The Connecticut labor press., 1919-09-06

Popes at Avignon which Frofssart
 called "the finest and strongest house in the world ;" and the most im- portant occurrence in that period, from the point of view of the architect and the historian, is that in 1907 the huge building was at last relieved from its dangerous task of sheltering sol diers, who cared as little for its beauty as for its associations, writes Theodore Andrea Cook in Country Life. It was, perhaps, better to be the barracks of regiment than to be a prison like Tar ascon, or a disintegrating ruin like Beaucaire. But none of these three glorious relics of Provencal history de- served so ignominious fate, and the department of historic monuments earned the thanks of every scholar by its change of policy toward these splendid castles of the storied Rhone.
 One invaluable result of clearing the Palace of AvignOn has been that fol the first time 1t is possible to compare the actual constructions of this ex- traordinary building with the records preserved in the Vatican and investi- gated by Eugene Muntz, Maurice Eau con and F. Ehrle. This comparison was carried on by Felix Digonnet, the learned guardian of the museum at Avignon, and when again the continent ls free ground for the curious traveller.
 Color and Massiveness.
 The vast and deserted esplanade in front of this giant block of masonry is a fitting framework to so massive memorial of dead majesty, and the whole atmosphere of the scene is as different as possible from anything you have passed on your way through the modern town from the railway station of the republic. The exquisite solor of the pale gold masonry-"teinte Hniforme de feuille seche," said Henri Beyle-is one of the lovelfest attributes of the buildings of Provence. as 1t is of our own Dorsetshire houses; but it is the titanic strength and elemental pride of this enormous building which first impress themselves on the be- holder who stands before it's ruined western entrance gate.
 The octagonal turret jutting from the tower immediately on your left of the main entrance preserves, in its name of '"The White Cardinal" the memory of that humbly born Cister- clan monk who, in December. 1885, as- stunned the title of Benedict XII, and really began the foundation of the palace as we see 1t. TwO-thfrds of the whole, at any rate, he planned; i; and his is the portion that is the sim plest and strongest of 1t all.
 No marble was used anywhere in the palace, which was wholly. of French workmanship and Provenca1 design, with the square towers which mainly differentiate that school from the round-towered style of the French kings which is so massively exhibited in the contemporary Fort St. Andre just across the river. The deeply carved machicolattons, still to be seen here and there and originally placed on every tower and wall, had only just been introduced by the end of the fourteenth century. Those on the great facade are the largest in the world, sometimes two yards in length by IS inckes deep, sufficient to huri down timbers that could sweep a dozen storming ladders off the wall or crush whole company of sappers.
 The only luxury observable in the palace was to be found in its interior furniture, which has wholly disaD- peared. Nothing but the sOlidity and imposing strength of its exterior walls remain to hint at what Froissart so much admired.
 The old pontifical chapel of John