CHALONS - SUR - MARNE, shit'1ON' stir mars'. A garrison town of France, capital of the Department of Marne, 107 miles east of Paris by rail, on the right bank of the River Marne, which is here crossed by a handsome stone bridge (Map: France, L 3). Chalons-sur-Marne is an old walled town and the seat of a bishopric. The houses are chiefly of timber, lath, and plaster. The situation, however, is agreeable, and the town contain: some fine public buildings. theprin cipal of which is the cathedral of Saint Etienne, which contains one of the finest grand altars in France. on the east side of the town there is the splendid Promenade du Jard, or park, which covers nineteen acres. Chalons has a school of industry. a communal college, a seminary, a mu seum, and a library. It manufactures woolens, cotton, leather. etc., and has a considerable trade in grain, hemp. rape-seed oil, and champagne.
Population in 1901, of town. 21.290; of com mune, 20.737. ChAlons is of great historical importance. It was known as the Roman Cat alannum in the Third Century: witnessed the defeat of Tetricus by Aurelian in A.D. 274; of the Alemanni by dovinus in 260: and here or in the district (Catalaunian Fields), in 451, was fought one of the fifteen decisive battles of the world (according to Sir Edward Creasy). when the Romans and their allies, the Visigoths, defeated Attila and his nuns. The town success fully resisted the English attacks in 1430-34; it was taken by the Prussians in 1814, and by the Ru—ian- in the following year. In 1370 it was occupied by the Germans after the evacuation by MacMahon of the celebrated camp established here in 1856 by Napoleon Ill.