Many of these
Freres Ignorantins I saw here, and graceless figures they are. One can
but pity them, for as lay instruction is fast superseding clerical, what
will soon be their _raison d'etre?_
There is no Protestant organization at St. Claude, but most likely it
will soon come. English Protestants must never forget that money is
sorely needed by the struggling Protestant communities in France; and
that, without money, schools, hospitals, and churches cannot be built.
At present, as I have before mentioned, trade is at a low ebb, but the
projected railway connecting St. Claude with Nantua will give new
development to its industries, and also throw open a new and beautiful
pleasure-ground to travellers. My friends entrusted me to the care of an
intelligent workman in order to see the manufactures of the "articles de
St. Claude," viz.: pipes, toys, inlaid work, and carved objects in bone,
ivory, &c. We saw small blocks of the so called _bois de bruyere_, as
they come straight from the Pyrenees, which are cut about the length of
pipes, and are worked up partly by hand and partly by machinery. Women,
girls, and children are largely employed with the turning lathes, and in
many other processes; I saw a woman polishing handles of the toys known
as cup and ball; also box-wood tops being turned, and rules and measures
being made; the thin blades of folding rules are made with marvellous
rapidity, as had need to be the case, seeing how low is the price at
which these and other goods of this kind are sold by the gross for
foreign markets.
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