St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1879-09-19
italian Railway Enterprise.

Feeling sure that | should never
climb another mountain, had brought
from COrtina-as trophy to hang un-
der my MOsel Oar-the alpenstock with
which | struggled up Tofana value,
twenty-five cents. For convenience l
would send it as freight to Havre. To
allow for the slOwness of the clerks,
we assigned an extra three quarters of
an hour for the business of getting it
off our hands, besides half hour for
buying tickets and registering the bag
gage. In front of the station stands a
guard house, with the deluding legend,
''Expedizione."
"Might l send this stick to Havre ?n
"Sicuro."
"HOw much will it cost 2"
We must ask. The expeditor goes
with us to the freight clerk, who an
swers, "More than it is WORTH"
Probably, but how much 7'
"How much does it weigh ?n
II don't know. Weigh it."
The eXpeditOr hung it to the hook of
steelyard which another man held
up: "One kilo" 1.-TWO pounds.) Then,
after a calculation "Two francs.n
every well : will stand two francs.
No matter about the receipt. Here is
the money. Mark it Paid and send
1t as soon as possible"
But they manage these things better
in Italy. | must go back and see what
''Expedlzlone" really means. l must
give the details very clearly; and the
official must make out the papers.
might go and get my tickets and fight
my baggage through, and then come
back. l came back at the end of half
hour and of all my patience, and found
him still writing. There were three
''freight letters" each as long and in
tricate as policy of insurance. and
two long ''declarations" for the custom
hOuse-giving description, value, etc.
(all concerning twenty-five cents worth
of wood and iron, which had not reach
Havre twenty eight days later, and
probably never will reach there. One
of those freight letters has got into a
wrong pigeOn-hole.) Then we went to
the freight clerk, and he signed some
thing, and signed something (sanded, }
and the ''Expedizione" man demanded
three francs and half. | referred to
the contract for two francs.
"Ah mais the 'Expedizione' costs a
franc and half"
AT last | was free. Everything was
attended to, and we had still seven
minutes to get our seats. / separated
Jane from a poodle with which and
with whose mistress, of course, she had
made friends, gathered up my bags and
bundles, and started gaily for the
train.
AS we turned into the corridor we
saw the great doors swing to, and our
porter shrugged his shoulders.
''But what does it mean ~
''TrOppO tardi ~ .....
at is only ten minutes past nine and
the train leaves at quarter past"
"The doors are closed five minutes
before the train starts"
"Then why in-w But no, the man
did not understand English, and no
poor words of mine could do justice to
the situation. Jane thought otherwise,
but then her words are never poor, and
on this occasion she showed an ap-
proach to genius. As piece of sketchy
characterization, the estimate she ex-
pressed of Italian executive ability was
worthy of permanent record but she
is overfastidious in such matters, and
prefers that her achievement should be
permitted to remain our private pos,
session.-Col. George e. Waring Jr.
in HGrper's Magdsine tor October.