TOWNS IN SOUTHERN FRANCE
E left Marseilles on Tuesday, September 26th, at 6 A. M. for Grenoble. The sunrise was very beautiful; along the way you can see trees, the tops of which have been chopped off. We were told that the annual crop of fire-wood in France is just the same as the annual crop of wheat or any other product. Fast growing trees are planted and the branches and twigs are utilized for fuel.
We were met at the Grenoble station by eight entirely new Dodge automobiles.
At Grenoble, we visited the glove factory of Perrin & Co. This firm is well known in the United States and we were informed that our country is its best customer. In normal times the concern employes twenty thousand men and women, equally divided. The product is twenty million pairs of gloves annually. Much of the work is taken home for execution. The shop is well lighted and the sanitary conditions seem to be all of the very best. We visited the Raymond button factory and the candy factory of Davin & Company. This was a very interesting experience. At the close, or rather before leaving the factory, we were permitted to witness the decoration of a workman who had been in the employment of the company for thirty-five years. It was really an affecting sight. We were told that in all that time he had not lost a day from sickness and the time had arrived when he was entitled to a pension. He was decorated by the head of the firm. At the close of the ceremonies he was surrounded by his family, relatives and members of the firm, and greeted in the usual way of the French with their own countrymen, that is to say, by kissing and embracing.
On Wednesday, September 27th, at seven in the morning, we left Grenoble for the French Alps. We had as a guide John Steel, an American who had been in France for fifteen years and had become a French citizen. He gave us much valuable information. He said, among other things, that when the railroads in France take freight they guarantee the time of delivery, if desired, and include an extra charge in the rate. On this trip we passed three companies of mounted guns, the technical name being mountain artillery. This was an interesting sight. A portion consisted of donkeys with all the paraphernalia of a soldier strapped to their backs, together with rapid firing mitrailleuses. The soldiers were unusually fine looking men from the Alpine district, a portion of France near the Swiss border.
[Illustration: Types from French Provinces.]
We visited a paper mill where the entire product was cardboard. We passed the "Escole de Garcons," otherwise a school for teaching waiters. We were told by Mr. Steel that in the valley adjoining that in which we were driving anthracite coal exists in abundance but has not been worked to any great extent. We passed mountain villages and noticed the cultivation of the sides of mountains almost perpendicular. It was a wonderful ride, amid splendid scenery, with numerous waterfalls, snow and glaciers in great abundance; in other words, we were going through the Switzerland of France. We passed a flock of sheep, more than five thousand in number, cared for by a head shepherdess, with several assistants and a number of dogs.
We had luncheon at the Grand Hotel Bourg D'Oison and stopped briefly at the hotel de La Meige.
On our return down the mountain we visited an electric manufacturing plant, the products being aluminum, magnesium, sodium, peroxide, sodium, oxolyte, calcium, and hydrated calcium. In this factory one of the commissioners had a narrow escape from certain injury, if not death, by attempting to taste the chemicals. He was stopped just in time.
We then visited the Chateau Vizille, built in the seventeenth century and at one time occupied by Casimer de Perier, President of France. Vizille was one of the three great marshalls of France, and the chateau is called the "Cradle of Liberty". The first French Revolutionary meeting was held here. The castle contained old cannon and splendid old furniture, while the surrounding grounds were beautiful.
On Thursday, September 28th, we visited the paper manufacturing plant of Berges at Lancey. There is an immense water-power installation here, the capacity of the plant being one hundred tons daily of all grades of paper. There are two plants, one a very old one, dating back nearly two hundred years, and the other a new one, not quite completed. We saw here one machine which cost one hundred and sixty thousand dollars, a remarkable piece of mechanism, almost human in its workings. The waterfall is six hundred feet in a short distance. Adjoining this paper mill was a small munition plant. Most of the employes were women, dressed in the American bloomer costume.
In the afternoon we had a meeting with the citizens and the Chamber of Commerce of Grenoble. The discussion took a very wide range—from the tariff question to the latest news from the front.
