drinking public came year after year and enjoyed themselves in a quiet, monotonous fashion unul the year 1806, when the Prussians and Bayvarians bad a fight around and in the city and frightened the guests away. Some 20,000 Bi varians defended the city, and 35,000 or 40,000 Prussians stood on the hills beyond the Saale and uied to get in, And they did, ina plucky and curloas manner, THE BAVARIANS FOUGHT WELL; they occupied the bridge over the Saale and the houses along the river, and might have asserted | themselves, had their leaders taken proper pre- cautions. They detended the big bridge valiantly, but a few hundred yards further up the river there was another bridge, used ouly for foot pas- sengers, which they had apparently forgotten. But from the heignss the Prussian commander saw this and sent down a few companies to cross it and occupy the houses on the Other side, It was a bold stroke; a few companies dashed over it, man by man, and before the Bavarians knew tt, | the city was swarming with the foe. Then the travagance, and does not inolude horseback rid- | | originally struck. embroidery and laces, “Le Paradis des Enfants | | fight became hot inthe streets of the city; inch by inch the Bavarians were driven back along the streets and through the promenades, until they were driven from the city and compelled to re- | tire toward Schweinfurth, From tue house where Prince Bismarck resides overlooking tbe Saale, he can see the two bridges, and even in the nouse where he lives he can see the cannon balls (shot, mdeed, by the Bavarians from the opposite side of the river) frmiy — ce. mented in the wall in the places where they It seems to be the pride of the penis here to keep these mementoes of 1866, Dr. Mirai, the Prince’s host, tad the balls most caretully placed and then polished jet black, and the inscription over, above and beneath, ‘July 10, 1866,” Just beiore Prince Bismarck came, how- ever, the inscriptions were effaced and the cannon balls were painted to correspond with the color ol the walls; so that now they are scarcely ov- served at all, JOYS OF THE KISSINGEN CURE. Life in Kissingen 1s regulated by the doctors, and made as uncomfortable to heaithy people as It can well be imayined, ‘The landlords and hotel keepers are bound by order of the magistrates to give only such food to guests as 18 prescribed by the doctors; and the physicians O! she city, some years ago, In solemn session with @ royal com- missioner, made out @ list of food, what 1s good lor the guests and what 1s to be avoided, You are permitted to eat raw and cooked ham, wituout Jat, and pproninteed pork; and worst, you can eat trout. and pike and soles, and are prohivited eel, carp, all seatish (except soles) and crabs; you can eat cauliflower abd are prohibited cabbage; you can eat mashed potatoes and are prohibited roast and boiled potatoes; you can eat strawberries but are probibited all otuer raw fruits; you can eat | turkey aud pigeon and fowl and game but are pro- hibited roast goose and duck; youcan drink water and coffee and milk and light wines and beer and tea, but are prohibited heavy wines, liquors, brandy, punch, Jemonade and sour milk, You must take your first draught of Rakoczy at six | and take at least two hours’ exercise aiterward belore breakfast; and by changing the waters and The factof the Prince taking their , rignt through the city, between shade banks, giv- | It comes irom the north through a lovely | paaen. 1 valley, murtauring through meadows and beside | the long lovers’ avenue of trees that extend trom | | coughing, baths you can get cured of any disease under heaven. If you are (oo stout take Rakoczy aad Pandur; if you are too thin take Pandur and Rakoczy—so mysterious and wonderful ts the na- ture of these waters, both ol which are very nearly alike. The doctors tell you tiey have cured, tor certain, one cuse of Bright’s disease of tne kid- neys here—in fact, they Cau cure everything; and, as every doctor Iu the place has written a pamphiet or a book on the charms of Kissingen and the virtues 01 118 Waters una his Own skill, the visitor can read for himsel!, Only one disease they cannot cure, and that 1s poverty; and Goethe says that “Ohne geld ist man halo krank.” (A man without money 1s half sick.) And, great God! how maby of us are suffering trom this