ney, March 25.
Assuredly Dijon boasts of many Esperantists, one of whom recognised
me at the station in the morning, and travelled with me.
March 15 was also a lovely day, sunshine and blue sky everywhere.
Having reached the vast and beautiful Lyons, I followed the
directions of the kind M. Offret, and we met for lunch with Dr. Dor
and some other Committee Members of the Group.
Readers will recollect that it is M. Offret who has just published
the report on the _Present State of Esperanto in the World_, and I
had the privilege of seeing the replies which he received. Truly the
Lyons Group is fortunate in possessing such a Secretary; and when I
saw the very neat ordering of all the Group's affairs, I at once
wished to resign the Secretaryship of the London Club, so that
someone with more time and ability could pay more energetic attention
to the matter.
Lyons is a very vast and beautiful city, and friends would not let me
depart before seeing its principal sights, for which I owe them
hearty thanks. But here also the Silk Museum, Collections of
Paintings, the wonderful view of the Snowy Alps, the fine Park, the
confluence of the two mighty rivers, Saone and Rhone, are for all
visitors, not for Esperantists alone; so I will only mention the
agreeable evening meeting, after we had dined together. Here I spoke
in Esperanto of the whole trip. And, really, I had seen so many
interesting and memorable things that days seemed weeks!
But now, unfortunately, this Esperanto-holiday had almost come to an
end. I was about to seek quiet and health in the lovely Maritime Alps
of Italy. I therefore left Lyons at midnight, and woke up near St.
Raphael, where one first catches sight of the beautiful, intensely
blue, Mediterranean.
_March 16-27, 1904._
It really is a fairyland, this wonderful region. Palm trees, oranges,
good cycling roads, flowers of all kinds and colours, and thousands
of similar lovelinesses. And over all the ever-burning sun, the air
most clear. Finding such a landscape in March, one cannot help
thinking of London. Nevertheless, I love London, even with its
blackish, and frequently somewhat dreary, aspect!
I cannot write of the wonders of this fairyland, but I can never
adequately thank Esperanto and the Esperantists for making such a
journey possible. Mr. Bicknell, whose guest I was, and whose name is
so well known to the readers of The Esperantist, is as kind
as his writings are interesting. I gre
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