remote spot suffered a strange transformation. The pretty country road
along which we met a couple of carriages yesterday became as brilliant
and animated as the Bois de Boulogne. It was a perpetual coming and going
of fashionable personages. The emperor used to drive over to Remiremont
and dine at the little dingy commercial hotel, the best in the place,
making himself agreeable to everybody. But all this is past, and nowhere
throughout France is patriotism more ardent or the democratic spirit
more alert than in the Vosges. The reasons are obvious. We are here on
the borders of the lost provinces, the two fair and rich departments of
Haut-Rhin and Bas-Rhin, now effaced from the map of France. Reminders of
that painful severance of a vast population from its nationality are too
vivid for a moment to be lost sight of. Many towns of the Vosges and of
the ancient portion of Lorraine not annexed, such as Nancy, have been
enriched by the immigration of large commercial firms from the other side
of the new frontier. The great majority of Alsatians, by force of
circumstances and family ties, were compelled to remain--French at
heart, German according to law. The bitterness and intensity of this
feeling, reined-in yet apparent, constitutes the one painful feature of
Vosges travel. Of course there is a wide difference between the
supporters of retaliation, such journals as _L'Alsacien-Lorrain_,
and quiet folks who hate war, even more than a foreign domination. But
the yearning towards the parent country is too strong to be overcome. No
wonder that as soon as the holidays begin there is a rush of French
tourists across the Vosges. From Strasburg, Metz, St. Marie aux Mines,
they flock to Gerardmer and other family resorts. And if some
Frenchwoman--maybe, sober matron--dons the pretty Alsatian dress, and
dances the Alsatian dance with an exile like herself, the enthusiasm is
too great to be described. Lookers-on weep, shake hands, embrace each
other. For a brief moment the calmest are carried away by intensity of
patriotic feeling. The social aspect of Vosges travel is one of its chief