The Youthful Wanderer - An Account of a Tour through England, France, Belgium, Holland, Germany

George H. Heffner

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• Publié par: chion
• Publié le: 08 décembre 2010
• Nombre de lectures: 14
• Langue: English

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The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Youthful Wanderer, by George H. Heffner This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net Title: The Youthful Wanderer An Account of a Tour through England, France, Belgium, Holland, Germany Author: George H. Heffner Release Date: January 8, 2004 [EBook #10638] Language: English Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 *** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE YOUTHFUL WANDERER *** Produced by Distributed Proofreaders Geo. H. Heffner THE YOUTHFUL WANDERER; AN ACCOUNT OF A TOUR THROUGH ENGLAND, FRANCE, BELGIUM, HOLLAND, GERMANY AND THE RHINE, SWITZERLAND, ITALY, AND EGYPT OR ADAPTED TO THE WANTS OF YOUNG AMERICANS TAKING THEIR FIRST GLIMPSES AT THE OLD WORLD BY GEO. H. HEFFNER. OREFIELD: A. S. HEFFNER, PRINTER. 1876. Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1876, by GEO . H. H EFFNER, In the office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. PREFACE. It had been fashionable among the ancients, for men of learning to visit distant countries and improve their education by traveling, after they had completed their various courses of study in literary institutions, and the same custom still prevails in Europe at the present time; but in our country, comparatively few avail themselves of this finishing course. It is not strange that this should have been so with a people who are separated from the rest of the world by such wide oceans as we are, which could, up to a comparatively recent period, only have been crossed at a sacrifice of much time and money, and at the risk of loosing either life or health. These difficulties have been greatly reduced by the application of steam-power to navigation, and the time has come when an American can make the tour of Europe with but little more expenditure of time and money than it costs even a native of Europe to do it. One of my principal objects in writing this book is to encourage others to make similar tours. We would have plenty of books no traveling, if some of them did represent the readers in the humbler spheres of life, but the general impression in America is that no one can see Europe to any satisfaction in less than a year or two and with an outlay of from a thousand to two thousand dollars. This is a great mistake. If one travels for pleasure mainly, it will certainly require a great deal of time and money, but a hard-working student can do much in a few months. Permit me to say, that one will see and experience more in two weeks abroad, than many a learned man in America expects could be seen in a year. I sometimes give the particulars of sights and adventures in detail, that the reader may take an example of my experience, for any tour he may propose to make. The times devoted to different places are given that he may form an estimate of the comparative importance of different places. Statistics form a leading feature of this work, and these have been gathered and compiled with special reference to the wants of the student. Many an American scholar studies the geography and history of foreign countries at a great disadvantage, because he can not obtain a general idea of the institutions of Europe, unless he reads half a dozen works on the subject. To do this he has not the time. This work gives, in the compass of a single volume, a general idea of all the most striking features of the manners, customs and institutions of the people of some eight different nations speaking as many different languages and dialects. As the sights that one sees abroad are so radically different from what we are accustomed to see at home, I feel pained whenever I think of describing them to any one. If you would know the nature of my perplexity, then go to Washington and see the stately magnificence of our National Capitol there, and then go and describe what you have seen to one who has never seen a larger building than his village church; or go and see the Centennial Exposition at Philadelphia, and then tell your neighbor who has never seen anything greater than a county fair, how, what he has seen compares with the World's Fair! I too am proud of our country, (not so much for what she now is, but because she promises to become the greatest nation that ever existed), but it must be confessed, that America presents little in the sphere of architecture that bears comparison with the castles, palaces and churches of the Old World. The Capitol at Washington, erected at the cost of twelve and a half millions, the City Hall of Baltimore, perhaps more beautiful but less magnificent, and other edifices that have been erected of late, are structures of which we may justly be proud; but let us take the buildings of the "Centennial Exposition" for