It is perhaps needless to say that the prohibition has been long removed, and that every season a great many tourists ascend the grand old peak, to see the Infernal Lake on its summit. All do it who can afford to pay for it.
And speaking of these miracles and appearances, and all that sort of thing, they don’t take place any more. Pilate hasn’t appeared in person to any tourists for hundreds of years. His appearance is something that used to happen, but doesn’t any more.
Tibbitts remarked that when he got his hotel done, he would have Pilate appear, actually washing his hands, no matter what it cost him. He intended to have a lot of fresh miracles. He would treat his patrons decently, and not palm off upon them a lot of old legends. He could get a man to do the Pilate business for thirty dollars a month, and he wouldn’t be mean enough to stop at so small an expense as that.
Passing Weggis, a pretty village nestling at the foot of the Rigi, Vitznau is reached, and there we disembark for our ride up the mountain. The Rigi has long been a favorite resort for tourists, and as far back as 1868 an attempt was made to assist them in reaching the summit with less fatigue and greater comfort and security. In that year, one Riggenbach, of Olten, and an engineer of Aaron, named Olivier Zschokke, after having experimented for years on the subject, published a pamphlet, in which they declared that it was possible to construct a railway from Vitznau to the summit of the Rigi.
THE OLD WAY OF ASCENDING THE RIGI.