Wiesbaden

“ Wiesbaden is one of the oldest watering-places in Germany, and may be regarded as the capital of the Taunus spas. The springs mentioned by Pliny (Hist. nat. xxi. 2) as Fontes Matthiaci were known to the Romans, who fortified the place c. 11 B.C. The massive wall in the centre of the town known as the Heidenmauer was probably part of the fortifications built under Diocletian. ”

“ This large army of troops, ever in evidence, seems to be as much in earnest as though the enemy lay in camp about them. We see a little less of the military pomp and trappings in Wiesbaden than Berlin, but every few steps stands a soldier by the gaudy portal of his miniature home. ”

“ On leaving Frankfort I visited Wiesbaden, which is the capital of the Duchy of Nassau, and has a population of ten thousand. Thousands resort thither for health and pleasure, and the efficacy of its baths; it being favorably situated, and connected with Mayence on the Rhine, and Frankfort, by railroad, it is more frequented than any of the German watering-places. ”

“ In December there was more talk of his going to Dresden to learn German, but he himself voted for Wiesbaden as being more of a country district where he would have more opportunities for shooting and fishing. After a short visit home his father took him to Wiesbaden in the spring of 1869, when he wrote to his sister "Locky":—
"Many thanks for your spiritual letter which almost tempts me to commit suicide ”

“ There are a dozen or two eminent men here, not to be seen in the play-rooms, who are taking the waters—Lord Clarendon, Baron Rothschild, Prince Souvarof, and a few more—but the general run of guests is by no means remarkable for birth, wealth, or respectability; and we are shockingly off for ladies. As a set-off against this deficiency, it would seem that all the aged, broken-down courtesans of Paris, Vienna, and Berlin have agreed to make Wiesbaden their autumn rendezvous. ”

“ Surely in no corner of beautiful France can any one worn out in body or in brain find more refreshment and tranquil pleasure!
It is only of late years that the fair broad valley of Gérardmer and its lovely little lake have been made accessible by railway. Indeed, the popularity of the Vosges and its watering-places dates from the late Franco-German war. Rich French valetudinarians, and tourists generally, have given up Wiesbaden and Ems from patriotic motives, and now spend their holidays and their money on French soil. ”

“ And, better than all, every man is courteous and polite, never in too much of a hurry to answer questions and give information. To the captain at the station{221} here we are particularly indebted for kindness and grateful to him for his assistance, and especially for rendering all as if it were his greatest pleasure. In a drive about the city we visited the museum. Saw many quaint old buildings, watch-towers, statues, the Elector’s palace, and a variety of other fine buildings.
Grand Hotel du Rhin, Wiesbaden, Germany, July 30th, 1888.—I believe Wiesbaden is more attractive than Baden. ”

“ The central position of this city gives it a decided advantage for trade and commerce. The activity of the eighty thousand inhabitants is striking in comparison with the ducal residence of Darmstadt, an hour’s ride by railway, with its long broad streets and population of thirty thousand, but looking dull and dreary as a village. The railroad in an hour conveys one to Wiesbaden, in a half hour to Mayence, and in an hour’s ride by omnibus and rail one arrives at Homburg. ”

“ It supplies many baths, and the quantity that runs to waste is very considerable. In addition to this principal one, there are thirteen other springs.
On returning from our interesting walk, we saw many groups descending the hill on donkeys, which are always ready to convey visitors to the heights about Wiesbaden, to enjoy the fine view up and down the Rhine. To my surprise, on returning to the hotel, I found the grand saloon converted to a use which is not tolerated publicly at any of the Austrian and Prussian watering-places that I have yet visited. ”

“ September 14th.—Again rumours of our going, but even though release will be most welcome, we all dread the journey. Terrible tales come to us of the treatment meted out to foreigners crossing the frontier. Many English were turned out of Wiesbaden and sent here. At F—— they had their luggage searched, and the ladies of the party were stripped to the skin by women who even combed their hair to see if by any ingenuity they had concealed plans and drawings in the puffs and coils, two soldiers with fixed bayonets mounting guard meanwhile outside. ”

