St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1900-09-12

cool nothern breeze, when Luchor
was sun-smitteu and sutfocatlng
and this exceptionally hot summer il
was good to have your tent pltchec
where the mercury was among the
seventies when the world in genera
was baking, the thermometer at
nearly par. For rheumatism these
waters and baths are especially re-
nowned, and | have seen several ar
rive limping on canes who walked
when they left like professional
pedestrians.
Faux BONES, FIVE miles to the east,
is more open than Faux Chaudes
and higher, but much hotter, and
he weak-lunged thrive better there
than here. 1t is a horse-shoe-shaped
village with little park in the cen
ter and it boasts of a casino with
daily music, designations unknown
here, and it has hotel and private &C.
comodations for six times the num-
Der of summer guests which could
find shelter in Faux Chaudes. Posi-
bly, this little place could feed and
shelter 1900 visitors, but at no time
this year has there been 400 guests.
The mountains and the river so
thoroughly monopolize this wild
valley that only by making sky
scrapers out of the present two-story
hotels, or by making building lots
over the river. bed, or by hanging
new houses on the mountain sides
like bird cages on a wall, can the
entertaining capacity of this place
ever be increased. Five miles to the
south of US navigation practically
ends, the national highway giving
place to rough mule paths, the only
communication with Spain whose
frontier line is within sight of our
windows. The great railway line
from Paris to Madrid skirts the
western border of the Pyrenees hug
ging the Atlantic coast, and on the
east Marseiles and Barcelona are
connected by the railway which runs
along the winding shore of the
Mediterranean. These two railways
three or four indifferent carriage.
roads, and score or two of mule.
paths over the highest passes, give
Spain and France, for a stretch of
$50 miles, all the land communica-
tion their commercial necessities de-
mand. These ten thousand and
more square miles of wild and sparse,
ly populated mountain territory are
boycotted by the great crowds who
enrich the fashionable Fairgrounds
of Europe, but they have many
picturesque villages in beautiful val
leys, in settings of forest and rock,
and they will introduce you to
restful, healthful quiet life among
simple, pastoral people, who, if they
lack some of the luxuries of your city
surroundings will never fail to pro,
vide for those who pitch their sum-
mer tent among them, all the COM
forts which reasonable mortals could
expect. Since left America my sum-
mer travels have included all the
most noted health resorts of Europe.
In Russia those of the Crimea and
the Caucasus, and the holiday re-
sorts around Moscow and St. Peters
burg. In Germany those of the
Black and the Thuringian Forests,
the Harz Mountains and the Saxon
Switzerland in Austria, its fascina-
ting Lake district, and the Doloneite
attractions Of the Tyrol, also the
retreats in the Carpathians
where the Hungarians take their air
cure in the shadow of snow capped
mountains. Recalling all these sum
mers abroad and comparing them
with the pleasure | have had in four
successive summers in different sec.
lions of the Pyrenees | give to this
out. Of theway and little frequented
section Of Europe the post OF honor
for all that contributes to the sum
total of the most comfortable, least
artificial, and most helpful sum-
mer life.
H. L. CLAPP.
Faux Chaudes,
Aug. %, 1900.