Show ga ars frs the swiss at horne bwy w ia special correspondence the swiss thrifty owners ol 01 the playground ot europe with its high alps and towers of silence are con scantly ticketed a ration of hotel proprietors prie tors and have indeed taught us all how to be happy though traveling but it never does to generalize and to learn something of the limited ex closne yet decidedly intellectual so cle of little mountain guarded gen eva is to meet with a series of sur arises just cuts de the precincts of the town which 0 o very quaintly brackets calvin and rousseau as its chief celebrities there are many charming country hoi ses whose own ers winter in geneva in their solid mansions of gray stone and privately have rather a poor on of people without ancestors tre chate aines of such houes are very rarely beau ticul or elegant sometimes wealthy they vet dress with a simplicity at which luxurious american women would smile but they are iery well educated and are e sent lall ladies in the good old fashioned sense of the word the r goubes are often fur dished with exquisite taste for al though they are scornful of vulgar os tent atlon foreigners were amazed when some years since geneva haz added an exhibition to find such laundry work done o 0 public treasures of old china rare ery and fine silver loaned by private persons there Is a house at geneva set in a most lovely garden on fire with be godlas and gladioli with flaming can nas and the in its red and yellow wearing the colors of the can ton de vaud there the young na once came as guest there he drank ass milk for his health ana there upon a certain handsome escal toire he drew the plan of the great campaign in italy the descendants of his entertainers are still peacefully at home with the writing table duly in its place memories of the past we link so many memories round the blue cold lake that we forget its rightful owners in their calm well ordered homes our thoughts are of de at coppet with the spray of laurel in the beautiful hand of which she was so vain we recall gibbon in his youth or byron who first compell ed the world to fall in love with the mountains instead of ignorantly despising them as horrid rocks as did goldsmith in the museum there hes a big bundle of the letters of maria edgeworth to her famous cousin the abbe refugee in switzerland after sustaining the courage of starred french louis to the very steps of the guillotine there Is in fact an at mo sphere so impregnated with cosmopolitan association about geneva that when we are in it we are as it were environed with a positively english past swiss houses are delightfully clean although there is not the same fussy eternal polishing as in holland the glorified chalet with Us hedges of shell pink roses its balconies furnish ed with dainty comfort might addan serve as a model for an english summer house electric lights and bells telephones and ad arranged bathrooms are versal and the swiss visitor is apt to be disagreeably impressed by the frequent lack of these conveniences in england walls of choice wood with out papers floors of parquet bits of choice tapestry whole suites of ture embroidered tapestry fashion by dead ance stresses all these are very attractive twelve chairs and tau teuila of charming design with a background of white in wool with flowers and fruits in bold relief are left in one drawing room the white portion endlessly laborious was done on canvas in the old ber alln stitch but the bouquets were designed by the worker more than a century ago with such grace and freedom that the grapes and shaded vine leaves looked positively real swiss are hospitable society if a lirkle sedate Is hos bitable and the winter Is enlivened by plenty of dinner parties there is a great deal of music and many of the men play admirably As for the cook ing accomplished in quite modest establishments it may well make ug sigh with envy the solitary cook with a single incompetent looking aid apparently forever cashing vegetable in a minute scullery serves up a din ner tor sixteen that the gourmand need not despise the friendly sun day dinner universal in summer Is a thing to be remembered by weary strugglers with the usual domestic be it terrine or ice or but a simple fried potato each dish Is perfect the flowers may be a shade less elaborately arranged than with us b it the table linen is of finest ity and china balver glasses and wines challenge criticism victoriously is no need tor the swiss hostess to flee to club or restaurant for the entertainment of her friends she can trust her cook as a sovereign trusts her tried and proved general I 1 hear madame you eat nothing said one of these honest Vaudois es to an english visitor her pride la her art had made her interrogate the man servant and she had been utter ly discouraged by her mistaken con elusion that the lady who was but a moderate eater had finer dishes in england the visitor remembering mem bering her own cooks flavorless sauces and adamantine pastry could only sigh as bhe reflected on the mel anchovy truth she Is good housekeeper there is no doubt at all that the swiss lady is a good housekeeper a remarkable deft and well read in three languages she Is quiet and so little given to advertising her own abilities 1 the recipient of a pleasant book of travels written and illustrated by a genevese girl was conscious of surprise it waa highly characteristic of the intense differ ence between switzerland and eng land that the writer had been ed at the house of a well known eng elsh authoress and that she regretted to her verbally that it was of course impossible to describe her welcome and her enjoyment the english au tharess would possibly not have been surprised or displeased by a highly colored portrait of herself and her surroundings in elegant french though it is very certain that she felt just a trifle ashamed of her expects alon when she realized how the matter of respecting privacy was regarded in strict switzerland the lack of superficial brilliancy and the rarity of beauty possibly ac count tor the few swiss heroines in fiction unless it be of the peasant class in bygone dai when the charm ing national costumes captivated the traveler and when a certain hans christian andersen went to grindel wald yet one great english writer has made a very careful and delicate study of a alss lady charlotte arontes first book the professor was dull and a failure but the in sketch of the swiss heroine adlle genrl makes it well worth reading mrs Oll too in young mrs jardane made a sue excursion into switzerland for a wife for an englishman the fur shops of geneva are tarn ous et by a certain unwritten sump auary law the unmarried girl in gen eva never wears a sealskin coat severe simplicity Is positively fashion able the well beloved cult of chit tons might almost be thought to be disregarded unless a sight of the ex made linen for a bridal trousseau altered that opinion and inclined us to feel how much of cheap finery might willingly be spared for that elaborate and solid as dura ble as it is beautiful there is something restful in these hurrying days in a swiss household and e en a single glimpse might teach us not to fancy absurdly that the social life of switzerland is represented by the noisy kaleidoscope crowd in her great hotels the swiss lady is no nonentity although she hakea so little pains to force herself on our attention her tranquil presence Is indeed far more useful and welcome than that of many of her showier sis |