ss, and the Assumption, few people
would care to visit it. A gorgeous church ceremony was in progress when
we first entered the church: some one of the three hundred and
sixty-five saints receiving an annual recognition on the occasion of his
birthday. A score of priests were marching about the body of the church
at the head of a long procession of boys, with silk banners and burning
candles, chanting all the while to an organ accompaniment. On the
borders of this procession the people knelt and seemed duly impressed.

The patter of wooden shoes upon the streets is almost deafening to
strangers, men, women, and children adding to the din. Probably it is
found to be cheaper to take a block of wood and hew out a pair of shoes
from it, fit to wear, than to adopt a more civilized mode of shoeing the
people; but these heavy clogs give to the inhabitants an awkward gait.
In all of the older portions of the town, the houses have a queer way of
standing with their gable ends to the street, just as they are addicted
to doing at Amsterdam and Hamburg, showing it to be a Dutch proclivity.
Dogs are universally used here for light vehicles in place of
donkeys,--one or more being attached to each vehicle adapted to the
transportation of milk or bread and other light articles. These are
attended by boys or women. Beggars there are none, to the credit of the
city be it said; nor is one importuned by hackmen or other public
servants; all are ready to serve you, but none to annoy you. Antwerp has
some fine broad squares, avenues, public gardens, and noble trees.

Belgium is a nation of blondes, in strong contrast with its near
neighbor, France, where the brunettes reign supreme. It is singular that
there should be such a marked difference in communities, differences as
definite as geographical boundaries, and seemingly governed by rules
quite as arbitrary. Why should a people's hair, eyes, and complexion be
dark or light, simply because an imaginary line divides them
territorially? No one for a moment mistakes a German for a Frenchman, an
Antwerp lady for a Parisian. The very animals seem to partake of these
local characteristics, while the manners and customs are equally
individualized. The French women of all classes put on their attire with
a dainty grace that contrasts strongly with the careless, though cleanly
costume of their sisters over the border. Aesthetic taste, indeed, would
seem almost out of place displayed upon the square,