“The unfinished cathedral towers over the city like a mountain. ‘Unfinished?’ Everything has a legend here, and a marvellous one, and the unfinished cathedral stands like a witness to such a tale.
CATHEDRAL OF COLOGNE.
“Above Cologne the river runs broad, a blue-green mirror amid dumpy willows and lanky poplars, and the windmills on its banks throw their arms about like giants at play. The steamers swarm in [!-- illustration --] [!-- blank page --] the bright waters; at evening their lights are like will-o’-the-wisps. The long bridge of boats opens; a steamer passes, followed by a crowd of boats; it closes, and the waiting crowd upon it hurry over. The Rhine at night here presents a most animated scene.
“The river seems alive, but the city looks dead. There is a faded glory on everything. There are steeples and steeples, towers and towers. Cologne is said to have had at one time as many churches as there are days in the year. But life has gone out of them; they are like deserted houses. They belonged to the religious period of evolution, and are like geologic formations now,—history that has had its day, and left its tombstone.
“Cologne is as old as Rome in her glory,—older than the Christian era. She was the second great city of the Church in the Middle Ages.
“Cologne is full of wonders in stone and marble, wonders in legend and story as well; and among these the cathedral holds the first place, in both art and fable.
THE MYSTERIOUS ARCHITECT.
In the thirteenth century—so the story goes—Archbishop Conrad determined to erect a cathedral that should surpass any Christian temple in the world.