The Montgomery advertiser., 1902-12-17
Frank Carpenter Tells
 0 the Swiss Metropolis

| s. Zurich. | This is the busiest cell in the igreat l industrial beehive of tNe Alps, and 1t is | the best headquarters for, the distr1bu' l ton of American goods. The chief or the American exporters to Switzerland have l their agents here, and I fipd many of oul goods for sale in the stores. Our type writers, machine tools and agricultural implements are well represented, and one of the finest buildings of the town has large store rooms devoted to the sale of American office furniture. and especially Grand Rapids rolI-top desks. You can buy Boston shoes at several places along Balmhof Strasse, and I find Yankee no- tons for sale In the arcades in the older parts of the town, -f
 A Swiss Business Center.
 Zurich Is the biggest city of Switzer- land, It has 10000, people, and among them the richest of the country. It Is the center of the. silk industry. the site of the chief machine and iron works, and the great wholesale supply point.
 The city Is situated in Northern Switz- erland, couple of hours ride from Ba- sel, the head of the navigation of the Rhine, at a place where the railroads which give access to every part of Sw1tz- erland and the Alps meet. It lies on Lake ZuFlCn, WHICH IS lWelly-llNe HlileS lOlS and two and one>half miles wide. The Mmmat River, which connects this lake with the Rhine, runs through it. cutting beautiful valley. spotted with farms and vineyards. The town is in the heart of the Alps, and the Rigi and other fa- nous mountains are in plain view in many parts of it.
 A View from Mt. Zurich.
 I rode up Mount Zurich on the cable line this morning for view of the city. Zurich lies at the north of the lake, which stretches on almost as far as you can see, winding like a great river in and out among the hills, It extends some distance down on both sides the lake; it climbs the hills and you can see it's snokestacks along the banks of the riv- CT, marking the sites of the silk, cotton and iron factories for which 1t Is fa- nous.
 Zurich proper looks more like a city of residences than a commercial and man. ufacturing center You See many church. es and school college buildings rising high above the ordinary houses. The streets are wide and the houses have beautiful gardens about them. In the older sections there are buildings with gabled roofs, out of whit quaint dormer windows poke their heads, The Limmat is lined with such structures. They wan It's banks and at one place cross the rush. ing river, being erected on piles so that the water flows on beneath. There is an acre or so of such houses. In other places the buildings have arcades or clois- ters on the ground floor facing the street with stores behind them, so that you walk in the shade, the roof of Ile street being the floors above. This Is the old Swiss form of building, and you find il to an even greater degree in Bern.
 Swiss Flats.
 I have spent much time in driving about the newer parts of Zurich. The craze for flatsASr apartments is quite aS great hepss US in the United States, an6 new apartment houses are going up ev. anywhere. Indeed, the fiat system is now l common all over Europe. It has beer | in vogue in France and Germany fol more than a generation, but 1t is now | pushing it's way into England, Scanda navfa' and Switzerland. Geneva is a citI | of flats. although it has some beautiful villas. In Bern there are stores on th'
 ground floors with apartments above, ever
 in the older sections of the7Gity.s am | Zurich Is fast becoming all flats. Many 1 of the, new houses are apartment house! pure and simple, Others are apartment | and stores combined There seems to b, no fixed rule as to business locations, a: | in other cities. You. find a big whole | sale tablshment way off at one sid, | surrounded by residences, and you hay, often to hunt for the stores that vol | want. The people are very conservative They stick to the merchants with whom | they are acciston1edg to deal. and for thi.
 reason it will pay well to cultivate then
 as to American trade.
 Public Concert Halls.
 In ride with Consul Lieberkneeht ont afternoon we rode by the Zurich Ton halle and other characteristic buildings The Tonhalle is one of the features oi almost every Swiss city. It is public amusement building, containing a gooC restaurant. a theater and a concert room It was built with private funds, anC | Is owned by a private company, but the city gives s4,0Oo a year to It's support The people feel that they get more good
 than this out of it in having cheap music and good amusement place for them. selves and the travelling public. There are beautiful Casinos at Geneva and Lu. cerne, with reading, concert and ball
 You can go Into the gardens free and listen to the concert which is held daily at 4 p. m.
 Department Stores in Europe.
 find that the department stores are slowly but surely making their way into Europe. Paris has had them for many years, but the other cities are just begin ming to adopt them, and I find several here in Switzerland. There is one in the heart of the city which looks as though it might have been lifted up out of an American town and dropped down into the Alps. Its walls are of iron and glass, and 1t Is constructed in much the same way as our stores. It has, however about two clerks to our one, and instead of using the cash carrier system or the cash boy, it has little cash desks here and there on every floor and the purchaser has to pay all his bills at these desks, the clerk who has made the sale going with him and carrying the goods to be there wrapped up. The clerks are not allowed to handle the money, and the sys- tenn Is altogether most clumsy and in convenient to the purchaser
 The Silk Factories.
 Zurich does big business in silk. It competes with Lyons as to certain goods. and 1t has wholesale silk stores which compare favorably with any 1 saw in France. The silks are made to suit the foreign demand and also to catch the eye of the tourist I bought, among other things, an American flag woven in Zu- rich as a souvenir, and was offered no end of Italian blankets made by the Swiss of refuse silk tor the tourist trade.