“ Nobody, not even the most malicious skeptic of a democrat, believes what quackery [229] and self-importance there is in this diplomatizing. Well, I have railed long enough, and now I will tell you that I am very well. Yesterday I was in Mainz: the neighborhood is lovely. The rye is in full ear, although it is infamously cold all night and in the mornings. Excursions by railroad are the best here. One can reach Heidelberg, Baden-Baden, Odenwald, Homburg, Soden, Wiesbaden, Bingen, Rüdesheim, and Niederwald comfortably in one day, stop five or six hours, and return here in the evening. ”

“ Ems has been entirely quiet and tranquil, and seems to stand aloof from the Revolutions all around us. Almost every house is a lodging-house or hotel, and the people and peasantry have an interest in keeping quiet.
About one thousand strangers are here at present, the larger portion in pursuit of health, and society is more select and less gay than at the other watering places. The balls, concerts, and gaming tables are less frequented than in Baden Baden and Wiesbaden. ”

“ One thinks Heidelberg by day—with its surroundings—is the last possibility of the beautiful; but when he sees Heidelberg by night, a fallen Milky Way, with that glittering railway constellation pinned to the border, he requires time to consider upon the verdict.
One never tires of poking about in the dense woods that clothe all these lofty Neckar hills to their tops. The great deeps of a boundless forest have a beguiling and impressive charm in any country; but German legends and fairy tales have given these an added charm. ”

“ His entourage did not look upon it as a duty to preserve silence with regard to what they had heard. The King’s words sometimes journeyed viâ Vienna to Berlin, and the effect made itself felt in due course. It was in 1874, at the railway station at Munich, that he greeted the Emperor Wilhelm for the last time. After this date the “victorious old man” also travelled incognito through Bavaria when he visited Gastein in the summers. [158]
1 The eldest daughter of Franz Josef and the Empress Elizabeth. ”

“ I observed, that in the plan for the representation in Austria, it was proposed to give Vienna a larger than a mere proportional share in the representation, because it was assumed that the metropolis was more enlightened than the other parts of the country.
Now, notwithstanding all that may be said to the contrary, I maintain that the inhabitants of your large cities—and of a metropolis especially—are better qualified to exercise the right of voting than the people of any other part of the empire; for they are generally the most intelligent, the most wealthy, and the most industrious. ”

“ That evening brought us into the dominions of Baden, within five hours' walk of Heidelberg. At the humblest inn in an humble village, we found a bed which we could barely pay for, leaving a kreutzer or two for breakfast. Soon after starting the next morning, the distant Kaiserstuhl suddenly emerged from the mist, with the high tower on its summit, where nearly ten months before, we sat and looked at the summits of the Vosges in France, with all the excitement one feels on entering a foreign land. ”

“ You are, therefore agreeably surprised to find the wheels of modern civilization running smoothly—a well-dressed, easy-going people on the streets and in the cafés, every business house working to full capacity, and all at first glance going well. The children, and especially those of the working class, look healthy and full of life. Starving Vienna seems somewhat of a myth.
Vienna is not like Petrograd where the thousands of eyes of the Nevski Prospect have been put out and squads of dead shops stare at one from smashed windows and gutted interiors. ”

“ Vienna is an enchanting place, and it has more charms for me than Berlin itself; there are a thousand varieties here. I am much courted by the great, and the letters the I——l ambassador has furnished me with are all good. The Chancery of the Empire has orders to dispatch my diploma, without any further expence than the usual fees paid on those occasions. The Emperor to-morrow sets out upon a journey to Bohemia, and seems to have the execution of some grand plan in view. Only persuade Bender to an interview at Pilnitz; we must furnish the King with amusement. ”

