Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1878-10-02

fRoM THE BERNESE ALPS TO SAVOY-SWISS
TELEGRAPHY AND POSTAL EXPRESS-THE
HILL CITY OF LAUSANNE-wHAT THE PRIS-
ONER OF CHILLON MIsSED-wHAT ONE MAY
SEE WHILE LUNCHING At CLARENs-AN UN-
FORTUNATE wASHERwOMAN-GENEvA AND
ITS wATCHMAKERs-wHEN WE DIDN'T AND
WHEN WE DID SEE MONT BLANC-WHAT
THE ALPINE MEADOWS LACK-HOw WE
WENT TO CHAMOCNY-ALPINE DILIGENCES
SLOW COACHES-NOBLE ALPINE WIvEs-AN
EXAMPLE FOR THE WIVES OF AMERICA
SUNSHINE AND STORM IN THE ALPs-wHAT
THE HOTEL MEN OF CHAMOCNY DON'T
KNOW.
Editorial Correspondence OF The Star.]
CHAMOUNY, Sept. l, 1873.
At Zurich, much to our regret, we parted
with Mr.. Hitz (whO goes up to the Engadine),
and having finished most satisfactory aud
delightful exploration OF the BerneSe Ober-
land, we started out for fresh woods and pas
lures new'' in the Pennine Alps, or Mont
Blanc range. The trip by rail from Zurich to
Lake Geneva, via Bern, Lucerne, Fribourg,
and Lausanne, is an interesting one, as the
views are much more picturesque than those
usually seen from car-windows: especially on
approaching the lake. A shOwery sky shut off
the view of the Snow-clad Alps, but the
glimpseS of the near green mountains, and of
the borders of the lake, were very charming.
1t was not quite possible, though, to realize
that the apparently diminutive cump of build.
| iDgS beneath us was Castle ChillOn, but on a
visit to it next day it loomed up somewhat
more formidably.
| SWISS GOVERNMENT TELEGRAPHY AND POS
tai EMPRESS SERVICE
In telegrapbing from Bern to Lausanne for
| rooms Ga needfulpr precaution, owing to the rush
| OF Alpine travel at this seasOn,) we had a
n
| OF the government telegraph system of Swift
| zerland. The cost Of the telegram was 50 CEN
| times, or 10 cents of our money; and for this
| sum dispatch OF twenty words can be sent
| to any part OF Switzerland. There is ground
tax Of 80 centimes (or cents) for telegram
| and after tnat charge of 21 centimes a word
| SO that telegram of 6 words can be sent any
where in Switzerland for As centimes, or 9
| cents. The government postal express ser
| vice OF Switzerland is, also, cheap, SAFE and
| expeditions public convenience. This postal
express takes the place of our private express
companies to great extent; while the tele-
| graphic system of Switzerland is altogether a
| government affair. At our hotel in Zurich a
Bernese 6 guest received by postal express from
| city to be pressed. The cost of conveying the
! hat and box from Bern to Zurich including
delivery at the hotel, was 10 centimes, Or IA
| Switzerland to send boots, hats, clothing,
parts of watches, &C., by postal express, the
| cost being so trlfng.
]
At the Lausanne station We took an omni-
bus, and wormed up the hill to the hotel and
| city by series of ZigZags such as one gets
| accustomed to in Switzerland, whether to get
| up to hotel, village, city, or mountain
| top. Lausanne when reached has superb
| position for an outlook. In business point
| OF view, though, the people must waste good
part OF their lives, cOrk-ScreWing their way I'D
| and down that everlasting hillside. In the
morning we took the train for the head of the
lake, stopping at Neytaux Chillon, the station
| brought us TO that structure made famous by
| Byrons pen. The Castle, as already said
does not at first sight come up to the mark of
| expectation, but 1t grows upon one by near
| view, and by Inspection of its underground
! dur geons, cells Of torture for the condemned
| execution chamber. trapdoorS for dumping
| prisoners into the lake &C., sc. Quite a por-
ton OF the, Castle is used as the Swiss s!2 tie
| prison, and some forty prisoners are now con
| tined there. Other rooms are occupied Tor
| ar1nOry purposes; and altogether the SrrUc
| tuIe must be pretty spacious one. II the
Prisoner OF Chillon were there now he would
not be at all lonely. He would hear the rail
| road and steamboat whistles every twenty
himself by listening to the yarns toll about
him by the guides. and the trinket-venders
| We took carri from ChiLlon to the beau
tlful village OF Clarens in order to get the
obtained on the mountain side above Moil-
up, through the terraced vineyards ani ni
| among quaint old houses, along a delight
for or oi1 nne mere lane lust wide enough
wall, shaded by gnarled and twisted od-tine
trees, and passing by an old time cemetery
for the graves In gilt, wire work, SC sc. Mum
bers OF women were washing clothes at the
pleasant shaded fountains gushing out along
troop of girls at work intimated to us, in re
| spOnSe to the admiring but rather protracted
stare by 9the young men of our party, that
Viewing this Of sRses
as they termed it. At Clarens it was vastly
peasant to take lunch at the Hotel Roth
looking out upon the blue lake, in which the
| white houses and tall poplars of MOntreux and
the grim walls of Chillon were mirrOred. Some
pits OF bright color were given to the fore
| and by squads OF waSherwomen who stool in
| their tubs in the ShOaI water near the shore
and Ilnsed their clothes in the lake. One un
fortunate rlnser came to grief in stepping into
her tuD, which shot out from under her, and
leit her seated IN the lake, to the great delight
oI lhe merry swiss boys, who, as general
much fun in them. But the French Swiss
aOout Geneva seem to have more vivacity
tnaf ne elsewhere. From Clarens we took steam:
ef LOT Geneva, getting, rather Interrupted
view OF the lake borders through the low
nanging raln-clouds. The principal steamers
| ON Lake Geneva are side-Wheelers on the
| American plan, sharp and swift but Dainted
| pIacA "nere ours are painted white.
| IN AND ABOUT GENEVA
we spent the next day in Geneva, going,
amongst other places, to visit the watch man
! ufactory OF the wOrld-wid known Patek.
Philippe Co. The establishment is a curious
old rookery OF small boxes of rooms, with
| irregular stairways, and seems to have been
enlarged and added to on different sides from
time to time, like the growth of the cells IN
honey comb; at least that Is the only way to
| account for Its curious arrangement of rooms.
and the up and down way of getting to them
ratek, Philippe Co. seem to know all about
| the watch business, and do not appear to fear
that the American watch companies will take
| away their business The Americans surDaSs
them IN methods, I suspect, even if they do not
| In finish OF work. For one thing, an Ameri.
can firm would pull this old building down in
snort order. and erect in its place an airy.
we lhghted structure, with large rooms com,
municatlng handily with one another A good
deal OF time must be lost, one would think. in
| THIS establishment in getting from one part to
another through the dark, narrow. crooked
passages and stalrwayS. The process of man
u1aeture as Illustrated in the different rooms
Is exceedingly interesting: as Well as the mode
OF regulating the watches after they are made
1ney go through course of treatment in Ice
refr1geratOrS and in ovens to get them regu
iated TO run in extremes of temperature, and
they are kept for a season in six different DO
Slti0ns-0n the face, back, sides, and at
angles-so that they will keep time UPSIDE
down, upside up, and in all attitudes The
watches supplied by this firm are of ali prices.
from 35 francs go and upwards. Tnev ksen;
"a FOB rofI,