SATURDAY, APRIL 11, 1925.
THE CHINA MAIL.
BRUGE the ENCHANTED
AY COURTS
[By LALBAN HAYDEN HESTON.]|-
Like the sleeping princess of the fairy story, the city of Bruges was cast rita Wees theyEd the time a ty greatest beauty and prosperity. This happened some four hundred years ago, All her exquisite buildings are as they then were they have" esenped the devastating process of inodeen pro- gress. The streets which were once so busy are grass-growiy to-day hạt that only adds to their picturesque loveli- news. Her splendid harbour and rivor have fled us with silt and the world's shipa no longer hasten there, but this too is rather to cause of beauty than U detriment. Graceful swans float lazily on the shallow waters and flower star the marshes. Her wide quays no longer
the trend of busy weba
men, but artists sit and skeich there and, the quiet waters mirror quaint towers and bending trees. It is a dream city and one becomes a purt of the dream when une in there. One's thoughts go buck to those five enturies preceding the discovery of America when this fair 'city was the centre of Europeum com- merce, when its trade with all the known world ranked foremost, when its wealth and prestige grew by leaps and bounds and kings came as her guests and sought allinnee with ner.
One re-
POPTE DU VARECHAL -- ONE QE THE OLD CHPES
OF THE C
THE ENCLOSING MALL
BIAS ELVE PHLES LONG
"FAMOUS BELFAY OF GAUGES
members in amazement that famous "Battle of The Golden Spurs" When all the tower of French chivalry was beaten by this ety of Wen VOTA, One. links of the Lorgeous rupeants and processions of the olden time and the imitless power of those great Guilds whigir make the Trades-Unions of our
own time seem weak indere.
-maren,
Way back in. Cæsur's time there was tiny settlement where Bruges Stands and he mentions it and its important bridge and fort. It was a marshy, dangerous place, as the city's enemies have ever found to their cost, and the inhabitants when outnumbered, as they usually were by their toes, spread reeds nerous the shallow waters and armies ode gaily to their death, not seeing the trenchernus
The people of Bruges were hard worka"s and every bli of their prosperity was earne! The enief occupation was weaving, and the most important guild was composed of weavers, fullers, dyers and shenrers. The famous clota of Brages was sealed and weighed and marked with the city's arms and passed everywhere without even being opened and exuniined. Buyers bought it sealed and knew that it was exactly as represented. city through the various guids, was too stern with those who would like to
The
i
have cheated or given poorer qanlity or underweight. The penalty was im prisonment and later, when the prison sentence was finished, banishment from. the city. No one dared to cheat and the buyers knew they were safe in tak ing the bales sealed and unopened.
Did Not Seek Trade, Broges never sought buyers nor went nfield to sell. Buyers caine to her and thronged the place. Su miny came and thi necessity was so great for banks and consuls and offices. that Bruges set apart a large section of the city for the business offices of Russians. Eng- Jah, Germans, "Danes and others. Sho had also a very extensive trade with the East, and stately ships salled into the very town and were discharged, and loaded under the vast "Water-Halle," The city was so cut up by canals that
formerly called the Venice of the Nerth. Under the high Belfry was another great selling place. In the Ruo aux Laines was a wool-market, and in the apeň aquares of the city were, as erywhere in Europe, many trading piacus.
Downfall Rapid. Bruges was at the vory height of its Importance and wealth in the fifteenth gentury and in this century the rapid downfall began. So sudden was the full and so completely was the city left and
EACH CANAL ONE SEES
is maRE BEAUTIFUL THAN THE LI
You
merce and trade of the world, remember in the fairy story the princess and all her awakening court at once began again what they had been doing a hundred years before, when the enchantment started. The people of Bruges, like the Germans, are born trade and no one can stop their making a success of it.
