To the visitor, the object of the greatest interest in the city is the Cathedral, which is said to be the most magnificent Gothic edifice in the world. It certainly takes the palm over anything I have seen. It is wholly unnecessary for me to describe this wonderful building to those who have seen it, and it is impossible to describe it to those who have not seen it. I hardly know whether one is most filled with admiration, or struck with awe, as he beholds this great temple whose foundation stone was laid six hundred years ago. To go around it, one must walk an eighth of a mile; and yet he forgets the distance as he looks upon the massive walls rising one hundred and fifty feet above him; as he views the arched roof more than two hundred feet high; as he eyes the tapering spires which seem to pierce the bended sky. And yet there is hardly a square foot, even of the exterior of this architectural wonder, that is not carved and chiseled in the most exquisite manner imaginable. The principal entrance to the Cathedral is a doorway, thirty-one by ninety-three feet. On the inside, one sees a forest of pillars, fifty-six in number, apparently thirty or forty feet in circumference, and rising, some one hundred and others two hundred feet high. The aisles are twenty, thirty, and sixty feet wide. Some of the windows are twenty by fifty feet. These stained-glass windows and marble pillars have been presented by the kings and queens and emperors of different countries. The inside is profusely adorned and decorated with statues, carvings, paintings and sculpture work of every kind and character. The Cathedral bell is seventeen feet across, and weighs twenty-three tons. To ring it requires fifteen men. As I stand upon the tower, five hundred and thirty-seven feet above the earth, men in the streets look like little children, and the business houses resemble play-things. This elevation affords a fine view of the surrounding country. I can trace the Rhine and its tributaries for more than twenty miles. Winding around among the hills and grain fields, these streams, gleaming in the sunlight, look like silver threads. I say to my friend: “Ah! behold the ‘silver threads among the gold.’” Although I have climbed this spire to the enormous height of 537 feet, yet above me is a delicate golden ladder; and, as it was placed here to enable the angels to ascend and descend, I quietly descend.