es, flowers, and smooth lawns. One of the
most enjoyable and profitable things for tourists to do in their travels
is to climb at least one tower or height, as the views and correct
information thus obtained will cling longest to the memory.

Brussels is Paris in miniature. The royal palace and park may be compared
to the Tuileries. The beautiful drive down the Boulevard de Waterloo and
up Avenue Louise leads directly to the Bois de la Cambre, a lovely forest
of four hundred and fifty acres, which resembles the Bois de Boulogne of
Paris. Nearly six miles of old and new boulevards encircle Brussels,
passing through the upper and lower portions of the city. The pleasing
variety of some of the more handsome buildings is due to the competition
for large premiums offered for the finest facades. The resemblance of
Brussels to Paris is perhaps more apparent in the cafes, shops, and
public amusements along the busy boulevards. West of the Royal Palace is
the picture gallery owned by the state, and by judicious and repeated
purchases, the collection of pictures is considered superior to that of
the famous gallery in Antwerp. In this gallery the two young artists
spent several pleasant half-days comparing the early Flemish and Dutch
schools. Especially did they study portrait work by Rubens, Frans Hals,
and Van der Helst. All the work by the blacksmith artist Quinten Matsys
in color or iron proved of great interest to the young Americans.

Finally Leo, who knew much of the old masters of Europe, took Alfonso to
see the Musee Wiertz, which contains all the works of a highly gifted and
eccentric master. In a kind of distemper Wiertz painted Napoleon in the
Infernal Region, Vision of a Beheaded Man, A Suicide, The Last Cannon,
Curiosity, and Contest of Good and Evil, Hunger, Madness and Crime, etc.
As Brussels is located near the center of Belgium, the city is very
convenient to several cities that contain many works attractive to
painters and architects.

On arrival at Antwerp Alfonso and Leo rode to one of the stately
cathedrals, near which a military band was playing. Before the church
stood a bronze statue of Peter Paul Rubens. The scrolls and books,
which lie on the pedestal, with brush, palette, and hat, are allusions
to the varied pursuits of Rubens as diplomatist, statesman, and painter.
The two young artists hastened into the cathedral to see Rubens's famous
pictures, The Descent from the Cross, and The Assumption. His con