The terraces upon the sunny side of the hills look like flights of stairs, when seen from a distance. Upon these the grape vines grow; hence the German Weinberg for vineyard. Frequently large tracts are covered by long, upright sticks, which made me think of regiments of infantry with their bayonets pointing into the sky. Natives are reminded of beer, because these sticks are used in growing the immense quantities of hops, which are exported hence to breweries in all parts of the globe.

Should any fair reader of the GUARDIAN be dissatisfied with the rights she enjoys at home, she would do well in coming hither. For here she will have the right to drink as much beer in public. places as any man, to drive a team through the streets, to carry huge loads of wood upon her back, to walk about with heavy baskets of produce or large tubs of water upon her head, and to go to market without being bothered by the company of her husband. If American women possess these rights they have at least thus far not chosen to exercise them.

Many of the peasants carry the knife and fork in the pocket for eating. The men dress in leathern pantaloons, red vests, and white coats with buttons that look like bullets cut in halves. The women dress in costumes so peculiar that I can not describe them. As a rule, a man does not acquire the necessary vocabulary for such descriptions, until it becomes his duty to furnish the cash for purchasing the numerous articles worn by the sex all the world over.

The religion of the southern districts may be inferred from the numerous crosses and crucifixes erected along the public highway. Good Catholics when passing by, reverently take off their hats. At public festivals it is sometimes unsafe to deviate from this custom. When the festival of Corpus Christi was celebrated at Rottenburg, where the bishop lives, numerous persons advised me to take off my hat while the procession was passing, lest it should be knocked off or squeezed down over my ears. The streets over which the procession passed were strewn with newly mown grass, and the houses were adorned with floral wreaths and pictures. The bishop conducted services at four altars erected for the occasion in different parts of the town. Guns were fired by the homeguards at given signals; girls in snow white robes sang religious songs; and portions of the gospels were read in Latin by the priests. No sooner were the services ended than the old women began to fill their pockets with branches torn from trees in the neighborhood. The whole affair lasted two hours. How the bishop, the priests and the crowds of men, women, and children who followed the consecrated wafer, could walk so long a time. with their uncovered heads exposed to a burning sun, is to me a mystery. Yet not a single case of sun-stroke occurred.

I was glad when I reached Switzerland, for it made me feel good to think that I was once again breathing the air of freedom. The falls of the Rhine disappointed me; the water was low inasmuch as the snow had not yet commenced to melt rapidly. The dialect of the people surprised me. I found that they could understand everything I said, but frequently I could not understand them. The interval of an hour between the trains gave me an opportunity of taking a look at the lake and the University of Zurich. The former is noted for its beauty; the latter is situated on a high hill from which a magnificent view of the city can be obtained. I have seen few school buildings, whose outside appearance pleased me more.

In Switzerland the death penalty has been abolished. For many years not a single murder has been committed. In some districts the inmates of prisons are still obliged to work publicly on the streets. My travelling companion asked one of them, a very intelligent-looking young man, why he was doomed to spend his life in this way. He replied: "I was a student at the University with brilliant prospects before me. But one time for the fun of the thing, I passed myself off as a priest, heard people confess their sins, and to carry out the deception pronounced the absolution. I was found out and now suffer the punishment of my folly. A single thoughtless act ruined all my prospects for this life."

Of Luzern, I saw very little; for it was late in the evening when the train arrived, and the steamboat left next morning just as the day began to dawn. At first the sky was cloudy, the snowy summit of Rigi was invisible; the passengers went below shivering and grumbling. The usual breakfast, consisting of a cup of coffee and two rolls, was furnished; lively chatting drove away part of the dissatisfaction. But as sun-rise approached, the clouds began to disappear; every one came up on deck to see the mountain tops piercing the thick dew. Unexpectedly a gleam of sunlight fell upon one of the peaks; it seemed as if an angel had suddenly strewn gold dust over its summit. The beautiful, the picturesque, and the sublime blended in all sorts of forms, called forth many expressions of admiration. Near Brunnen, at one of the sharpest windings, there rises up not far from shore a rocky pyramid bearing the inscription in large letters: "Dem Sänger Tells, Frederich Schiller. Die Ur Cantone 1859." A little further on lies a meadow, slightly elevated above the water, covered with trees and a few houses, known as the village of Rüttli. Here the first league was formed by the Swiss cantons against tyranny and foreign oppression. Soon after there appeared stuck in among trees, a little chapel, open on the side towards the lake, and standing upon the spot where Tell is said to have leaped

on shore, thereby pushing back Gesler's boat and thus making his escape. At the next turn the rocks rise up almost perpendicular, and a road winds along the shore hundreds of feet above the surface of the lake. Schiller's description of the wild grandeur of the scenery, is true to nature. Some one read his lines as we were sailing by, and I could hardly persuade myself that the poet had never seen what he described. Probably he got his information. from Goethe.

On the other side of the lake I took a stage coach to cross the Alps. It was fitted up like a railroad car and drawn by six horses, hitched three abreast. We soon passed through the town in which Tell shot the apple from his son's head. At first I enjoyed scenery very much. Mountains, whose tops were covered with snow, whose sides show the destructive effects of the avalanche, and at whose base the fields are covered with vegetation, make a queer impression upon the traveller. At times, we could look down upon the tops of the trees growing in the valley below. On reaching the snow line we had to get into sleighs; the air became cold, and ere long we could see nothing except heaven and snow. Not only the forms of nature, but also men put on a mild appearance. They hit each other's heads with snow balls as if it were capital fun. A great deal of Italian could now be heard. A snow storm had raged the day before, and in some places the avalanches had covered the road over which we were passing. Men are always on hand to shovel away the snow. A tunnel eighty yards in length has been constructed over the most dangerous part of the route. Beyond it is the celebrated Devil's Bridge, a winding structure which crosses a waterfall, that constantly moistens the bridge with spray. Here a severe battle was fought (Aug. 14, 1799) between the French and Austrians, and about a month later, another between the French and Russians. Below this bridge is another older one, covered with moss, showing that it is no longer used.

