Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1904-09-07
FROM LONDON 70 N[UHAUSEN
INTERESTING VISIT IN THE BEAUTIFUL
CITY OF OSTEND, BELGIUM.
PECULIAR HABITS OF THE PEOPLE.
0airies-Farmers Live In Town-Sup.
posed Ancient Relics, Etc.
Correspondence Keowee Courier, ]

uieuay, July IL, we ieaFo Loi-
don for the continent via Dover.
The ride on the cars from London to
Dover is about three hours long.
This ride was without special inter-
est /; except that we had an addition
to our Southern contingent in the
persons of DR.. Morris and his daugh-
ter, Miss Hattie, from Atlanta. At
Dover we take steamer for Ostend,
which is in Belgium. We crossed
the English Channel in abont three
hours. This body of water has the
reputation of being very rough and
turbulent, and we were expecting a
great deal of sickness but we were
greatly surprised to find calm and
placid body of water. Nobody was
sick, and we enjoyed the passage
across the channel very much.
We arrived at Ostend about p.
m., and after having our baggage ex-
amined, we took carriage drive
over part Of the beautiful little
city. This is an attractive looking
place. The king has his summer
home here and it is quite summer
resort for the people. The place
claims 10000 inhabitants, but in the
summer this number is about double,
in consequence of the visitors. Our
party has grown to the number of
forty-seven. We are under the
guidance of Frank G. Clark, of New
York. We find his conductors very
competent and accommodating. He
takes us to the best hotels and gives
us first class service in every way. 1t
is wonderful how these large parties
can be managed 80 efficiently and
satisfactorily.
In Ostend l saw two things which
were new to me. OF course / had
read of them. The first sight was
the drawing of carts by dogs. 1t
was astonishing to see the heavy
loads which these dogs could pull. [
just thought if the many dogs in
South Carolina could be harnessed
up and put to some practical use that
it would be better for the country.
Sometimes one dog would be hitched
to cart, sometimes two dogs and
again three. The people in Belgium
are made on smaller scale than
those in England and Scotland. I
don't think the people in England
and Scotland would condescend to
drive dog to cart But I have
been told that in some places on the
continent you will see a woman and
dog hitched to a cart and d man
so-called) driving them. The man I!
But ha ye not seen this anomaly.
The other picture of life in Ostend
which attracted my attention was a
man going through the streets with
seven or eight goats. In speaking of
the goats, one Of the party said they
were the mans milk wagons, and he
was correct. The goat procession
was followed by number of child
ren-mostly boys. Some of our
party concluded we would join the
procession as we were anxious to see
the milkman deliver the goods. We
all marched on for square or two,
and the man and the goa stopped
in front of a house. A vessel was
brought out and before we could
hardly take in the situation, one of
the goats was MIXED and the goods
delivered. There is one advantage
in this plan to the buyer at least, the
milk man has poor chance of wa
tering his goods.
After spending about three hours
in Ostend, we take train for Brns-
sells, arriving there at II p. III. We
stopped at the LeGrand Hotel on
one of the principal streets of the
city. Brussels is the capital of Bel
gium and has about 100000 inhabi-
tants including the suburbs. tbs an
old looking city in many places, but
is very pretty in many parts. 1t has
many beautiful stores with very at
tractive looking goods. 1t is noted