The record-union., 1897-09-26

since 1852, I think we can risk it for a
| the cathedral was begun, and as the
building occupied about three centuries.
/ the older parts had to be restored
before the newer parts were begun It
| is not the grandeur of these buildings
/ that impresses an American, for we
| have much grander ones at home; it
| is their age. The birth of this square
was in different world from the world
we know. The people who laid it out
and lived near it never heard of Napo-
/ leon or Washington; not even of Chris
topher Columbus, nor of Shakespeare,
Scott, Thackeray or William Dean
Howells; they knew nothing of free sill
yer or the new tariff. What can they
have read or talked about? But there
are compensations-the escaped the
Queens Jubilee,
Directly across the Grand Place from
the cathedral is the Hotel de Vile, or
City Hall, building dating from 1861.
1t has been considerably modernfzed,
but is still worthy of being framed in
the same picture with the cathedral.
1t is an immense City Hall for a town
Of only 100000 inhabitants, being near
ly 800 fet long and $50 feet high. The
apparent altitude is greatly lessened,
however, by the great hight of the ca
, thedral spire, 402 feet high The two
allegorical figures on the front, repre-
senting Wisdom and Justice, refer, I
suppose, not to be what is found within
but what ought to be.
These two buildings, the cathedral
| and the City Hall, form two sides of
! the square. But they, although the
largest, are only beginning. On one
side of the corners nearest the cathedral
! is an old house with the steep roof
going up in steps, just as we see them
in Dutch pictures-a building curious
enough to attract attention for its own
sake anywhere outside the Netherlands
but more likely to receive particular
notice after you read the Inscription on
the marble plate set in the wall an
nouncing that in this house David Te-
nlers was born. On the opposite side
is another house not likely to be over
looked, the plate upon it says that it
was the birthplace of A. Van Dyck. On
the north side is the Guild Hall of the
Archers, dating from 1913; and near by
IS the Hall of the Coopers, built in
1879 On the southeast corner is the
House of the Tailors, rebuilt in 1914
after the sacking of the city by the
Spaniards. And across the way is the
Hall of the Carpenters, built in 1916.
A LOVE STORY IN IRON.
A square that was the birthplace of
Teniers and Van Dyck with a cathedral
o0O years old, and no building in it as
young as the oldest house in New York.
must be it's own excuse for my lettering
in it SO long. There is one more corner
IN 1T for me to call attention to before
we leave it. That is the corner in which
IS the Teniers house Almost in front
of that house. and dozen feet out
from the sidewalk, is the love story of
Qulnten MatsyS, worked out in fanciful
shapes OF iron. Under the beautifully
wrought iron canopy is a deep well that
was a favorite watering place in Ant
Werp When Matsys was a boy: but it
had no canopy then. Matsys became a
blacksmith, and in due course he fell in
love with the daughter of a distinguish
| ed artist. His passion was recipro-
Gated, but the stern parent would not
| hear OF his daughter marrying a black
smith So Matsys gave up the forge and
took to studying art, and soon became
distinguished painter himself and of
course married the girl; and years af-
terWard, so many years that the romance
was all forgotten, he made the hand
some canopy for the old WELL to show
that he was still as good at blacksmith
ing as he was at painting. He is buried
close beside the cathedral tower; and
his tombstone, which has been removed
to the museum, says in curious old Lat
in that Love converted an ironsmith
| into an ADDelles."
| Three minutes walk from the grand
place is the Plantin- Moretus printing
office, that for several centuries was the
greatest printing office in the world
Even now, though its old wooden presses
have long stood idle, l doubt whether
there is as luxurious a printing estab-
| lishment anywhere. The business was
carried on in this same building from
| 100 to 1875. and Christopher Plantin
and his son-in-law Moretus and their
descendants lived under the same roof
that sheltered their presses. Well they
might, in such place, studded with it's
ninety family portraits, fourteen of
them by Rubens and two by Van Dyck;
with it's working rooms hung with F'lem-
sh tapestry; and with. its solid old
chairs of oak and it's tables of tortoise
shell. The building, with it's contents,
was bought by the City of Antwerp in
| 1870, and stands just as it has been for
centuries, being known now by the in
appropriate name of the "Plantin- More
| tuS Meseum."
| That nearly exhausts the sights of
Antwerp, but not quite. The museum
| is still left, full of excellent pictures. So
| is the Steen. one of the few remaining
relics of what they consider here the
really old town, dating from the ninth
or tenth century Both of these places
are too good to be dismissed with the
| few words that l could give them here
Like the cathedral and the printing of
| fee I must keep them in reserve. There
are other curious churches, and many
pleasant drives in city and suburb.
| designed to give merely a glance at
| the place and its shows, and then tell
| the history of the old town in few
| lines-for 1t has very unusual history
/ But there is a stumbling block in the
way. The history of Antwerp I dug out
! Of very bad French one night at the
/ theater, and the two are somehow as
| sociated in my mind. I cannot get on
to the history without pausing a mo-
ment at the theaters-at all events at
| the Palais Indien.
| AN ANTWERP HIGH-CLASS THEA
TER.
! The Englishman who was afraid the
/ Cathedral spire might fall on him sug-