The daily gazette., 1881-08-20
SECOND EDITION
LETTER FROM LONDON
Correspondence of the GAZETTE.

correspondence OF Lno dAZETTE.
LONDON, August 8, 1881.
We leave Switzerland Just as the
invasion from our Fatherland, Eng
land, begins. In this wonderful
country nature exhibits her startling
creative powers by contrasts. 1t con-
tains the highest mountains, the rich
est valleys, the most audacious water-
falls, the deepest and most serene
lakes, and all the natural phenomena
calculated to excite wonder and admi.
ration.
We went up to Basle and thence to
Friborgh to see the finest organ in
Europe. It is in the old church ut.
Nicholas, and has sixty.seven stops
and eighteen hundred pipes. Thence
on to Strausburg again to see what has
so long been claimed as the highest
tower in the world. But it is not SO
high as the taperlng spires of Cologne
cathedral, which are five hundred feet
high, whereas the tower of st. Nicho-
las is only four hundred and sixty
eight feet from the floor. But st.
Nicholas contains the famous astro-
nomical clock, the description of which
hy Peter Farley SO excited our infan-
tile imagination that we, long ago, re-
solved to see it. Though the clock is
three hundred years old it is still rum
ming in excellent order, and we were
L. al n 10 ot yuhnn fhn
cock crows and the puppets seem to
assume life and motion and go through
all their wonderful performances.
The interesting exhibition always calls
together crowd at the noon hour
villagers, citizens and strangers.
Then on to Brussels and the field of
Waterloo, and to Antwerp, where we
stopped over Sunday and saw a fine
selection of Dutch pictures. And
thence across the channel once more
to London, where, for the first time in
q year, we heard the sounds of our
| own language around about us and
saw streets Of bouses built of brick
like the red-hot looking streets of our
own cities.
To hear our familiar tongue spoken,
i W bt6 dil dIOuuu houcCo III Ouh
own republican style, with broad
streets and wide foot pavements, and
stores filed full of home. like fabrics
and markets abounding in the plenti-
tude of meats, fruits and vegetables
gave us comfortable feeling after the
long journey of ten thousand miles
through strange lands and amongst
peoples 30 different from ourselves
that we were often regarded as curl.
osities, more unfamiliar than the ma
tives of Turkey, Tripoli or China.
All through the continent the towns
and cities are built of stone, and the
houses covered either with stones, tiles
or plaster. Some of the large cities
are almost wholly constructed of a
white or cream colored stone, so soft
as to admit of any amount Of orna-
mentation, and while new are exceed
ingly pure and beautiful. Most of the
European cities, however, are old, es'
pecially those of France and Italy, and
the delicate tracery of their carved
stones is moss-grown and crumbled to
such degree that its beauty Is lost,
and like torn, stained and rumpled gar
ments of finest fabric, Is more repul
sive than attractive. This is particu
larly the case in cold and damp locali
ties, as the soft marble or limestone
absorbs moisture, and frost crumblei
1t SO that it rapidly wears away. Ever
the hard granite is more or less affect.
ed by time and the atmosphere. II
In Italy where granite is much usee
for columns, the carving becomes
greatly marred after a Thousand years
or SO Of exposure, though the climate
is dry and warm. Nothing is more
durable than we'll burned brick, such
as were used in tho wall of Rome and
other Italian cities, nearly two thou.
sand years ago.
Some of the finest buildings in Londor
are built of kind Of limestone, soft ant
easily ornam mented. Westminster Abbey
the Parliament Houses, are amongst tht
most elaborate of this class, and arr
constantly crumbling and as CONSTANT!
undergoing repairs.
We were in time to attend solemn
ceremony at the grand burial place a
Westminster, where the kidgs and roya
family are laid away after
. "Life's fitful fever"
and where SO many ambitious English
men, who are not Of the blood of kings
desire to lie when dead, even at cost o
half their lives.
. Dean Stanley was buried on the 26tl
: of July, and the Queen (by proxy th
Prince of Wales in person, and lonI
t line of grand titles with Gladstone a
I their head, figured as chief mourners
We pitied the good old man who, Il
/ spite of all the grand show of high lif'
! grief, had really less of true sorrow thai
, follow many beggar to his unmarked
grave.
The Prince of Wales is pleasant
looking practical sort of man, wht
dresses not better than most shop.ke ep
8 ers. He hurried along from the funera
3 to attend the races, and busy Gladston,
left before the ceremonies were ended
You may fancy royalty and the aristo
!, cracy of England to be class OF being
! about half way between common hu
!, manity and the Gods. Disabuse you
i minds of such faliacies, for they ar
: surely formed of the same common ella.
J, and subject to like lnfirmities as our
selves. The fact Is, you would conside
them as an ordinary lot at first sight
whatever you might think after furthe
acquaintance. God sows the handsom
and gifted men and the beautiful men a
random, paying no heed to the claims Q
= acciaents of birth or fortune. FroI
!. what we have seen, our impressions al
q that the higher classes are rathe
u 1skimped" in their share of nature