Show To the Editor of oj he the Chronicle i I HAVE HAVE had it in n mind for many an a 9 day dayto to write a few lines to the CHRONICLE but but as inclination and opportunity have never before found themselves in each others other's company the lines have as yet been unwritten To one born and reared in Southern swamps or even among the blue Alle- Alle ghames a description of the world- world famed Alps would be glorious but I Ifancy Ifancy Ifancy fancy that one whose whole life has been passed under the shadows of the Wasatch almost within sight of the mighty mother chain would be as I Iwas Iwas Iwas was disappointed in even the reality Englishmen especially and some Americans have been known to stand awestricken and speechless at sight of an Alpine sunset and to ever after laud it ab the most sublime sight ever beheld by mortal man That is readily excusable excusable excusable able in a Londoner who knows of the sun sun only as some far distant body which he has never seen and might even be pardoned in a aNew New Yorker but to one who has las watched the fiery orb sink to rest in the bosom of the ti Great Salt Lake burnishing with richest gold the waters at his feet and the distant distant distant dis dis- tant blue hills beyond an Alpine sunset would but recall the grander scene in inthe inthe inthe the far dista distant nt West and he would be apt to smile with pity at the raptures of Cousin Johnny Bull or his eastern com com- patriot The mountain gorges and rushing rushing rushing rush rush- ing torrents of this tourists tourist's para paradise ise would no doubt be sublime to a Missourian Missourian Mis- Mis saurian but I fancy even the gorges themselves would blush for shame that they are so praised could they but catch a glimpse of their far away rivals the can canyons ons of the Grand the Arkansas or orthe orthe the he Colorado One has no need to go beyond the borders of f Utah to find the ther r c li tL 1 i ids Yx J peer of Switzerland in everything b but t glaciers laciers bogus us Roman castles and high high- priced hotels and if a few of our worthy orth eastern friends would only py pay 4 us a visit stopping off at the Yellowstone Yellowstone Yellowstone Yellow Yellow- s stone National Park for a few days e en route and calling at the Yosemite V Valley lle lleon on their way to the Golden Gate they would indulge in less less less' cheap rhapsodies s A O 1 over r the sights and scenes of the old world republic As a matter of fact about a quarter of a million tourists annually visit visit Switzerland and solitary hotels perched 4 A high on some mountain pin pinnacle a le in incline incline incline in- in y cline railways ascending the less dangerous danger danger- ous peaks and swarms of Alpine guides guide r thereby reap a bounteous harvest harve t. t I sometimes fancy and occasional conversations conversations conversations con con- with Americans met here and there during my stay confirms th th- th thought that about seventy-five seventy per percent i cent of those who indulge in guidebook guidebook guidebook guide guide- book exclamations do so because having having having hav hav- ing spent so much money to see the sights they think it follows as a natural consequence that they must praise the scenery or other people will think they have not received the worth of their rl money and the o other her twenty-five twenty follow s suit because they dont don't know any better A glance at at- atthe the map of Europe will show you a little strip of neutral ground separating from each other th the four powers of France Germany Austria Austria and Italy This is Switzerland or a ashe as hc she proudly styles herself The Helve Helve- tian Co Confederation federation On this tiny patch pitch of mountain and lake in all about one- one fifth the size of the State of Utah three million souls are working out their destiny The government is republican the confederation being di divided vided in into C two twenty-two cantons or states each with its independent government much after i i i Ys j the fashion of the sta states es in the American Ameri Ameri- can U Union It is probable that in this S small area more languages are sp spoken ken kent t x tha thao than o on any spot of equal size on the f globe German French and Italian are 7 k in daily use and in the Canton of 4 a mixture is still r- r the in of taught as legal tongue some the public schools though it is fast r being replaced by German In addition to these standard languages one finds r t Y about twenty dialects each somewhat re resembling embling the others but still possessing possessing possess possess- t ing such distinguishing characteristics 5 that a native has but to speak to make known the canton in which he resides r so that a Swiss to understand the national national language of his own country would woud have to be able to converse in int t about twenty four different tongues Think of that ye first year L hns and andi andye i ye who are trying to work out the in intricacies intricacies intricacies in- in of the French verbs In ll four s. s cantons French predominates Italian in one and in the other seventeen German German German Ger Ger- man in literature but the various dialects dialects dialects dia dia- in speech Do not imagine however however however how how- ever