Lotre Dame Scholastic
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lotre Dame Scholastic. I>isce q.Tia3l semper -vl-CtTixms; "vi^ve q^uasi eras moritrux'Tis, VoiiTTME XV. NOTRE DAME, mDIA:tTA, DECEMBER 17, ISSl. NUMBER 15. Our Stafi. tongues waggle continually. The former chatter to adver tise their goods, the latter to buy as cheaply as possible. W. B. McGOKRISK, J. P. O'NEILL. On extra pfenning occasions lengthy and -warm debate, and for closeness of bargains these women have no equals. Q. E. CLARKE. R. E. FLEMCTG. Men, perhaps, feel that they should have but a slim chance W. H. ARNOLD. E. C. ORRICK. at this important meeting of business-like dames, and there T. F. CLARKE. M. F. HEALT. fore no men come to market. As one poor fellow endeav ored to drive through this crowded square, during one of my visits to the market, his horse shied and upset several Horse Vagabundse—Student Sambles. baskets. Instantly four or five stalwart country women were on their feet, and it was most amusing to see them A Morning in Heidelberg—A German Market—Women and Dogs—Saint and hear the abuse showered on that solitary man. It is TTrsuIa and her Legend—Ascent of the Rhine—Passing Bonn—The Drag possible I did not see all the commodities for sale at mar on's Rock—Suppressed Coflvents—A Sketch of the Highland Scenery— Coblentz and Ehrenbreitstein—Emperor William's Castle—The "Two ket, as an abominable smell from sauerkraut, pickled fish Brothers "—The " Cat and The Mouse "—The Syren-Haunted Lurlei Kock and animated cheese kept me a moderate distance from —The Altar of Bacchus—The Mouse Tower—Fair BIngen—Bheingau their baskets. Peasant women moved about the market Wines—Mayence—Hesse-Darmstadt—Bergstrasse and the Odenwald— The Neckar—At Heidelberg. place, bearing highjbaskets on their heads. They are strong, HEIDELBERG, August 25. heavily-built people, and remarkably straight. Some as This morning I took my first stroll about Heidelberg. sert that this arrow-like slraightness, which is characteris Oh, how delightful the scene which greeted me! It was tic of German and Italian female peasants, results from showery last evening, but this morning the sun shone carrying burdens upon the head. Very probably this Is brightly over blue the hills down the Neckar's narrow true, since they must walk erect to keep the load well bal valley, bestowing upon dripping vine and shrub count anced, and moreover it would be impossible to support less tiny crystals, and silvering the gauzy vapor which upon the head a burden almost as heavy as the bearer un still slumbered on the summit of the Kaiserstuhl. Mid less the shoulders are thrown back and the head kept erect, way down this thickly-wooded hill, half hidden among because in that position the body is strongest for such pur linden, beech and dark fir-trees, the massive old ruined poses. castle, festooned with ivy, stands like a giant sentinel with Here old and young women toil like slaves. It really solemn air keeping guard over the town below. From the saddens me when I see these good-hearted, faithful crea gabled-roofs of the town, gray smoke curls upward, till tures from morning till night doing sheer drudgery which, lost among the gilt-edged clouds floating in the azure sky. if Europe's standing-army system were abolished, would be About the streets loiter students, wearing on the side of performed by men. However, I believe it is out-door la their head a little cap, without a visor, banded round with bor which makes German women live so long. This coun colors of their different associations. On the clear, green try has an immense number of old dames, who are ever Neckar a few sculls, rowed by students, glide up and down at work, and seem never to wear out. Throughout Ger the swift current. While I write, the church bells of many so many yellow, sbrivelled-up old women are seen Heidelberg and neighboring villages chime forth melo laboring that a person might bs led to think either that diously, calling upon all Christians to assemble and wor they do not die or else that they breathe their last while ship God, and thank Him for innumerable blessings. I at work. Dogs in Germany are beasts of burden, and fancy our SCHOLASTIC reader has no inclination to accom. they and the women share the tourist's pity. Both are pany me to church, so I will bid farewell to Heidelberg treated rather badly, but there is this privilege accorded for a while in order that I may complete my narrative the petticoat class that is denied the canine race: women anent Cologne and describe the trip thence to my present are allowed full use of their tongues, whereas