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RINGSTRASSE, COLOGNE, MADE ON SITE OP OLD WALL,
(Copyrlfiht, 1908, by Frank O. Carpenter.)
f tOLOONB. April 22. (Special Cor
I I respondence of The Bee.) I writ
1 1 tnriuv nt t Via II hi no Nnt th
Rhine picturesque, not the Rhine
romautlo nor the Rhine of castles
nd cathedrals, but the Rhino as a trade
route and as the great water avenue of the
American invasion of Germany. During
this trip In Europe I have studied it from
Its sources to its mouth. I was near its
beginning on Mount Saint Gothard la
Switzerland, I saw It rushing past Basel,
the head of navigation, and watched the
enormous trafllc moving Into It from Rot
terdam near the sea. It Is 626 miles from
Basel to the German ocean, and throughout
this distance the Rhine is spotted with
towns and cities; It Is cut by canals, which
lead - to the Seine and the Danube, and
others which bring it into connection with
the busiest section of this busiest of all
the continents. You can get from Ham
burg to the Rhine by canal. The ports of
Belgium have access to It and a network
of railroads leads out from it to every
quarter of Europe.
Here In Cologne the Rhine is about 1,300
feet wide, and It Is deep enough for boats
drawing twelve feet of water. The fall la
slight from here to the sea, and the flow Is
o slow that It does not impede navigation.
A little further south the river narrows,
nd in the Seven Mountains tbo current Is
o swift that the steamers make only a few
miles an hour, and so strong that the banks
have to be walled In with stones almost the
whole way to keep them from washing.
Cologne Is the trade center of the Rhine.
It has about 400,000 people, and is largely
dependent upon Us river trade. It has built
up a great harbor for handling the traffics
and Is now a general transshipping point
for all parts of Europe. Ships come here
from Iiondon, Bremen, Hamburg, Copen
hagen and Russia. There are dally boats
to England, and three boats which run
regularly between Cologne and St. Peters
burg. The most of the goods from the United
States la transshipped at Rotterdam, Am
sterdam, Antwerp or Hamburg, and a large
part of it Is sent up the Rhine in barges. '
I have spent much timo on the river, now
passlug rafts of logs and boards of Ameri
can lumber, now going by utrlnga of narrow
barges, each two hundred or more feet
long, filled with .American wh at, and other
barges piled high with barrels of American
petroleum. I have met a tew American
travelers and one or two of our drummers,
but the most of the travel la European, and
the most of our goods go on German and
Dutch boats bandied by German Importers.
Cologne Is a good place to study the
Rhlue t raffle. It Is the headquarters of the
leading steamship companies. The trade
la carefully watched, it steadily increases
from year to year, and it now approximates
a million tons annually. Something like
4,000 passenger boats call at Cologne every
year, and the freight boats number many
hundreds. There are also sailing vessels
and an enormous traffic by tugs and bargi s.
I saw my first Rhine barges at Rotter
dam. They are built for the narrow parts
of the river, and are, I venture, the longest
boats made In proportion to their width.
The average barge la about fifteen feet
wide and two or three hundred feet long.
It looks like a great black eel aa It is towed
op the river. At the back or It is a little
cabin, with a stovepipe sticking out of Its
roof, and about midway is a hinged mast
o fixed that It can be raised and lowered
at the bridges. Each barge haa a rudder,
sometimes so large that it Is moved by a
horizontal cog wheel pushed around by the
sailors.
On many of the barges families of boat
men live. Tou see the washing banging oa
the line, the women cooking at the sterna
of the boats and the little ones playing
about over the cargo.
The Rhine haa an Immense passenger
business during the season. Tbla Is now
At 1U beginning, and It will continue until
ONE VIEW OF COLOGNE FROM THE RHINE,
UNLOADING AMERICAN GOODS AT COLOGNE.
late In the fall. There are two great
passenger companies which have regular
dally services to Maine and Cologne and
Dus8eldorf. They are doing well, paying
regular dividends of S per cent and over.