that a knowledge of German will enable you to understand even a single r one of these many dialects Not at all i nor will win a knowledge of one ne of them insure an understanding of the others f for each has its provincialisms and its own peculiar pronunciations and in one oneat oneat at least Berne the same dialect is not r. r used everywhere within its own borders f there being three in the one canton h. h The effect of these provincialisms is to tomake tomake C make as great a change hange as to alter in the pure German to f. f AL in the Zurich dialect and to in that of Berne There are a few universal changes from I the German such as pronouncing veil veil- leicht lt Zett Zeil and similar words as though they were spelled and Zie slighting entirely the gt gt sounds and imparting an n intense gut eral grunt to all words so unfortunate as to contain 1 4 j any II ch com combination A most appalling disregard of endings ending is forced the hearers hearer's attention and such transformations as CHAST MORN CHOP CRO for kanst du morgen kommen are the creme de la creme of Swiss dialects The French cantons too are more or orless orless orless less influenced by their neighbors the Geneva peasant incorporating in his vocabulary a anum number ber of words borrowed fro from his friend across the lake and the N being beguiled by bythe bythe bythe the French patois into accepting some of its peculiarities In these however it is the peasant alone who suffers his city brother keeping more or less aloof from such influences while in the Ger German man part the dialect is used by mistress and maid instructor and instructed ma many y being unable to use the correct German at all One cannot but notice the diff difference rence between this country and our own in the administration of the laws a forcible illustration being the sentence imposed upon a truant recently by a Salt Lake judge of some six years in the Reform School which in all but name is a prison Such a youngster if in Switzerland Switzerland Switzerland Switzer Switzer- land would be required to pay a fine of ot two and a half francs for his first offense the fine being doubled each day Should this prove unsuccessful he would be besent besent besent sent to the House of Correction until he became willing tc attend school and no longer On the other hand a murderer here is hounded and hunted down to the thelast j j last and and once caught all the eloquence 1 of hired lawyers cannot save him from the prison cell while too often in the United States thanks to the silver silver- tongued orators orators and weak-minded weak juries red-handed red murder is punished by a al s lighter sentence than truancy from school Fences stone walls bull dogs bull dogs and shot guns combined are insufficient f I to prevent raids raids' upon Salt Lake fruit orchards by hoodlums they would laugh laughin in your face if you said law to them knowing its impuissance while for mile niile upon mile one can walk along past Swiss vineyards and fruit gardens with not the least indication of a barrier between between be be- tween een the public high highway way and the private domain But touch even so little as a bunch of grapes and the officers of the law will be on your track ready to do their part toward its enforcement But such is the respect of every man for the property of his his his' neighbor that the law might as well not exist One misses the freedom of the United States notwithstanding the boasted liberty of its European counterpart for there a stranger strang r might wander at atwill atwill atwill will unmolested here he must deposit his bis passport and receive in return a permit permit permit per per- mit de dt in every city where he expects expects ex ex- peets to stay for any length of time time in in some i-some within two weeks after his arrival As every such performance necessitates the unwinding of a few yards of red tape two or three visits to the Hotel de Ville and the deposit of from 30 cents to which is never returned one after a time begins to tire of such an abominable system In some of the cantons you will be forced to submit to toa a tax on your personal property and your Jour income from whatever source derived U. U S. S Government bonds in included included included in- in from China to the West Indies and as they have a unique way of interpreting interpreting inter inter- eting expenses to mean revenues revenues- reasoning that you could not pay the expense did you not have a corresponding correspond correspond- ing income the income the tax can he be made of sufficient proportions to cause y you u an an- They even go so far as to tax taxa a stranger for the support of their fire department or if he objects to paying the tax to enlist him among the fire ladd caddies laddies I S of the hose-cart hose brigade Government Government Government Govern Govern- ment buildings are everywhere prevalent and government employees become veri veri- table hordes The natives have a a holy 1101 dread of law an and law enforcers and willingly submit to some som of the most absurd measures that were ever enacted in any civilized country Suppose Mr b Farmers Farmer's herd of pigs is increased during during dur dur- f ing the night by half a dozen newly- newly born squealers the first thing he must do is to