A Beautiful City

Brussels is a beautiful city and owes its beauty in a large measure to the good sense and public spirit of its citizens or a ruling king who rues ia the iuterest of the people. üae iood thing comes of a fortifled city, oí at least has come to Paris and Brussels, and that is when by expansión it has become necessary to tear down the fortification it has left the boulevard. Brussels isnow about three times as large as the original walled city, and this boulevard forms a braad street around between the center and the outside from 200 to 300 feet wide. It is more than a street or avenue; it is a street and a park. It goes by different names at different parts, and Boulevard Waterloo- the widest - is flrst a sidewalk, then a paved street perhaps 15 feet wide for business purposes, then ground with two rows oï trees, 80 feet widê, for horseback riding, then 40 feet or so of asphalt or macadam for carriages, then 80 feet (at a guess) with four rows of trees for pedestrians, with seats for resting ; then another paved street for business and street cars, and, lastly, the other sidewalk. At different places are booths for selling papers, etc, waiting rooms for the street car service and public couveniences. Through the town there are two broad avenues and many outside, like the Avenue Louise, which leads out to the Bois, and, like the boulevard, bas the same combination - part street and part park of itself. The other sfcreets are neither wide nor straight, but cool in a hot day and likely warm in winter. The buildings are not whole blocks from street to street as in Paris, each separate house or store varying somewhat one froin the other, but they are all in a locality or block about of the same height and degree of finish - all kept clean and bright - the telegraph and telephone wires all over the tops strung from roof to roof and the whole city supplied with street car service. One of the lines is supplied with cars that run on the track where there is a track and turn out on the pavement where there is none. This is done by using common omnibus wheels for the carriage and two leading wheels which drop into the grooves n the rails - when in line - which keeps the car on all right. By custom, law or common sense none of the carriages has tires less than about two inches wide, so that the ground rail does not interiore at all with the common street traffic. The king, either by his power or influence, sees to it that the companies give the worth of the money. The fares are very low - only a cent for short rides, varying according to the distance - and the companies are no doubt managed on economical lines. As an exarnple, the tickets or receipts are printed on paer and are canceled by the conduotor tearing off the corner. How simple compared with the thick ticket and punch ! The street fars, or tram cars, have rnaps of the route over which they travel posted so one who can follow a map can see where the special line he is on goes, what main streets it crosses and where it connects with other lines. Probably nothing has been said about Brussels for the last 300 years that did not include the Hotel de Ville, or town hall, with its openwork spire. Inside it is a museum, with many curiosities and uoted paintings. Surrounding it and throughout the old part of the town there are inany ancient Flemish buildings, and in the new part is the Hall of Jnstice, one of the largest buildings in the world, if not the very largest, It is larger than St. Peter's, and though Philadelphia claims to have the largest tnis is 500 by 600 and 400 feet high, as against the Philadelphia structure's 460 feet square by the same height, and the Philadelphia building has a large open court, which the Brussels Hall of Justice has not Anyway there is an awful lot of stone and architecture about it. I do not know whether they deal out justice on the same scale as the building, but the affairs of the city seem to be well managed, and one would think, from the talk of the people, that the king has a good deal to do with it. He is greatly liked, is around the streets and in the exhibition every day and stops to talk to the exhibitors and workmen. We had the honor of meeting him two or three times. He was going one way in the aisles of the exhibition and in the street, and we were going the