A TRAMP ABROAD By Mark Twain

clinging garment of polished ivy which hides the wounds

and stains of time. Even the top is not left bare, but is

crowned with a flourishing group of trees and shrubs.

Misfortune has done for this old tower what it has done

for the human character sometimes–improved it.

A gentleman remarked, one day, that it might have been

fine to live in the castle in the day of its prime,

but that we had one advantage which its vanished

inhabitants lacked–the advantage of having a charming

ruin to visit and muse over. But that was a hasty idea.

Those people had the advantage of US. They had the fine

castle to live in, and they could cross the Rhine valley

and muse over the stately ruin of Trifels besides.

The Trifels people, in their day, five hundred years ago,

could go and muse over majestic ruins that have vanished,

now, to the last stone. There have always been ruins,

no doubt; and there have always been pensive people to sigh

over them, and asses to scratch upon them their names

and the important date of their visit. Within a hundred

years after Adam left Eden, the guide probably gave

the usual general flourish with his hand and said: “Place

where the animals were named, ladies and gentlemen;

place where the tree of the forbidden fruit stood;

exact spot where Adam and Eve first met; and here,

ladies and gentlemen, adorned and hallowed by the names

and addresses of three generations of tourists, we have

the crumbling remains of Cain’s altar–fine old ruin!”

Then, no doubt, he taxed them a shekel apiece and let

them go.

An illumination of Heidelberg Castle is one of the

sights of Europe. The Castle’s picturesque shape;

its commanding situation, midway up the steep and

wooded mountainside; its vast size–these features combine

to make an illumination a most effective spectacle.

It is necessarily an expensive show, and consequently

rather infrequent. Therefore whenever one of these exhibitions

is to take place, the news goes about in the papers and

Heidelberg is sure to be full of people on that night.

I and my agent had one of these opportunities, and improved it.

About half past seven on the appointed evening we

crossed the lower bridge, with some American students,

in a pouring rain, and started up the road which borders

the Neunheim side of the river. This roadway was densely

packed with carriages and foot-passengers; the former

of all ages, and the latter of all ages and both sexes.

This black and solid mass was struggling painfully onward,

through the slop, the darkness, and the deluge.

We waded along for three-quarters of a mile, and finally

took up a position in an unsheltered beer-garden directly

opposite the Castle. We could not SEE the Castle–or

anything else, for that matter–but we could dimly

discern the outlines of the mountain over the way,

through the pervading blackness, and knew whereabouts

the Castle was located. We stood on one of the hundred

benches in the garden, under our umbrellas; the other

ninety-nine were occupied by standing men and women,

and they also had umbrellas. All the region round about,

and up and down the river-road, was a dense wilderness of

humanity hidden under an unbroken pavement of carriage tops

and umbrellas. Thus we stood during two drenching hours.

No rain fell on my head, but the converging whalebone

points of a dozen neighboring umbrellas poured little

cooling steams of water down my neck, and sometimes into

my ears, and thus kept me from getting hot and impatient.

I had the rheumatism, too, and had heard that this was

good for it. Afterward, however, I was led to believe

that the water treatment is NOT good for rheumatism.

There were even little girls in that dreadful place.

A men held one in his arms, just in front of me, for as much

as an hour, with umbrella-drippings soaking into her clothing

all the time.

In the circumstances, two hours was a good while for us

to have to wait, but when the illumination did at last come,

we felt repaid. It came unexpectedly, of course–things

always do, that have been long looked and longed for.