Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1925-12-23


ciety, Washington, ID. c.
~ ENEVA, Switzerland, becomes
= the chief source of world news
~ whenever, as in recent weeks,
the assembly of the League Of
Nations is in session.
Seated serenely on both banks of the
River RhOne, where it leaves the linn
pid waters Of Lake Geneva as a placid
stream, in contrast to the muddy tur-
bulence of its ingress at the other end
Of the lake, Geneva is not the metrop-
oils of the miniature republic of
Switzerland, for Zurich surpasses 1t
In population by so per cent and Berne
is the capital. But it is doubtful
whether before the World war any
other city of its size was visited an
nually by as many tourists, for it was
the main gateway into the world
famous playground of Europe"
During the European conflict many
of the finest Swiss hotels, which in
seasons past have entertained thou
sands of Americans, suffered greatly
for lack of wealthy patronage, and the
federal government found it advisable
to come to their financial relief by
passing an ordinance extending the
time for payment of interest on mort
cages.
Other hosteries, however, were as
crowded during the four years of hor-
ror and bloodshed as are the fashion
able hotels of New York during horse
show and automobile show weeks. But
1t was a kind of patronage different
from any to which Geneva had catered
since the days of the Reformation.
Refugees from the belligerent coun-
tries flocked here, and thousands of In
termed soldiers were fed and housed
by the government at contract price,
the country to which the soldier be-
longed reimbursing the Swiss.
-. Here, too, assembled the propagan-
dists of every creed and complexion.
Geneva, in fact all Switzerland, fairly
seethed with plot and counterpart, as
agents and spies trafficked in military
secrets and in the honor of foreign
public officials. Here the nascent ma
tons of middle Europe organized their
bureaus of publicity and sent forth
their pleas for recognition. Thus the
republic became the busy halfway
house between the belligerent forces.
Although Geneva's recorded history
goes back beyond the Christian era, to
the time when julius Caesar, in his
commentaries on his first expedition
into Gaul, mentions it as a stronghold
OF the Allobroges, Its growth has been
phenomenal only in its leisureliness.
Today, after twenty centuries, it has
only about one-third the population Of
the century-old capital of the United
States.
Bright and Dark Chapters.
Coupled with the heroism Of the
struggle of the Genevese against the
dukes Of Savoy to secure political in
dependence was the noble humanita-
rianism which prompted its inhabi-
tants to accord shelter and succor to
the fugitives from the shambles of the
st. Bartholomew massacres in France
and the prosecutions during that era
in England
The city enjoys the distinction OF
being the birthplace of the In
ternational Red Cross, but also has
some dark chapters in its past
the religious excuses of the Reforma-
ton when the prosecuted became the
prosecutors.
With such historic events must be
associated the names of native sons
visitors, and exiles whose lives have
added luster to the city and romance
to its story. Rousseau, of whom Ma
poleon said, without him, France
would not have had her Revolution"
and the patriot Bonivard, whose trials
Byron immortalized as the Prisoner
of Chillon, were Genevans. Farel, the
Billy Sunday of his day, who could not
be made to desist from preaching ever
though the women of his congregation
dragged him up and down the aisles
OF the church by his beard, made the
lake city his headquarters during hi:
aseen6aney And John Calvin, "wht
found Geneva bear garden and lef
IT docile school of piety," was virtua
dictator here for a quarter of a cen
fury.
Here, TOO. came voltaire, who. as al
axle FROM the CauE1 cf Frederick tn,