disease! SUBMITTING TO THE CURE. Called out of your bed just when the sun is peep- Ing over the mountain tops by the choral of the orcuestra, youare expected to suvmit graciously to the cure, which produces @ terrible state of things. For instance, one of the doctors has written a vook (in pigeon English) in wiich he telis us how we are to know that we are getting cured, “The chief symptoms of the cure, (le says) to wich even the most consciencious patient can be subjected, are these:—A Certain Reaviness of the head, with pressure and pertaps patns in the Jorehead and temples. In some ca: there ap- pears & general weakness, debility of the legs above the Knees, Weariess Of the eye-lids, siecp and lethargy in the day time, luilowed by sleep. Jessness at Bight. The patreat becomes irascivle, capricious, discontented, the tongue is joaded, the appetuce fails and the bowels act irregularly. ‘here 18 a tendency to hypochondriusis, to perspiration and eruption Ali these are, how- ever, signs of the WEW YORK HERALD, SUNDAY, SEPTEMDER 27, 1874.-QUINTUPLE ‘SHEET, “cure”? getting hold of you, | Without these signs coming you migit as well | have stayed at home, 1 asked a stout, good natured beriin gentleman how he felt alter taking the waters. He said 1t got into his head a littie, and the doctor had ordered him a turee hours’ promenade every morning. So I accompanied him for half ao hour under the trees, while he told me the means the doctors employed, The greatest penance ue had to endure, he said, was the dieting, and then the constant exerc.se and petty oflictals, heavy tunkeepers, with their fraus | tye prohivition of sleep afier the long morning walk and after dinner. ‘‘Not alter dinner?” [ asked, surprised. ‘No,’ he answered, “ior the effect of the water is such that if vou iall asleep while they are still acting on the brain and the system you are liable to sleep too long, hever to wake again.” So he had to perambuilate lroim morning tillevening, without aim, without rest, like the Phantom alariner or the eterna! Anasue- The mountaina are not | rus, until che cure should be effected. In his cise tt I believe, a reduction of corpuiency, not kuOW the prescription for the lean lolk, AS TO SOCIBTY AND SOCIAL ENJOYMENT, the less said tne better. that genial ireedom of social intercourse which we find in Hombupg and Baden Baden and Wies- have lvea tnrougn the twice two mortal hours of music which the director griuds out of his orchestra at morning and evening promenade in a sleepy, Monotonous manner, Mu- gic Hath no charms tO svothe the savage breast (1 think this Is the proper quotation) if ac companied by the brawhing of ilmapnered brats and the tramp on the gritty promenades of a thousand loud taiking, fast walking, spitting, accordiug-to-Cocker-made- Wa 1do | bun nivbiing guests wanting to get well as last ay permitted. The principal games are piquer, im- périale, whist, douze points, le boston, bézique, at least that part away from the esplanade, bears | tric-trac, dominoes and checkers, Innocence a decidedly rural town character; yet the old and itself! [dono not know a More reireshing sight the modern seem to agree well together and give accommodation to the different ciasses who come here for the cure, On the market place sit the fruit and vegetable women, as brown and as wrinkled and quaint as they were two hundred years ago; while just down the street, a hundred than to see two bronzed and battered veterans drinking eau sucrée over & game of draughis, | Occasionally balia are given in a little square, gilded saloon behind the reading room, but they are not crowded, Its distressing, you know, to be | obliged to waltz when the jotuts are rickety or the system lympnatic, 1ne theatre is certaluly better atronized than any other amusement, not oul py the French, but by the Americans, of w! probably more are here than all other national combined, There ts a change of performance | evening, Sunday included, and last Sund ing was celevrated by the prodnetion of “La File y a a 7 eprings. In one part of the city we find peasant cotvages and orchards, through which mountain yards away, the new life has grown up about the | streams flow frapidiy, laboring as they pass; on | | pine they go to their beds, | { they can. Alter the music is over and breakiast finished people take their paths, and