On the opposite side flowed the Danube; not broad, nor, as I
learned, very deep; but rapid and in a serpentine direction.
Upon the whole, the Cathedral of Ulm is a noble ecclesiastical edifice;
uniting simplicity and purity with massiveness of composition. Few
cathedrals are more uniform in the style of their architecture. It seems
to be, to borrow technical language, all of a piece. Near it, forming
the foreground of the Munich print, are a chapel and a house surrounded
by trees. The Chapel is very small, and, as I learned, not used for
religious purposes. The house (so Professor Veesenmeyer informed me) is
supposed to have been the residence and offices of business of John
Zeiner, the well-known printer, who commenced his typographical labors
about the year 1740, and who uniformly printed at Ulm; while his brother
Gunther as uniformly exercised his art in the city whence I am now
addressing you. They were both natives of Reutlingen, a town of some
note between Tuebingen and Ulm.
[Footnote A: From "A Bibliographical, Antiquarian and Picturesque Tour,"
published in 1821.]
[Footnote B: Ulm has now (1914) a population of 56,000.]
AIX-LA-CHAPELLE AND CHARLEMAGNE'S TOMB[A]
BY VICTOR HUGO
For an invalid, Aix-la-Chapelle is a mineral fountain--warm, cold,
irony, and sulfurous; for the tourist, it is a place for redouts and
concerts; for the pilgrim, the place of relics, where the gown of the
Virgin Mary, the blood of Jesus, the cloth which enveloped the head of
John the Baptist after his decapitation, are exhibited every seven
years; for the antiquarian, it is a noble abbey of "filles a abbesse,"
connected with the male convent, which was built by Saint Gregory, son
of Nicephore, Emperor of the East; for the hunter, it is the ancient
valley of the wild boars; for the merchant, it is a "fabrique" of cloth,
needles, and pins; and for him who is no merchant, manufacturer, hunter,
antiquary, pilgrim, tourist, or invalid, it is the city of Charlemagne.
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