Their stocks are considered safe invest
ments and they are bought and sold on the
exchange.
It Is not the foreign travel, however,
that makes the boats pay. That Is enor
mous, it is true, but It la nothing in com
parison with the . local trafllc. The Rhine
is one almost continuous village. There
are towns everywhere near the river and
back from It, except In the ruost moun
tainous parts, and on holidays the boats
are crowded, and, as the fares are cheaper
than those of the railroads, the everyday
travel is great. A difference in weather
makes a big difference in the profits of
the companies. This Is especially so as
to the foreign traffic. A cold Whitsuntide
means there will be no traffic from Lon
dou and a cold season may cut down the
dividends more than 1 per cent. There
are now about a hundred steamboats on
the Rhine, and the averr.Re number of pas
sengers exceeds a million a year.
Traveling la comparatively Inexpensive,
and strange to say, ll cU less to go
up the stream than down it. It takes only
a day to Bee the most beautiful part of the
river and you can have a round trip ticket
at reduced rates. Each passenger Is allowed
a hundred pounds of baggage free, a sruall
charge being made for loading and dl.
charging the trunks. All the steamers
have eating accommodations on thorn, and
the food Is quite an good an on similar boats
at home. At 1 oVkck there Is a table
d'hote lnuer wlikh costs 75 rents, with
reduced rates for children. Breakfast and
supper are alto served.
Nearly all t'n. Rhine towns aio growing
and are ttia.li'y improving their port ar
rangements. You see cranes on the land
ing j.laies ut many small towns, all the
clil.a have wharves and the busy scenes
upon th m show that this part of Germany
1st industrially alive.
The i:ort at Cologne is formed by an
Island In the river. This has been walled
In with great stone blocks and paved with
cobbles. Bridges connect It with the rail
roads and the cars are brought right to the
bouts and loaded and unloaded with great
steel cranes. There are custom bouses on
the Island with bonded warehouses, and the
facilities are such that scores of barges and
boats can be handled at one time.
As I walked along upon this island I saw
a barge unloading South Carolina pine. The
boards were built out over the sides of the
barge so that It seemed to be a pile of lum
ber 100 feet wide. 100 feet long and 10 feet
high. It bad been towed up from Rotter
dam by a steam tug, and when I saw It
the hydraulic cranes were lifting up a hun
dred boards at a time and dropping them
on to the cars, which were to take them
to the interior.
. Near by were other barges loading goods
tor the United States, and I was told that
something like $2,000,000 worth of goods
are annually shipped from here to our
country.
Another big Rhine center Is Dusseldorf,
about two and one-half hours by Bteamer
down stream. It is the chief port of West
phalia, an enormous Industrial region un
derlaid with coal and iron. Dusseldorf
Itself has iron and steel works, foundries,
furnaces and rolling mills. It makes rail
road cars and electrical equipments and
the same Is true of Cologne.
Dusseldorf Is also the port for many
other towns nearby, and does a great busi
ness in selling American machine tools,
Carolina pine and some of our best hard
woods. It takes a great lot of California
fruit, and has until recently Imported con
siderable iron and steel tubing, although
this ts now furnished by Germany. It is
from there that a large part of the Krupp
shipments go out, including those to the
United States, which are heavy.
Up the Rhine above Cologne there are a
number of Important porta, and especially
Coblenz, Mainz and Mannheim. I am sur
prised at the size of Mainz. It is growing
like a green bay tree and now has more
than 100,000 population. It is situated
where the Main flows into the Rhine and
gets the traffic of both rivers. It was so
rich in Ihe past that it was called "Golden
Mainz" and it was at one time the loader
of the league of Rbenieh towns, formed
during the middle ages to boom the trade
of this region. Today It Is overshadowed
by Frankfort, but it has an Increasing
trade. Mannheim, still further up the
Rhine, at the mouth of the Neckar, might
be called an American trade center. It
has enormous imports of American grain,
coal oil and tobacco and Is the head
quarters for the transshipment of American
goods. The Diamond Match company, the
Standard Oil company and the Pure OH
company have plants there and our leading
exporters or all kinds have their agencies.
