There are free libraries for all, and a very handsome museum has been
opened within the last few years, containing some fine modern French
pictures, all gifts of the Dollfrees, Engels, and Koechlins, to their
native town. The museum, like everything else at Mulhouse, is as French
as French can be, no German element visible anywhere. Conspicuous among
the pictures are portraits of Thiers and Gambetta, and a fine subject of
De Neuville, representing one of those desperate battle-scenes of 1870-71
that still have such a painful hold on the minds of French people. It was
withheld for some time, and had only been recently exhibited. The
bombardment of Strasburg is also a popular subject in Mulhouse.

I have mentioned the flower-gardens of the city, but the real
pleasure-ground of both rich and poor lies outside the suburbs, and a
charming one it is, and full of animation on Sundays. This is the
Tannenwald, a fine bit of forest on high ground above the vineyards and
suburban gardens of the richer citizens. A garden is a necessity of
existence here, and all who are without one in the town hire or purchase
a plot of suburban ground. Here is also the beautiful subscription garden
I have before alluded to, with fine views over the Rhine valley and the
Black Forest.

Nor is Mulhouse without its excursions. Colmar and the romantic site of
Notre Dame des Trois Epis may be visited in a day. Then there is Thann,
with its perfect Gothic church, a veritable cathedral in miniature, and
the charming, prosperous valley of Wesserling. From Thann the ascent of
the Ballon d'Alsace may be made, but the place itself must on no account
be missed. No more exquisite church in the region, and most beautifully
is it placed amid sloping green hills! It may be said to consist of nave
and apse only. There are but two lateral, chapels, evidently of a later