ON THE RHINE.

Lake Wakatip Mail, Issue 2787, 4 October 1910, Page 6

ON THE RHINE.

There is nothing like a waterway for penetrating into a country—'tis the neutral road to its heart, its mountains. And surely no waterway :an be more lovely and more solemn than this Rhine, which we superfine moderns are apt to treat as the holiday streaH££o|" Cockneys. To ; such of us :: ;jK>t locked things and read BR&fli&ji'to no Wpr. pose, this mighty waters is: also a flood of associations, catfcjp' ing in its swirls t&|||ought o|||s- - and different jwjgs and The poetry of the grew?

Alps is in it; the thought, as well .• -as v eveiM turqsKßift £ glati* tlbff an* tsatjy mm I ansr« mosf <and &tjjjfes\ oi^very; swift, brimful river we have watched from the covered lock bridges. Does it not carry along a thread of water which is that lipts ; >p*seWof the Grisons we among the boulders aSQ"tsnen"trcßsr and listened to, brawling far below, in the stillness of Alpine nights ? eft* carti&rath m^tw^ih*; thought of distant friends ? Going np the Rhine,, betftaAsoh*3 lens and Bingen, as we were to-day, that steady flood with „ .the feeling also, with the reverence but it seems an accident that the. Rhine is a frontier river, and every nation save the ones seem immeasurab^«nlt|am As the river bends slower roTnebt the steamer labouring against the Wind, every reach discovers its Jittle town or village. White-beam- — Tddfecf with v slate, round the steeple, built, one would think, 1 j gPfnjlltt orcl4rda|« : i#ass, sometimes widening to .valleys, be-' huur; and 7 the rocks pale yellow

with ripening "Vffies. Each of these rinfrgsndfti» pliysk flit Hhelhg ti lake; r,.tPIP rtlflrtWW it) ' closed in'.bar hiUs i.dW, f in..the, .sunBhine, with hogged fir-forest.or pop-lsHtim-liigmftiig'JMi 3i7«iftat«g"B«y? 5» ewivioe edit K' R « : -' ! ' ■

In all the poetry. ■ot<.4hwv3Btixß '(the poetry not made, about it by men,

but inspjfejd, Wonder ".of tne v great waterway from ? Alps "/$ '■ 6teia, w.)U(eh mea'jferee the ■ d^jqj^h^gieji^ig'"' lands ;9: there is alsa-fitihpl sense of this:, '• being a great walled garden which in this inclemem" North yields the

fruits and the —joyousness of the

Southern ate the recurrent, rhymes in all '* ! te r A n «et« n ife poe■r4tfS wpaterso is! added the poetry of the vine and the, wine-cup, It iiaa been cloudy when we left Coblenz, and a few drops fell. But, , down the ;hl©wing in our faces swept the sky to a delicate autumn

sunniness ; the. sun, turning the sallow mass of waters to

pale curdled sphjl- f seamen and there were, every- now boats Bin pontoons full of soldiers returnand tire steamer cpeerea back ; and 9 18& d 8&t fn J as they stored their cumbersome coupled craft 1 to* wards thftftmi?* **-"& bad .the golden .pallor, of .Southern flPilfllr' in the aajrs /!o og[ Bettina, those whom so few ever B!%ir»^ i l|#^«sP»Hsl*f re /r:f«fced to find in Germany better than in,lhis the realisaiteff &*&& &&&&' a'nd love-

Uness of life with which the classic ? .lafiKNtok^qt'.ateiJsQßJifhtesnth 'M century * sol -;u:«-,;: a The Rhwßlabd amimito '■> them their 1 ■ Grt«!»i;and:.<sltaiypi*heffi South, their \ Country of And, for their | sa'ce and its own;" it should be so, f a little, to us.-VernoriW" ""'" 51