then mope and read uutii dinner time; then they mope and read again unill the music and promenading com- mences again, at siX, and at eight, when the music ceases, the guests begin tu go homeward, and at never saw Germans they do here. They or Sprelhagen, or Freytag, or Mme, MUhivach, or Reuter. And we find read sO = «much ag read Auerbach, or Hacklaender, poor dead Fritz | some comlort in Tauchnitz, and pick up Edmund | | de Madame Angot.” The principal role wastaken | the other are pleasant villas and stately | by @ petite actress named Mme. Key-Gaignard. hotels, In the jormer the traces of the | | She is a blonde, witb b which poets call auoura original character Of Kissingen are seen in the and soverer people term red, butit is a red that eruciixes along the Wayside and the statues of has rich gleains of gold. She nas a sweet vo the onna, While on the latter, on the walks of not very powerful, bat quite strong enongh (he esplanade, are statues wrougnt io marble of for this little theatre, and acted with im- jmonarchs and symboilcal ideas, and monumental | mense sprightiiness, particularly in the closing | edifices which Dear so essentiany the character of | scenes, The stock company are very iudustrious, King Ludwig L's creations that we hardly need to | and appear to have a multiplicity of larces, vauce refer to our guide book for corroboration. He | villes, comedies and operas at their command, | built the long arcades with the Conversation | “Monsieur Alphonse,” “Le Gentilhomme Pauvre,” | House on the side of the esplanade. He seemed | “Le Tigre de Bengale” and “Le Piano de Kerthe,”’ to jove arcades ana galleries, structures which are underlined. The repertoire jor the season | were peculiarly adapted to ie on etapraces, in addition to tl Mignon,” ceg | bls great artists could exerc Bat nette,’? “Domino, Caid,” nj Fores- | the arcades were only finisied in 1846, and two tier,” “Les Faun Mcnages,” “suuic,” “La Famille | years alterward the old art King had to lay dowa Benotton,” “Nos Intimes,’” “Dalila,” “Mile, de ia | his aceptre and retire to private lic, whore he had sSegiiere,? "L onsiear Poir! Rigo- | no Jonger the funds or the enthusiasm to carry je8.0,"° ‘Haye Biauche,” “Le Chajet,” | out bis grand art ideas. “Le Barbier dé Sevilie,”’ “Le Songe (ane Nuit | GLIMPSES OF THE Past, arte,” “Lea Dragons de ars,’ “La Fille au Régi- And besides ture, lustory has been busy at ment,” L'Eté de la St. Martin Avocat,? | work about here, and legénd clings to ‘the | “Bataille dea Dames,” “Par Droit de Conquéte,’ | mountains and ruined © 3 tells us “Le Joie Fait Pen,” “Les Anglais en Voyage’ and | that some flity or more ye Curist was | “La Maison sans 1 Every now anda the born, two German tribes, the Katt and the ier. | astar from Paria for an evening. 7h mundaril, quarrelied here avout possession of | other night it was Mile, Fargueti from the Tnéatre galt springs and had a pit hed battle, in | da Vaudeville. Alter her me Mile, Gérard | the Kattil got the worst of the aftray, St. Kiltan, | fom the Opéra Vomnquie; then Yavart, irom , patron of Franconia, came he just 1,163 years | tue Comedie Francarse, ‘Mile, Karguell Is already | ago, and finding the Teutons engaged in worsnip. | pasece, but posscsses a French actress’ grt in | ping the statue of one of thelr good-ior nothing keeping upon good terms with Time, She has a | goddesses, on the top of one oO! there mountains sliding’ secret presence, and is an excellent | about us, ie cast it to the ground and planted in actress, Mile. Gérard has a peantitul mezzo- | its place cross and Went on converting Soprano voite, finely cnitivated, and a piquant | the hh Was martyred at Warzburg, sense of humor. She is young but pot handsome, Then 6 St. Boniace, the tugiishman, and but ber face is intelligent and very vivacions. | held two assemblies of the Church at the Saalburg, | Mile. Favart is @ bighly accompitshed artist, | close by, and founded the Bishopric of Wirzburg. Then Chariemagne once came this Way and helped Spears with the purest Parisian pronunciation | ip je pl TO ght W dawn Vie | abd exerts ereat power over an audicnce, Mule. | Canstianiw to zeta firm 100 | | until Yate’s last, ‘The Impending Sword,” aud seek out @ quiet, cosey, shaded seat on the promenades away off irom the music and the heavy-hecied crowd, and