Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1880-10-15
Beside the Loire.


even, much less hills; the river that is
near is so crystalline and gentle, and
that which CLEANS in the distance is 80
silvery, and all the air is so pure under
the opalescent sky, that one feels why
it is that this region has always been
described, even by warriors and kings
by Francis l., Henry H., Louis XII,
and others-in poetic and ecstatic
phrases. Amid the struggles of ages,
amid wars and anxieties. here alone
they found repose, or, at any rate, as
much repose as was possible for them.
II. is q land of vines and flowers, of
bowers and groves, and wOndrous
chateaux, and soft airs and sounds, and
all things that will sweeten the slumber
and the dreams of those who come to
Join the sanity Seven.
A friend of mine, with his family,
having taken a chateau on the RICH
bank of the Loire, about two miles
above Tours, and visiting them, find
here, within sixteen hours of London,
degree of change which ono could
hardly have looked for nearer than Italy
It is the familiar jinnee, Steam, which
now spreads his magic carpet, and bearH
one actually, as he bore the Orientals
imaginatively, over land and sea: but,
COMMONPLACE as he has become, there
is weirdness about him when he takes
a man up from dismal London street,
and presently sets him down in land.
scape his fancy had located near the
tropics. The afternoon finds us sitting
out in front of the chateau, shaded
from the sun by arches of pollard trees.
On examination find tkat the oranges
aud lemons growing near by are not
tied on with thread, as the same fruits
once were at fete. champetre at Hampton
Court; they are genuinely growing,
though it must be admitted that the
trees are planted in large boxes, to be
showed under shelter in case of q sharp
frost. Beside us. as we chat, or sketch,
are glasses of sparkling wine filtered
down from the sunshine and showers
through vintages within sight, almost
as cheap as the water SO transformed in
the miracle of nature. The garden is
SO flushed and goldened and purpled
with its various fruits-its nectarines,
pears. apricots, plums, apples, grapes,
the trees being propped to sustain their
loads-that the earth fairly laughs in
colors such as in England and New
England would be tokens of autumnal
decay. Now and then we stroll along
embowered paths, and find strange
trees that seem to tell of populations
no longer here. For instance, here is
lofty kind of locust, which bears PODS
something like those which in my boy
hood seemed sweeter than any honey.
comb; but this tree has somehow
caught the habit Of proprietors who
put spikes or broken bottles on their
garden walls; it has set punches of
thorns, large, hard, and sharp as bowie.
knives, along its trunk, so disposed that
no climber could escape unless he were
sinuous as serpent. This tree must
have armed itself against monkeys.
Trees have not been so particular to
defend themselves since man has been
doing that for them, but some of them
keep up their old habits long time.
There is large fountain playing, with
wide marble basin. in the center of the
grounds; and when, by the hose, the
water tree sends its bounties to its leafy
sisters, how they glisten and freshen
Somehow nature seems to me here
more alive. more quivering with vitali-
ty, as il the grass and flowers were
the sheeny fleece Of some large, good
natured animal.
For all this paradise my friend pays
only five hundred dollars year. For
this he gets his beautifully furnished
chateau, with room enough for family
of "dTreen PERSONS, Ills "6iiiiard- ta0ie;,
wine-press, out-houses, and his acres.
Our Arcade is therefore not dear,
while we are able to enjoy it with that
consciousness which the ancient poet
lamented should be absent from the
hearts of peasants. They weuld be too
happy, he said, if they realized their
good fortune. It requires moil in Lon.
don town to make our Tours garden @
Paradise; perhaps, also, it requires the
dark background of its inevitable loss
to complete the charm.-M. D. CONWAY
in Harper's Magazine.