During our hunt for a lodging on the slope of the Rorschach Hill, we came upon the Castle of Wartegg, which once belonged to the Duchess of Parma, now deceased. It is the finest estate in the whole canton, and well worth seeing. Having no time to spare we did not go inside, and only walked around the fine but rather neglected park. Higher up stands the old Castle of Wartensee, a stately building.
LINCOLN HILL.
Inquiring as to our way, we were agreeably surprised to hear the name of Lincoln Hill. It was awfully hot, but our patriotism and curiosity were not to be influenced by the weather, and after having climbed up a considerable height we came to a new house, which had on its gable a large statue of good Old Abe. It is true, it is a rather primitive statue, consisting of nothing but a carved board painted gray one side. Our President stands there holding in his hands a broken chain.
The view from this house, which was not finished yet, is most splendid. The place belongs to a gentleman of Rorschach named MUELLER, who seems to be a true republican and tries his best to make the names of the heros of liberty of other countries popular in his own.
On returning from Lincoln Hill to Rorschach we passed Garibaldi Hill, where we saw a whole row of houses, all belonging to Mr. MUELLER, which were named after GARIBALDI and the most reknowned heroes of Swiss history. Primitive presentments of these men were located on the roofs of all these houses.
Passing through a beautiful valley or ravine, at the bottom of which a fresh little rivulet warbled along, we came to a castle with a round tower, which seemed to be inhabited. After some little trouble we were admitted by a friendly old woman, who told us that this was Castle Wiggen, and belonging to the family of HOFFMAN, dwelling in St. Gallen. The female warder was very willing to show us the interior of the castle, and we were so much pleased with it that we resolved to try whether its owner would not rent us some rooms in it.
I therefore wrote to that gentleman, who is a member of the Government of the Canton of St. Gallen, and as he happened to know my name and whereabouts, he was kind enough to come over and to place the castle at our disposal for the trifling rent of six francs a day, linen, plate, silver &c., included.
A minute description of this interesting place would perhaps be interesting to American readers, but as I have already occupied so much space, I shall be brief. The house is built of solid stone, lies about a hundred feet above the lake on the slope, and is three hundred paces distant from the water. We have three very large rooms, from the windows of which is to be seen the most splendid view of the beautiful surroundings. Looking down we see the tops of blooming trees, while birds of all kinds give us a concert all day long.
My room is called the Winter room. Toward the south it has two very large arched windows, which are separated from each other by a curious stone column, on the top of which are carved in stone the coats of arms of the builder, a nobleman named SCHLABERITZ, and of his wife; a stone scroll above them bears the date 1582. Another and smaller arched window opens toward the east.
The room is painted in a manner which must have been considered quite wonderful three centuries ago, for there are marvelous exotic landscapes, trees, flowers, birds and monkeys. Painted boxes and curious cupboards are fixed to the walls, and are opened by keys of curious workmanship. The lock on my door, however, would delight a practical locksmith, for it is extremely simple and substantial.
PRINCE AND PRINCESS SALM-SALM.
My companions in this interesting castle are people with whom I became acquainted in America, and who acquired in later times a very well deserved fame by their excellent behavior in Mexico, Prince and Princess SALM-SALM. The Prince was first Aid-de-Camp to the Emperor MAXIMILIAN, who loved him very much and had the utmost confidence in him. He was placed in another prison when his efforts to secure the escape of the Emperor were discovered. He was after that watched so carefully that he was unable to carry out any of his plans.
The adventures of the Princess [photo] are really marvelous, and one cannot but admire her courage, energy, and cleverness. Had the foreign Ministers behaved a little better, and not to the last moment imagined that JUAREZ would not dare to shoot MAXIMILIAN, the Princess would have succeeded in saving his life. These gentlemen refused to countersign a check of MAXIMILIAN'S for $200,000, which were to be paid to two Colonels, after MAXIMILIAN had made good his escape. Then MAXIMILIAN wrote a check himself, made payable by the Imperial family in Vienna; but the payment appeared doubtful to one of the Colonels, and he betrayed the attempt of Princess SALM-SALM.
The Princess still has that check in her possession, and will, of course, keep it as a keepsake. She is now busy preparing her diary for publication, and it will be extremely interesting, though a great many persons will not like it. The Princess speaks rather free, and has no reason whatever to flatter anybody. Her noble and heroic behavior in Mexico has secured for her here a very flattering reception.
