Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page. It is also available as plain text as well as XML.

WILL SEABROOK'S TRAVELS. Me Visits Nimes, France, and GivE The Herald and News His Ex periences And Impressions. (By W. B. Seabrook.) Special to The He-ld and News. Nime-,, Franc.-Geologists hav frequently remarked the eminentl ''sociable" character of the Frene soil, which, as it gradually approach os the frontiers, seems to absorb th tiaits of the adjoining countries. Th observation is equally true of th monuments that have been raised b; the hand of man. One cannot cor ceive a more admirable preface t ancient Italy than the Roman ruin and relies in the lower valley of th Rhone. The Eternal City excepted, i is doubtful if Italy itself ean pre sent an ensemble of temples, arena and ampitheatres superior to that of fered by Nimes, Arles, Orange S1 Remy, Vienne and other less cele brated Provencal sites, whose prec ious antiquities recall the power an glory of the Caesars, invaders, eon querors and then eivilizers of thes itherto barbarian regions. Sine the explosion which shook the Athen ian aeropolis and wrecked the Paz thenon, no existing temple in Greec or Italy is as well preserved or a beautiful as the MaIson Carree; th arenas of Nimes and Arles are ii an infinitely better state of praser vation than the Coliseum; as for th Pont du Gard, it is one of the uniqui marvels of the world. Few cities present to the travele a more imposing picture than Nimes particularly when it is first perceiveo from the summit of the viaduct. Sur rounded by shaded esplanades an splendid modern buildings, the sal ient feature of the lanscape is the gi gantie ampitheatre; behind it rises ridge of green and thiekly woode; hills, the tallest summit crowned b: the romantic 'and enigmatic silhouett of the Tour Magne. Of all the an cient ampitheatres, that of Nime has suffered least from the ravage of time and vandal hands. It is als< one of the largest; it was designed t furnish places for 30,000 spectators which attests the importance of th, city during the time it was governe4 by the Romans. The arena, though spared destrue tion, has undergone many and variei vicissitudes; the Visigoth-s, havina invaded and conquered the. provine in the year 472, construeted a fortres and watch tower upon its topmos a,rches; for the .Saracens it served: * sinela pus-pose and when Charles Martel expelled them from the coun try he set fire to the vast agglomer ation of buildings, which had sprung 'up inside the protecting walls of thi ampitheaize, but while the building of the Saracens crumbled in the heal the massive arches of Roman mason ry stood firm. During the middi ages, this provincial coliseum becam1 the habitation of thousands of poo: families, who constructed rude shel ters beneath the arches, in the nicher *of the walls, and in every creviec which offered refuge, living like Az tecs or prehistoric cave-dwellers. In *side the arena a vertiable villags was built upon the rising tiers o: stone seats, and soon the whole gi g'antic structure was swarming wit] life, like a monstrous beehive or *New York tenement. This city-of the-poor eventually became a distine quarter of Nimes, with markets shops, restaurants and even a chureh which was built in one of the gal leries of .the second. floor and chris tened ''St. Martin des Arenes.' .However, the National Commissioi of Historic Monuments has removei all this debris, and, as far as possible restored~ to the ampitheatre its prop er aspect. Aside from the sentiments o.f aw and solemn wonder which all Roma monuments inspire, the point whiel struck nme most forcibly in connectioi with the constrnetion of this build .ing was the perfect adequacy of it exits. (With one single exception catastrophes like that of the Iroquoi theatre in Chicago, which, unhappil: are of all too frequent occurrence i this enlightened 20th century, wer, unknown to the Romans.) Aside fror the unnumerable staircases whic1 could be thrown open or closed a will, the amphitheatre was provide< with 20 wide exists or '' vomitoires,' * through which the entire audience o 30,000 souls could pass in four or fiv minutes. In ease of accident or se vere storm, for the building was witi out roof, the huge structure literal: ''vomited'' the surging erowds. If the arena arouses primarily profound sensation of Roman grar duxer. the Maison Carree complete the ider of a civilization which knea how to n1' heenitv and eleaanee wit strenwth. The Maison Carree, th~ most +'nired monument in Franet is perh-1ps, the most perfect existin example of Graeco-Roma n architet i the Romans inherited from the s Greeks. Its decorative sculpture is justly celebrated, and in its vicinity statues and fragments of other build ings have been discovered, among which is a bas-relief representing a coquettish young woman seated in e the midst of a flower market, beneath y which appears the following naif h and amusing inscription, "Non ven - do ni amantibus coronas."