Daily Kennebec journal., 1903-08-10
AHaIInweII Teachers Letter to
the journal.
Brussels is Two Generations More
Advanced.
A Glimpse of Paris, the Worlds Most
Splendid City.
Paris. August l, 1903.

thing is queer, and it requires consider
able care to tell just what 1t is which
gives that general appearance. To
hepip with. the style Of architecture is
different from that of American cities.
The houses are generally three stories
in height with red tiling on the roofs;
many of them are of stone, and those
built of wood are painted Il dreary gray
color, so that the whole city has dull
unpleasantness of aspect. The wharves
are nc. covered, as in New York, with
large houses but are either without COW
eiing or covered by roofs resting on
= posts around the sides and entirely
open at the sides.
There we saw the wooden shoes, dog
carts, and saleswomen with baskets on
their arms which we had read of so
often. About half the people wear
wooden shoes, and others wear the
ordinary kind. l cannot understand
why they wear those heavy clumsy
things, as theyare awkward tomanage:
theyput the whole foot to the ground
instead. of putting the heel down first
as we ordinarily do. Often they wear
mo stocking but a thick covering of
dirt takes their. ,paace. The carts are
partially fiauled by the dog harnessed
beneath it and d krtly pushed by boy
or girl or a wor4an. All kinds of food
are soldxin the Street much as in the
denser parts OF New York inback Of
Wall street. y
The character of the people runs even
more queer than that of the buildings.
Ny friend, particularly alert for fine
looking young ladies, remarked that he
had not seen a good looking girl in
Antwerp. There3was indeed a want of
good looks; the people all drink beer
and wine, and all the women have the
appearance of having had a booze the
previous day, peculiar empty stare to
the eyes, and lack of color in the faces,
hardly ever smiling. Now in Paris, we
find just the opposite, although there
seems to be a larger amount of beer
and wine drank here: yet here it is not
so common to see the girls drinking
beer as in Antwerp. There, in the
evening, everything gives way to the
wine shops. Tables are set out or the
sidewalks in front of the saloons and
often half way across the street sonthe
passing on the sidewalks is stopped and
the traveller must wind his way around
them as best he can. 1t really seems
as though every person in the city came
out in the evening and sat down out in
front of some saloon and drank beer.
The walters bring the beer to them. and
often an orchestra plays for their en-
tertainment.
The streets are particularly clean.
was told that on several of the princi-
pal streets one was not allowed to
throw piece Cf paper after it had been
swept in the morning. There We're nc
such nasty children in the alleys as
there are in New York and Boston, and
no such filth in the cutters. Two or
three avenues We're very wide having
two places for carriages with a wide
grassy divide with trees between. They
have no electric cars except on these
avenues but have small horse cars
drawn by one horse on all the mair
streets.
Two buildings We're especially motto
able; the cathedral and an old Spanish
prison. The chimes from the cathedra
are particularly beautiful AS n historic
monument of Architecture it is highly
esteemed and is one of the places visit
ed by tourists. The old prison nov
contains curiosities of many kinds. {
museum of antiquity. In the base
ment are some dark chambers wher
prisoners We're confined. 1t was neces
sary to take candles and descend SOM
stone steps to reach these. There wa
in one n stone post with two shor
chains and bands used on the ankles T.
confine the prisoner there. Prett,
dreary looking places they We're, per
fectly dark and built of solid ston
work. Al the bottom of the stairs wa
a large circular piece of iron with
ring in the middle. Beneath this, w
We're told. was Il deep hole leading on
to the river, and sometimes this wa
removed and the prisoner descendin
the stairs in the dark was allowed t
plunge into the hole where he would b
drowned in the water below. In tn
museum above We're branding irOn
and large knives used for cutting off til
hands of prisoners, cruel instrument
of torture and firm reminders of Spar
ish barbarity.
From Antwerp to Brussels is rid
of about one hour and yet one is struc
with the remarkable change. Brusse
is a modern city: compared with AM
werp it is seemingly a couple of gene
rations more advanced. There wei
large numbers of English and Amer
is one of the places visited because
it's claborately sculptured buildings, i
large, beautiful parks and it's king
palace. The pictures one sees in
collection of views gives fairly goo
impression of the place. About
miles from the city is the Waterl'
battlefield. 1t was cold. dreary d;
when we went to this but we did n
mind it when we remembered that
the night before the battle the soldie
slept through a drenching rain wi
little or no shelter.
We have been fortunate in the ma
ter of evading any humbug scheme
but must confess that in visiting w
terloo we came the nearest to bel
pulled in OF anything we have strut
At the Brussels station we met m
dressed in a uniform of an African 81
dier. who told us about the best pl
of going to Waterloo. He claimed
be hired by the government to adv
strangers and seemed to know &c
deal about the place. We offered h
l-NHA