Next the party visited a plant for the manufacture of sheet steel by electricity.
In the evening we were banqueted at the Grand Hotel. On my right sat M. Paisant, Director General; on my left was Mr. Thomas W. Mutton, Vice-consul of the United States of America at Grenoble; near was was Mr. Tenot, Prefect of the district.
This part of France is noted for the amount of cement manufactured. Walnuts are grown in this section in large quantities. I discussed these things with Mr. Murton.
There was a discussion at the banquet over female suffrage and the birthrate, and this grew very animated.
On Friday, September 29th, we left Grenoble and stopped at Voiron and were here treated, at 9:30 A. M., with a "petit dejeuner". We next visited the monastery Grande. This was founded in the Twelfth century by St. Bruno. The present building was commenced and completed in the sixteenth century and the community originally had forty-two monks or fathers. This monastery is where the celebrated liquor, "Chartreuse", was manufactured, the basis of which is brandy, distilled flowers, and herbs. This formula was known only to the monks. While at the monastery in France each monk had an individual garden and an individual cell. When an extra penance seemed necessary special silence was given them and they were compelled to remain in their cells for months at a time. There were long corridors and in the basement places for servants and retainers. In the center of the grounds was a very beautiful place where the fathers were buried. We were told that the order was recruited mainly from the intellectual class, many of them widowers. Special rooms were reserved for travelers without money and without price.
[Illustration: Monastery of Chartreuse.]
The Carthusian order of Monks established themselves at Grenoble, France, in 1132. The original receipe for the famous cordial was given them in 1602 by Marshall d'Estress. Friar Jerome Maubec arranged the present formula in 1755, and it remained unchanged until their expulsion by the French Government, July 2nd, 1901. More than two hundred ingredients go to make up Chartreuse, and nowhere else in the world can this cordial be manufactured. Chartreuse is the unsolved enigma of French compounders of liqueurs. Its manufacture has ceased. It is quite true that at Tarragona, Spain, the monks still continue to make cordial under the name of "Peres Chartreux", but it is generally agreed that, owing to the change of locality and climate, the "Peres Chartreux" now made there is not equal to the old Chartreuse. There are a number of people in Grenoble who make imitation Chartreuse, but it is not so good as the real thing.
The monastery library contained twenty-two thousand volumes. These monks were also known as the Chartreusers, or Carthusian Monks. This was the head monastery, but there were branches in Italy, Spain, and Portugal. The fathers lived on a simple diet and no meat was allowed. They were not allowed to speak to each other except twice a week, on Sunday and Thursday. This old monastery is now used as a hospital for convalescents.
After this most interesting visit we were taken to luncheon at the Hotel du Grand Som, and later for a ride of one hundred miles in the military automobiles, through a mountainous country.
We arrived at Annecy at 8 P. M. and stopped at the Imperial Palace Hotel. This is one of the finest watering places in France. A beautiful lake surrounds the hotel, with mountains in the distance.
The next morning we called upon the Mayor and went through the usual speeches. We were given a boat ride on the lake. Then we visited an old castle. The coast looked very much like the coast of Maine between Bath and Squirrel Island. We were taken by boat from Annecy to Menthon and had luncheon at the Palace Hotel. Here Mr. Damour made his first speech, which was received so enthusiastically that he was kissed by nearly all the Frenchmen present.
We then visited an electric steel plant at Acierils, the French name being the "Electriques of Ugine". We were greeted by, among other things, a couple of American flags, but they were upside down.
We left Annecy at 5 P. M. for Lyons and stopped at the Terminus Hotel. We saw a number of tattooed soldiers, that is tattooed with powder marks, they having seen service.
On Sunday, October 1st, at 8 A. M. we left Lyons for Le Creusot, where the great French steel plant is located. A serious discussion was held on the train about going to the front and the dangers were depicted quite vividly. We stopped at Chagny, after passing a very old church dating back to the Tenth century. We saw, as we passed along, droves of beautiful white cows, with not a speck of color.