Mannheim is the head of Rhine navigation
for large boats and the chief point or dis
tribution for grain, cotton, coal oil, lumber
and coal. Over 16,000 boats unload at its
docks every year and Its freight runs up
Into the millicns of tons. It is a great
commercial center, Its banks having a
capital of $30,000,000. It Is also a manu
facturing city, making dye stuffs and chem
icals, corks and cars, beer and glass
bottles, agricultural Implements, pianos,
cocoanut butter, cigars and a score of other
things. Its anallne dye plant Is the largest
in the world. Its exports to the United
Elates alone amounting to $100,000 a month.
It has 4,000 men in its chemical works, 1,400
workmen in its comb and doll factories and
other thousands making wood pulp, which,
Btrange to say, it exports to the United
States. It also sends us patent leather
to the value or something like $1,000,000 a
year, and at the same time buys a few
American shoes. It uses American tobacco
and makes millions of cigars every week,
which are shipped to all parts or Germany.
These Rhine towns are among the newest
or the Gorman cities. This btatement
seems strange when one remembers, that
they thrived in the days or the crusaders.
Cologne was rounded about tho time that
Caesar overran Gaul. It was so rich dur
ing the middle ages that instead of saying
"as rich as Croesus" they said "as rich as
.a cloth merchant of Cologne," and it has
been an important town from that time
until now. .
And still it is a new town! Since the
Franco-Prussian war It has been almost
rebuilt. The old wall has been torn away,
and a wide street, paved with asphalt,
with trees In the center and ridftwayg and
driveways on - each side, has taken its
place. New houses have been erected
along this street, and, indeed, the whole
city looks as though it were put up for
show. It is only in the older sections that
you find antique structures, and the cathe
dral, although begun centuries ago, was
only completed along In the "80s. It is
now the finest cathedral in Europe, and
coat, all told, a little less than $3,000,000.
Dusseldorf Is also a new town, and there
are new buildings all along the Rhine, In
cluding the villas of the rich, which have
grown up under the shadows of mediaeval
castles.
. The Rhine cities are new In their systems
of government. Municipal ownership is
coming to the front along the old river.
There Is much city pride, and but little
boodling. Dusseldorf owns its own gas and
electric light plants. It has public bath
houses, where you can bet at cost a Turk
ten or Russian bath, first, second or third
class. It has Its own slaughter houses and
market houses, and Its own ice plants and
cold storage establishments. The munici
pality acts also as a wine merchant, sell
ing wine by wholesale, and making a profit
off of it. It has a municipal savings bank,
with a pawnbroklng attachment, and also
homes for the aged and these who are too
feeble to earn their own living.
Dusseldorf owns Its street cars and so
does Cologne, and the fares in both cities
are Just about half what they aro In the
United States and the accommodations
equally good. My car fares cost me about
$5 a month, or $60 a year, while at home
In Washington. In Dusseldorf I could have
the same for Just half and save $30.
Here In Cologne one can buy a yearly
P0S3 good on all lines for $30, monthly
passes are sold for $2.38 and the ordinary
fare for the longest distance Is S cents,
while tho shortest distance costs less than
2 cents. Children under 10 years pay lees
than 2 cents, and students attending edu
cational Institutions have commutation
tickets for 1 1-5 cents. The chier advantage
that the railroads here have over those at
home is In the lower wages for motormen
and other employes; for coal, steel rails
and car equipments must cost about the
same. Aa to wages, motormn receive 83
cents and conductors about 72 cents for a
day of ten hours, and other employes are
proportionately cheap.
It Is wonderful how the Rhine valley Is
cultivated. For the greater part or the
distance between Cologne and Mains it Is
very hilly, but every Inch or available
space Is used. The mountains are terraced
In places, the earth being held In with walls
of stones, and some of It, I am told, tar
ried up from the lowlands on the backs of
women and men. Some of the patches are
no larger than a bed quilt, and a field s
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