Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 305, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 31 December 1918 — Old Valenciennes. [ARTICLE]

Old Valenciennes.

"The town of lace,” wrote William of Orange to the Estates on the 18th of April. 1677, “Is lost to us. We are very sorry to be obliged to tell your high mightinesses that It has not pleased God to bless on this occasion the aims of the state under our guidance.” But lace is no longer made In Valenciennes, the capital of an arrondissement In the department of the Nord, and a fortress of the second class. But It is nevertheless a quaint town, with sufficient seventeenth century houses to give it a medieval appearance. The handsome Hotel de Ville is also largely seventeenth century work, and before the war contained a large Collection of tapestries and of paintings, especially of the Flemish school. The city also possessed an academy of sculpture and painting, a museum of natural hl* tory, a lycee and an arsenal. : 2 - X*