Deseret evening news. [volume] (Great Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1867-1920, 1903-01-17
GOSSIP ABOUT LEOPOLD II
AND HIS ROYAL FAMILY.

q million. II Is IN the heart Of Belgium,
and as such Is within couple OF hours
or so Of the whole population OF more
than six million.
The town Is divided into two Sec
tions, one OF which IL high above the
other, II Is In the upper part that
the kings palace and all the govern
ment buildings are situated Il IL here
that most OF the foreigners live lnclud-
ing about 1000 English residents. our
minister has fine home not far from
the palace OF the king, and the consul
general Is about equally distant from
the palace In an opposite direction.
The government buildings are tspe-
cially fine. Take the Palais de Justice
which stands upon hill high above the
business part Of the city. 1t Is said 10
be the grandest structure OF the world
II Is bigger than the Capitol at Wash
ington and covers one acre more than
the enormous church Of st. Peter nc
Rome. IL Is built OF marble and II
rises high over Brussels With q dome
100 feet higher than that of our Capt.
tol The structure In general Is py-
randall, each successive section dlmin-
ishing In bulk IL Is beautifully decor
ated, the rotunda being embelllshed
with colossal statues Of justice, law,
strength and mercy. and the NestlhuIe
adorned with statues Of Demonthenes
and Licurges ana OF Cicero and DOml-
thus. Not far from this are other gov
eminent buildings including the fam
Gus art gallery, the National Bank and
the Palais de la Nation.
EDUCATION AND 1ILITERACY.
As far as education "a concerned the
Belgians do not compare with the
Swiss seldom met a man In Swift
zerland who could not speak more than
one language and IN the cities neauy
every one understood more or less Eng
| llsh Here the people speak French
and Flemish but many Of the lower
classes have dialect OF their own
which r. difficult to understand.
The Belgians are Roman Catholics.
OF the six million odd people In the
country there are only i0QQ0 Prote n
ants and 1900 Jews. The constitution
grants full religious liberty, but, not
! withstnnding this many Of the schools
are under the church. and this is always
| detrimental to education. There are
In an four universities, two OF which
belong TO the state. and also schools
OF arts engineering and manufactures,
which have about 1900 students
The public school system ls not as
good as that of switzerland and the
percentage Of illteracy IL much high
or. In Switzerland you can scarcely
find n man who does not read or write.
Here fully one-fourth OF the population
cannot read. and Of the young men
| ,u,a o,,t for military anrVfca Iast.Vpar
+, more than ~ per cent could not write.
This Is the only place ] know OF
where newspapers are gold for nothing.
There are two Of that kind in Brussels
and both are making money one Is
| known az lie soir and the other as lie
National. lie Soir has 10000 circu'a-
lion. and Il has made the fortune of It's
founder, who was newsdealer 0rigi-
nally. starting with nothing He dis
trlbuted his paper free, and gradually
built up a business out Of the adver-
tisements. The only charge for the pa
per Is for delivery which costs cents
a month II the customer lives on the
ground floor or L. cents u he lives ub-
stairs. Mail subscribers pay merely
The postage. and the newsboys sell the
papers on the street for a cent and
pocket all the profits,
In addition 20 these two papers Bel
GUM has q number OF other Journals
which are paid for. but no other dailies
OF large circulation. There are IN me
whole country less than 1900 journals,
OF which i2O are political us CONNER
cial. Industrial or agricultural, $50 H.
nancial and 1855 devoted % other sub
| jects. FRANK G.. CARPENTER.