follow the lives of Thornton, Carey and Helen Griswoid to the end. Sometimes we have @ There js none of | gentle excitement when Mr. Lederer sings us a | “powerful melodei’ in the Couversation House, | or when Prince Bismarck drives through the city on nia Way to the sait springs. Tbe Chance\or never appears on the promenade, but drinks nis waters in his own garden, 1 have heard one aneo- dote of iis sojourn bere that sounds very roman- tic. One day he walked across the littiewriage over the Saajv aud sauntered along the meddows, where the grass was being cut and the haymakers were at work. Going up to ove of the peasants be asked to be permitted to mow a little. The re- quest was readily granted, and the peasants jooked With astonisument to see a “city guest? | able to mow so well, “Gott im Himmel, gnadiger Herv,’’ said an old, weather-beaten peasant, “but you understand the business as well as i do my- self, and | have been at it this two and torty years!’ The guest leit aud the peasants Went to their work again, not knowing who it Was who had been assisting thew, somebody informed them that it was Prince Blamarok, The surprise and joy of the old peasant whose scythe the Privce had used Was undisguised, He swore never to part with the implement as long as he lived—{t should be a beirloom in his family to tell tuture genera. show the great Bismarck bad once conde. scended to mow in his telds, It is said that some English guests have offered fabulous sams for the iamous scythe, but the peasant refuses to sell, Long, long ago, When the good Joseph I], was Em- eror of Austria, he was Once passing through his Joravian dominions when he came to a peasant ploughing in his Held. Descending from bis horse, ne took hold of the sults and ploughed a iurrow | across the fleld himself, to the great astonishment ol bis retinue, That plough 1s still preserved in Moravia as a sacred relic, and near the piace where the Emperor ploughed a monument was | erected some years ago, commemorative of an SVORE shat occubled such & Diace 1M tue abuals OF | Germany find out that German lovers do not pay Austrian agriculture, and future visitors Kissingen may expect to fiud this scythe which Bismarck {0 the meadows carefully pre- served and perhaps exhibited to sdmuring stran- gers for a gentle fee. Perhaps on the jow the city fathers of Ki en Cf decide to erect monument to the relat pera thereon, one of which ahall represent 1K grass in the meadows and another the pei) assassination at Kissingen. HOMBUEG._ Homsure, Sept. 5, 1874. What seductive means does the management of Homburg employ to induce peaple to come at early morning to the sprmgs and enjoy the fresh morn- ing breege from the Taunus, and drink the health- giving waters from the “sacred fount (as we read in mosaic down at the Ezabeth Spring), gift of the creative depths, bearing tor time and eternity health and biessing to humanity?’ The orchestra plays from seven till eight near the Elizabeth, where, all around and on the long, shady avenues, the guests throng and promenade, and pass moru- ing greetings and gossip one with the other. ‘There is not 1n Homburg that disagreeable display of drinking glasses and sipping and gurgling and sickness that we see at Ems, People come to Homburg more for rest and pure air and social enjoyment, rather than for the sake of the waters, and they find heaith ail the same. It is a glorious feeling to find all the pretty faces of the place gathered about the springs and on the prome- nades go early; and so fresh and fair and pure do some of the ladies look tn their simple morning costumes, So pleasant is it to walk and ghat with them under the shady trees, along the winding pathways, to the melodies of art and nature, and the greater charm of the song and twitter of birds that people the woods and grounds. THE BARLY MORNING PROMENADE to the spring is the duty of every well-organized visitor, Isis@ pleasant duty, too, Fortunately, really sick people do not come to Homburg, 80 the guests are not afflicted at every turn by the sight of diseased, broken down bumanity. Hom- vurg is a place for recreation and recuperation for tired out, wearled men and women, who merely take the waters as an excuse ior idling, and let the bracing air and the calm, pleasani social life effect the cure. The hills of the Taunus are