La Junta tribune., 1908-10-10
'FRom FOREIGN cLIMEs
By r. w. PATTERSON
oya SPECIAL EUROPEAN ceRREsPossEnr


am sitting In my room. at the
Hotel de Commerce. Orleans. France.
Abou; .ev"a;y-f,yc miles southwes; Of
Paris II. is Il. nj. little early
for Sightseeing. so will spend a
few moments In trying to catch up
with my trip. l leave this after
noon for Paris. where l will stop but
one day. will then go to Holland.
thence to London. l expect to reach
London about the goth. The country
( l have travelled over. in this circuit of
six days from Paris. is somewhat
miles, the country is wooded and
slightly hilly. but soon entered the
rich farming lands of the Beauce.
which are around Chartres. cross
ed to the Huisue Valley. the Perche
pasture and farming lands. with No
gent lie Rotrou as the center. Near
Maus there are numerous plantations
of pines and considerable other tim
ber, which extends well towards
Tours. The country near Maus is
kOmtNudI Sdhuy idthSi poohS
than what had just passed over,
From Tours. / came up the fertile
valley OF the Loire; rich farming
country. with diversified crops. large
ly wheat and other grains. many fine
grapes, a few meadows, and scarcely
any pasture. but large quantities OF
vegetables. There were a couple OF
saw mills between Maus and Tours.
strange to say. France is not so
thickly settled as the other countries
of Europe which have travelled over
There is large amount of timber
pasture and uncultivated land The
farmers generally live on their farms
in this part OF France, and not in VIII
lagos as in many other parts of Eu-
rope They are. for these reasons,
more prosperous, more intelligent and
more Independent Maus. Tours and
Orleans. about seventy miles apart.
are nearly OF the same size, about
60 900 to 10000 population. l have
found the French very courteous and
polite, generally well dressed. even
to the laboring classes. ] have very
seldom seen any children barefooted.
and no men or women. They always
shake hands when they meet. l
have often seen Q man who came In
to the table little late. go around
and shake hands with all his friends
at the table. before seating himself
In the great banks, as well as in the
small banks, the clerks. bOokkeepers
and managers. always shake hands
when meeting in the morning. and
often at other times Of the day. A
Frenchman is born and bred to po-
liteness and sociability.
Tours is very old and interesting
city. 1t is like all old cities OF Eu-
rope-narrow. crooked streets and
old steep, tile-roofed houses, occasion
ally a slate roof. but always good
pavements. mostly of rock and rough.
occasionally. of late. Of ashpalt. and
always a catheradal and other great
old churches. In the tenth and elev-
enth centuries, there was great
wave Of religious enthusiasm In
France. in some parts earlier. which
extended into the dark ages. and there
were built these great churches, cost
ing many hundreds OF thousands OF
dollars each, and developing great
architects and wonderful architecture
chiefly after the Gothic. These
churches were begun on such grand
and magnificent scale that they re-
auired hundreds of years to finish
them. Many of these great mont-
ments to the religious enthusiasm
and architectural genius OF those an
cient days are crumbling. the stone
disintegrating and constant restora-
ton and repairs are necessary There
ia a grand cathedral at Tours and
another at this place. Orleans. Work
men are now engaged making exten-
sive repairs and restorations on this
great cathedral Many parts, some
Of considerable importance. have just
been finished. while the workmen are
still engaged repairing the lofty cell
ing of the nave. This church Is
ABS feet long and 100 feet to the
ceiling Of the nave. 1t has two
great towers. 2s5 feet high, rising
from each side of the front, while
there are two smaller towers. but
really very great. at each end OF
the transepts, and others between
the transepts and both the front and
rear. A beautiful slender spire rises
to . great height from the center Of
the transepts and nave.
am now at the railroad station.
Gard de Nord, waiting for my train