New Britain herald., 1930-07-28

home office would permit me 10 finger in this Belgian city of 300.- 1 900 awhile instead of annoying me with childish cables I'm overdrawn. i The over-worked word quaint de scribes it. The birthplace of Flemish paintings, it is the home of Rubens and his illustrious students Van Dyck and Jordans.
 The public square in which a heroic statue of Rubens is flung up faces happily the entrance of the gaunt grey cathedral where hangs his most famous picture, Erection de Ia CroiX" But a greater interest for me was its port. l counted 300 craft in the harbor. Thirty ships arrive and 30 depart daily.
 In a moment of adventure we selected a modest pension hotel on the turbulent water front mean looking inn with a red-nosed maid named Josephine and a pock-mark- ed waiter named Napoleon. Narrow 1 sidewalks are clogged with Arabs, Somalis, Flemings-big chested men with rolling gaits whose constant | jabber in alien tongues is harsh and emphatic.
 Nearly all AntWerpians speak four language Dutch, French, English. French, however, predomi- mates. Next to shipping, diamond cutting is the main industry. A big district, like Wall street, is given over to the delicate art, with a Diamond Exchange, comparable to our Stock Exchange, in its center. I saw one diamond weighing 72 karats. Indeed I held it in my hand: there being no windows in the room and the door locked. Some 4O,000 workers. mostly Polish, are engaged in the work, and about 90 per cent of the worlds diamond cutting is done in the area. Oddly enough it is not a highly paid profession,
 Another feature of the city is its beautiful formed Flemish dray horses. Carters here. on account of the immense ship hauling, are specialists. They form an immense guild, divided into classes. Each class hauls only certain articles on the low hung wagons One of the impressive buildings is their club house.
 The magnificent animals are close ly cohbed, with only a fan-shaped nubbin of a tail. They are power E,,1 n collars glittering with ginger bready brass ornaments. Names are necked with ribbon bows and hoofs are lacquered. Drivers use but single line attached to a plush padded halter, and never use a whip, In an ancient Atwerp square is bronze of Quinten Matsey, once a blacksmith. who is idealized by all Belgians He became a great paint CT in order to win the hand of the daughter Of a painter who had ob- jeCted to his prosaic calling.
 There is anoter statue, huge bronze, of an American Indian with breech clout, feathered head-dress and poised spear. I learned the Belgians originally lived in tribal fashion and this was one of the famous warrior chiefs.
 In middle ages Antwerp and Am sterdam merchants were commercial princes of the old world. DescenS dants have upheld the tradition. Some Of New York's early and most successful merchants migrated from Antwerp. Its Cosmopolitanism is dis played in the variety of its architec- ture. I saw a complete modernistic house. Its front was of black onyx and it's doorway and windows of white marble. Its surrounding hedge was cut in sharp angles, it's terraced lawn was in the mode and the door knob was the rich azure blue of lapis lazuli.
 Antwerp had 8 big civic ruckus