FRANCE
CAPT. JOSEPH MEDILL PATTERSON
in the Chicago Tribune
From the French of Armentier Ohanian
Permission to reproduce in this book
I WAS an exile from my own country and wandered over the breast of the world seeking another country.
And I came into a land where there was only a long spring and a long autumn, where they did not know the deadly heats of our summers or the mortal colds of our mountains. Among the vines and sunny fields I saw the people of this land at work, ever young of soul, smiling, loving, and kindly.
I asked, “What is the name of this happy place?”
And the answer was, “France the voluptuous.”
I came to towns of splendid monuments, of harmonious buildings, of proud triumphal arches of the past, and above always I saw the spires of great cathedrals stretching toward the sky, as if to seize upon the feet of God.
I asked, “What is the name of this marvelous land?”