“ Upon the whole, although I am not sure that any one fountain, of the character just mentioned, may equal that in the High Street at Augsbourg, yet, taken collectively, I should say that Vienna has reason to claim its equality with any other city in Europe, on the score of this most picturesque, and frequently salutary, accompaniment of street scenery. In our own country, which has the amplest means of any other in the world, of carrying these objects of public taste into execution, there seems to be an infatuation--amounting to hopeless stupidity--respecting the uniform exclusion of them. ”

“ From the west came only the blessings of civilization and religion, with its messengers that once were harbingers of civilization, and which, perhaps, still remain such in this region.
Warsaw is a beautiful and fashionable city when considered apart from the sections where the Jews are crowded together. The members of its elegant society know how to live in spite of national misery and oppression. Hotel Bristol, the finest hotel in the city, is their rendezvous. ”

“ So passed the Congress of Vienna—the greatest and most important peace-meeting the world had ever seen. Munster and Osnabrück had settled the fate of Germany, Utrecht that of Spain, Rastadt that of France; Vienna fixed for near half a century that of the whole of Europe. ”

“ The sun went down, the lamps were lit, the alleys were illuminated, the crowd increased, and the emperor himself could not have given a gayer evening’s entertainment.
Vienna has the reputation of being the most profligate capital in Europe. Perhaps it is so. There is certainly, even to a stranger, no lack of temptation to every species of pleasure. But there is, besides, a degree of simplicity and confidence in the manners of the Viennese which I had believed peculiar to America, and inconsistent with the state of society in Europe. ”

“ Sometimes five miles of road had to be improved up to the royal automobile standard. At another time Wilhelm would take a fancy to go shooting after his stay in Vienna, and could not be induced to accept the simple life that was the joy of the Emperor of Austria when among the peasants. The hunting-box, the whole forest, had to be brought up to the standard of an American millionaire. The Habsburgs, whose claim to rank was too ancient59 and too secure to need any artificial pomp to keep it up, rode through the deep forests on small, hardy ponies. ”

“ Although erected in the twelfth century, it has survived all the sieges to which Vienna has been subject and is still, after seven centuries, the most conspicuous of the many grandiose structures of Austria’s superb capital. As I examined the exquisite carvings of portal and window and delicate crocketed spire of this stupendous fane I realized as never before how the builders of the Ages of Faith wrought the parts unseen by men with the same care as those which were exposed to the gaze of all. For they labored for God, and God sees everything and everywhere. ”

“ Vienna, a city of two and a half million souls, once the capital of a great empire, for centuries a rendezvous of gayety and genius, the greatest school of medicine in the world, the birthplace and home of many great musicians, and the dwelling-place of a happy, careless, and luxurious people, was now delivered over to beggary and lingering death. ”

“ Far in the distance, beyond the dark-green forests, we descry, with our field-glass, the cathedral spire of Strasburg. Turn whichever way we may, the view is superb, and the hill is indeed a kingly seat, for it commands as magnificent a prospect as king could wish to look upon.
Heidelberg is a paradise of pipes—so I thought till I reached Vienna; but meerschaums of splendid carving and quality are sold here at prices so low, in comparison with what they cost in America, that the temptation to smokers to lay in a stock is almost irresistible. ”

“ The retired Jewish merchants who went there to spend their fortunes are now coming to us; the anti-Semitism of Vienna is at once the cause and the effect of bad business. And Vienna is on the downward grade; we are on the upward. Vienna has never been the capital of Austria,—which is a mere federation of races,—as Budapest is the capital of Hungary. The German is proud of Vienna, yes; but the Czech looks to Prague, the Pole to Cracow, the Austro-Italian swears by Trieste. ”

“ CHAPTER VIII. GAMBLING AT THE GERMAN BATHING-PLACES.—— BADEN AND ITS CONVERSATION HOUSE.
Baden-Baden in the season is full of the most exciting contrasts—gay restaurants and brilliant saloons, gaming-tables, promenades, and theatres crammed with beauty and rank, in the midst of lovely natural scenery, and under the shade of the pine-clad heights of the Hercynian or Black Forest—the scene of so many weird tales of old Germany—as for instance of the charming Undine of De la Mothe Fouque. ”