ROLLO'S LIST.
_Remarkable Things seen from the Terrace of the Hotel at Rolandseck, by
Rollo H., Saturday Evening, August 29._
1. An elegant steamer, painted green. Her name is the _Schiller_. She is
going up the river.
2. Another steamer, the _Koenig_. Ladies and gentlemen on the deck,
under an awning.
3. I can see the ruins of Drachenfels with my spy glass, and the inn
near the top of the mountain, painted white. I have been trying to find
the path, to see if I could see any donkeys going up; but I cannot find
it.
4. A boat with some men and women in it putting off from the landing
just above here. They are going down the stream. The current carries
them down very fast. I think they are going over to the island.
No, they are going away down the river.
5. A great steamer coming _down_, with flags and banners flying.
Now she has gone by, only I can see the smoke from her smoke pipe behind
the point of land.
6. The nuns are taking a walk under the trees on the island. Some of the
girls of the school are going with them. The nuns are dressed in black,
with bonnets partly black and partly white. The girls are dressed in
pink, all alike. They are laughing and frolicking on the grass, as they
go along. The nuns walk along quietly. The girls are having an excellent
good time.
They are walking away down to the end of the island. The walk that they
are going in is bordered by a row of poplar trees.
7. A procession of pilgrims going up to Remagen. At least, the waiter
says they are pilgrims. They are in two rows, one on each side of the
road, so that there is room for the carriages to pass along between
them. They are dressed very queerly, like peasants. The girls and women
go first, and the men come afterwards. The women have baskets, with
something to eat in them, I suppose. The men have nothing. There is one
man at the head, who carries a crucifix, with a wreath of flowers over
it, on the top of the pole. They sing as they go along, and keep step to
the music. First, the women sing a few words, and then the men sing in
response. It is a very strange sight.
8. A very swift steamer, with a great many gentlemen and ladies on
board. It has gone down on the other side of the island.
9. I hear guns firing down the river.
10. A man is going by with a very long and queer-shaped wheelbarrow, and
there is a dog harnessed to it before to draw, while he pushes it
behind.
11. More guns firing down the river. A steamer is coming into view, with
a great many flags and banners flying. The guns that I heard are on
board that steamer.
The waiter says it is a company of students, from the university at
Bonn, coming up on a frolic.
12. The steamer with the students is going by. There is a band of music
on board, playing beautifully.
13. The steamer has stopped just above here, and all the students are
going on shore.
14. The students have formed into a company on the beach, and they are
marching up, with banners flying and music playing, to the terrace of a
hotel, just above here.
15. The steamer has gone away up the river, and left them. There are
five or six small boats on the shore at the landing, with boatmen
standing by them, waiting to be hired. I mean to ask uncle George to let
me go and take a sail in one of them on Monday.
16. I can see the students by leaning over the parapet and looking
through my spy glass. They are sitting at the tables under the trees on
the terrace, smoking pipes and drinking something. They have very funny
looking caps on.
17. A tow boat coming up the river. It is drawn by two horses, that walk
along the road. The boat has a roof over it instead of a deck, and it
looks like a floating house with a family in it.
18. A steamer coming up--the _Wilhelm_. She came up the other side of
the island.
19. A small boat going away from the landing. It is rowed by one man,
with one oar, which he works near the bow on the starboard side. He has
set the helm hard a-port, and tied it there, and that keeps his boat
from being pulled round. I never thought of that way before.
There is a woman and a child in the stern of the boat.
20. There is a man eating his supper on the parapet below me, in front
of the road. A girl has brought it to him in a basket. The man seems to
be a boatman, and I think the girl is his daughter. She has a tin tea
kettle with something to drink in it, and she pours it out into a mug as
fast as the man wants it to drink. There is also some bread, which she
breaks and gives him as fast as he wants it. There is a little child
standing by, and the man stops now and then to play with her.
Now there is another man that has come and sat down by the side of him;
and a woman has brought him his supper in a basket. I think it is his
wife.
21. A long raft is coming down the river. It is very long indeed. It is
made of logs and boards. There are twenty-two men on it, thirteen at the
front end, and nine at the back end. They have got two monstrous great
oars out; one of these oars runs out at the front end of the raft, and
the other at the back end, and the men are rowing. There are six men
taking hold of each of these oars and working them, trying to row the
raft more into the middle of the river.
