The Kimball graphic. (Kimball, Brule County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1905, 1883-08-17
AFRENCH WATERING PLACE
iiaee mat Was, Already Famous MANY
Centuries Agone, When Gaul Was Yet
a Roman Province.
A Hoo,tn, rs
'ea'ine Resort to Which the Rritisher Goes
10 Get RID OF Gout, and the Ameri.
can tor Pleasure.
war anu Worship OF Buried Ages-A Garden
breakfast Party That Recalls the
RepaSts OF Lucullus.

i'ozAT' France, Special Correspondence,
~ o. what are the French sprinps
ahu watering places likei' is the cues
y l am assiduously trying to answer. 1
q learned enough Of American resorts to
~" Nlat Long Branch is a good place for
.Ao'e s"eisered citizens to go who haven't time
" ~ any farther; that Newport is pleasant for
'nose VINO own a cottage. and are acquainted,
VIM other cottages; that Saratoga is
!ussio7ely for those who wish to exhibit their
dresses and diamonds 10 the best advantage.
anu are fond of spring water and weather like
1ophet; that Richfield Is delightful for those
WHO nave cutsucous or digestion diseases, and
ief ianies who want to go where the sex is
Aiohe py a large majority; that Nantucket is
sooo 1or nobody, and that the White noun
tains, Mount Desert and the Thousand Islands
are good for everybody. But Of French facili-
tss was comparatively ignorant one short
week aso, In these few days l have learned
something OF Rozat Five years ago
Fozst was scarcely known outside Of
FRANCE as a Watering place. A
lew English, a,trac;edby its rcpute for healing
goat aud rheumatism, camo first, and thew
have seen followed by Americans, till the
village OF 500 has grown to some thousands
during this season, excelling in popularity sucb
places as Mont 1ore aud AK les Bains, and
successfully %rivaline vicly and even Ems,
which, in the qnality o; mineral springs, it
much resembles, 1t is in the Au-
ysrsne district. in the volcanic regions
Of Central France, the truucated
cones of extinct volcanoes sitting in
mighty rim. tays around tba los,,, UN,,..l.-.
is located IL q mountain defle l,4OO feet
above the sea, through which runs a babbling
brook, the Iicetaine, from the side of the Puy
de Dome, towering far above. The railroad
now runs through the town, thu cars climbing
up from II German by a simmons path.
Mountains rise on every hand, as they do
around the Profile house, New Hampshire, the
Puy de Dome being no less in height than
Mount Lafayette, and Mont Dore about equal
ing Mount Washington, This was an old
Roman town, The valley abounds in Roman
ruins, most OF them recently unearthed
and identified. Two or three years
ago fonr large baths were uncovered in the
very middle of the town, each 2Ox4O feet
square, lined with marble and built IN the solid
1ashlon Of the Romans; and near by them is a
large artificial cavern in which,is a tremendous
boiling mineral spring, yielding 0 gallons a
minute, which undoubtedly supplied The baths.
lis broad roof Is not arched but horizontal, and
by what knack the Romans fastened its mass
OF cothle-stoIes up, SO that such o
weight could be suspended through
al these centuries, IS a mys-
terry. A couple Of hundred feet above the
window whore / write rises a hill still called
Gorsoyia, its ancient Gallo name. 1t is fun to
run up there IL the morning after coffee and
rolla. On its summit and sides was the last
great city OF the Gauls to resist the Roman
arms. Nerclngetorix defended it when julius,
Cesar sal down for months before it. At last
1t yielded. lis garrison was put to the sword.
The town was burned, and, like Carthage,
swept from the face of the earth. Tho side of
the hill Is ROW covered with vineyards and
wheat fields shining in the sun. A farmer set
a dog on me thera Monday evening for picking
four straw berries. Hardly a vtstigc Of tho Old
walls remains among the blis.cred y~plcanic
rock that crown Its summit. C9sar bnilt a
town called Nimetum of in the valley
here--preaeaessor of Rozat and Clermont
An old Roman road, now and long since dis
used, runs from Eto2at up the valley towards
the Puy dc Dome. 1t is the only country road
in AL France, perhaps, that is paved; and its
pavement Was made. not of the basaltic rock or.
old scoria Of which the surrounding cliffs
principally consist, but OF powders and irreg-
ular stones of granite, gneisa and mica schist,
that must have been brought from o. dis
lance. ! followed this queer old paved
path up through the fields and woods
Wednesday, toward the great summit,
and wondered if the Romans compelled their
galley slaves 10 build this road, that they
might drag oyer it, to the peak of the Puy do
Dome, those colossal statues and mighty
monuments Which Christian centuries have
done their utmost to destroy. Som peasan:
women. walking down the road, were asked if
the Romans really built it. The leader of the
party said: II do not know; l never heard of
such a thing what was 1t made for" she
was asked, running down through here with
fences bullt across It,? What is il good for?"
'I do not know" she repeated, adding, 81
never thought about it"
HISTORIC GROUND.
On Friday / drove up to the base OF the Puy
de Dome and climbed it to visit one of the
principal shrlnes of old Rome-old Rome be-
fore the time OF Christ, There is nothing
finer of It's kind in Europe than the drive
four miles along the laughing Tiretaine to the
spot where it breaks, geyser-like. out Of the
side of the dead volcano. 1t is a vale of un-
common fertility. Wheat, barley and
oats are coming to maturity now, and
all vegetation is turning from bloom to
fruitage. The varying shades of green
are broken only by the redness of the cherry
trees. that cluster around every no use, bending
with cherries in perfection, and the wild pop
pies that form "a luxuriant fringe to every ara
Bile field, and q certain yellow lupin that is
particularly ostentatious, and forms great
gorgeous sp,ashes of gold on the landscape.
Over all are the blossoms of innumerable
chestnut trees. and the dense shade of the al
mond, whose nut is now sin the milk:"~ Ere
quently along the road the hay is being cut and
cured-a. tremendous yield, of -four tons to the
aero on an average, l think. The
moving is apparently done by meu
who stand, in tho shade Of trees %reeting
their weary 'bush-scythes. wiping their ditto
brows, and ~glancing at our carriage rs if they
would like a ride. Tho snath of this imple-
mont is largo and straight, and the handles
look like oxen's horns, The swath is turned by
bare-headed women with a crotched stick
They are all about the same age-all French
women are-aboHt sixty-hve. Near at handls
q clumsy cart with a pair Of cows hitched to
it, tho yoke being o straight stick tied across
the base of their horns. A little girl with one
garment on is lodging around the yoke of
Cows W it'll a leafy branch to keep
the flies off. (They seldom milk
cows here, and scarcely anybody in this part
of France except visitors ever eats butter
The sto piping place at the base Of the mountain
is, on the same site where the Romans them
solves. twenty centuries sgo. toek breath for
the climb OF three miles more; tor excavations
with in the last year have revealed the ancient
walls of their building. We left our vehicle
IL back, drawn by two llorses taadeni; but the
X a was SO difficult and steep that We climbed
most of the way-literally climbed, hand over
hand, as up a ladder, grasping 'the noun
tain's frowsy hair TO help US on thu ray.
An hour. Of : this -Ssas +asnoughi for q
porson inclined to corpu!ence, and the slender
=. ~ :, ~ Of nur M .fp m untirinr rha NM,