Centre Democrat. [volume] (Bellefonte, Pa.) 1848-1989, 1880-08-05
Written for the GESrRE DEaocRArl
ON LAKE LEMAN.
BY OVID y. JOHNSON.

its territorial limits, yet there is no one
language that it claims as its own ex.
clusively or that is common to all its
cantons. The Northern, North Eastern
and Central have adopted as means of
communication the German, the South
Eastern the Italian, and to small ex.
tent q peculiar patois, and the balance
the French. 1t has had its share of
tribulations, but Notwithstanding, has
long maintained forms of popular gov
ernment in the very centre as it were
of monarchical Europe, and this too
whilst at Its side the most polished and
powerful empires upon the face of the
earth battled for supremacy, now with
success croHning victory, now to be
humiliated with loss of possessions or
crushed in the strife as though they
were but egg shells.
Turn where you may in Switzerland
and interesting associations will rise to
meet you. In its changeless barriers,
huge handcraft of nature, one ever re.
calls the mighty achievement that has
linked the name of Bonaparte with that
of Hannibal. The peasant of Aargau yet
guides the stranger to the domestic
hearthstone whence the proud Rhodolph
of Hapsburg went forth to conquest
Altorf shows the spot upon which tradi.
ton says Tell stood when he shot the
apple from the head of his son Inter.
walden points with patriotic pride to
the field of Sunpach Tin the canton OF
Lucsrne) rendered famous by the illus
trious example of Arnold of Winkeiried.
At Zurich Zwingle proclaimed his doc.
trines; AT Geneva Calvin and Knox
preached the Reformation and Rousseau
advanced his revolutionizing philosophy;
At Lausanne Edward Gibbon concluded
his world renowned labor of years "The
decline and fall of the Roman Empire :"
and Byron by his pathetic story "The
Prisoner of Chillon" has given that ven.
erable and historic pile, almost the al
Turing power of Mecca for the lover of
poetic literature who has once read the
lines.
For beauty Of mountain and lake
scenery the country has probably no
superior upon the globe. Some OF the
loftiest peaks of the Alps, with heads
bound in turbans of eternal snow, rise
away from it to pierce the clouds them.
selves and ever strike the beholder with
breathless awe who stands for the first
time surrounded by the majestic grand.
ure of the scene, its vastness rendered
doubly impressive by the solemn 81.
lence. Whilst in harmonious contrast.
spread lovely valleys and placid lakes,
elegant and inviting, far beyond the
power of human description.
In the South Western corner, a
French speaking locality, lies Lake
Ieman commonly called "The Lake of
Geneva" extending about fifty miles in
length and averaging from one to nine
miles in breadth. 1t is the greatest of
the pygmean seas of this pygmean repub
lie. With the exception of about two
thirds upon the Southern side belong.
ing to the Department of Upper Savoy
in France, the entire shore is Swiss
territory. number of streams drain
ing large tracts of snowy mountain
country find their way into this lake at
different points, and these with many
inexhaustible subterranean or hidden
springs are the means OF its supply.
The greatest of these surface feeders
and the sole outlet is the River Rhone.
1t enters a rolled current into the East
ern end and pours out a clear blue flow
at the Western end, piercing the City OF
Geneva and rolling onward into South
Eastern France, where it eventually be-
comes an important artery of naviga-
ton, floating away to the Mediterranean
the rich commerce of its banks.
Upon the sloping hills along the
northern side of this lake between
Ouchy and Chillon are dotted pictur.
esaue villages, whilst upon the Southern
= Al kol Of 70 nd
Meillerie reach high up. In clear mild
weather this great basin, depressed so
far below the surrounding country re.
fleets its close mountain walls from its
smooth surface in all their varied hues
and rich in their every detail.
On an isolated rock but a few feet
from the Northern shore, and very near
the entrance of the Rhone, connected
with the mainland by a clumsy wooden
bridge, ancient and quaint, a stranger
to the science OF modern warfare stands
the romantic castle of Chillon. Useless
as fortress against to-day's military
enginery it has been degraded TO the
condition OF q mere storehouse or sort of
arsenal. From without it seems like
some warrior Of another age who has
sought this quiet retreat in which to
slumber, out of the paths of rapid pro-
gress and hidden away from the busy
turmoil of life. History has searched in
vain for its origin lost in. the mists Of a
full century. Seven hundred years ago
men carved the stone and raised her
walls. To-day silvered with age but un-
changed in form she looks the antique
of the twelfth century upon the modern
of the nineteeth. When Geneva was
contending with the Duke of Savoy,
Francois de Downward, Frenchman BY
birth embraced the cause of the stTug
Cling little republic. In 1880 he unfor.
tunately fell into the hands of the Duke
who caused him TO be immured in the
dungeon OF this castle, but after six
years had elapsed, he was liberated by
his friends who throwing wide his prison
door cried IN him