-(I sell e my flowers only to lovers.) e, Until the 19th century, the arche e ologists held -widely divergent views Ylas to the nature and destination of! the Maison Carree, but it is now gen o erally admitted that the -edifice was s a temple, erected in honor of the two e brothers Caius and Lucius Agrippa, t sons of the great Agrippa and grand- I sons of Caesar Augustus. s But the "Tour Magne" guards its secret, and has stood for 15 hundred years mute and silent as the sphynx. - Was it a tomb or a watch-tower or - a fortress? No one kr irs. Connt less legends have been wuven round its picturesque and crumbling form, e and one historic incident of the XIl e century, more curious than any of - the .traditions, confirms the proverb that truth is stranger than fiction. * Prior to the year 1600 the tower was 120 feet high and was composed of a two distinct paxts; the lower division which rose to a height of 90 feet was formed of a massive circular wall filled with earth and stones; upon this solid bas was built a second tower. Today the upper tower has r disappeared and the 90 foot base is ;, a hollow shell. The singuar origin of I the excavations which changed the - aspect of the monument is somewhat I as follows: Nostradamus, the celebrated as trologer, whose native town, St. iRemy, was only a few leagues distant from Nimes, predicted in the famous "Centuries" which he published be e fore becoming the court physician of Charles IX, that, some day, a Pro s vencal gardener would become rich s by discovering a golden han buried a beneath an ancient tower. Nostra damus died, and in Provenee his i"Centuries," which had never been regarded seriously by his acquantane es and neighbors, were soon forgot ten. He had been the typical "pro - phet not. without honor save in his I own country." But even if the in ? habitants of Nimes, St. R'emy and e IAvignon had been disposed to place s credence in this greatest of charla t tans, the prophecy regarding the i. golden hen was too indefinite to s stimulate them to search for the treas ' ure. "Beneath an ancient tower"' -was the sole indication furnished by ? the mysterious volume, and, as all the a world knows, "ancient towers" aie s the common features of every land ,scape in the valley of the Rhon'e boe - tween Lyons and Mar'seilles. One a .might as well say today "benzath a a 1skyseraper in New York," or "be r neath 'a sand-heap in the Sahara." Sn.However, during the reign of SHenry IV the magic cult founded by - Nostradamus was suddenly revived by - the discovery that ertain important a political prophecies in the "Centur Sies" had been fulfilled in an amnaz - ing manner. Even "in his own coun 1 try" the people marveled, and signal led their tardy recognition by raising a stutue to the memory of the "pro Sphet." Everybody who could read began to read the "Centuries," ar.d the storry of the golden hen was thus brought to light a second time. O:m er predictions had 'come true, why not this one? Many a poor 'farmer ' neglected his cabbages and potatoes to sink his spade feverishly ino& the stony soil at the foot of some Roman or feudal ruin-always with the same result. Now a certain gardener, nam ~ ed Traucat, dreamed one night that i the golden hen was hidden beneath 1 the "Tour Magne" at Nimes. So ' impressed was he by the vision that - he sold all that he possessed, bought a a donkey and set out for Paris to see ,the king. Two months afterward, a hungry, dirty and in rags he reached Sthe French capital. To the royal a guards who barred his 'entrance to C the Louvre he refused to explain the i nature of his mission, declaring sim a ply that he possessed a prodigious se t eret which could be confided only to a the ear of the king. So insistent was 'his demand that an audience was fin-i f glly granted. Henry IV whose very e elevation to the throne had been gen Serally regarded as the fulfillment of Sa certain obscure saying of Nostra y damus, was disposed to take a ser ious view of the gardener's dream, a and, after certain legal preliminaries, Sissued letters patent, d.ated Fontain s bleu, May 22nd, 1691, according a Traucat the permi.,sion