The San Francisco call., 1896-10-18
Picturesque View
Of an ancient
City
Brussels as Seen BY
the Quick Eye Of
a California
Artist


der the shadow of the ancient and splen-
did Hotel de Vile, looking at the dark
and ornate facade of the House of the
King" it is not difficult to reconstruct for
oneself the scenes from past, presenting
as vivid contrast of magniticence and
cruel tragedy as can be found in the his
tory of any country. 1t is eminently a
peaceful scene at present, however.
High above the city on the summit of a
hill that is cut into and covered by close
little streets that scramble up the preci-
pitous sides like the streets of Chinatown
in San Francisco Is the Royal Palace, the
principal hotels, the little green park that
was once the pleasure-ground of the
Dukes of Bra bant, the museums, the most
elegant shops and the residences of the
Belgian aristocracy. Here, 100, the
foreigners congregate - the well-to-do
Englishman; the astute American, not
rich enough to cut wide swath in New
York or London; the impoverished aristo-
crat, too proud TO economize at home.
Here in the gay little capital, that is half
Spanish, half Flemish, wholly French,
life is simple and pleasure smiles and
every one may enjoy much and spend
little.
The palace of the Doges in Venice, all
that is sumptuous and rich III Italian
decoration, comes back into the recol-
Iectio- as we wander through the silent
rooms of the Hotel de Vile behind
whispering guide and row of Baeueker-
lied tourists.
If you enter by the lions staircase you
come at once into the banqueting hall,
carved In oak, with beautiful Gothic de-
signs, and tapestry, green as n forest, set
into the spaces of the walls. 1t is possible
that you also may experience an incident
not down in Baedeker. A woman in a
very gorgeous bonnet, with heavy beaded
cape and a tailor-msde skirt, a guide
book under her arm, enters from the oppo-
site door.
Unconsciously the contrast between this
modern woman and the women of tie
older regime presents Itself. Take, for
example, Margaret of Parma. There are
portraits of her everywhere, this queeDly
half-sister of Philip of Spain, who was
more weak than wicked, more sinned
against than SHINING. She is woven in
tapestry and carved in wood; her face,
that has the characteristic long upper lip
and the protruding lower one, can be dis
covered in the great corporation pictures,
painted to commemorate some especially
important occasion, and in the museums
there are &ny mum Der of portraits. She
must have presented noble appearance
in her black velvet slashed with white
satin. hung with gold chains and set with
jewels. She carried herself with a ma jesty
p ira
BILE that she could have surrendered all
her good intentions to the people she
reigned over-that she can ever have vol
unfairly submitted to being the tool of
her pitiless brother, the instrument in the
hands of the Inquisition.
The imposing Gothic cathedral is ap-
preached by the little black streets that
make it seem larger-more grandiose by
contrast. What patience, what richness
of detail did these old masters developl
Every portion of the church was as
patiently studied out and decorated and
covered with designs as laeemaker picks
and stitches at the cobweb daintiness
under her fingers. And there is some
thing like the same elegance and fneness
of detail in the stone lacework with which
the Flemish architect loved to cover the
severity of his design.
The confessional-boxes are miracles of
wood-carving. Two angels, mild and
grave, guard each little door, and above
it garlands and ribbons and little winged
heads are cut in the dark rich wood. The
windows are fine, like mosaics of Jewels,
as all stained glass must be; even the
modern ones are not as bad as they might
be- The monuments of Counts Egmont
and Hoom stands before the old Egmont
palace, now in the possession of the Due
d'Arenberg. d A little further away, be-
hind the gloomy front of the prison for
female convicts, is the restored palace of
the Count Kuylenburg, where the Belgian
nobles met and conspired to begin the
struggle against the supremacy sof Spain.
1t was here that they signed the petition
begging Margaret of Parma to abolish the
lnqulsition. What scene it must have
been before the palace of the Princess.
Margaret, surrounded by her courtiers in
sIl their southern richness OF apparel,
the four hundred knights of the aristoc.
racy of BEabant, silent, fixed, stern and
resolute, waiting to have their petition
granted or to die in enforcing 1t.
Inc Duc OF AVA had TO be sum moned to
queIl those "beegars," and even his inso-
lent and pitiless cruelty was not sufficient.
Though be led twenty-five of them into
the square and executed them on a scat
folding erected so high that the people
could not rescue their heroes, though he
set himself and his court IN their palace
and afterward burned it to the ground,
still, a few years later. the Netherlands
were separated from Spain. The Spaniards
left their traces upon the blonde Flemish
race, and 1t is curious even now in the
faces of the people, flower vendors and
women IN the little shops, to see some
times under the straight, light hair a pair
of dark, soft Spanish eyes.
All Americans in Brussels go at once to
the Wlertz Museum to see the horrors
which that half-insane artist loved to por-
tray. They shiver delightfully."- before the
painted terrors of decapitated head glue
their eyes to hole in the wall in which
they may perceive subterranean vault in
which human being, CHASTITY as death, is
struggling TO escape from coffin. Or
nude figure rewards them for the humiIi-
ating necessity of bending down to a little
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