The Press. (Stafford Springs, Conn.) 1883-1935, 1900-02-15

ridden the last Is miles through charming
scenery over smooth roads. The hearty
welcome we receive at the Hotel de T.
Ecu makes US soon forget the discom-
forts Of the day. The landlady, bright,
CHEEKY body, speaks English, which is
music to our ears, as this is the first time
we have heard 1t since leaving Geneva.
She Is a native of the county of Kent,
England, and Is as pleased as we are to
hear English speak. The fare and beds
are excellent, and the charges so mod
crate as to make us wonder how her no.
tel keeping can be profitable. She Is evi.
IDENTIFY the embodiment of English and
French thrift.
Oct. 18th, through rolling, we'll titled
country, we ride A miles to Sermizelles,
a little village where we are comfortably
lodged at cafe, there being no regular
hotel In the place. The next days run is
through territory of the same general
character, AZ miles to Joigny, where we
strike the river Yonne, continent of the
Seine, just above Paris. We begin to re-
alize that we are nearing our journeys
end, and half imagine we hear the muf-
fed roar of that great world-city, with
its restless, reckless, pleasure-loving mil
lions.
From Joigny to Moret we ride fifty
miles in the valley Of the Yonne. The
valley broadens as we descend, and grows
more fertile. Here the sugar beet -four
ishes, and the harvest is at its height. In
the fields along the highway, men and
women, boys and girls, dogs and donkeys.
are everywhere busy gathering In the
great roots. In some fields the tops are
cut from the beets before pulling, the
roots standing up 10 to IS inches above
ground, and giving the field, from a dis
lance, the appearance of vineyard whose
vine stubs have been shorn of their
branches. In other fields the beets are
pulled and thrown In piles, at which the
top cutters sit at their work. The pulling
Is done with two pronged hook, and re-
quires not little strength and skill. The
roots are big-beyond any we have ever
seen In America, averaging Is to 20 inch
es In length and to inches in diameter,
big billets of wood they look like in
piles seen from distance.
From Dion to Paris they seem to be
the chief crop. We meet or pass great
loads of them on the road, and see great
piles Of them at every railway station,
thousands of bushels in a pile, awaiting
and freight cars on all the
railways are loaded with them.
In Holland, Germany, Belgium and
France, beet culture seems to be domi-
nant interest, and is carried on scientific
In contrast with cane culture
in the West Indies, our own southern
states, and in the tropics generally. It
is said by those who ought to know that
the sugar beet growers of Europe have
little to fear from cane growing as long as
1t is carried on SO unscientifically as it
now is. AS soon as possible after the
harvest the shepherd leads his focks over
the beet fields until the sweet succulent
tops are all devoured,- mot leaf left to
tell Of the summers lusty growth. The
great fat mothers are now ready for
market.
In these old countries, where dense
and other strenuous conditions
make the struggle for bread severe, moth
ing is wasted. Fuel and food are hus-
banded with the greatest care. Rigid
economy marks every step of production
and consumption. Thrift Is universal
When these old world peoples visit our
no wonder that they are sur
prised and panied to see every where
such wanton waste-our forest acres
covered with tangle Of decay; hotel ia
bles without any miracle) relieved of
more baskets of fragments than would, if
served, feed bountifully double
the number of their patrons, and piled
high around coal mines great hills of
slack such as in France, Switzerland,
Italy and Germany, in the form of brick
We have many lessons In economy yet to
learn from our old-world friends. To be
a great world-power, as we already boast
fully call ourselves, we must hasten to
correct our habits of wanton waste of ma
lures bounty.
At Montereau, near the juncture of the
Yonne with the Seine, we turn to the left
and lodge at the little town of Moret,
surrounded by a wall, as we're
all French towns of Importance In medi-
eval times. By visit to these old towns
one learns history more impressively than
from books. The town site was general
ly high, for better defense. (Burg, bury,
borough, boro, ending so many names Of
English and American towns, are varying
forms of the German word berg, hilD.
The elevated town site, the encircling
wall, massive towers and gates, narrow
streets, blank house walls toward the
street, or, II there be windows, the OPEN
ings are high above the heads of pedestri-
ans; a single heavy door or gate, swing
ing In, the sole ingress to each house,
each house a fortress,-all these bear in.
disputable evidence of wild disorder In
ages past. The tillers of the soil living
in villages Generally unwalled, being too
poor to tempt assault from marauders),
instead of in isolated houses scattered
over the country, bear silent but potent
witness to the same social conditions.
We enter the main street of Moret by
it's southern gate, a picturesque old
structure, and lodge in a hotel adjoining
the gate. Fifty miles we have ridden to-
day. The horse that could keep pace
with us from day to day would be counted
a good roadster, and would vely likely
soon break down; but we ride our forty
or fifty miles day with ease and COM
fort, and with undated enjoyment of