the dogs are abode. always muzzled. Dogs wear harness, and draw carts Cologne's principal market is held in the Alter Markt, which contain weighty loads.' A good price is paid in an open square prominently situated three blocks from Germany and Belgium for large dogs. They trot along, the Cathedral, and an equal distance from the river. As in a woman usually driving. So kind-hearted are they that most continental cities, there are no market-houses in Col I have often seen a female driver help a dog to pull the ogne; in the Alter Markt there are no stalls—not even loaded cart. An American student at the ITniversity of benches. The market-women sit or stand along the sides Berlin assured me that he once saw in the same cily, on of the square, around them baskets of vegetables and Potzdamer Strasse, a dog and a woman drawing a small fruit. Both venders and purchasers are females, and their wagon in which sat an able-bodied man, most probaby 216 THE NOTRE DAME SCHOLASTIC. the woman's husband, who seemed perfectly contented fered martyrdom" near Cologne, about the middle of the and was smoking his pipe. fifth century, at the hands of barbarians,—very probably Of course I visited St. Ursula's Chapel. It is located Huns under Attila. It is evident the legend has not on the Ursula Platz, in the northern portion of Cologne. perverted but simply embellished these main facts, and This time-honored structure contains St. Ursula's reli over the gaps a thin veil woven from uncertain traditions quary, and the ashes of her companions martyred with her. and poetical resources has been spread. Moreover, when Bound the wall are a series of oil-paintings commemorat that extravagantly colored veil is lifted there is no reason ing St. Ursula's history. On one side is an alabaster for refusing to believe those historical facts. E"o one statue of St. Ursula with a dove resting near her feet. would think of rejecting the biblical history of the Crea Among these creative people our Saint's history has not tion merely because it differs in parts from the cosmog escaped being mingled with fable, and St. Ursula has be onies of Chaldea, Persia, Egypt, Phenicia, India and China, come the heroine of a somewhat romantic legend. It may nor would any one set up the allegorical description of be stated briefly in this manner: Ursula, the daughter of that event in Hesiod's Theogony or Ovid's fables to dis a British, king, was a perfect model of virtue, and her prove the authenticity of the Mosaic record. On the con distinguished personal charms were in keeping with the trary, however much, through various causes, the accounts purity of her heart; her wooers were numerous, but as may be interspersed with myths, and distorted by gross she had consecrated herself to heaven by a vow of virgin error, they always coincide strikingly in some material ity, she refused all earthly love. Tlie <reasons given for part with the first chapters of the Book of Genesis, and her leaving Britain are various. Some versions maintain this universal agreement is a grand proof that the Holy that she went on a pilgrimage to the Eternal City. How Bible is the pure fount of truth. In like manner it is ever, I have chosen another explanation of her departure plain that not only the legend affords no ground for dis for unknown lands. Among those who sought Ursula's puting the facts of St. Ursula's life, but indeed corrob hand was Comon, son of Agrippinus, King of Cologne. orates her history. When I consider how early her This offer also would have been declined by the pious martyrdom occurred, and circumstances surrounding it; maiden had not a heavenly messenger warned her in a when I reflect upon what must have been the sanctity of dream that her vow did not bind, as God willed that her life, and how strong a temptatioft was presented poetic she should bring these pagan rulers and their people to a genius to enrich her biography with marvelloss creations; knowledge of Himself. when I remember that she was martyred in a land where The vow had been made to please her Lord, and as He the very air seems surcharged with fable, and that the cir required a sacrifice of her will she most readily consented. cumstances of her life and death were confided to a people Accordingly Ursula, and eleven thousand blooming virgins who live among spectres, witches, goblins, fairies—it seems selected from all parts of Britain, clad in white, the em to me remarkable that this legend has not strayed farther blem of innocence, set out from their native land, and from truth and has not assumed a more extravagant char in due time sailed up the Rhine.