The Brigach.

Max Schneckenburger.

"Like thunder rings the call to war. Like sabre-clang and billows" roar; On to the Rhine, the German Rhine! Who will not fight to guard its line? Dear Fatherland, all care resign, For steadfast stands the Watch on Rhine.

"Through countless thousands thrills the cry, And courage gleams from every eye; The German, honest, pious, true, Defends that sacred line of blue.

"He turns his eyes toward heaven's crown, Whence heroes of the past look down, And proudly vows: O Rhine, like me, Thou shalt forever German be!

"While yet a drop of life-blood burns. While yet one hand the sword-hilt turns. While yet one arm a gun can aim, No foeman's foot thy shore shall shame!

"The vow resounds, the flood mounts high, The flags are waving in the sky; Along the Rhine, the German Rhine, We all will guard its sacred line! Dear Fatherland, all care resign, For steadfast stands the Watch on Rhine".

A song depends, however, so much on the music given it for success that it would be unjust to leave unmentioned the composer of the melody to which the "Wacht am Rhein" is sung. He was a music teacher and director, named Karl Wil-helm; and on the nth of June, 1854, at the celebration of the silver wedding of the Prussian prince who afterward became the Emperor William I., this fortunate musician first brought out the words and music destined to acquire such world-wide fame. Nevertheless another interval of sixteen years was destined to elapse before the composition became widely known. More favored, however, than the poet, who had died in 1849, Karl Wil-helm lived to witness the prodigious influence exerted by his own and Schnecken-burger's genius, and at the close of the Franco-Prussian War received not only the ovations of his countrymen, but also from the German Government an annual pension of a thousand thalers till his death. The memory of Schneckenburger is not the only claim to eminence possessed by Tuttlingen. Commanding a high hill in the vicinity, and sharply outlined on the sky, stands the imposing castle of Honburg, one of the largest of those feudal strongholds which grow increasingly numerous as the traveler descends the stream, but which are happily no longer able to impede his progress. It is to-day a ruin.

House Of Schneckenburger, Tuttl1ngen.

The Monument To Schneckenburger.

Tuttlingen And The Castle Of Honburg.

"No banner floats upon its keep, No warders line its wall; The shouts of war and wassail sleep In Honburg's roofless hall; The furze and lichen flourish wild In Love's neglected bower, And ruin frowns where beauty smiled In Honburg's lofty tower".

With this huge mediaeval fortress as an introduction, one soon discovers that the title, "Castle-bordered Danube," is as well deserved as "Castle-bordered Rhine." The age of feudalism ornamented both these streams with strongholds, occupied by robber-barons, who made the passers-by pay toll or tribute. In several instances their names are borne to-day by Lilliputian lords, who seem like pygmies in the clothes of giants. For they, with probably no more morality than had their predecessors, choose baccarat instead of brigandage, and haunt the bank of Monte Carlo rather than the river banks of their more candid ancestors. The men who built and lived with their retainers in these massive towers were virile plunderers at least-lawless, no doubt, but brave. They also lacked - whatever else they may have had, - the modern swindler's smug hypocrisy. If they swooped down upon a passing ship or caravan, and forced it to contribute to their income, they did not preach next week in Sunday-school upon the art of gaining wealth by honest means. Even as I write these lines, I learn that a distinguished financier, who would not use a tram-car on the Sabbath, and scorned to read a Sunday newspaper, has, on the eve of his exposure as a felon, shot himself, and left behind him countless ruined homes and lives. In what way was this whited sepulchre superior to the fearless buccaneer of feudal times? And why should the accumulations of the latter be more scornfully condemned than many monster fortunes of the modern world, gained by immoral, heartless methods, masquerading in the garb of piety?