Lewistown gazette. [volume] (Lewistown, Pa.) 1843-1944, 1851-11-14
LETTER FROM EIR0FE.
Correspondence Of the Lew isiown Gazette

are satisfied to take them in the discopnectet
style give them, one has seldom either time
or inclination for better writing in Paris, where
there are so many folies and - MYSTERIES and
museums and galleries of paintings and statues
all to be seen for nothing. But to the Alps. Of
all mountains the most grand and terrific We
enter Savoy from the eastern frontier of France
and lind ourselves at the same time amony
the lips. These mountains offer TO the travel
Ter sights the most curious and the most impos-
ing, productions the most varied and contrast,
the most singular. For three long hours the
clumsy French diligence with all its baggage
on top) slowly labors up the winding ascent
along side of laundering torrent. The French
diligence, with its clumsy horses and clumsier
harness, looks like a ton of hay oil a farm
wagon; but wait until il and its twelve horses
aud lis twenty-four passengers inside and out
side are on the top of the mountain, they'll 90
down the other side like a locomotive, and the
noise Of the cataract that rushes after will be
hushed by the hundred little bells that hang over
the tops of the horses collars. This is on tie
road to Turin by the pass of Mount Gents and
some authors affirm that it was by this first
mountain that Hannibal opened passage for his
troops by the aid Of fire and vinegar. There Is
some difference of opinion as to the route by
which Hannibal passed. but the priests of the
mountains, with great deal of assurance, point
you to the camp of Hannibal near the summit
Of the mountain called the Little Saint Bernard.
There then is a circle 240 feet in diameter,
made of huge stones buried deep in the earth,
with their tops two three feet above the sur
face. 1t is called the Circle of Hannibal, and
tradition says that Hannibal held a council Of
war within this circle. But some say that this
circle of stones was made by the Romans in the
time Of their conquests of the country this side
the Alps; others again say that it was made
neither by the Carthagenians nor Romans but
that 1t was Celtic temple, made in the time
when the god Pen was worshipped by the Cen
irons. The monuments of the ancient GauIs
were enormous stones, isolated or in groups,
or forming avenues. They had the PeuEuala or
.Neuhir, separate blocks fixed in the earth the
Dotmea, a kind of altar composed of large fiat
stones placed horizontally on others that stood
vertically; the Bd1rOtc5. cones of earth on the
tombs; and the Cromtech, stones arranged in a
circle. 1t is more likely that this circle on the
Petit St. Bernard was a Cromlech or Druidical
temple. Some OF the ancient romances, le-
gends and books of chivalry and knight errantry
aihrm that Garagantua was the originator of
these druidica stones, and that the Dolmen, the
-neHhlr, &c, were the soup dishes, the sofas the
arm chairs, &c, of this uitstrious gentleman
described by Rabelais. This highway across
the Alps was begun by Napoleon and finished
by the King of Sardinia in 1917. In travelling
through Italy one sees many Improvements that
were made by Napoleon, and which the imbe-
cile Italians would scarcely have yentured to
make to this day; Improvements that have made
him benefactor, rather than a scourge to the
Italians of the present generation, whatever he
may have been to them in the days of his victo-
rles. One of the former routes is visible from
this one. 1t is called the Ladders, and travel
ers crossed the Alps by this route by means of
ladders placed one above the other, or in kind
Of arm chair, tied to the backs of the mountain
peasants OF Savoy. Chamberi, city of - 600
inhabitants, is the first city you enter on leaving
rance. 1t contains several towers and other
fragments OF the ancient castle of the dukes of
savoy. In an ancient gothic chapel, yet occu-
pied and enclosed by the towers, they tell YOU
1f holy winding sheet (santo suda1io) which
was long time kept in this chapel, but which
has been aiken 10 Turin, and which Francis |,
hing OF Fance, made pious pilgrimage to see,
walking barefooted all the way from Lyons in
France. AT st. Peters, Rome, there is another
anto Sudal10, which is shown to the people on
occasions. In this chapel | read
rom frame that hung the WALL that an in
1ulgence of 4 hundred days would be granted
by the pope to such persons as would come
there certain number Of times and say GER
tam number OF pater nosterS, and are nlarias and
of course give little or something for some p-
0us purpose, Before the French revolution,
Jham5erl contained twenty converts; at pres
snt there are but seven of which four are for
women and three for men. In the museum of
Jhamoeri they show many Roman medals,
specimens of Roman pottery, &C., and in the IL
1rary, which contains d6, 600 volumes, they have
bible on parchment, which dates from the
llnth century Americans are in the habit of
linking that there is more liberty in France
lnce the republic than in some of It's neichbor-
ng hngdoms but in the Kingdom of Sardinia
here is more liberty than in France. In the
lime of the last French revolution, the King
earring the contagion of republican opinions,
rrantp6
hus saved his credit, because he had the good
sense to see that his fate would be like the fate
'i Louis Philip unless he did. In Sardinia there
ire some Republican Journals that would be
suspended IN the mock Republic of France, and
one sees books for sale in the very few book
stores there are, that the censorship of the
French Republic would not permit to be ex-
posed for sale. In France and all the kingdoms
md petty States of the continent, the theatre
md the press ale under the supervision of CEN
'ors, not for the sake Of public morals, but to
prevent the dissemination Of the republican sem
Iments that labor to burst forth every where.
aud break the chains that bind them In France
I Is common thing to suspend the publication
If Republican Journal for 4 CAV or week,
1ut Royallst or Buonaparte Journal is never
noiested During the month of September,
hree Paris Journals were arrested for rdiculing
he policy of the President, and the publishers
)t them, as well as those who wrote the obiec-
lonable articles,were condemned to nine months
Imprisonment each, and two or three hundred
ioiiars fine The same happens in Sardinia,
1ut not 10 the same extent as in France, Austria
md the other States of the continent. On
eaYing Chamber, for Turin, one passes the ru-
n OF an ancient city and castle Crowds of
pilgrims come and encamp there every 6th of
October to be cured of diseases by the Virgin
Mary, VINO, tradition says, once descended there.
Ruins OF ancient forts are numerous here on the
towers OF which fires were built, TO give the
alarm 10 the inhabitants, in case of foreign in
'asion. This was the rude telegraph OF the
middle ages, and this chain of old castles and
towers, extends far north and south The side
Of tie mountain, which faces Chamberi, gave
way IN the year 1913. and city. called Saint