During the remainder of the trip, I more than once said to myself, I shall never again cross the St. Gotthard at this season of the year. Portions of the road seemed very dangerous. The horses trotted all the time, and even in spite of the cold atmosphere, I could not keep cool. The drivers, however, never dream of danger, although the road winds very much to and fro along the mountain side. In one case, we must have passed the same vertical line at least six times in going a distance of half a mile. No wonder a certain writer calls the windings so sharp and zig-zag that a fellow could often put one foot on zig and the other on zag. What I saw during this sleigh-ride enabled me more fully to realize the genius and energy, which Napoleon displayed in one of

his early campaigns against Austria. He had been making demonstrations on the North coast of France, just as if he intended to cross over into England. Meanwhile, his engineers were busy exploring the Alps. They reported that an army might, perhaps, with great difficulty, march over the path of St. Gotthard. This was enough for his daring genius. The soldiers sometimes carried the wheels and dragged the cannons like logs of wood. On the summit, refreshments and wine had been prepared for them. This gave them new spirits. Before the Austrians dreamt of danger, the whole French army was on the other side. They would hardly have been more astonished if an army had fallen from heaven. It is needless to add, that they were routed with terrible slaughter.

The company are very kind in furnishing blankets and tin vessels with hot water to keep the feet warm. At first I could not understand why the drivers all tied handkerchiefs around their heads; but when I complained that my eyes were hurting on account of the dazzling reflection of the snow, they advised me to follow their example. All of them-wear green spectacles.

As often as the horses are changed, the drivers are changed too. Each driver expects a trinkgeld. My stock of small coins being exhausted, I gave a large piece to one of them who had been particularly kind in furnishing blankets. This was seen by the others, and during the remainder of the ride they were very attentive. Accidentally, I found another small coin in my vest pocket, which I gave to the driver who took us over the last part of our sleigh-ride. He took it, but soon followed me and kept holding it out saying, it was not enough. Finally, I took it again, put it into my pocket, and walked off as if nothing had happened. Then you should have heard him. For the first time in my life did I wish myself totally ignorant of both Latin and Italian, for then I should not have understood the curses and maledictions which he pronounced upon my head.

It was near sun-set when we left the snow line. The stage coach ran all night. The rattling and shaking kept me awake until towards morning. When the body gets too tired, it drops into the arms of sleep. I woke up imagining that I had gotten into a kind of paradise. The air was warm and balmy, the sky had a deep blue color, the fields were green, and the trees already in blossom. The freshness of the vegetation imparted a most fascinating charm to everything which the eye beheld. The scenery became more and more beautiful the farther south we went. Naples, nature seemed to have done her best. Here the traveller is delighted by the varied hues of light playing upon the neighboring hills, by the peculiar smoke curling up from the summit of Mt. Vesuvius, by numberless flowers and variegated blossoms scent

At

ing the air with their fragrance, by "the white houses of the Procida with roofs glittering in the sunshine, reminding one of a troop of pilgrims toiling up the ascent," and by the charming bay, whose beauty and grandeur have won for it the appellation; a fragment of heaven to earth vouchsafed. An English poet, on beholding for the first time how bountifully nature had bestowed her gifts upon this favored spot, exclaimed: "Vedi Napoli e poi mori." (See Naples and then die.) An American writer thinks he should have said: See Naples and then live. I would be willing to subscribe to this change, were it not for the many annoyances, which a stranger has to undergo during his stay in Naples. Of these, here

after.

1

THE ADVICE OF A GREAT WRITER.

BY THE EDITOR.

"Ah! on this, a word for what it is worth to you, my young readers. You, sir, wishing to marry a girl who is to be deeply, lastingly in love with you, and a thoroughly good wife practically, consider well how she takes to your parents-how she attaches to them an inexpressible sentiment, a disinterested reverence-even should you but dimly recognize the sentiment, or feel the reverence, how if between you and your parents some little cause of coldness arise, she will charm you back to know your father and mother, even though they are not particularly genial to her-well if you win that sort of a girl as your wife, think you have got a treasure. You have won a woman whom Heaven has given the two best attributes-intense feeling of love, intense sense of duty. What my dear lady reader, I say of one sex, I say of another, though in a less degree; because a girl who marries becomes of her husband's family, and the man does not become of his wife's. Still I distrust the depth of any man's love to a woman, if he does not feel a great degree of tenderness (and forbearance where differences arise), for her parents. But the wife must not so put them in the foreground as to make the husband think he is cast into the cold of the shadow."-BULWER.

Many of the literary lights of ancient and modern times have been singularly unfortunate and unhappy in their domestic relations. In other words, they and their better halves got along badly. They were ill mated. From Socrates, who made a virtue of necessity and bore the cruel unconnubial treatment of Xantippe with philosophic meekness, down to these modern times, many of the first authors never realized in their home experience the bliss, which they so beautifully described in their writings. Shakespeare, Rousseau, Milton, Moliere, Addison, Dickens, Bulwer,-in how fascinating a light they depict home joys! How unfascinating were their home trials! Whichever side of the house may have been to blame, the fact cannot be denied, that the houses of great