near by. They seem to be continually looking down into the honses and streets of the city, as if they would invite the guests to come up among their green shady woods and romantic valleys and visit the antiquarian treasures and rolned castles that stand out on the blaits, and, if they feel inclined, watch tie sun rise at early morning on the Summit of the Feldberg. The breezes they send seem to bear in Aolian notes the beautiful invitation of the German poet :— rH Wilst thou not wander in the forest green. Beneath the whispering fir, the shady beech, Where Nature in her calmest moods is seen Where doth the Lord his grandest lessons teach? n, LD th’ forest, whore the gentle rustling leaves Whisper fond hopes, the secret longing speaks; DP th’ forest, where the soul that sinks and gricves Finds baljam sweet and all the hope it seeks. ut, And, if thou wancerest in the woods alone, Is there on earth a spot more beauteous seems? And {1 therein to twain ye wander on. Where gives high Heaven us sweeter, nobler dreams? ‘This invitation is, on the face of it, directed es- pecially to lovers. And this portion of the human Tace finds beautiful and secluded walks anywhere and everywhere, although, by tae way, visitors in Much attention tothe poetic and romantic con- comitants of love, To the antiquarian and the lover of ruins the Taunus offers relics and memo ries {rom the time of the Romans to the medieval Raubdrivt erthum. At the Saalburg, in the forest, an hour and a hal’s walk from Homburg, the Romans have left indelible traces of their presence. ‘Ine old camp Was de- stroyed about tho year nine after the birth of Christ, after Varas bad been defeated by the Ger- mans, under Arminius, tu the depths of the Teuto- burg forest, BXTENSIVE EXCAVATIONS have been made bere at times, and many inter- esting relics of the Roman occupation brought to light, As at Aachen, Neuwied, Badenweiller and Baden, here too ruins of an extensive Roman batn have been brought to light, showing how the Roman legions endeavored, wherever they Made a settlement, to mtroduce as many of the comiorts and iuxuries of their itfe at home as pos- sible. Memories of the Roman occupation may be seen in many other places of the Taunus range, in the Roman road leading from the Saalburg to Heddernheim, and the Roman wall, or Pyalugra- sees Ls triamph during an entire waltz. But asa rule the English visitors are well mannered and social, coming from the wore educated and the aristor cratic classes of soo.ety, THE PEARL OF THE WETTERAU. NacuErM, Sept. 2, 1874, If I were desirous of growing melancholy & should take ap my residence in this ite reat place for a few weeks, rwee aim irives and parks and promenades, has a fine kursaal and music and theatre and q large lake; yet with all these attrac- tions no bealthy person could long remain unin- fluenced by the sight of so many sick and diseased whom one meets at every step. True, watering places were called tnto life for the special benefit of the sick; bat we have become s0 accustomed to the gayety and pleasures of such places as Hom- burg and Wiesbaden and Baden-Baden that we are actually startied when we meet terrible diseases at these places face to face, How pleas- ant it Is to idle and gossip at the springs of Hom- burg or Ems and watch the besautitul, healthful countenances avout you! How unpleasantly affect you the sight of these poor incurables suffering from paralytic afflictions, from rheumarism and scroiula and hideous skin diseases—people of all ranks, and pale children whose life ts poisoned at the very commencement! Yet, if we put ourselves in the place of these Invallds we can perhaps better appreciate the charms of this bathing place, {ts beauties of nature and art and tts quiet and economical existence. “BAD-NAUTEIM”? is but an hour’s distance from Frankfort, on the Main Weser Railroad to Cassel and the North, and is situate in a fruitful district not far from the Taunus range, which supplies ite mineral and salt springs. In appearance the city is altogether modern, though its salt springs were known to the Gauls 200 years before Christ, coins Jrom this date having been found in the vicinity; and long before Nauheim was called into existence the rude bordes were in the habit of procuring their salt {rom the springs. Ashes and stone and earthenware from the