There is a small house on the middle of the raft, and a fire in a large
flat box near the door of it. I should think it would set the raft on
fire. This fire is for cooking, I suppose, for there is a kettle hanging
over it.
22. Now the students are singing a song.
23. There is a great fleet of large boats coming up the river, with a
steamboat at the head of them. They come very slowly.
24. The students have finished their drinking and smoking, and are
beginning to come out into the road. They are walking about there and
frolicking.
25. The great fleet of boats have come up so that I can see them. They
are great canal boats, towed by a steamer. There are seven of them in
all. The steamer has hard work to get them along against the current. It
is just as much as she can do.
26. Four of the students are getting into a small boat. One of them has
a flag. Now they are putting off from the shore. They are going out to
take a sail.
27. The fleet of boats is now just opposite to the window.
28. A large open carriage, with a family in it, is riding by. There is a
trunk on behind; so I suppose they are travellers, going to see the
Rhine.
29. Three of the students are walking by here. One of them--the middle
one--is so tipsy that he cannot walk straight, and the others are taking
hold of his arms and holding him up. I suppose they are going to see if
they cannot walk him sober.
They have gone off away down the road.
30. Here comes an elegant carriage and two outriders. The outriders are
dressed in a sort of uniform, and they are riding on horseback a little
way before the carriage. They go very fast. There is a gentleman and a
lady in the carriage.
Now they have gone by.
31. Several parties of students have gone by, to take a walk down the
road. Some of them are walking along very steadily, but there are
several that look pretty tipsy.
Here are three or four of them coming back, riding the donkeys. They are
singing and laughing, and making a great deal of fun.
32. Here is a family of poor peasants coming down the river. They look
very poor. The woman has a very queer cap on. She has one child strapped
across her back, and she is leading another. There is a man and a large
boy. They have packs on their backs. I wonder if they are not emigrants
going to America.
33. One of the students has got hurt. I can see him down the road
limping. There are two other students with him, helping him.
They are going to bring him home. They have taken a cane, and are
holding it across between them, and he is sitting on it and putting his
arms about their necks. Each student holds one end of the cane, and so
they are bringing him along.
[Illustration: THE STUDENTS.]
The cane has broken, and let the lame student fall down.
They have got another cane, stronger, and now they are carrying him
again.
Now they are stopping to rest right opposite to this house. They have
changed hands, and are now carrying him again.
34. Here is a woman coming along up the river drawing a small boat. She
has a band over her shoulders, and a long line attached to it, and the
other end of the line is fastened to the mast of the small boat. There
is a man in the boat steering. I think the man ought to come to the
shore and draw, and let the woman stay in the boat and steer, for it
seems very hard work to pull the boat along.
35. A boat with two women in it, and a man to row, is going across the
river to the Nuns' Island. Now they are landing. The women are walking
up towards the nunnery, under the trees, and the man is fastening his
boat.
36. The students are gathering on the landing. I think that, perhaps,
they are going back to Bonn in small boats. It is beginning to be dark,
and time for them to go home.[10] Yes, they are crowding into two or
three boats. The boats are getting very full. If they are not careful
they will upset.
[Footnote 10: This Rollo wrote in the latter part of the evening, in his
room.]
The boats are pushing off from the shore. There are three boats, with
two flags flying in each. They are drifting out into the current. The
students have got one or two oars out, but they are not rowing much. The
current carries them down fast enough without rowing.
37. I can hear the bells ringing or tolling, away down the river, the
air is so still. I think it must be the bells of Bonn.
38. The students' boats are all drifting down just opposite our windows.
They are going sidewise, and backwards, and every way, and are all
entangled together. The students on board are calling out to one
another, and laughing, and having a great time. Some of them are trying
to sing, but the rest will not listen. If they are not very careful they
will upset some of those boats before they get to Bonn.
39. Here comes a carriage driving slowly down the road, with four
students in it. Two of them are hanging down their heads and holding
them with their hands, as if they had dreadful headaches. They look very
sick. The other two students seem pretty well. I suppose they are going
in the carriage with the sick ones to take care of them.
It is getting too dark for me to see any more