Dodge City times. [volume] (Dodge City, Kan.) 1876-1892, 1884-12-04
My Next Door Neighbor.

MY Next Door Nelghbor.
Ii was at Nevay in the Spring of 1882
/ had short vacation and hurried over
from Boston to Switzerland to spend two
months Of 1t among the Alps. [ had
been abroad before, but had gone over
everything rather specifically, and was
very rejoiced at having eight whole
weeks in which to see the mountains at
my leisure.
Man proposes and God disposes. Never
i am convinced after long and mature
consideration, was there SO true an aph-
orism..
had no sooner reached Lausanne and
driven over from there, in joyous antlcl-
patton o. my visit to Nevay, when in the
long, narrow lane, east OF the chalet"
which every visitor to those regions
knows, the conducteur of the diligence
embraced the opportunity offered him
by the turn Of the road, to deposit me
and my luggage against the stone wall,
which borders the route.
Not SO carefully, but that my trunk
was demolished, decorating with its con-
tents the adjacent shrubbery-and sadly
more to my grief-not so carefully, but
that my left ankle was wrenGbed out of
place.
1t would be needless, perhaps rather
improper, for me to repeat here the cpl
thets which | lavished on my charioteer;
fortunately, he did not understand a
word of them, his language being patois
of mingled French and German, and
mine, alas, only English, pure and unde-
filed" perhaps, as every Bostonian fiat
teIs himself, but nevertheless wholly in
adequate in foreign lands, especially in
situations like this.
realized its inadequacy more and
more, when l found myself cooped up
in little chamber with sprained ankle
at the chalet" of Vevay, with not soul
to speak to and not book to read. l
wonder now. when | think of that
wretched Summer, | did not become en-
tirely mad
Two little almanacs in German, which
hung from the mantle by string and
formed the staple stock of literature In
the house, were my first distraction.
pored over these till their meaningless
gothic letters seemed to be leering and
jeering at me, and crowded my restless
slumbers with grimacing Nightmares
i
this day | used, too, to solace myself
with soliloquies in my native tongue,
just TO hear the sound of an American
word, but even this harmless occupation
| was obliged to give un as l found out 1t
gave the walters and the doctor the I'M
preston l was deiirious and ought to be
treated accordingly.
My daily programme, like the adver-
tised clocks OF Geneva, "did not vary the
fraction of minute"
Every morning at nine, the man." a
sturdy, matter-of-fa fact Swiss, whose name,
Jean Marie, was the only Swiss thing
about him (for his costume was that OF
the usual commonplace waiter), brought
me my chocolate. At ten, an equally
rnatter-of-fact, commonplace doctor pull
ed and jerked my tortured leg in, pre-
sumo, the approved Swiss style, and ban
,daged it up again, 'chattering most volu.
bly, all the while, though he knew
could not understand word of his un-
heard of jargon; at eleven, breakfast; at
two, bandaging again; at five, dinner; at
seven, bed Thus diurnally, day after
day, until it seemed as if it would 20 on
forever.
Nothing ever happened; nothing, /
thought despondently, ever would hap
pen. But here was wrong. For one
dag ! heard great noise of moving of
trunks and such things, in the hall which
my door opened upon. l did not pay
much attention to the fact at first, for the
few people who came to the "chalet" at
that time of the year lit was still too
early for tourists) were generally travel
ers who staid but a day or two, and went
away as they came But there was more
moving about this time than was GUS
tcmary for an ordinary. voyager. Icould
hear the windows being opened to air
the room, and there was much stir going
on, as if the furniture were being vigor-
ously cleaned, and put to rights. won
dered who the unknown occupant could
0e; perhaps some person of distinction
travelling incognito, perhaps an English
man or even compatriot. / grew al
most excited over it, and even asked the
waiter. who they were expecting, but as
he did not understand me, he could not
explain.
had almost forgotten having neigh
Dor, when / was startled next morning
10y hearing some one play on the piano.
1t seemed as though | were to escape
none Of the ills of life. The boarder in
the room below me, who had remained
nearly a week, had given another turn
to the screws on my torture by merci'
lessly playing the flute Now it was the
piano, thought with groan, and my
heart failed me when / remembered the
trills and scales that my sisters practiced
every day at home
But my neighbor was not playing scales
and trllls found as listened. He was
playing melody. soft flowing melody,
one of Memberships "Songs Without
Words" And how exquisitely he
played, too! How firm and delicate his
touch was. How wished l could know
him!
/ again asked the waiter, when he
came in to bring my breakfast, who the
newcomer was, and as l was anxious he
should understand me this time, / moved
my fingers as though was playing on
an invisible piano, and then my head
with interrogative eyebrows in the di-
rection of the strangers room.
This mimetic manner of carrying on q
conversation in foreign tongue Qhough
felt inexpressibly silly while l was
doing it) had an excellent result, for
Jean-Msrie Immediately began a most