Along the Rhine
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The roads along the Rhine are as near perfect as it is possible to
make them. And well they may be; for workmen have been constantly
employed in building and improving them for nearly two thousand
years. In many places they have been walled up on the side toward
the river, the rock cut away on the land side, valleys filled up, hillsides
terraced, and chasms bridged over, so that though passing through a
very mountainous region, they are almost as level as a railroad.
Great labor has been bestowed also on the paths up the mountain
sides. There is nothing like them to be seen in America. They are
made just wide enough for two mules to pass each other; not a foot of
ground is wasted. On the upper side is a wall supporting the vineyard
terrace, on the other, one that incloses the vine plantings. The paths
are graveled hard, so that the rain may not wash them out, and they
mount by regular zigzags to lessen the steepness of the ascent. Except
the streams and mountains themselves, these roads and mountain paths
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are, no doubt, more ancient than anything else which we look upon.
The mountains are terraced for vineyards, to the very summit. It
must have cost an immense amount of labor to build these terraces,
and the cultivation of the vineyards thus formed is no easy task. Earth
as well as dressing has to be carried from the valley below; and as in
many places even donkeys cannot be used, the work is done by men
and women. Large baskets three or four feet long, flat on one side
and rounded on the other, are lashed to the back, and they carry these,
filled with earth or dressing, up the steep mountain paths.
At Bingen the aspect of the country changes. Instead of the roman-
tic scenery of the mountains, we see level and highly cultivated plains.
In summer they must be very beautiful, with their groves and orchards
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and crops of every kind, separated by green hedges, and dotted with
villages and towns.
About noon we passed through Worms, the quaint old town which
Luther has inseparably linked with the history of the Reformation, and
from which went forth Tyndale’s Bible, the most powerful agent in the
Reformation of England.
At Mayence the train waited two hours, and we improved the
opportunity for a walk about the city. On our return to the station, our
baggage, which we had left in the waiting room, was nowhere to be
seen. After considerable search we succeeded in finding it in charge
of a railway porter, who informed us that it needed guarding. We were