The Rhine!--How History is Written.--Complicated Villages.--How a
Peaceful Community Was Very Much Upset.--The German Railway Guard.--His
Passion for Tickets.--We Diffuse Comfort and Joy Wherever We Go,
Gladdening the Weary, and Bringing Smiles to Them that Weep.--"Tickets,
Please."--Hunting Experiences.--A Natural Mistake.--Free Acrobatic
Performance by the Guard.--The Railway Authorities' Little Joke.--Why We
Should Think of the Sorrows of Others.
We returned to the station just in time to secure comfortable seats, and
at 5.10 steamed out upon our fifteen hours' run to Munich. From Bonn to
Mayence the line keeps by the side of the Rhine nearly the whole of the
way, and we had a splendid view of the river, with the old-world towns
and villages that cluster round its bank, the misty mountains that make
early twilight upon its swiftly rolling waves, the castled crags and
precipices that rise up sheer and majestic from its margin, the wooded
rocks that hang with threatening frown above its sombre depths, the
ruined towers and turrets that cap each point along its shores, the
pleasant isles that stud like gems its broad expanse of waters.
Few things in this world come up to expectation, especially those things
of which one has been led to expect much, and about which one has heard a
good deal. With this philosophy running in my head, I was prepared to
find the Rhine a much over-rated river.
I was pleasantly disappointed. The panorama which unfolded itself before
our eyes, as we sped along through the quiet twilight that was deepening
into starry night, was wonderfully beautiful, entrancing and expressive.
I do not intend to describe it to you. To do justice to the theme, I
should have to be even a more brilliant and powerful writer than I am.
To attempt the subject, without doing it justice, would be a waste of
your time, sweet reader, and of mine--a still more important matter.
I confess it was not my original intention to let you off so easily. I
started with the idea of giving you a rapid but glowing and eloquent
word-picture of the valley of the Rhine from Cologne to Mayence. For
background, I thought I would sketch in the historical and legendary
events connected with the district, and against this, for a foreground, I
would draw, in vivid colours, the modern aspect of the scene, with
remarks and observations thereon.