Omaha daily bee., 1903-01-18

and best managed cities of Europe. 1t has
only about 200, 900 people in the town
proper, but with its suburbs it's inhabitants
are more than SOC, 900. 1t is in the heart
of Belgium, and as such is within a couple
Of hours or so of the whole population of
mere than 5000. 900.
The town is divided into two sections, one
of which is high above the other. 1t is in
the upper part that the kings palace and
all the government buildings are situated.
1t is here that most of the foreigners live,
including about 1000 English residents. Our
minister has a 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 especially
fine. Take the Palais de Justice, which
stands upon a hill high above the business
part Of the city. 1t is said to be the grand
est structure Of the world. 1t is bigger
than the capitol at Washington and covers
one acre more than the enormous Church Of
st. Peter at Rome. 1t is built of marble
and 1t rises high over Brussels with a dome
100 feet higher than that of our capitol. The
structure in general is pyramidal, each sue
cessive section diminishing in bulk. 1t is
beautifully decorated, the rotunda being
embellished with colossal statues of justice,
law, strength and mercy, and the v~estibule
adorned with statues of Demosthenes and
Lycurgus and Of Cicero and Domitius. Not
far from this are other government build.
ings, including the famous art gallery, the
National Bank and the Palais de la Nation
AS far as education is concerned the Bel
gians do not compare with the Swiss. ]
seldom met a man in Switzerland who
could MT GnaaE mOra than nna lanpIlaRR-
and in the cities nearly every one under
stood more or less English. Here the peo-
pie speak French and Flemish, but many
of the lower classes have a dialect Of their
own which is dificult to understand.
The Belgians are Roman Catholics. or
the six million odd people in the country
there are only $1,000 Professionals and 1000
Jews. The constitution grants full religious
liberty, but, Notwithstanding this, many OF
the schools are under the church, and this
is always detrimental to education. There
are in all 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 is not as good
as that of Switzerland and the percentage
of illiteracy is much higher. In Switzer-
land you can scarcely find a mar who does
not read or write. Here fully one-fOurth
of the population cannot read, and Of the
young men called out for military service
last year more than II per cent could not
write.
This is the only place I know of w6cyF
newspapers are sold for nothing. There are
two of the kind in Brussels and both are
making money. One is known as lie Soir
and the other as lie National. lie Soir has
1875 900 circulation and IL has made the for
tune of it's founder, who was a newsdealer
originally, starting with nothing. He dis
tributed his paper free and gradually built
up a business out of the advertisements.
The only charge for the paper is for deliv-
cry, which costs 6 cents a month II the GUS
toner lives on the ground floor or IL cents
II he lives upstairs. Mail subscribers pay
merely the postage and the newsboys sell
the papers on the street for a cent and
pocket all the prohts.
In addition to these two papers Belgium
has a number OF other journals which are
paid for, but no other dailies OF large circu-
latiOn. There are in the whole country less
than 1900 journals, Of which 429 are politi-
cal. ITS commercial. Industrial OF ~agricul-
tural. $50 financial and 755 devoted to other
subjects. FRANK G. CARPENTER,