pre-Olristian era have been discovered, and are supposed to have been used in the cooking of salt. ‘he Komans do not men- tion the place at ail, though it 1s presumed that they knew of it, and maby mementoes of their presence have been peket ‘up there and about on Several occasions, ‘The only important relic of the past is the tower (now greatly renovated) on the Jonannisberg, which tradition says was bulls at the Instance of St. Bonitace, the apostle to the Germans, about whose grave the German bishops have just been assemiled at Fulda, The city records tell of religtous conflicts between Prot- estants and Catholics, and once when, in 1792, the French determined to take possession of the sali works, the city called vo its aid a detachment of the Hanau garrison and defended its saline treas- ures successiully. A THE BATHS AND THE SALT WORKS. Nauheim is a city of bathing establishments rather than of drinking fountains. People come here to soak the mineral elements into their sys- tems. The sick aad diseased walk or are taken in carriages or perambuiators to the baths and left to the mercy of the oxide of iron, the saliue or other ingredients for an hour or wo, For those suifering from diseases of the throat whe doctora prescribe the inhaling of salt or sea alr, and the patients take their books, or, if German ladies, their knitting or embroidery, and sit (or some hours over tue saline waters, under the lee of immense structures of birch twigs, through which the water drips, waiting patiently for recovery. It seems sucn a gad, dreary kind of a “‘cure;” yet the inva- lids look hopeiul and happy. I noticed severat ladies reading contentediy, 1n @ dreamy fashion, and they looked as if they really believed in the eficacy of the means employed to effect the cure. The sight of these patients would remind a Biblical reader of the poor wretches who sat by the Rook of Suloam waiting for the waters to be trouble THB SALT “GRADES.” These immense structures of birch twigs, of which I spoke, are very nurrow, from seventy tu a hundrea feet wide, some of them belong as much asa quarter of a mile long, built up entirely of birch twigs resting on a framework of wood, Away off, on the elevated portion of the “grades, the salt water in its impure state is passed into @ wooden trough and is gradually distributed alon; the whole course, overflowing into the stack o: birch twigs, and, after dripping srom twig to twig ig collected tn a long wooden basin below an thence conducted to the boiling touses some dls- tance away. These suline structures are long, dark ugly things, supported on elther side by hundreds ot ae ete pecutarly interesting and primitive. The process of voiling 18 carried on in ine immense vats. The total annual productions of these salt works amount to four or five thousand tons. It 18 of excelivat quality and mach used for the salting down of meat, The works being on the Outskirt of the city, do not at all mar ite ben, which began on the Danube at Dinkelsbibl and stretched up to Holiand, and was vuilt to secure the southern and finest part of Germany to the Roman Empire. The saalburg camp was built by Drusus, destroyed by Arminius and rebuilt by Germanicus, and was occupied by the Romans up to the third century. Indeed there are many grand chapters of history inscribed in the hits and valleys of the Taunus, and legend and tradition cling to every summit of the range. Legend has placed Brunnhilda’s fire-surrounded bed on the top of the Feldberg, and a fit place 16 1s for Sie; fried’s valiant deeds as described in the ‘*Niebelun- genlied.” Thither, to the summit of the Feidberg, Where the poet Unland ts to have 4 monument some day or other, wandered on the first Sunday in Joly thousands upon thousands of people from Frankfort and @ number of our Homburg guests, to Witnesa the great annual festival of the Turners of Frankfort and the vicinity. Up there, among the valleys of the Taunus, Where those health. giving waters bubble up at every rock, may have een the scene described by a German poet in the tollowing attractive verses, Had there not been a iandgravine of Hesse-Homburg by the name of Elizabeth once upou atime | should have wished vhe “poetic legend” to bave ciung 10 the Elizabeth Spring in the park :— ELIZABETH. ‘There, in the vale, twixt wooded hills A bubbling fount springs