The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1901-10-05
IMPRESSIONS or SWITZERLAND

To the Editor of the Journal and Courier;
1t is with a feeling of sincere regret
that now, as we are told, the brave pa
triot, Tell. the autocratic magistrate,
Gessler, and even the martyr,
Winkelried, never really existed in the
annals Of Swiss history, but are simply
myths.
For, after a months observation of
Switzerland and her people, it seems as
if such a race might evolve and accom-
plish almost any feat, for nowhere is
the struggle for existence more appa-
rent or more difficult to maintain than
that daily pursued by the hardy noun
taineer, whose chief ambition appears
to be to see how much higher on the
mountain side he can build his little
"chalet" or cultivate his meadow
than his neighbor.
However, on the border-land between
France and Switzerland and in the vi
cinity of Payerne, the country COM
pares favorably with the best part of
the Empire state, and even with some
localities In Connecticut, for 1t is not an
uncommon sight to see large fields of
tobacco which as every Yankee"
knows, needs the richest kind of land.
But a few hours railway journey
presents the most surprising changes in
the scenery, and if one wishes to see
the mountains by degrees, and so grad
ually work up to the grand climax, it is
well to enter Switzerland by way of
Bale for it is the shortest distance
from Paris, and is easily reached in the
comfortable Swiss railway carriages
leaving that city
Ascend the "Rigi'' first and then Pia-
tus, for the views are quite different;
go on to the Interlaken for the Grin
delwald, and thence to ChaumouX and
then through the wild and castellated
Rhona valley to Zermatt,
Here take the new Gornergras rail-
way, the highest in Europe and the
most agreeable because it is operated
by electricity, and by it mount to an ell
ovation of over ten thousand feet
This small eminence is situated in an
amphitheater of indescribable grand
eur. for ut commands the finest view
attainable in the Alps of the world of
ice and snow
On all sides are snow-clad peaks like
the Matterhorn, Mt. Rosa. etc, some
over fifteen thousand feet high and
standing there gazing at the perfect
proportions OF the Matterhorn, and as
the slowly but surely-moving mighty
glaciers, one is simply lost in admira-
ton of the handwork of the great Gre
ator.
The Swiss lakes are very beautiful,
especially that of Lucerne, and If one
sees them in the order of Lueerne,
Thun Zurich. Constance and Geneva,
the feeling of being hemmed in is over
come. although the distant view from
the upper end of the lake of Thun,
comprising the peaks Jungfrau, Monch
and Eiger and the snowy range of the
Bemese Overland, is hardly equalled.
From the middle of August to the
middle of September is the great hav-
ing time in Switzerland, and as one
rode along by train through the more
level country the odor of fresh cut clo-
yer and grass was most agreeable.
1t was curious sight though to see
in one place three men and three wo-
men in straight line turning over hay
with great wooden forks. while only
few rods away an enterprising farmer
was running what appeared to be an
American "tedder," and little further
on, attached to a wagon, was COW
and a horse, driven by a woman, while
a man CO.. rode.
At this writing the making of soldiers
has been finished for this year. for the
fall manoeuvers are now over, but at
many small towns troops were drilling |
even on Sunday, and at Berne forty /
five hundred were massed in one great |
body
The best way to thoroughly see the |
country, If one has a month at their |
is to buy thirty day |
Announcement ticket which is a sort of |
communication arrangement by which |
one can travel on nearly all Swiss rail-
ways and steamers when, where and as
often as they wish without regarding
any fixed route,
Switzerland is indeed wonderfully in
teresting and after seeing various
countries in Europe, one comes to the