The Danube from the Black Forest to the Black Sea — John Stuart Mill — John Shaqi
The Danube from the Black Forest to the Black Sea
John Stuart Mill · en
Vohburg is said to be the most virtuous town in Bavaria, the reward of
virtue there being a dowry of 50 guldens ($25) to each maiden of
unblemished reputation when she takes the marriage vows. One of the
notable results of this bounty is the encouragement of intermarriage,
for the youths are of frugal dispositions, and fifty guldens are fifty
guldens here quite as much as anywhere. Our first visitors the next
morning were the storks of the town who solemnly sought the early worm
and the casual frog, and they took flight at the approach of a troop of
the ugliest children to be found where the German language is heard--and
that is saying a great deal. They stood a long time in a circle around
our camp, either too much astonished or too stupid to reply to our
volley of questions. We couldn’t help thinking, as we looked at their
unintelligent faces, that it would be much better for the race if the
dowry fund should be embezzled by the town-clerk and vice rule
triumphant for a while. Our curiosity was not satisfied by this slight
glimpse of the inhabitants of Vohburg, and besides, the ancient town
gates, the massive ruins of the burgh--which was destroyed, like
everything else about here, by the Swiss in 1641--and the old
church-tower, stuck full of great stone cannon balls, tempted us to
land. Possibly the impression gained from a brief visit was not a just
one, but although we found the architecture interesting and the people
friendly and courteous, we could distinguish nothing of the charm which
our imaginations had pictured to us as the result of generations of
prosperity, peace, and domestic virtue.