Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1870-08-12
GLIMPSES AT BELGIUM.
The North of France and the FrOI
tier.
+. WHITMORE,
Publisher and Proprietor,

Correspondence Boston Journal.J
What is most fearful, smallpox, chole.
ra, or the withering heat such as all Pa
risians swear they never saw before The
great white horses from the country
come struggling down the wide Paris
streets, their tongues lolling out of their
mouths. and their shaggy coats reeking
under their heavy harnesses, the tight
belted, uniform-tortured soldiers faint
away on the payements, and the doctors
hold consultations at the Medical Col
lege to consider how to stay plague
which is evidently brought on exclusively
by the heat, Flyl hyl to some cool re-
treat where not a breath of Paris cha
leur can come, nor q rumor of political
disturbance, nor an odous pun from FL
garo.f rev -gr
! On the Great Northern line of French
railway, extending from Paris to Calais,
and with its branches running up to Bel
GUM in various directions, the speed is
often sixty miles an hour, which, on
these smooth European tracks, produces
the effect of gliding through the air as
rapidly as Jean Paul did when he went
up with the angel to see infinity. Whirl!
Crash You are a mile past that beau
tiful picturesque grouping of moscow
cred roofs you were just admiring, and
the cathedral tower, grim and black
with age, is already hidden behind the
hill. Now you dash into hand
some large manufacturing town, where
hammers clink merrily, Ginning with
Jolly singing; the next moment you rush
along on high level, with a glorious vine
yard on one side, and below you on the
other the ripple of grass waves in the
tranquil meadow-the song of the lightly
rising bird, the delicate evanescent per
fums of the shrubs that bend to kiss the
blossoms. Now you skurry across gen
tleman's lawn, catching glimpse of q
wonderful old chateau, with papa and
his Roly-poly daughters playing croquet.
Now you pass Frenchman, with barn
seven times as large and 6ne as the
shabby, aged house, in which live the IL
l;terate peasant and his brood. The
hedges, the roads, the shrubs around
these farms are all wonderfully precise,
rich, and trim; everything seems to have
been plapned centuries ago, and TO nave
been growing in the sane plan ever since
1t is wonderful how such rough Api W
cult looking nep as the French geasaapts
can coax nature into such pleasing
forms. Nothing in France can snrpass
in variety and charm the stretch OF coun-
try between Paris and Compeigne. Be
tween Efeil and Compeigne quiet river
wanders about the bases of series OF
lovely hills, and amid toggs which seem
to have baep cast down from the skies ~
an artists hand, 80 irregular, vet SO PIC
turesque, are they. rr
Getting into the North Of France,
there is less beauty in the towns, but
even more in the country. The large
manufacturing villages, the rebel spirit
in which is feared so much at the Tuel-
cries, send up their smoking chimneys
in the midst Of the loveliest forests and
valleys. st. Quentin and Hautmont are
situated ip ths very wales of Avalon.
The towns are bNilt 9f brick, and have
an American aspect TO The pqsnal OBJ
server. They are the great supporting
arteries of commercial France. The
middle classes in this Northern section
ara extremely intelligent while the ig-
noraaee and vicious qualities OF the
workers is epite astonishing. Every,
thing bears an appearance 81 general
thrift. nevertheless. Nov and thep 9pe
sees ia the distance one of those quaint,
old. walled towns, far remQyed from the
railway and its clatter, where the peo-
nL,iare still in primitive condition, and
know s. little of Paris as they do of
Abyssinis. Outside the walls the shep-
herds are watching thair focks, and the
rustic reapers are going 70 and from
thair toll, always singing. \ grsat gRlte
road winds up to the eminence on Fhieil
the town is psilt, and here and there a
woman and an OK are dragging a cart to-
Zetber, The forests in the North all re-
mind one OF COrots pictures; there sre !
the same profound depths and mazes Of
same magical effects Of light |
and shade-that the master knows how
% create so well. Here and these, in |
he forest glades, there is little opening /
where an old village rests, calm as the |
woods, Eiih no wagons in
ts streets, no fratiic-BothinR save one |
mall wine shop, with cripple sEnRing /
himself at the door, or q huge dairy, |
With the blue blOpsed farmers making 4
owe 20 tie buxom giFls around Il The
French farmer evidently lives wsll, and 1
loes not work too hard. tie is too de-
rraded in education TO realiza his degTa-
iot;on and is therefore happy. There