Her husband is writing a history of the siege of Querétaro, which will also be published. He brought with him a great many relics of MAXIMILIAN; among others a piece of his blood-stained sash, and a large piece of his beard, and even a portion of the poor Emperor's heart, which he preserved in a small bottle.
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The New York Times, March 19, 1872:
The Little Republic
Switzerland is a country to which every one nowadays who travels at all goes, but it is in the eyes of most regarded as simply a playground, and we will venture to say that comparatively few who visit Chamouni and Zurich, and sail over the Lake of Geneva, have any distinct notions of its history, constitution and progress. Yet it is an interesting country in these respects, and has special claims to be studies by Americans.
The venerable little Republic dates from 1307, when the cantons of Uri, Schwtz and Underwalden entered into a confederacy for mutual aid against Austria. It was at this time that the incident, regarded by some as apocryphal, which made William Tell famous, occurred. The three cantons were successful in their endeavors to shake off the Austrian yoke, and within fifteen years Lucerne, Zurich, Glarus, Zug and Berne joined the young confederacy. Aargau was conquered from Austria in 1415; the abbey and town of St. Gall joined the other cantons between 1451 and 1454; Thurgau was taken in 1460, Friburg and Solothurn admitted in 1481, The Grisons in 1497, Basle and Schaffhausen in 1501, and Appenzell in 1513. About that time Tessin, or Tieino, was conquered from the Milanese, and Vaud was taken from Saxony by the Bernese in 1560. The remaining Cantons were not finally united to the Confederation until the time of Napoleon, and the present compact, by which all are placed on a perfect equality, only dates from the peace of 1814.
The area of these little United States is 15,233 square miles. It must be admitted that the federation has been on the whole a success. This is the more remarkable when the heterogeneous character of the races who go to make up the nation is considered. The cold, calculating Calvinistic German of the north has little in common with the semi-Italian in Ticino or semi-French in the Vaud. No doubt the priniple cause of the pact having answered so successfully is to be found in the individual independence of each state, so far as regards internal administration.
The present federal constitution, founded on that of 1815, only dates from 1843. It vests the supreme legislation and executive authority in two chambers, and both chambers united are called the Federal Assembly. What answers to our Cabinet consists of seven members, elected for three years by the Federal Assembly. The President of this council of Ministers receives $2,000 a year, the rest $1,700. There is no class of paid permanent officials existing either in connection with the cantonal administration or the general management of the Republic.
Notwithstanding the absence of such funtionaries, it may be doubted whether any people on this earth are governed to such a degree as the Swiss. The communal or municipal authorities of the section of a canton in which a Swiss resides seem almost to determine what he shall or shall not eat for dinner.
The population, which was 2,188,009 in 1837, had only increased to 2,510,494 in 1860.
Except in the southern province of Ticino, and one or two other districts, property is very much divided, and passes at death to a man's children equally. In certain cantons it can only be bequeathed to direct descendants, and, failing them, passes to the government of the canton, so that some cantons, Berne notably, are extremely rich in landed estate.
The Swiss seem as a race to have two special objects of devotion--money and their country. The traveler in the barren valley of the Grisons, in places where the climate has been described as nine months of Winter and three of cold weather, and where a little barley is all that the sterile soil will produce, finds marvelously comfortable-looking homesteads, and evidences of an affluence quite inconsistent with the aspect of the country. He will learn on inquiry that the means which produces so satisfactory a state of things came from abroad, across the shop-counters of confectioners in Paris, St. Petersburg and New-York. From southern Ticino, again, masons, porters, glaziers, chocolate and barometer-makers sally forth in thousands annually in search of rem quocunque modo rem.
The Swiss have been the hired guards of foreign potentates. They were Louis XVI's defenders at the last gasp of old régime monarchy in France. You may find them pacing the halls and corridors of the Vatican at this hour. They are the porters of grand seigneurs mansions in London; those magnificent functionaries who herald priestly processions in the stately cathedrals of Flanders and France; the valets de place of dissipated young Americans in foreign cities; the bonnes of those young gentlemen's sisters. In a word, there is not a place in which you do not find them, not a humble occupation which they do not fill, so long as money is to be made in it...
The future of the country, materially and politically, looks bright. Railways are rushing through their mountains to connect remote lands. Europe is more and more thronging their hotels, and the Great Powers are almost as interested as Switzerland is herself in maintaining her integrity. The changes which have recently been made in the constitution have principally been with the end of vesting more authority in the Central Government, and enabling it to act with greator vigor and promptitude in emergency.
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