The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-05-29
FAMOUS MOUNTAINS.
Ownership of Mount Blanc May Upset!
Exposition.


Paris, May 2O--French exposition author
lilies have refused room for a genuine
Swiss village" on the ground that the en-
vironment chosen suggests a repetition oe
the "old Swiss lie" that Europe's highest
mountain, the Mont Blanc, belongs to-
Switzerland.
The Swiss, of course, object to such dis
elimination for the sake of French patri-
otto sentiment, and politicians. diplomats
and professors have taken up the ques-
ton, Who owns Mont Blanc?
All the Swiss handbooks reckon and have
always reckoned, Mont Blanc a Swiss pos
session. The Italian handbooks are as full
ly determined that the Mont Blanc be-
Italian. The French republic claims Mont
Blanc by the right of the conqueror.
AS a matter of fact, all three countries
are part owners of this great pile Switzer-
land still retains its most northern ranges.
and the French-Italian boundary line runs
across the summit of the glaciers. JAMS
sens observatory stands almost In the CEN
ter of the Mer de Glace Qce Sea-. but
keeps strictly within French territory. Az
least, the Frenchmen say so, and If patr;,
otto Italians doubt it, they are liberty to
climb the 1871 feet and see for Them
selves.
The historian Corcelle meanwhile pub
fishes an interesting. review of the situa-
ton. He starts by saying that one-halt
OF Mont Blanc belongs undoubtedly to
IIaly, or, more precisely speaking, to Pied
mont. The oldest map of Mont Blanc.
he continues, states that the summit is an
Italian possession. On that map, made by
a French government engineer, Long,
champs and printed in Paris in 1892 the
summit was marked to the right Of ths
French frontier. but as Longchamps ar
the same time, adorned his map with a
highway leading from Courmayeur, Italy,
over the Col du Grant. the Glacier du Ia
cul and The Med de Glace into the Arve
valley, the correctness of his whole I'M
dertaking appears doubtful.
In 1895, says Corcelle the French goV-
eminent of the Mont Blanc department.
made an effort to have the summit de-.
clared a French possession, but Napoleon
refused to send an expedition to the top.
In his opinion the glaciers were not worth
the money such an undertaking would re-
quire. Thus the summit remained without
territorial lord until 1860, when Savoia
was annexed by France But the French
and Italian diplomats of that time seemed
to think as Napoleon had thought before
them. They marked the frontier by the
usual zigZag line, but without going to the
trouble of surveying the territory sur
Vey was attempted in the preliminaries to
the Treaty of Turin, but the matter ended
where it had started, as the two countries
could not agree upon appropriating the re-
CURED sum of money. In the end that old
zigzag line was retained, with certain mod
ifcations.
The territorial aspects were thereby reg
ulated after a fashion, but the people liv-
ing on the mountain side refuse to accept
this lax division. According to an old, I'M
written law the summit of a mountain be-
longs TO the community which furnishes
the path leading to it. Mont Blanc was
first assembled in 1886 by Jacques Balonar.
native of Chamonix, which latter place
belonged already to France.
Some years later the people of Courmay-
eur, an Italian village, near the foot of
the great mountain, sent up an expedition
to the top and made a rude road leading up
TO H. The communes ST. Gervais and Les
Houches, both of them French, followed
suit in the course of time, and now all OF
them insist that the mountain top be-
longs to them and that anybody ascending
it ought to pay them toll. Courmayeur, it
Is understood, win try its luck in civil
suit, by which the peasants mean to COM
pei the sojourners in the observatory 10
pay them communal taxes. The taxes do
not amount to much, but il will be inter-
esting TO watch the case. Courmayeur con-
tends that the boundary line, stipulated in
1861, ought to be revised, for" say the viii
lage authorities, "our sacred rights OF
possession were arbitrarily set aside by
the treaty" If the case is tried by jury
and the lawyer for CourmayenC makes
motion to send the twelve good men and
true" on the top of Mont Blanc to decide
the case ''by its merits,' some tall hust"
ling will have to be done Carl Meyers.
An Affair of Honor.-Farmer Swetti
You say you belong to the army of the
unemployed? Well, now, my friend, guess
l kin give you something of a job to-
day.
Toyle Knott: What An have me be
a deserter from de army? Ye don't know
military ethics, do ye?-Puck.