Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1915-09-05
in am Old Well Found After 1900 Years

French Pompeii. Napoleon III was
building the railroads. Court influence
was corrupt. The Due de Morny stayed
a week at Neris. limiting for oacksheesn
which the townsmen were too innocent
to offer. Vichy was not innocent.
vichy got the railroad and Napoleon
III built the Villa Eugene.
Vichy is fat and hot. Neris IS IN the
boiling springs. wild gorges. peasant
gardens, f1owery hamlets.
Neris has two streets. In the upper
one, of the townsmen. there are cell
lars that are vaulted Roman halls.
where, secretly, they hammer each
stone for a hollow sound, and muffled
picks dig for the big lost treasure.
The lower street is lined with s2-per-
day hotels. the mall, a melancholy
casino and the coquettish baths run by
the French government.
Here begin the wonders 1nelosed by
an iron fence. smoking pond bubbles
amid metallic-green water plants
unique in the world-they flourish in
boiling water. They are the boiled
and living greens" of Neris. evolved in
1000 years.
What strange visor gets into the
plants to make them stand it? The
eminent d'Arsonval, in 1912. verified
the immense radio-activity of the hot
springs, but old peasant tradition in
sists that true beauty cures must in
clude daily massage with the boiled
green's" Furthermore, d'Arsonval notes
that only small fraction Of the
springs are canalized. Subterranean
lightness and springiness to soil and
air. That waste water made the
mounds.
After the antique devastation OF Neris
-$4y~
washed down soil from the hills and
covered the ruined palaces. Marble
columns are found fifteen feet below the
surface. To account for the phenom-
of nature completing the work Of the
kultur. It is an injustice to their
talents.
The Germans did it-their first at
tempt.
4 \
In the portico of the baths are
broken columns. carved capitals.
Parian tubs, mutilated statues, veri-
table museum of reliefs and inscrip-
lions, mosaics and battered frescoes.
In the museum are bronzes and
marble busts and statuettes, cases of
bracelets, chains. jeweled rings and
seals, carved gold, toilet objects of
gold and ivory. alabastar rouge pots,
pencils for the brow of beauty when
the world was young.
They are the remnants Of innumer-
able finds" such as the state museums
have not grabbed. or lucky finders sold
to London or New York, as most often
happens. In the mayors certificate Of
the spoon, it will be noticed that none
of the engraved jewels. coined gold
or any gold object except the Gaulish
mask are mentioned as being found by
Bourseire.
Digging for treasure Is the real
pastime of Neris.
We loafed. a hot afternoon, on the
casino porch.
Suddenly the little girls who peddle
roses started running. Shopmen lock-
ed the front door, and strolIed in the
same direction. Two laborers went by
with ladder.
Aren't you coming?' called the drug
gist. "Bourseire has found a Gallo
Roman well in hts turnip patch"
Charming excitement! Seated on
clean boards, in the turnip patch, we
watched them excavate the antique
well. deep and beautifully lined with
Joined masonry. Up came the top soil
and clay. layers of debris, stones,
broken pots and brick, then fragments
dressed stone and marble. tiles and
charred stuff from a burning.
What a tale was in that charred
stuff!