The Challis messenger. (Challis, Idaho) 1912-current, 1920-11-24
ANTWERP: A LATTER-DAY
ATHENS

Antwerp, where the United States
athletes performed so notably in the
1920 Olympic games, was Europe's
Hamburg Of the sixteenth century
and the Athens of the seventeenth.
This city compeIs American admira-
ton by its phenomenal power to
come back" Crushed by wars, in
QUESTIONS, economic bans and persecu-
tions of its people, Antwerp always
has risen again.
Figures tell the story. Population
in 1868. 125,OOO; twenty years later,
only 5000. From 1900 to 1850 the
population almost doubled. To it's
10000 in 1904, hundred thousand
more were added before the Germans
came in October, 1914. The II, 16O
vessels that passed In and out Of its
fine harbor in 1905 marked an in
crease of more than 30 per cent since
1883.
Not that Antwerp is a perennial
boom town. 1t is at least Is centur-
les old. And during that time its
story is one of struggle against re-
peated tragedies. When the Germans
invaded the city its noble cathedral
tower looked down on just one more,
though infinitely more cruel, blow Of
the sort it had been receiving since
the middle ages. Napoleon (some say
Charles W compared this tower to
Mechlin lace. Its delicate chiseling
| forms network of stone embroidery
| against the sky that can be seen from
| the surrounding fat country, and from
| the winding Scheldt, long before any
other building in Antwerp is visible.
By 1000, five hundred ships often
| came and went from Antwerp's har-
| Dor In a day and two thousand wagon
| loads OF merchandise usually entered
Its gates. A thousand foreign bust
ness houses were represented there
Its own merchant princes dwelt in al.
most regal splendor.
Amid this material wealth noble
works Of art were created. In the
citys museum were specimens of its
| glorious school-paintings by Var
Dyck. the Teniers, Memling, Massys
Jordaens, Jan van Eyck and Rubens
/, though the last named was better
represented in the cathedral by his
masterpiece, THE Descent From the
Cross" and two other noted works
In the Museo Plantin were relics
Of that Ebert Hubbard Of the middle
ages, Christophe Plantin. whose press
product was no less distinctive wher
he. etc pamphlets were struck of
than when devout religious work:
were printed and embossed.
During the religious disturbances O
the mid-sixteenth century the cathe
dral. then considered second only Il
st. Peters at Rome, was pillaged b,
the Iconoclasts. Its images and pic
lures, its magnificent vases, its &c al
tars and its great organ. considere,
the finest of its time, were burned O
broken by the torch-bearing vandalS
Whitewashed walls reminded TWEEN
tieth-century tourists of these depre
dations.
Other churches were ravaged a
that time. But what Antwerp suffer
ed then was mild compared TO tn
horrors of the Spanish Fury" in 15If
when that latter day Nero. the duk
of Alva. and his Council of Blood
began reign of terror which saw
agery scarcely could surpasS. Tyin
wealthy citizens TO horses tails. h
would drag them miles to trial
Antwerp suffered grievously fror
this debauch of hangings, Quartering.
beheadings and butcheries. In thre
days 5000 of her men. women an
children were slain. burned or drown
ID: hundreds of the fine marble home
destroyed, and the equivalent of mi
lions of dollars worth of propert,
wrecked.
1t was seven years later that tn
doughty citizens of Antwerp mad
short shrift of the duke Of Anjou
plotting against Flemish liberty. Whe
the duke and his men overcame tn
Flemish guard Of a drawbridge, an
5000 of the dukes troops rushed i
to take the city, workmen fought fur
ously with their oven shovels. and eli
liens grabbed arquebuses and chewe
coins into shape to load them.
I -A