Jasper County Democrat, Volume 1, Number 43, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 February 1899 — IN AN OLD FRENCH TOWN. [ARTICLE]

IN AN OLD FRENCH TOWN.

Retains the Old World Wars of Csnturiss Ago. The very name of tbe hotel at which the traveler alights will help to foster the illusion that he has pnt not only miles, but centuries, between himself and his ordinary surroundings. Its sign, de la Haute Mere Dieu or de Tlrnage, carries him back to the days when men relied for safety in their journeys rather on the hand of an unseen Protector than on the latest sanitary patent of Jennings. So, too, the names of the streets serve to strengthen the same impression. Here he can sip honey with the Bourdon Hanc, caper with the Chevree qui dancent, caracole on his destrier by the side of the Quatre fils d’Aymon, hunt Huguenots in the Rue des Renards, or make the best of both worlds with the Chapeaux Violettes. The houses that rise on either side of these quaintly-named and tortuous streets are in keeping with the oldvcrld atmosphere. They belong to every age and every style. Here is one with high-pitched roof and timbered front, its three stories jutting out one above the other, like an inverted staircase. Another, decorated with the broken escutcheon of some noble family, fascinates the passer-by with the grotesque figures into which its joists are carved, or that grimace from the gable-ends. On the door of a third, huge nails trace mysterious hieroglyphs, some Protestant’s confession of faith, or 6ome Leaguer’s curse on Henri Quatre. A fourth, of less ambitious type, bears upon its front the symbols of a burgher’s noblesse de la cloche. A fifth, standing back a few paces from the street, with a stone-paved courtyard, where pigeons are wooing with all the formal courtesies of Sir Charles Grandison,.has an iron gateway, worked in the style of Louis XV., with marvelous interlaced branches, the masterpiece of some unknown Jean Lamour.—Nineteenth Century.