make a trip to the nearest government government government gov gov- building to inform the proper official of the important event which is forth forthwith wi th recorded and the record t stored away in the archives of of- the state On his return home he finds Y that one of the little ones has been Li LiI I d N accidentally stepped on by the mother and killed back he must hasten to t have this fact recorded His neighbor comes along and wishes to buy one of y L the herd another to the dignitary's office to obtain permission to make the j sale and and I have it recorded Does he heWish heWish Wish to kill the fatted calf First he must find out from the official having that department in charge if there is any objection to the plan and if none obtain obtain obtain ob ob- tain permission for the licensed butcher to come and perform the bloody deed and for the state inspector to see that it is properly attended to both of whom must be paid and tipped by Mr Farmer If he wishes to pick the grapes in his own vineyard before the day set by the state inspector of vineyards vineyards vineyards vine vine- yards for so doing whether they be overripe or not does not matter he must first or last go and plead guilty to toan toan toan an infraction of the law and p pay y the fine imposed or suffer the consequences which are not apt to be of small mo mo- ment As each and ard every every everyone one of t these ese and kindred visits to government dignitaries dignitaries dignitaries must be accompanied by the deposit deposit deposit de de- posit of a certain sum of money which goes into the fees account it is small wonder that the average Swiss peasant is about as poor as the proverbial proverbial proverbial bial church mouse Poor Yes The average Swiss is a slave in fact though A r r free fre in name He fie c can n never neve hope hoP torise torise to rise above his present condition and ff from m early morning until late at night he toils for barely enough to keep body and soul together f Fortunate indeed if he can earn sixty cents a day t the e year round unless he hc be a skilled mechanic when he may ma make e a dollar per day in inthe hf 1 the busy season His wife and children 11 must assist in keeping up the household household house house- hold and a a. girl who knows no tIa trade is ish h hard rd stock on her fathers father's s hands hand as ash r would-be would suitors flee in f from om 1 h such a useless article a as a woman who r If ha has no way of making a living On the farm the women work side by side with s husband or brother and there is no det detail il of farm life which she does- does no not not t understand and engage in I do not know that the Swiss peasant is in any worse condition than any o other her European farmer and he may be bein bein in better financial circumstances than r any or all of his neighbors on this side of the globe Machinery Machinery- is dispensed with as much a as po possible sible and instead of b labor saving devices l making labor ones J seem to be the rule The average Swiss wiss farmer plows his land with witt a small hand plow pulled by the f family mily cow or the village bull which he has hired for the occasion sows his grain by hand cuts K it with a scythe binds it in the good L old-fashioned old way of a century ago and hauls it to the barn in a hand-cart hand or ort t carries carrie it on his back t A reaper he has probably never heard of and the sight of a self-binder self would make him think the Millennium had arrived Each vi village village vil vil- lage has one separator of most ancient t design and here the farmer hauls his i r. r bundles of wheat or rye to be threshed A necessary adjunct of every village also alsos s is the wine press preES and the still where l' l wormy cherries and sour grape skins are converted into famous French cognac r To be sure the large cities are more modern and quite cosmopolitan and J much of their poverty j js is hidden under x th the mask of b beautify beautiful streets ts ma magnificent buildings and nd lavi lavish h qi Displays II y o of U glittering glittering glitter glitter- te ing gold and blazing diamonds qs but the poverty y is s there too only co covered r vm tip H Hout out of sight i ht of the passing passin t throng rop which never thinks of going goin through the side str street e and back ack alley and Ild because it st- st sees stes s only silks and f furs rs and g gold go goes away way with a dream of sp splendor and n never ver gi gives v s a thought to wh what t might i iq q have ve be been Q just jus around th the corn corner r. r Sit 11 is there too lots of it but like th the poverty it hides ides it its f face ce from hom the to tourist touris ri t str stranger ng r because he e i is one e of the m ain resources of the country cn and d h from hj bi his eyes eye all this i must be concealed Switzerland and has its advantages it its beauties and it its glories you can read of t them em i in an any guid guide book book or geography geography- but it also presents other phases to 9 the h I investigator or some q of f which r- r I h have y tried to describe as they are nor h has anything been exaggerated q nor aught J set down in malice i iI I have much enjoyed reading such uc j stray copies of the CHRONICLE CHRONIC E as h have v fallen I into my hands |