Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1885-11-15
IN AND ABOUT GENEVA.
THE RICHEST AND MOST POPU-
LOUS TOWN IN SWITZERLAND.
It's History and MOnuments-The Duke
of Brunswick and His Wigs and Jewels
The House Where 4" Frankenstein -
was Written.

Its History and M0numents-1h Duke
of Brunswick and His Wigs and Jewel,
The House Where 81 Frankenstein'
was Written.
GENEVA, Oct 2S-People are always
passing through Geneva to go some
where else; and very few of them seem to
find out what really charming place the
town itself is for a protracted sojourn. 1t
has the commonplace merit of icing the
richest and most populous town in Switzsr-
land, and it is full Of good shops and good
hotels. so that that class Of travellers whose
chief object is to spend their money could
find here plenty of opportunities. 1t is an
excellent place, too, to improve ones mind.
Here are a fine conservatoire of music, q
good university, an extensive public library,
museums of pictures and sculpture;
museums, too, of archaeology, and OF
natural history; botanical garden with
over five thousand different plants; in short,
Chunks of wis1 ON" to be gathered in every
possible direction.
1 If you are worshipfully in Inclined, you can
go to church at every corner. The old
church Of the Madeleine dates from the
Ninth century, and is the first one in which
the reformation was preached and there
are churches of all ages from this venerable
Madeleine to that youngest Protestant
church whose corner stone was laid by our
!, own General Grant in 1878.
n Then, again, Geneva has antiquity
enough to delight fossil 1t was an i'm.
portant place In the time of the Roman
empire, and Julius Cesar writes in hi:
"Commentaries'' of stopping to throw VI
some fcrtl flcations here. In the Filth cen
fury the town embraced Christianity and
in tine Sixteenth century it was one of the
! most prominent centers of the Protes tant
t reformation.
: On yonder HILL near the town, Cal win
had that good Unitarian, Servetus burned
for his heresies, and for many years Calvin
practically ruled Geneva He not only
told the Genevese what they must believe,
but how many courses they might have for
dinner. / should think they would have
been glad when they buried him, at last.
They can show you his grave, for by his
! directions no stone was placed over him,
and no one knows just where he lies
The most exacting lover of the beautiful
would be content with the site of Geneva,
on the shore of its own fair LAKE, with the
sleepy Rhone, arched by six bridges, run
ming through the town and cutting it in
twain; and with the range of the Juras or
one side and the Saleves and Mont Blanc or
the other. Midway between two Of the
brid ges-the Point du Mont Blanc and the
Pont des Bergues-is a pretty little island
cal ed Rousseau island, and consecrated &c
the memory of this later Genevese ceieb
rity, who was perhaps the greatest contrast
to the austere reformer, Calvin, that one
can we'll imagine. Rousseau was a thor
ough Fren Gilman, though he was born al
Geneva, in 1712 and passed good deal Of
his life here On his island is his bronzt
statue by Prailer-a beautiful work of art
The self-tormring sophist-the too franz
confession OF sins he had not moral sens
enough to blush for-the man who preached
human kindness and sent his own children
to founding hospitals that he might no
have the trouble Of taking care of them
looks down with an enigmatical smile OF
, thus immortalizsd in bronze.
This statue OF Rousseau Is the only GOO
out of door mon ument in all Geneva
Most of them are ugly, and the mos
hideous Of all is the huge, costly one to th'
1 Duke of Brunswick in the Place des AL pes
], A droll old reprobate was the duke, but ht
deserved monument from the Genev ese
lA- b
4 little present-no les than S.. 600 600. H
was an extremely eccentric old gentleman
and had almost as many wigs as Queer
4 Elizabeth had dresses. AS a lady of fash
ion arranges With her maid what gown sb'
shall put on for any occasion, so this ok
duke used to discuss with his valet wha
color and style OF wig no should ASSUME
each day. He had martial looking wigs
wigs of sentiment, in which to &,
wooing; wigs of certain chic suggestive
ness; blonde wigs brown wigs, curly wig
straight wigs; and ne had room full o
bar bers blocks, on which these wigs wer
carefully dressed and set forth, and iron
this various assortment the old fellow
chose each morning. according 70 hi
mOOd. lie nau also INC ldIBeSJ COLLECTION
Of jewels in the possession of any privat
individual, and various grand residences
in one place and another, among them
costly and curious palace in Paris, haun
for sy barites, whoss orgies were held no
unworthy the maddest Of the Roman EN-
perors. wonder where his wicked OLE
soul is nowi At any rate, his big, uglJ
monument is here in Geneva, and the Gen
eveso are grateful for his money, ant
would pray no doubt, for his unquio
spirits repose, only that they are sucl
strong Protestants they dare not.
Near Geneva is the Maison Diodati, wher
Byron and Shelley lived for a time to
gether; where Mrs. Shelley wrote th
strange, gruesome tale OF "Frankenstein,
and read il, evening by evening, TO the tw
poets; where our "sad, bad, mad brother
Byron, as Swinburne wouli call him, mad
fatal love TO Mrs Sheley's half sister, VIII
had the dishonor Of being the mother q
Byron's daughter allegro
A short and most charming drive from
Geneva takes you to Ferney- Voltairo, th
last residence of Voltairs. the Frenc phil
osopher, playwright, novelist, man {
/ ktot,.tar arc whoa iunuourn =.