forgotten that ita preservation seemed the work of enchantment. It fell asleep as suddenly is the enchanted princess and stayed beautiful to delight us modern tourists. No buildings were pulled down or destroyed, nothing was changed. It simply went to sleep for four hundred years and is just waking up. Heaven grant that her citizens, who are rubbing their eyes and trying to decide what to do next, will not think
The All-Important Guilds. There is no trades-union of to-day it progress to pull down all the land-half so important in its power as were marks and build sky-scrapers. They the guilds of Bruges. There were are already digging out her river and fifty-two of them and cach was ruled harbour, dredging them, and planing by its own self-elected officers and by new ways of seizing again the com- nine scperior officers or deans who held
Possing of the
Wigwam-
DESEPTED
sway over them all. These men could be changed by vote of the members of the guilds. The whole city was under crossed their wishes. their hands and woe betide those who No foreigner was permitted to enter any guild and no one in the guilds was allowed to gamble or lead a beentious life or use profane language, and his work must at all times be up to the required standard. All wages and payments and conditions of living were controlled absolutely by the guilda. A man could not even be buried outside of the graveyard of his own guild. The ring Ing of the great Belfry chimes, noted
through many centuries, was the signal for work to commence and stop, and, no map was allowed to work overtime. Sundays and, nil Zeant days and the afternoons previous were holidays, and no work could bè done by artificia' light. The hta available ware too, dim to' Permit perfect work, up to the standard, No tradus could be carried on except In the city itself, and na, employer could hire more than three men at a time. There were no factorius. All work was done in small workrooms attached to a man's house. No one could tralu, more than one apprenticò a year. The' work- man was given three-fourths of the price received for the finished work. and the employer must pay all costs of pro- duction out of the other fourthi Evon so they all soum 'to have made money, So gront was, the reputation of the miamafactururs of Bruges that buyers. for everything Blocked to the city. and wealth poured into her coffers. The citizens spent lavishly and a visit."- ¡ing queen of France said every woman h Bruges was a queen and gressed more elegantly than she herself. Private homes housed valuable tollue- tions of paintings. Books turne 1. but from the marvellous press of Coston, who lived in Bruges, were eagerly bought. Scholars were fetud and mado niuch of and painters encçurigad From the eleventh to the middle. if the fifteenth century was a goldeni age for Bruges
Cause Of Her Downfall, One chief cause was the fact that by "intermayringes and treaties Brugi
came under the power of Spain, and another was the Alling up by shifting sands of her river und harbour, but the main reason was perhaps, as the cuso of Venice and Pisa, the discovery of America, a new way to the East, and the turning of meals minds from trude to adventure and travel;
The high Belfry of Bruges was n watch tower from whose kommit manɛ announced the approach of enemies or the presence of Bres. It dates from the tenth century and contains a remark able chime of 49 bells. There was once a statue of St. Michael or the top and afterwards the Lion of Flanders. The upper part was originally of wood; and was twice burned and was replaced by atone. It is extremely tall, as it had to be away above all other buildinga in order to serve its purpose as tower.
watch
The Beguinage. One of the very quaintext and most delightful, of convents or, as it might be called, old ladies homes, is known as the Beguinage. It consists of many small garden-aurrounded, white build- ings in each of which lived a lady, usually of advanced age, sole mistress of her own establishment, her servants, her purse and all affairs of her house- hold, but alone in the world, and in this community for protection and company It is a restful," lovely place. Near it are some of the mest picturesque parts of the city.
I do hope Bruges will stay beautiful, just as it is. It would be such a shame- to madernize it. rapidly approaching war, some power I hope that in the of enchantment will still guard it for future ages. The world is too material. We need things, that are beautiful; just- beautiful, just to look at and not use at all,
"ODERN INQIGIT
HOME BAD RIVEė, was
愛養
TIVE QoSCHOOL
The Indian Now Lives in a House With a Bath- tub-Traditions of Long Standing Have Given Way Before Civilization."
[By N. C. MeLOUD.]
Gone is the ramane of the Indian wigwam-disappeared with the tradi- tion of savage tribes and bloodthirsty warriory.
in development and evolution, & may well be regarded as an expression, of the progress of the race.
The early Red Men lived in various The Indian of to-day Eves indoors. types of houses, minong which the f He is no longer the nomad of forest wigwam was a conspicuous oxumple. and pinin. His home is up-to-date, his | Many tribes Kved in commanity environment civilized and hia outlook | dwellings, 'accommodating many on life much the same as that of als families. A typical structure of this white neighbour. The Red Man may character was that of the aquois have lost something of romance, but he has gained much of civilization to take dis place.
INDIAY
OF TODAY In all these dwellings chimneys were
fAHOTOS COURTESY
میر سے ہر گام بر متر است اگر میرے
INDIAN AFFAI
Americans.
Under
DOLGIRL
long study. Before assuming his pre- seot past he spent twenty years on the Congressional committee which denin with the interests of the Red Man, and is strongly impressed with the benents' to the nation as a whole which arise advantages from giving the Indian full educational,
trihen. With a length of from 50 ta 100 feet a house of this type wAY perhaps eighteen feet in width, built on With the wigwam the Indian has a frame made of poles, and with walls Also discarded the tipi, wickup, hogan and roof of elm bark. The interior wits and iglu, us some of his structures divided into compartments, and a hole! were known. He now speaks of his was left in the roof, for the carpe of "residence." In some cases he talks of smoke. his townhouse" and his place in the] Other tribes had their distinctive unknown. The introduction of the flue ence, using carefully selected posta as belonged to the Red race as it appeared Omahas made some effort at permun- find it hard to believe that the homes country, for the United States has architecture.. The houses of the in North American
To a large extent the explanation of newly-rich Indians whose fortunes rank, Mohicans were similar in design to to htv, come with the traction foems the chief structural feature of their in the latter part of the nineteenth
the advent of Euro-homes.
this swift transformation lies in the with the best.
those of the Iroquois, but each struc plans.
century. The former savage race is educational advantages to which the There are Indian homes in Oklahoma ture had an opening from end to end
Homes Of To-day." Lived Above Ground.