forth, and fils With inurmurs sweet the dei; And on the rocks, ‘neath where its flood Speeds orth, feadrved in joyous mood The name L love so well, And when the work was fairly wrought, As offering to iny shrine I brought A wreath uf wild Howers rare; T Rinsed it lovingly and placed it rovnd the nate beloved so traced, And lett it resting there. ‘Two years are gone—so long—so long— I foliow with the pilgrim throng, And hear thea) as they plead’ “We pray, Elizabeth, to thee— Oh wasti our eyes that we may seo And aid us in our need!" They sing their pious itany; “rom guilt and sin oh make ns free— ‘They bring disease and death; Us from each woe and paln re And give Us \asting joy and pew Oh trusied, Saint Ilizaveth ? ’ I wander to the shrine, and near The gushing tount so pure and clear wreaths and flowers reat; id these offerings of faith ee thy Ni Inat once my love confess'd. And Llay there an offering true, A wreath of wild flowers fair to view, A heart in misery— And with the Uh iair biizabe: re that thou art near to me. ‘This wild tower wreath receive from me, And take my heart as well to thee, Oh ssindy, (air Elizabeth | On heal my beating, bleeding he ‘Oh save me (rom all tature start, And, with my dying breath. Ti sing thy praises tar and near, ‘That thou a sorrowing heart did cheer, ‘Oh saintly, iair Elizabeth ! The Elizabeth Spring 1# decidedly the favorite, and around it gather tue élite vi our society. Pro- fessor Liebig once said that it wouid be diillcult to fina in Germany @ mineral water offering a like wealth of effective components as tie water of this spring. { suppose we must iccept the veraict of the great chemist unquestioningiy. ‘here are five or six other springs, but none so much ire- quented, From seven to eight in the morning, and again on the terrace at evening, you may see all our American colony. Our representative belles at Homburg are the Misses May, Miss Brooks and Miss Meyer. Among the permanent and ten- porary American sojourners are several well known persons. General Frisby, of California, 19 here on railroad business. Mr. Dewey, who frat opened the way for the introduction of American sieeping cars ito France, is spending a few weeks here with bis lady. Mr. Penntman, of New York, ig spending the summer here. Mrs. and Mise Brooks have been with us for some weeks past. Colonel Mehafy, Mr. Murphy, Mr, Onadwick and Mr. Gaskell have to urge the advantages of Homburg as a winter residence. Dr. Abel Stevens, the author of the “History of Methodisin,” 18 here with wis wife, aud intends to make a stay of few months among us in order to recuperate. SOCIETY IN HOMBURG ig pleasant. The guests are principally English, then American, with @ considerable admixture of Germans, Between the English and American colonies there exist here not unpleasant relations, though social hostilities are not auknown, There is the usual contest of the feminine portion of the {wo nationalities for supremacy in toilet and beauty. I had an interesting conversation with the director, sitting one day on the terrace, on this subject of beauty and toilet, He seemed tn- clined to award the ope of taste in dress to our American ladies, while to the English he wished to give credit tor a healthier, roster-cheeked ap- Keeani? Of course there are petty jealousies, ut as a rule everything goes on very picasantly. What does it matter ii what English beauty, Miss Snubs, refuses ail introductious to Americans ? She has vaken @ solemn oath and means to keep it, because once she saw an ill-mannered New York youth pick up the sii pest lost by his partner du the dancing ball end We aver lia aead ip become old residents, and wish | beauty. THR NAUHEIM KUREAUS | 18 one of the finest of its kind, Maving been fitted | Up With great elegance and comfort during the | gambling era. There are readiug, conversation, billiard, Teireshment and concert rooms, and & little theatre. in wet or cold weather concerta are given daily tn the large concert hall. Now, in the hot summer weather, the music is under the trees in front trom three to Jour tv the alternoon and trom six to seven in the evening, when all the guests ussembie, There 18 not much elegance or dress at Nauheim, The guests appear to be mostly from the middle classes, ‘The ladies are chielly Germans, ag one can tell ata glance by their