Virginia citizen. (Irvington, Va.) 1891-1921, 1908-09-25
SWITZERLAND, HER
LAKES AND ALPS.
Editorial Correspondence

10 one VINO loves nature more tnan
mans gilded pageantry, from Paris to
the heights of Switzerland is one of re-
lief. This required of US our first
travel by night. 1t is twelve hours
from Paris to Geneva. The day coaches,
as we have noted, of European rail-
roads exc more comfortable then are
ours, but meyer take sleeper if you
can help it. They are small, close and
uncomfortable. 1t is preferable to
lounge at length on a long seat of the
day coach.
With the dawn of morning we were
some two thousand feet in altitude
above our yesterdays Partisan abode.
Soon we reached Geneva, on the lake
Of the same name. The face of the
whole country had changed in a night.
we had COTTON among the rocky preci-
pices again, and, new to US, waters of .
clear blue that seemed to have the sky
for bottoms. Geneva, famous for its
watches even st home as abroad, is q
large city and beautiful to the extreme.
rounding the distance. Tapped by one Of
the most beautiful of lakes-one feels
like Willing time away and biding a.
wee. But there are others, and still
more beautiful; so we push on, taking
steamer to Montreux, at the lakes
head, some fifty miles. The beauty of
the half days trip is enhanced by the
lSyely scenery and towns, making stops
at several of these villages We con-
fess that, upon seeing the Rhine, for
beauty of scenery we concluded the
country of Rob Roy must "take back
seat" Now that Switzerland is ours,
we tell both Scotland and the Rhine
they are not in it. We spend week in
Switzerland, when year would not be
too much. Oh, that we had the time
and money to rest where nature rules
supreme.
At Moptre9x ws take q trolley noun
tain road to cross q vein Of the Alps
over to the high valley which skirts the
foot Of the Bernese Alps Up, up we
climb, winding around and ever up
ward, never losing sight of the lake and
villages beneath us. One, two thousand
feet, up among crags and crannies.
among ancient and modern castles, un-
til one wonders where the end will be.
The doors are locked on US lest we pitch
out and not take up' until lashed by
the waters of the lake far beneath
us. The air is much cooler, al
though the sun and heavens are
clear above us, and our faithful
friend the overcoat is again called
LpRSn. Tunnel after tunnel, score
of bLtle fellows, are passed through,
until the spired towns below seem but
toy figures, apd then-a big tunnel of
several miles tsEps US loose on the other
side. What a contrastl Here is the
peasant and his hut, ALMOST unknown
TO visitors, and exposed to the north
s&ads of the Alps. On the other side
we had the south to our front. and the
tourist had covered the face Of the
earth.
Togo into t&etSil about tunnels and
railroad building iF Switzerland would
take unlimited time. These people know
little besides stone movRtains. and evil
IDENTIFY the paterfamilias teaches the
young idea (since Wilhelm Tells time)
to play with stone instead of foot ball.
When interest flags, fellow goes out
and builds rock wall on the side of
the mountain to keep off a landslide, or
to keep the massive cliff above a mile
high, from taking tumble. 1t takes
the conceit out of yankee" (all
Americans are called that in Europe)
10 see what wonders in engineering
have been accomplished here. So far
as road ,(both wagon andraiD construc-
ton are concerned we of America have
not yet cut our eye-teeth. Why, rather
than go little out of the way, the
Italian engineers who built the Swiss
railways bored on one line % tunnels in
less than that number of miles; and in
three places on our rocky route the
road made a spiral wholly within a
tunnel to get down with moderate
grade to the stream at the foot of the
mountain. In two places the road
looked like the figure 8, each time with
in tunnel, and in another it crossed
itself three times by means of tunnels
to rise up the mountain side. Switzer.
land, alittle country, has three tunnels,
each from eight to ten miles long, and
dozens of them that reach three or five
miles in length. Her public roads
rather than go around mountain bore
right through it, and where a mountain
side is of rock (as nearly all are) anG
| straight up-and-dOwn, the county road
hollows out the shape of C with bot
tom fiat) along it. 1t looks as if these
! Swiss avoided dirt for roads. Wher
ever they could find rock (and they
could find little else) they would carve
out something, road, fort, hut, ar
image, or anything pastime might sug
gest. But it is useless to attempt to
ldescribe their mountain country and its
substantial accomplishments.
1t was like an oasis to US. The at
mosphere was rejuvenating and the re
freshing simplicity of the populace, un
marred except in places by the tourist
gave relief after meeting the brusqu,
German and the willy Frenchman. TIL,
sky, too, was clearer, the waters bluer
the people franker, the roads an,
houses clean and prices more reasona