a standard and compare them with some of those in Europe. The total expenses incurred in erecting all the exposition buildings, and preparing the grounds, &c., with all the contingent expenses, is less than ten million. But St. Peter's in Rome cost nine times, and the palace and pleasure-garden of Versailles twenty times as much as this! It is safe to assert, that if a young man had but two hundred dollars with six weeks of time at his command, and would spend it in seeing London and Paris, he could never feel sorry for it. Young student go east. CONTENTS. Chapter I. Leaving Home New York Brooklyn--Plymouth Church Extracts from Henry Ward Beecher's Sermon Greenwood Cemetery Barnum's Hippodrome On Board the "Manhattan" Setting Sail--The Parting Hour Sea-Sickness A Shoal of Whales Approaching Queenstown--The First Sight of Land Coasting Ireland and Wales Personal Incidents--Life-boat, No. 5 Chapter II. Liverpool The Mystical Letters "IHS" mean Jesus The Wonderful Clock of Jacob Lovelace Chapter III. Chester--Origin of the Name The Rows or Second-Story Pavements The Cathedral and St. John's The Walls Birmingham Railroads in Europe Chapter IV. Stratford-on-Avon--- Shakespeare's Birthplace Shottery--Anne Hathaway's Home Shakespeare's Grave Chapter V. Warwick--St. Mary's Kenilworth Castle Approaching Coventry--"The Lover's Promenade" Coventry--Its Fine Churches Warwick Castle Oxford--The Great University Chapter VI. LONDON. Its Underground Railroads Territory, Population and Other Statistics St. Paul's Cathedral Crystal Palace The Houses of Parliament Westminster Abbey Ensigns Armorial, &c. Sunday in London Hyde Park--Radical Meeting The Tower of London Chapter VII. LONDON TO PARIS. Strait of Dover Calais Chapter VIII. PARIS. Its Railway Stations, Lack of Delicacy in Many of the Social Habits and Institutions Among the People of Warm Countries The Boulevards, Rues, &c. Arcades and Passages Palais Royal Its Diamond Windows The Cafe--A Characteristic Feature of Modern Civilization Champs Elysees Palais de l'Industrie or the Exhibition Buildings Place de la Concorde and the Obelisk of Luxor Garden of the Tuileries The Arch of Triumph Other Triumphal Arches The Tomb of Napoleon I Artesian Wells Notre Dame Cathedral The Pantheon The Madeleine The Louvre Theaters and Operas At a Ball Incidents Chapter IX. St. Cloud The Palace at Versailles The Pleasure-Garden Chapter X. Leaving Paris Brussels The Cathedral Hotel de Ville Antwerp The Spirit of Revolution Notre Dame Cathedral The Museum Chapter XI. H OLLAND. The Hague Cloak-Rooms Utrecht Chapter XII. Cologne The Cathedral The Museum Depths of Man's Degradation Bonn The Kreuzberg The Drachenfels Chapter XIII. Coblentz Geological Laws On the Rhine Frankfort Darmstadt Worms Chapter XIV. THE PALATINATE, (D IE PFALZ ). Mannheim Neustadt Heidelberg The Castle The Great Tun Stuttgart Strassburg The Black Forest Chapter XV. SWITZERLAND. The Rigi The Giessbach Falls The Rhone Glacier The Grimsel The Cathedral of Freiburg Berne Chapter XVI. Geneva to Turin Mont Cenis Tunnel ITALY. Its Fair Sky and Beautiful People, Milan Venice San Marco Chapter XVII. Venice to Bologne Florence Pisa Going Southward Chapter XVIII. R OME. The Colosseum The Roman Forum The Site of the Ancient Capitol "Twelve" The Temple of Cæsar The Baths of Caracalla The Pyramid of Cestius St. Peter's The Lateran Santa Maria Maggiore Museums Chapter XIX. R OME TO BRINDISI. Ascent of Mount Vesuvius, The Ruins of Pompeii Chapter XX. On the Mediterranean Alexandria Cairo Wretchedness of the Poorer Classes The Return Trip Conclusion Subjects treated in a general way are distinguished by being rendered in italics, in this table of contents. The Keystone State Normal School. CHAPTER I. LEAVING HOME. While engaged in making the preliminary arrangements for leaving soon after the "Commencement" of the Keystone State Normal School (coming off June 24th), information was received that the "Manhattan," an old and well-tried steamer of the Guion Line, would sail from New York for Liverpool on the 22nd of June. She had been upon the ocean for nine years, and had acquired the reputation of being "safe but slow ." As I esteemed life more precious than time, though either of them once lost can never be recovered, I soon decided to share my fate with her-by her, to be carried safely to the "farther shore," or with her, to seek a watery grave. The idea of remaining for the Commencement, was at once abandoned; short visits, abrupt farewells, and a hasty preparation for the pilgrimage, were my portion for the few days still left me, and Saturday, the 19th, was determined upon as the day for leaving home. It would be evidence of gross ingratitude to forget the kind wishes, tender good-byes, and many other marks of attention, on the part of friends and acquaintances, which characterized the parting hour. Both Literary Societies had passed resolutions to turn out, and on the ringing of the bell at 6:30 a.m., all assembled in the Chapel, and addresses were delivered. Half an hour later, we left in procession for the depot,