and funds h necessary for an exhaustive search. e If the fabled treasure was unearth ,ed, one third was to go to Traucat gand two thirds to the king. The ex - ecavations were ceremoniously begun. Lt in the presence of the "procureur nitaries of State. Th al enturous ih and credulous gardener. aided by his to powerful patron, hollowed out the tower from top to bottom a;id sunk th a deep shaft into the earth. The u1 golden hen was not discover,ed and ao Traucat, who feared the royal dis- th pleasure, fled the country. pa But in the course of Ihe acava- th tions certain rare statues and frag- da ments of ancient works of a. we:e re biought to light and form today a wi part of a collection of the Lou)vr,* ga Perhaps they are of more vaia- thaa no the golden hen. pi bu The Bull-Fight at Arles. ed (By W. 3. Seabrook.) bu Augusta Chronicle. ea Arles, France, Dec. 12.-With a no vagabond musicia nand an litalian re barber for company, I shook the scaly eti dust of Martigues from my feet and entered the arid plain of Crau, with fo Arles forty kilometers distant, as yo our objective point. The Crau is a mi desert, covered with stones and bl, boulders, uninhabited and barren of eo vegetation, a sort of minature Sa- tv hara, which has resisted all attempts mi at irrigation and reclamation, ex- cu cept for an occasional oasis in the lit, northern district. The road was long, ch the horizon was vast and monotonous th; as the ocean and more than once be- he fore our pilgrimage was ended I an wished for a camel or an automobile. in But, finally, one Saturday evening, sp as the bells of St. Trophime were an sounding vespers, we reached our ce goal, and good fortue led me to see sn hospitality at the quiet inn, which TI was destined later to become my per- wi manent "headquarters" in Pro- fo: ence. Sunday afternoon I followed the wf entire able-bodied population of Ar- ht les to the ancient Roman amphithea- fei tre. 'les arenes," to witness the fin- pl al "course de taureaux" of the sea- hu son, a kind of French version of the lic Spanish bull-fight, not so dangerous ea as the latter, but none-the-less exeit- lir ing and resulting occasionally in er bloodshed and fatality. A savage bl bull goaded into blind fury,ris turned ar loose in the arena, with a red cockade mi tied securely on his forehead, and the of beneficent municipality offers a sh prize of a couple of hundred francs 'en to the matador or ''razetour'' as he ne is denominated in the. patois, who th succeeds in snatching this trophy mi from its place between the horns of mi the infuriated animal. Thirty or forty young men, un- i armed and clad as for a foot-race, en- ca. ter the arena and stake their liv-ss in; n the slender chiance of gaining thir- bh ty or forty dollars and a few rounds ye of applause. Truly, a gentle. anid di- he verting pastime. But, mon dieu, up ee trere among the arches. sit the belles sO Arlesiennes, the queenly peasant s beauties, with -their pretty costumes jm and their glorious eyes, shivering Igu with voluptuous pagan delight when I the pointed horns graze the lithe body of some daring youth, waiting impatiently to bsetwo their smiles' and favors upon the victor. Maybe SV the young dare-devils are not so 1 foolish after all. Older and wiser coi en have risked their necks for less. da The Sunday Tragedy. ,Br On this particular Sunday after- ifr noon an accident occurred, and the be sands of the arena were stained with wi iuman blood as in the days of Con- lh. tantine. If I could put in written d1< words my strange emotions, on wit- sti nessing the scene, 'the result would Lu bear little resemblance to this dis- pri onnected and unpretentious narra- ici ive; it would be a real literature, and an possibly real psychology as well. bo As a newspaper man, ''covering" police assignments, I have become all too familiar with bloodshed 'and viol nt death in various forms; in my Sa 'ub reporter'' days, my sleep wa.s pa often haunted by visions of a still on warm corpse outstretched upon some Ca barroom floor, .or by the recollection f some mangled, palpitating mass of flesh and bones dragged from be YOUR BA THE NEWBERRY Capital $50,000 -- No Matter How SmalU, The Newberry S vil give it careful atter ipplies to the men and thi AS. McINTOSH. Presidnt .ed to seli sights. But to resume my storv. Durin , first half hour I found little o usual interest in the "course.'' Th ile razetours moved so lightly oi air feet and avoided with suci ap rently eareless ease the rushes o e ball, that I underestimated th nger, and in my eyes the scene rep 