Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-09-29


comes a brave rooster and crows lusty
crow, and procession of bears marches
around the figure of Time. who moves his
seepter up and down as the clock sounds
the hour. There is always little crowd to
walch the clock strike.
The streets of Berne are full of be2rs-of
carved and painted bears, on the signs and
in the windows. For the bear is to Berne
what the eagle is to the United States of
America, and much more. One of the sights
of Berne is
THE BEAR GARDEN.
You go along the arcaded streets. where
the sidewalk all along is under the project
ing second stories of the great houses, so that
YOU can always be in the shade in that hot
town, and across bridge you come to the
pit where the bears are kept at the expense
OF the citizens. There are dozen brown
bears here. big and little, In round pit
paved with flat stones, and having a stone
barrier around the top, over which there are
always people leaning and watching the
antics of the animals Nurses come TO bring
the children, and fine young soldiers in red
coats come to chat with the nurses, and boys
and girls make daily visits to old Bruin, and
everybody who passes by stops to have a
look. Down in the pit the bears are climb
ing up branched poles and taking clumsy
baths and playing awkward and funny
games of tag, and around the barrier people
are pointing out 10 one another what is going
on below and making delighted comments
in half a dozen languages. This has gone
on for wears and years. Almost everything
in Berne has gone on for years ard years.
Women were doing their washing at these
old fountains when Columbus was trying to
persuade people that the Atlantic Ocean
had two sides to it. In Berne, as in Eng
lIsh Chester and German Nuremberg, you
get back into the Middle Ages. And vet
an electric street railway runs between these
old arcaded houses. And l notice that the
cars make less noise than some which run
from Pittsburg into Allegheny, and do not
tip up and down at an uneasy balance as
some cars do IN quite modern cities.
Part OF the journey between Berne and
Geneva is made over lake whose water is
blue even under a gray sky. The sky was
black the day we made the trip, and the
wind blew, and the rain fell heavily, and
yet Lake Geneva-or Lake Leman, ii one
wishes to be accurate-was lake of blue
water. There is a blue IN the water itself
which borrows no color from the sky.
There was a considerable party of
the personally conducted on board
the steamer, all from America, and
SOME FROM PITTSBURG.
suspect that the Pittsburg division we're
disposed to be little ashamed of some of
the party. some young men and maidens
who were carrying on" In fashion which
one hopes is peculiar to America. AT least
we saw nothing like it among the well-be-
haYed travellers OF other lands. There are
times when one is glad that English is not
as vet the universal language. Ii it were,
the good Germans and French on board the
steamer could have understood the Ameri-
can pleasantly which passed back and orth
between these bold young people. believe
they were discussing the relation between |
tunnels and hair pins.
Geneva is the town of music boxes. In |
the hotel which is well named the Beau
Ribage there must have been half a dozen |
immense one. They had one at Interlaken, |
which of course came from Geneva. 1t was |
twice as large as an upright piano, and had |
ali the effect of full brass band. There |
was even big bass drum in it. At Geneva |
the sweet strains OF the music box sounded |
the signal Tor table d'hote. Another |
music box or two played during dinner, |
and another escorted the retiring guests out
of the dining room into the parlor. In the |
shop windows are scores of different articles |
all inscribed with music" You can get |
musical plates, and cups and saucers and
musical vases, and hair brushes, and work
boxes, and musical clocks, and musical
writing cases. You might furnish house
at Geneva in such fashion that everything
you touched would play a tune.
The most interesting thing about Geneva
is the fact that it was once the dwelling
place of Frenchman named Jean Chauvin.
,hurch where Jean Chauvin-or John
Calvin, as we choose to call him-used to
preach. There is great iron fence around
he dark old church, and the gate was
fastened with good, stout paddock.
STRANGERS SHUT OUT.
The authorities evidently did not propose
TO have any strange people saying their
prayers in that sanctuary at any other than
the appointed times. We could have got in
by calling up the sexton and paying him a
franc, but we preferred looking on from the
outside The Roman Catholics know what
churches are for. Some Protestants have lost
he secret. There is Protestant church at
Berne, which they call the Cathedral"
That used to be the right name for it, They
nave hideous great black font and com
nuplon table where the old choir screen
;tood. and the chancel is lumber room.
The church was open on Friday evening
or an organ recital!
l sat i'll that dim church at Berne, among
he dark shadows which the faint oil lamps,
lung against the huge pillars, served chiefly
o make visible, and thought OF many
hings, as the organ thuHdered and lightened
overhead. Is it well to have the gates of
churches padlocked? Must there be an
absolute divorce between religion and
beauty? Must grace go out when truth
comes in? G. II.