Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1911-10-20
IN DOVER TOWN.
Editorial Correspondence.
Hutchinson News
Dover England. Aug. 2


Hutchinson News
Dover England, Aug. 22.
One Of the strange things in this
old world is a boundry line. You
are on railway in Germany, hearing
no language but German. The train
crosses the imaginary line and YOU
hear an entirely different language
and II YOU try to use the words which
were understood ten minutes before
the people do not understand YOU
They are French and they not only
speak different language but they
differ in custom, tastes and looks
1t would be just like traveller from
Hutchinson to Kansas City being,a able
to speak and understand what peo-
pie said at Argentine, but on arrival
at the union depot at Kansas City
finding a different looking and differ
ent talking lot, who could not under
stand a word he said. And arriving
in the Kansas City depot neither un.
derstanding nor being understood,
would be something of an ordeal. es-
pecially if you were trying TO change
trains and make sharp connection.
II is no wonder that an ordinary Kan
san travelling i'm this European land
puts in much of his time figuring out
his route and a lot more doing it.
OF course it is a joy TO arrive in
England and be able TO falkland 10
understand everything that is said.
Two hours after we left the fish
smelly Boulougne | was quarreling
in night fair English with a railroad
official because a train was late. In
France We would have had TO set
around and look pleasant for the Of
ficial would not have known whether
We we're cross about the train or the
reciprocity treaty. 1t often relieves
your mind to tell a Frenchman or a
German what YOU think of him or his
country in English, but it doesn Y
cause him any discomfort.
Dover is a most interesting town
with a castle, a harbOr, a garrison,
and a history. 1t is the oldest Eng
Esh port to France, and on a clear
day with good eyes and a vivid i'm
aginatiOn you can see Calais in
France, q miles away. Ever since
William the COnquerOr came over and
did his conquering, the English have
kept Dover fortified in such way
that it would be difficult for another
conqueror to follow his example.
The town lies along the shore and
back into a small river valley. The
hills, about 800 feet high, begin at
the waters edge and 90 up very rapid
ly. The biggest hill is on the east
and rises straight up from the sea
S75 feet. The face Of the cliff is
white, for the rock formation is
chalk, and topped with green trees
and big stone castle makes a fine
from the water or from
the beach. There is not only this old
castle, which is a font with a regi-
ment of soldiers, but the cliff is
mined and tmneled, and big can
non are at the opening in the earth,
ready to shoot the stuffing out Of any
hostile fleet or army which comes
this way. The only time the castle
was ever captured was when Crom-
well worked some strategem and got
il away from the Royalists. After
looking it all over l don't see how
any army could possibly capture Do
yer castle so long as the defenders
stayed awake.
The Romans first built fort here
and the remains of the old Roman
walls are still a small part. of the
present fertilization. The Saxons built
some, then the Normans and after
that various generations of English,
so that the castle contains specimens
OF a lot of different styles. Of archi-
lecture. On The whole II rs one OF
the most imposing castles in Europe,
both by location and by construction.
This castle business is peculiar
Sometimes a little runt of a building
with a over and a high fence is ia
nous in history and story because of
a great fight or a brilliant robber
who lived there. To the turist it is a
disappointment. l suppose everyone
gets his idea of what a castle looks
like from the reading done in his
youth. When l was a boy thought
a castle must be good deal like the
court house at Cottonwood Falls,
which is 50 feet high, with a man
sard roof and Jail with barred win