4ented merely a crowd of farmer teing a more or less excitin! me. the fine points of which I dii t understand. Here and there wer :-turesque touches of local coloi t as a whole the audience appear distressingly commonplace; th 11 wheeled, charged, pawed th rth. and occasionally snorted, bu thing came of it, and his manouev ; grew monotonous by force of rep tion. All at once. down in the arena, Dt slipped. The next instant uthful form, impaled upon th irderous horns. fell broken an ?ering on the sands. Simultan ,sly a long-drawn gasp arose fron o thousand throats, an inarticulat irmuring wave of sound in nous minor key. that thrilled m :e an 'electric shock, and left m, illed and trembling. It was lik , purring of some gigantic eat tha Id secure beneath its claws a tori d palpitating victim. Deep dow my breast an unknown chord re anded to the savage harmony, an unknown soul awoke from twent; aturies of dreamless sleep. Th ,ell of blood was in my nostril e lust of blood was abroad on th nds. Something far away and lon! ,gotten was calling, ealling, calling E grew faint and dizzy. The aren s swimming before my eyes in ninous, red mist. Far below m: t, in the stony entrails of the am itheatre. I heard the snarling o ngry wolves and the roaring o ns; from long deserted subterran a passages came the muffled rum.1 ig of chariot wheels;.I heard th aking of heavy iron hinges, th tre of trumphets and the clash o ns, mingled with the clamor of ghty multitude. Soon the sound combat ceased, the tumult and th >uting died away, a breathless sil ae intervened, and then I heard th rvous patter of padded feet upo: sand. A fearful shriek-a w<> In's voice-pierced the air, and th st,s were lifted from my 'eves. [ often wonder whither I was drift with this hellish vision. Was it e of sympathetic hypnotims result from the proximity of those tw< usand bloodthirsty, excited Pro eals, who have unquestionably in ited the traits of their Roman an tors? Was it a reminiscence o ie previous existence, or was I aply the primeval instinct of th r-beast, revived by hazard an< ided by the accidents of environ mt and education 7 Life 100,000 Years Ago. cientists have found in a care il itzerland bones of men, who live' ),000 years ago, when life was il stant danger from wild beasts. To y the danger, as shown by A. W own of Alexander, Me., is largel: >m deadly d'isease. "If it had no n for Dr. King's N'ew Discovery ich cured me, I could not havy ed,'' he writes, "suffering as: from a severe lung trouble and bborn cough.'' To care Sor ngs, Colds, obstinate Coughs, anc went Pneumonia, it 's the best med ne on earth. 50c. and $1.00. Guar teed by W. E. Pelliam & Son. Tria ttle free. Attention Pensioners. [ will be in the auditor's office eaci turday in January, 1909, to pre ce applications for pensions. Those the roll do not have to apply again 11 promptly and get your blanks. W. G. Peterson, -Pension Commissioner. g'ewherry, S. C., Dec. 18, 1908. LKINQ! IAVINGS BANK. -Surplus $30,000 i Matter How Large, savings Bank tion. This message e women alike. j. E. NORWOOD, |BLAN START TH WITH A Blank I HAVE A LEDGERS, DAY BOOKS, RECORI RECEIP MEMOR TRIAL BAL Examine my s You will find mi you can order th keep your money mages.! Does It Pau? It Has Ps And It W TO TR ~O. K LE T . WI tHonesty Rules: Special Reductioi - IArticle in Ever: If You Want BUY YOUR CHRISTI . WE SELL THE If you compare b with the prices ck chants you will s< L we offer you. F( are entitled to yoi 0. K LE The Fair and SOME OF '01 To be conservative. To pay four per cent. To calculate interest sei To bond every employe< To be progressive and a To lend our money to c To treat our patrons col To be liberal and prom: To secure business from TO BE THE VERY BI TO DO BUSINESf Our institution is under the examined by the State Bank E The Bank ol Pi osper DR. GEO. Y. HUNTER, President. J. F. BROWNE, Cashier. BOOKS E NEW YEAR EW SET OF Books FULL LINE OF JOURNALS, CASH BOOKS, 3 BOOKS, T BOOKS, ANDUMS, ANCE BOOKS. tock before buying.& r prices as cheap as am, and besides you -in your home town. look Store Whu NOt tid Others, ill Pay You * 'ADE AT T N E R'Sj [ERE Every Transaction. i in Price on Every ir D e partment. to Save Money lAS GOODS FROMUO BEST FOR LESS. quality and prices arged by other mer e the great saving >r these reasons we ir trade. :::: TTNERI Square Dealer. JR POLICIES: ni-annually. ccommodatinlg. ur customers. irteously. >)t. .all classes. P.ST BANK FOR YOU 3 WITH. supervision of and regularly xaminer. ProsperitU, ity, S. C. DR. 3. S. WHEELER, V. President. j. A. COUNTS,