Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 39, Number 85, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 June 1907 — A SWISS CELEBRATION. [ARTICLE]

A SWISS CELEBRATION.

The Experiences of an American In Geneva on Jnly 4. “The last time I was in Geneva I arrived on the evening of July 3,” says a a correspondent of the Philadelphia Press. “The next mo'fning I left my hotel —it was not one affected by American tourists —for a stroll through the city. From the upper window of one of the shops which looked on the narrow cobble paved street hung an American flag beside the flag of Switzerland. I was puzzled for a minute. Then it flashed over me that it was the glorious Fourth and that in my home in the States at that minute hundreds of thousands of flags were flying and millions of crackers exploding to celebrate the anniversary. It was odd to be reminded of the occasion by the people of another land so far from my own—a people speaking another language and alien to me in everything but their love of freedom. “Turning into another street, I saw more decorations, and as I neared the business center of the eity they grew still more profuse. The big hotels showed the blended colors from many windows, and from the flagstaff of the National hotel, which is the one most frequented by Americans, flew the Stars and Stripes. “It was inspiring. I felt like throwing my hat into the air and crying ‘Hnrrah!’ That is what a good many Americans whom f met WW§" iapniiOij^fcMjQ*" -afoccnrpr, gpme of. them were setting off bombs unmolested. On every hand were the evidences of national sympathy. The exuberant American found encouragement and not reproof in his efforts to make an American Fourth of July in Geneva. / “In the evening, they told me, there would be the annual moonlight excursion down the lake in honor of Independence day. Think of it! A Fourth of July excursion 4,000 miles from home! I went, of course. The steamer was beautifully hung with Swiss and American flags and with bunting of red. white and blue, and lanterns displaying our national colors were swung from the awning. About one-sixth of the passengers were American tourists, the remaining excursionists were Swiss. “There was a band on board —a very bad band, I must admit, but its enthusiasm atoned in some measui* for its lack of harmony. It began with ‘The Star Spangled Banner' and wound np with ‘Hail Columbia,’ the American contingent singing words of the national hymn with more vigor than accuracy and concluding each verse with whoops and yells which highly entertained the more stolid natives.”