KÖLN AM RHEIN
VERLAG VON HOURSCH & BECHSTEDT
"O, the pride of the German heart is this noble river!
And right it is; for of all the rivers of this
beautiful earth there is none so beautiful as this."
Longfellow.
Prefatory Note.
Last year I made the journey between Mainz and Bonn on one of our
splendid Rhine steamers. Our vessel glided along like a great
water-bird. On the shore rose mountains, castles, and ruins, and over
all the sun shined brightly from a blue August sky. It was twelve
years since I had visited the scenes of my youth, and every
Rhinelander will understand with what pleasure I saw again those
smiling landscapes arrayed in their summer beauty. Wandering back to
my deck-chair, I soon became absorbed in the ever-changing panorama.
Then the sound of a melodious female voice speaking English fell on my
ears. I looked around. A girl was bending over a book, and
entertaining her father and mother by reading something of special
interest and beauty. I listened and recognised some of my own
sentences rendered into the speech of Shakespeare. These three were
learning to feel the charms of the Lorelei legend as I had felt it. I
confess my pulse beat quicker as I heard my poor endeavours highly
praised, and I could not refrain from advancing and thanking the young
reader for her kindly appreciation of my endeavours. She seemed
delighted when she discovered that I was the author, and rose to greet
me in the most amiable manner. I complimented the travellers that
during the past century the Rhine had become the home of romance for
the English speaking nations, the same as Italy for the Germans. The
girl smiled, and remarked that I must pay that compliment to her
mother in particular, as she was by birth an Englishwoman. But the
head of the family hastened to add that among Americans, whom he might
speak for, the enthusiasm for the beauties of the Rhine was not less
than among their Anglo-Saxon cousins. These two nations which are
bound by so many ties to each other, and also to ourselves, were thus
represented before me. The English-speaking people undoubtedly form by
far the largest contingent of our Rhine travellers, and it was
pleasant indeed to receive so fine a testimonial to the beauties of my
birth place.
We had a most interesting conversation, and I was not a little moved,
as I observed that these foreigners who had travelled over half the
world, and had seen the grandeur of Switzerland and the charms of
Italy, should have such an unaffected admiration for our grand old
river. I am rather sorry for those who neglect the Rhine. "Aren't
Lohengrin and Siegfried, immortalised by the great Master of Bayreuth,
also heroic figures in your Rhine legends?" remarked the young
Anglo-American enthusiastically. It was the first time I had seriously
thought of this. I was indeed touched, and my thoughts travelled back
to the days of "long, long ago" when as a little chap in my native
Bonn, I had first listened with interest to the charming voices of the
golden-haired daughters of old Albion who came in large numbers to
reside in the famous Beethoven-town.
As I separated from my friends at the foot of the Drachenfels I gave
them a small present to keep as a memento of the Rhine and one of its
poets.
München, Mai 1906. Dr. Wilhelm Ruland.