tak- ing their knitting or embroidery work with them wherever they go. The music is just passable and might be enjoyable bat jor the unnumbered quantity” of noisy } caildren, who shout and sing and cry in chorus to help out the bandmaster. Tue red-backed Murray does nos seem as yet to bave poised out ,the beauties and mineral treasures of Nauveim to the white-velled sons of Albion. By the way, do you think any rational Englishman can tell you the Teason why iis countrymen persist in wearing white vells round their hats when they travel in Germany? The heat ts certainly not oppressive. A German seldom caricatures ‘Milord’’? without giving great prominence to the veil and the white sun umbrella, while ‘Milady’’ ia pictured with thick-soled boots, petticoats held up sufiictently high to show poorly deveioped umbs, @ Tyrolese Dat and an alpine stock. NATURAL BEAUTIES, The gem of Nauheim’s uatural beauties Is the lake, It is @ pretty large sheet of water—a ; good sized pond it would be in America— studded with two wooded islands and its shores lined with shady trees. On one side ts a bathin; house, on the other @ restaurant. Bouts he at anchor, ready for you, if you wish to explore the beauties of the shores and the islands or to make & closer examination of those curious uttle residences that have been bulit forthe swans that float in great numbers about the waters. Yesterday I found @ German poem by a modern poet, whose name | omitted to note, Which so exquisitely de~ seribes the idyiiic character of the Nauheim Lake |} and its inhabitants that] have been tnduced to &ttempt its translation, Thus it reads:— In a glorious park, Fair o'er all to view, Near the water's edaé Beauteous fowers grew. 1 Sweet forget-me-nots, Hl Lilies and roses tair, | Like a charming poem, Bloomed together there. And their flower heads, ler the lake they bent, As in yearning calm, ‘As in sweet Conient. Then upon the waves, Proudly floated on, Greeting all the flowers, An enamored swan. Thoughts of bliss and hore exchanged \hdy one, In the glorious park, Swan and flowery throng. O’er this silent scene. Wondrous fair, there smil'd But the suorn of spring, Fragrant, wartn and mild, And the lark alone, As she sang oerhead, Knew what swan and flowers To euch other said. | _ ‘Truly the sick can praise God for the creation of such beauttiul resting places a4 we fina in and around the hills of the Taunus. Yet iife must be- | come somewhat wearisome to the sick even among | the grandest beauties of nature, unless they dud comiort and consolation in human sympathy and society. As to AMERICAN SOCIBTY IN NAUHEIM I belleve there is none, I only know of one Amerk can lady taking the baths. Some years ago, when the first American fag was borne to this secluded “Pearl of the Wetterau,” its bearers met a rather disagreeable fate. Some cigat or pine years ago, when Mr. Murphy was our Consul General at Frankfort, @ Fourth of July dinner was given at Nauheim, the guests driving there from Frankror and Homburg and other places, The carriages wero deautituly decorated with twigs and tollage, and very naturally the Stars and Stripes occupied # yery prominent position, Arriving on the grounds the guests alighted, and the sarriages were sent to the hotel, the fags still floating proudly om them, The coachmeu had not driven far, how- ever, before they were ordered by the police to stop; they were arrested and taken to the station house, while the carriages were de- spatched tothe hotel. Very naturaily the poor Germans wanted to know why they lad been are rested. They Were toid that they were resecne of having revolutionary ideas, were asked the meaning of the strange fag the had brought with them—the = Stars and Stripes—wiich had evidently not been Regnes in Nauheim before. Aiter enduring @ con- nement Of some hours the coackmen were tnally released, when some of the guests had assured the intelligent Director of Police that the flag was the national embiem of the great American Kepublic, wuose citizens, they, had come to Nauheim with peaceabie inventions to enjoy its beautiful scener, and to have a little dinner and speeches and che revurn, So the coachmen were set at liberty and the Stars and Stripes were in put in position amid cheers and general hilarity. $0 ended the first and last Fourth of July festival ever beld i Nauheim