New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1880-10-10


concerns the express from Paris to Calais or Bou-
loenc door near the luggage Office was nm
locked and an inscription over the door sienhed
10 those who happened TO notice il that on con-
dition OF being provided With luggage receipts ana
showing them, they might go az once to the tia'h'
This miIgatod the violence of the rush that used 10
be made on the release Of the prisoners from their
CELL and was a boon to those aware OF the license
granted them. II may also have been designed as
an inducement to carry luggage. and an indirect
means of swelling the Illicit gains OF the company
from that source The traveller who had not pad
something for his luggagc-for he must pay regis
tration fee even if there were no overweight TO be
taxca-was still immured in the general dungeon
till the last second of close time had expired
The Paris and Lyons company have taken the
far holder step of ahoshing altogether this term OF
impriSonmcnt-how long since cannot say Int
presume the decree not of very old date Tor IL Is
announced in every station by freshly printed
placards in large type yellow paper The terms
of this notice illustrate very well the spnt III
which great French company is administered. !
Thought il so curious that copied Il; at The FISK OF
being interrupted and Intercepted and perhaps
arrested by the white-cappcd statlon-master' VINO
watched me, and who seemed to doubt whether any
rule of the company permitted copy OF itsell 10 ne
made in writing Finally he shrugged his shoulders
and walked away concluding. i hhPpuSV' til"' ~
was not worth while to take notice OF any eccen-
tricity in which a foreigner might indulge. Had
been Frenchman I certainly should have been
asked TO explain my motives. | afterward found l
had run all this risk ncedlessly. The notice IS
printed also in the official timetable of the com
pany ana below is pretty literal translation OF
IT, though no translation can convey sufficient
notion of the formaltv and elaborate stateliness
of style in which the original is drawn up, midway
between the style of Indictment and the STYLE of
protocol. passengers" is but meagre equlva-
lent for Messieurs les Noyageurs."
Passengers are notified that the doors OF the waiting
rooms leading 10 the platforms VIII in future be open
permanently aud that tney may, az their own option.
elther remain IN these rooms 10 await te announcements
of tHe trains or per citrate to The platforms ..,
Inasmlch. nevertheless, as the liberty thus gfanleh
may dangerous, the greatest pruGehcr " recon-
mended passengers they are earnestly entreacd 10
keep all times distance from Inc edge OF we
Platforms never to cross the Inc wtnoul Tue
ton OF Conpany's servants, ana never 10 enter
train I'll 1t has been brought 10 complete standst
And the Company earnestly emu etCS i5 tSu
make before getting into tram thai the sau IRAN
is really the one which Is appointed I" take '"en "
their destination.
once took the liberty of remarking to French
man upon the minutcness OF the supervision 10
which travellers subjected i'll his country
The companies are quite right" was his answer
q What they have to consider is the welfare Of the
majority of those who their lines and for whose
| safety they are responsible Now. we have never
been a travelling people; we are not used 10
| knocking about the world You Americans ana
| English are when at home we are subjected TO
multitude of administrative restrictions of which
YOU know nothing; we are not only subjected 10
| them. but they are to MS matter OF convenience
and protection; we hav acquired habits of dopcn-
| dence upon authority and of unquestoning ODE
dience 10 It. When travel we are more IN need
of this parental care than ever: We should mss II
| if il were not there want to he directed To 40
this and not to do that to go here and not to 90
! there; and when a Frenchman is told by somebody
| with band round his cap TO go. he goeth-not
| prumblingly and reluctantly as yon others do, but
cheerfully and gratefully" Ny French friend
continued to discourse to me in this tone for some
time but as his remarks though true enough III the
main. were not absolutely new, suppress the rest
of them What have given is enough to show
that there are two sides to the question: and that
there are plenty of people TO whom the conception
of a huge railway corporation rs the broodng
genius of a poutry-yard. cluckng over her offspring
and huitcrng with angry terror if they wander
out of limits, presents nothing udicrous.
| An INtXPERIENCFD TRAVELLER.
| As travelling companion. had IA fellow country
| man from the remoter sections OF the Republic
| who announced himself such by the acreage of
uncovered shirt front on which. as the day drew
on he collected most of the dust and cindcrs that
| arrived near him. met him on climbing into my
| compartment; name Of him then and now quite
unknown to me: Occur alton III 1ie history, ana so
| IN eoually unknown lie was obviously man
| who had made his own way in life; accustomed to
business and, in ms own country, to travel /;
slrewd hard headed. not perfectly polished by all
the contact he had undergone with his own world,
Int much disposed to friendly converse With him
were two ladies' who clearly his wife and
daughter To them and to HIM alike the process
of making their way about in France was I'M
familiar; it was should say their first journey IN
| foreign parts. lie was in state OF much embar-
| rasanent and made no secret OF It, What had
| happened to him on his from the hotel to the
| station and during that harassng process OF dis
| missing and paying his cab, registering his lug
gage and paying for the same and finding his way
| to his place in the train-I can only conjecture.
| His experience, whatever it may have been. had
brought good deal more blood to his face than
nature meant should circulate there, and his
natural flow of Language was perplexed by an
agtlted spntter.
| AsI looked at him. Mr. Cook. IN his character Of
| special providence TO the inexperienced voyagcT,
! occurred to me- Here man who might. for all
! ] knew, be of Mr.. Cooks clients. though not Of
the personally conducted kind. Whether he be
not. he has reached stage in his journey where
| Mr. Cook has uOne all he can 40 for him until he
shall arrive at his hotel in Geneva. lie has over
come already somehow or other. but with only too
evident distress. all the pcrplcxities which ! re-
Gently indicated likely 20 beset the Cook tourist
in spite of Cooks tickets on his way from hotel to
| train What is gong to happen to him now
| VIII he find il smooth sailing for the rest of the
way; or will he still keep falling into pits. out Of
which no Cook supplied coupons can rescue him
II appeared in a moment that the agitation visible
| on his empurpled tace due not only to the
struggles he had just gone through bnt to anxiety
about ms immediate future. He began by asking
me # spoke English and being reaSSured by hear
| ing a fine American accent in reply, desired to
| know whether this tram went to Geneva; thus
unconsciously complying with one of the most
| nrgrnt injunotions of the yellow placard above