Manual Arts High School - Artisan Yearbook (Los Angeles, CA)

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14 THE ARTISAN W ' 30 m-- OVER THE ALPS

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TRAVEL I • ' If UROPE! Strange linw much and yet hciw little this ' Ford .fii trayed. k- gJL was as if I were attem]5tin,t,f to remember a most vivid dreatt bnt recalnng jP onlv vague forms and weird shadows. However I was headed abroad.! As day after day of that great e.xpanse of water extended from horizon to horizon I could not help but realize a keener ajipreciation for the achieve- ments of both Lindbergh and Columbus. At last this land of shadows took shape and landing at the Boulogne-Sur-Mer, we boarded a f|ueer little train for Paris. As our guide led us from one church edifice to another, telling how long; each bad stood, which kings had worshipped in this and which queens had sponsored that ; and as he pointed out the sciuare in which the famous guillotine once stood (though the exact spot is not known) ; as he told us about the Bastille and its fall, the city seemed a shadow of the past. But this gloomy impression was quickly dispelled as returning to our hotel we passed numerous gay cafes, many of which were serving patrons seated at tables arranged along the front walk. An uneventful train trip brought us to Lucerne, Switzerland, the most beauti- ful place T have ever seen. Our hotel was on the side of a heavily wooded moun- tain and commanded a panorama of Lake Lucerne and the snow-cai ped Alps, on the other side of which is Italy. The people of Switzerland are exceedingly sturdy ; even the children are thick-limbed and broad chested. On the way from Lucerne to Pome we tarried at Milan, and without s topping, passed through several other Italian cities and towns among which were Genoa and Pisa. (The Tower of Pisa leans much more than I had ever supposed.) It happened that we arrived at Rome the day after the Pope first left the ' atican grounds, so we found the streets and church steps well covered with wax. the drippings from countless candles, One chooses with difficulty the most interesting point of Rome. The great cathedrals (which in addition to being architectural marvels are monuments to engineering skill), the Roman Baths, the Coliseum, and the Catacomhs. are all so historically vital that the gazer all but sees The glory that was Rome. A side trip from Rome took us to Naples and then to Pompeii, the most intriguing city of all. It is impossible to tell the impressions of my companions ; I can only answer for myself. At this moment it is all so vivid I seem actually to be standing among those ruins of ancient luxury. The chariot ruts in the cobbled streets ; the watering troughs once filled by lead pipes from an aqueduct in the mountains ; one of those ancient wine shops with the stone counter, and the basins ground in the stone to hold the wine { what hilarious imbil)ing must have trans])ired here) ; those immense stone mills for grinding the meal, once dri en by toiling slaves: the large oven of the b;ikerv from which came the city ' s confections; the magnificent dwellings with wonderful mosaics around the foun- tains in the patios; the kitchens containing the very food being cooked when Vesuvius showered the city with its shroud of ashes. As I viewed those manifesta- tions of human thought and life, all so jierfect after nearlv 2,000 vears of oblivion,

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TRAVEL IMPRESSIONS 15 I was conscious of a reaction which to me was very clear but which evades exact expression: From the moment the last men fled to the moment I came seemed but a protracted instant ; I all but saw their fleeting figures turn the corner of eternity. Traveling northward we crossed the Apennines to Venice, which is romantic but filthy. Space does not permit detailed account of Innsbruck, Munich, Bingen, Heidelberg, the Rhine, or Amsterdam, from which we aeroplaned to Brussels ; nor of London, so well known to all English speaking people. After a week in Scotland we returned to Southampton and embarked for New York. Arriving home I was startled by the contrast. Here one could actually get his meal within a half hour ; people on the street seemed to know what they were doing ; new buildings were going up; industries were prospering; trains stepped out as if they were headed for some place ; elevators didn ' t threaten to drop at every moment : the impression was that of a country shaping its destiny, not basking in the reflected glory of times long since trampled under foot by the advancement of science. I was convinced that the United States is a country wonderful beyond adequate appreciation. In J