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.]