Press and daily Dakotaian. (Yankton, Dakota Territory [S.D.]) 1880-1889, 1886-11-08

4 q. u SliG Wy Nc
| takers to carry the mourners have white
| sides, ard the doors are ornamented with
| white skulls and crossbones.
Belgium is noted for the excellence of its
| agriculture, and both it and Holland are cse
vast park and garden. OF all Belgium only
one-eighth is not cultivated, and ib.is said
there is no country in the world where farm
ing is so proftably carried on. Riding
through the country you see on every side Of
you flat fields loaded with the harvest and
only separated from one another by the diff
ferent colors of the crops contained in them.
! There are no fences, and the roadways are rs
hard as asphalt and as smooth as boards.
They are usually lined with trees, great for
est trees, straight and tall, and as old as the
century. Here and there a stream cuts
through the vast patchwork plain of growing
crops and grass, and the banks of them are
also shaded by trees. You see few cattle in
the fields, and those which are allowed to
Craze are kept by herdsmen. The farm
houses and barns are low-structured build
ilgs, punched together and rooted with red
tiles or gray thatch. The people working in
the fields, men and women, are cheaply
dressed, and the men wear caps and blue
cotton, blouse-like shirts over their trousers.
1t was Sunday when | rode into Belgium
from Paris. The ordinary week day occupa-
tons went on as usual. Men and women
We're digging potatoes in the fields and load
ing hay. Here was a gang repairing the
roadway and at 3p. m. we passed a rolling
mill, and I saw an army of %puddlers,
naked TO the waist, labelling out the red-hot
iron. Along the streams people were bath
ing, and | saw score after score of boys, clad
in the attire Of Adam before the fall, prepar-
ing to take q Sunday swim. The Sabbath
does not count Tor much either here or in
France, and Sunday is In Paris the great
| holiday of the week. It is then that the
crowd on the boulevards is the thickest and
| gayest; it is o Sunday that the races are
held in the suburbs, and it is then that the
maddest and gayest of Partisan pleasures go
their merry immoral round. Sunday in
England's cities is fully as slow as it is in
those Of America. On the continent it is the
pleasure day of all the week.
Belgium is one of the greatest manufactur-
ing countries in Europe. 1t makes excellent
iron and steel, and it is crowding the Irish
linen factors very closely. 1t is growing, too,
In industrial enterprise, and, next to Holland,
1t has the largest ratio of industry per In
habitant of any nation of Europe. Between
1870 and 1880 it increased S2T5, 900, 600 in its
industrial and commercial interests, and its
increase during this time was fully 20 per
cent, 1t is competing with England at all
points IN cotton and iron, and it has ths
great advantage of lower rates of labor and
longer hours. Wages in England are very
low, ptlt those OF Belgium are only about half
os much, and the day is twelve hours long,
lhese belglans are much like the French in
their tastes. They live after the same
fashion, and love to sit outside Of the cafes
and drink their sociable glass with their
friends. In Antwerp and Brussels, which
are the two largest cities of the country, you
see many sights which remind you Of Paris,
Brussels, the capital of the country, brides
herself on being like Paris, and she has her
Palace du Roi, which corresponds to the old
palace of the Tuileries, her Bots de la Cam
bre corresponding to the Bots de Boulogne,
and she is cleaning up and widening her
streets IN the same way Paris has been doing
since the days of Louis Napoleon. The Oh
Eleinish nation is passing away and q Freach
Belgian people is taking its place. The French
language is used everywhere in Belgium, the
French monetary system of francs and
centimes was long ago adopted, and tho airy
manners and customs of Paris are now tLe
beau ideal Of the descendants of the sturdy,
fierce old Flemish of the past.
Antwerp has about 100000 people and
Brussels Is about twice as largo. Both cities
are growing, and antwerp is one of the great
commercial seaports of Europe. In the Six,
teenta century Antwerp had 125,0o0 popula-
ton, and its hsrAors often contained 1,eN
vessels at one time during that period. II
was during the time of Charles v the most
prosperous and reality city of Europe, aud
surpassed even Venice. II had great com.
l mercial fairs. and among its business men