The Bennington banner. [volume] (Bennington, Vt.) 1858-1894, 1890-10-16

Brussels the country was very fiat, but
we found the city quite hilly, almost as
bad as Albany.
The new Palace of Justice, said to be
one of the largest and finest buildings in
the world, and costing ten millions of
dollars, is built on the hill near the
palaces of the King and Crown Prince:
magnificent building of granite; inf
nitely finer in architecture than the cap
itOl at Albany. A broad, straight
street leads from it about two
miles to a great church lately
built. Near it is the great picture
gallery, very large collection of paint
ing of the Dutch and Flemish schools
mostly. The palaces are quite large, but
not especially handsome. The Cathedral
is great building part way up the hill,
the two great towers making it very
conspicuous object, but the interior is
very plain. The Hotel de Vile or City
Hall, down on the plain is a quaint old
building, Of the fifteenth century, very
large, and occupying one side of large
square. Opposite is the building where
the infamous Duke of Alva sat and
watched the execution of those patriots,
Counts Egmont and Hoorn.
Like all European cities the lack of
shade trees along the streets is painfully
noticeable, especially when the sun
shines. Some of the streets are broad
and straight; one boulevard three hun
dred feet wide, having two roadways
with grass between, and many rows of
trees planted ten feet apart was partic-
ularly handsome, but most are very
narrow and crooked. A very high mon
ument near the brow of the hill, was
r.I t,, Af cnla
Peace Congress.
Near the palaces is large and beauti-
full park full of splendid trees, mostly
smooth sand so the people can walk
where they choose: great fountain
exactly resembles an immense plume of
feathers. At one side of the city is the
Wierz gallery of pictures, now the prop
erty Of the city. Wierz was an artist
said by many to be crazy on account OF
the queer pictures he painted; some OF
them are very large, thirty by forty feet
His enemies said he could paint such
great coarse pictures, but small fine ones
he could not do, so to prove them false he
painted several extremely small and deli
cate ones. Some of the pictures are on
frightful subjects, one, mother, crazed,
has killed and cut up her infant child;
one leg sticking out of the kettle on the
fire: in another man supposed to have
died of cholera comes to life and finds him.
self. as he raises the coffin lid enough to
peer out, in the vault with other coffins
piled on his. Some of the pictures are
viewed through small holes, and are very
ingeniously arranged. 1t is an extremely
interesting place; to us even his most
horrible paintings had a moral If they
were studied carefully; while in some of
the great pictures his conceptions are
sublime: notably the crucifed Christ
from whose presence as He hangs on the
cross, the devil and his angels flee, pur-
sued by Michael and the angelic host:
also the face of the Christ in the scene
where a man asks Him to make his
brother TO divide the inheritance
with him; the expression on it that l
shall never forget.
If Wierz had lived earlier, he would
have ranked with the old masters; but
the nineteenth century did notappreciate
him while he lived. He refused to sell a
single picture, holding that true
painter should be above all money con-
siderations, and supporting himself by
painting portraits, he bequeathed all his
pictures to the city.
Beyond this gallery short distance is
the Para Leopold, which has fine
geological collection and an aquarium.
The market places of all the cities were
full of women selling vegetables and
fruits; a motley crowd: in Brussels
many dogs and donkeys drawing carts
were scattered through the throng. Not
far from the city is the field, where
the Battle of Waterloo was fought;
the site is marked by an immense
lion, set on top of a great mound.
From Brussels to Liege the country is
fiat, but from there to AK Ia Chapelle
very hilly; twenty-six tunnels were
passed, the landing very much like that
East of the Hoosac Tunnel: there are
numerous towns full of iron mills, for
this is the great manufacturing district Of
Belgium; and here iron is worked so
cheaply by underpaid labor, that free
trade England is flooded with it, can
not begin to compete with them. When
we passed nearly every mill was idle;
the great strike which began in the
winter, and necessitated calling out
troops to keep the strikers in any kind
of order, was not yet over.
| AK In Chapelle is a famous German
watering place, the warm sulphur springs
were known TO the Romans, who built
the town, Charlemagne lived here, built
part of the Cathedral, died and was
buried in it: his tomb is still there: the
town is very prettily situated on two
hillsides and in the valley between.
From there TO Cologne is a great plain,
with range Of low hills at ono side;
very fertile, cultivated TO the last inch
and the crops were splendid. The
cultivators OF the soil, were in the pro-
portion Of two men TO three women; we
saw more women at work in the fields in
Germany, than anywhere else, though
Italy and France were not far behind.
This is the result Of the immense armies
kept up, millions Of men supported in
idleness, who ought TO be at work on the
farms and in the workshops. Why even
little Holland with only four millions of
people, has an army Of over 100000 men,
at home and in the colonies: think of the
people within a radius of twenty miles
around New York City, having TO keep
up such an army. Every where abroad,
except in Switzerland, soldiers are
numerous in the streets; far more Orna-
mental than useful.
/ had many talks with the people of
the different countries, and all were
amazed when told them we could have
only $1,000 soldiers by law, and seldom
had over 10000. They would sigh, and
say they wished II was so with them;
4 and ali comnlainpd bitterlv of tho beavv