The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1891-08-21

Distance, in Europe, is measured,
not by miles or blocks, but by time.
Ask a man on the street how far it is
to a certain church or store or hotel
and he will answer you "three min
utes", or Fifteen minutes", or "half
an hour, as the case may be. And
so all can say concerning the dis
lance from Geneva to Berne, the cap
ftal of the Swiss Republic is that it is
five hours by rail. For two or three
hours after leaving Geneva the road
follows the shore of the beautiful lake,
disclosing the most enchanting seem
cry. To the right is the blue, blue
water, and beyond it the lofty, snow
mountains, with the silver thread of a
waterfall streaming down here and
there through the purple shadows.
To the left, climbing high up the steep
bill-sides are vineyards and vine
yards,-miles of them. Ut may be
remarked parenthetically, as being
of interest possibly to Kansas grape
growers, that only the root of the vine
is allowed to live from year to year i'm
these vineyards. The vine is evident
ly all cut away at the end of the sea-
son, so that the new crop of grapes
must come from the new vine. Hence
there are no great trellises but only a
short stick up which the vine clam
beers, each by itself) At frequent in
tervals there are pretty little villages,
and here and there, I'm some sheltered
nook, a picturesque shalet appears,
looking very coy and cool and home
like. The road leaves the lake at
last and plunges i'm among the noun
tains and across the lovely valleys
for an hour or two passing innumer-
able villages but no cities of note uu-
til it reaches Berne.
-
Along in the latter part of the
twelfth century bold hunter by the
name of Berthold Won Something-or-
Other killed a bear in a pleasant lit
tie valley Oil the river Aar. and as it
was considered something of a feat to
kill a bear in those days, it was
thought to be the proper thing to
commemorate it by founding a city
there and naming it after the bear,
strangely enough, instead of after the
hunter. Hence the city of Berne. It'll
Is really a good deal of a city-for
Switzerland. Compsetly built and
containing a population of perhaps
$1,000. There is little in it of histori- |
cal interest, but 1t has a good many |
curious features. In the first place, |
as might be expected, the armorial
badge of the town is the bear, and so
you see bears everywhere. There are
bears on all the fountains, on all the
public buildings, on all the signs, on
all the flags. on all the hotel menus,
bears rampant, couchant, dormant,
and in every other position a bear ev-
er got or ever could get into. In all
the shops you are begged TO buy bears
of wood, bears of bone, bears of ivory,
bears of silver and gold and precious
stones. And near the middle of the
town there is the historic bear pit,
where live bears have been kept from
the year of the founding of
the city. And of all the bears i'm
Berne, these 1--we ones are the very
worst, poor, degraded, shabby, know
ing nothing but to sit on their
launches and beg bread after the
most humble and plebeian fashion.
The fountains and monuments of
Berne are another of its curiosities.
Curious from the fact that instead of
being beautiful or imposing they are
only ludicrous. Fancy the Goddess
of Liberty with red stockings ard a
blue robe and yellow head-dress.
That is the Bernese idea of her. And I