Wauwatosa news. [volume] (Wauwatosa, Wis.) 1900-1948, 1914-07-24


heights for long time yet. In a sense 1t never
leaves them Even In August traces of it linger
sweety against the edges of the snow-fieIds and
along the ever-sparkling pastures where the tree
line stops When nature has grown SNUG and
lazy among the dust and heat below, one has only
to climb thousand feet or two to recapture all
the lost brilliance of May and early June The
grass never seems to lose Its vivid freshness its
emerald colorfng; the larches still clap their lit
tie hands, so brightly gloved the pines seem to
nave shaken off their snow only the day before
And water runs everywhere, pouring in countless
riyuiets to feed the bigger torrents down below
Spring never leaves the higher Alpine valleys
Her cave is somewhere just above the tree-Iine
She sings and dances there eternalIy
It is the habit and more to sheer little
at Switzerland. She is pretty, bourgeois state
the people unpicturesque and rather sordid
mere nation of hotekeepers who exist to pick the
tourists pockets. She is played out, vulgarized
hopelessly commonplace. Switzerland has no at
mosphere, no shading. coloring but that OF
the chromograph order. The tourist agents "r1,n'
It, In this there lies certain truth Switzerland
is playground. and need not pretend to be any
thing else. There is little enough atmosphere"
for artistic effects and the coloring is monotonous
repetition of brilliant green meadows blue forests
with white and black peaks that cut into azure
skies without soft shading in Scotland, Ireland
and moister climates. And the people are hour
geois, unpicturesque and unimaginative though
provided they keep good hotels at reasonable
prices there Is not much fault to be found with
them on that The fortunate can ALWAYS
go further afield to Dalmata Bosnia the Caucasus
II they will The big world offers endless variety
still to those who have the time and purse n
measure 1t; but for the majority stricter condi.
tons govern the selection of travel routes and for
these Switzerland must hold first place for many
generations to come.
4 And there are few places where conditions ara
as sweet and clean and wholesome, as refresh.
ing. stimulating and pure as a high Alpine valley.
with its coy, cheap hotels, in the early summer
months Their contribution to the health of Eu.
rope is no negligible quantity even If they con.
tribute to the deathroll too. Compared to MANY a
seaside resort, with its demoralizing Influences of
gambling, overdressing, artificial gaieties to saw
nothing of other undesirable elements such places
favor and attract, these high Alpine valleys are In
every way superior. But 1t must be added that
one finds in places usually what one brings to
them. holiday becomes the reflection OF the
mind that seeks 1t. and ug,iness and cheapness in
the heart ind ugliness and cheapness also in the
forests, mountains flowers, and in the very at
mosphere. Scenery is scenery, but the interpre-
tation is of the mind In the last generation the
world has grown UNNECESSARILY more vulgar Our
fathers were happy in Switzerland our children
vote it dull, perhaps played out.
Changes have certainly come over it these last
twenty years The little inns. where pensions