fast assuming the habits and customs Indian has been introduced. Now for the contrast. With the which suggest the magnificence of Fifth along the top of the roof. The Mandans Along the north-western shores of spread of civilization the Indian has
of modern civilization,
primitive conditions the Indian boy and Avenue or of the Gold Coast of Chicago. bullt circular houses, supported by the Pacific The Haida Indians seem to gained new ideas in comfort and health. day bears no auggestion of the wigwam. customi. They were taught tite things The typical Indian residence of to- gwore trained according to tribal In these costly piles wo find the full- posts and cross-beame and with cantrali have been given to living at some dis- blooded descendants of the tribes which fireplaces. In New Mexico and Arizona tanze above ground. Their houses, as
Since the passage of the law known as The favourite construction is of frame, necessary to self-protection and to the mat the white pioneers with varying the tribes built the massive clusters of reported by early navigators, were on
the "General Allotment Act," there has
The Indian has made greater pro as befits the well-timbered regions of meeting of physical needs in the mattergreen, in a given period, than any other degrees of welcome. To-day's genera stone or adobe known as pueblos. That platforms, supported on posts.
been marked headway in solviry the the Great West. Heating and plumb of food, warmth and clothing The pagan race of which there is a written tions of the two races liva alde by side. these Indians were ambitious is shown climb of 25 or 80 feet from the surface
problems of, housing accommodations ing are up to date. Ventilation ia care only cultural training was along the line record," declared. Burke, a short time In many cases the home of the Red Man by discoveries indicating that their was achieved by means of notched logs, This law has been in effect for less than contrast to the primitive dependence kindred tribal lore. The education wasness world, in professions, Indian for the Indians of the United States. fully built into the structure, in sharp of tribal ceremonien, native music and agz. "On the reservations, in the basi is far ahead of that of the white. Oil structures were in terrace form, with sorving as ladders.
many tlers of living apartments, rising:
forty years. The effects on the living upon a hole in the centre of the roof, mostly Individual and did not contom-graduates reveal a new understanding. to as much as seven stories from the of the Piutes and the Cocopas. These ed a lesson in rapid civilization.
Far more primitive, were the houses habits of the various tribes have afford-Sanitary provisions are the general plate the progress of the tribe as a of the world about them, of the dignity." ground. Some of the adobe walls were homes consisted merely of brush
zule, while the bathtub is becoming whole. The primitive Indian was con- of labour, the rewards of honest fidus seven feet in thickness.
Under the terms of the allotment act almost universa}; s shelters for summer, with little or no the Red Man has been given encourage
tent to pursue the oven tenor of his try, the pleasures and blessinga of
· Bathtub. Upsets Traditions. In these community houses the outer attempt at anything but the bareatment toward the establishing of a per-
way, with little or no thought of social cultured home and family relations, the walls of the lowest story were almost protection from rain.
In his adoption of this modern instru- progress. M The winter manent home. This law caused thement of civilization the Red Man-has
satisfaction of provident, living, and solid. The openings were very small house of these tribes had a framework tribal lands of most of the Indians to shown quick adaptability and ready Man for American citizenship. Under educated and successfulAMANZANA
This did nothing to prepare the Red the aspiration to have their children for purposes of defence. Access to the of poles, bent together at the top, and interior was
be allotted, or sot apert, to individual response to the, enlightenment with the former educational system the. gained by means of covered with brush, bark and earth. members of the tribes. The purpose of which he has been favoured. The bath Indians of the United States would have States is increasing. During the long
The Indian population of the United ladders, quickly drawn Inside in the The Apaches built along the same event of unfriendly visitation. Ellinola general lines, but in more elaborate Indians to estabilsh Aized homes, become generations. Its frequent use by the entranchisement, now an accomplished growthway merosimstélka föRGUED the legislation was to stimulate the tub, has upset the traditions of many bean poorly prepared for their general year consus period the naziorica) inte ad azchnologists believe that the Zashion Anting the Stoux and sumus rets-supporting and BIGST the White: Indian Householder and his family indiesel. The changed conditions are well: cent. In this expansion it is recog elaborate structares unearthed in of the other tribes of the plain country, man's ways of living. The result has cate the rapidity with walch civiliza expressed by Charles H. Burke Com that one of the most powerful insale Mexico may have been developed from the dwelling wore usually portable bean astonishing The visitor to the tion is getting in its work or the missioner of Indian Affairs. He has has been the inhoud the hive-like pueblos...
tents or tiple, made of skinur The Indian reserrations of to-day would present-day, descendants of the first made the welfare of the Indian" a Né", "savitary, houses and
wells have poured their wealth into the laps of the aborigines and the universal instinct for luxury and show has found full expression in the architecture and furnishing of the now mansions of those modern captains of finance, '!
-Development Of Typical Homes. The ofl, barons, however, are in a small minority. The great rank and file of American Indiana will be found in domiciles of len pratentious character although will far removed from the primitive dwelling pinces of the past. The Indian home of to-day, is a study
The