The News-Herald. [volume] (Hillsboro, Highland Co., Ohio) 1886-1973, 1888-09-13

WlaJ WOuIu nave Deen tne CermInotlOn
OF this discussion had not the stewart
taken the matter in hand and perempt.
orily demanded Its adjournment. Iagain
tlozed off to sleep and did not awake till
we had left the port and were over half
way across the channel.
The English Channel, as have said
before, is usually very rough. The night
we crossed was no exception, and when
I awoke many were up on deck leaning
over the railing. / thought would
hardly escape, but by keeping in my
birth and trying to think Of pleasant
things I escaped, although the latter
part Of the journey was anything but
pleasant. We landed at Dieppe on the
French shore about eight o'clock in the
morning, and were, in journey OF only
little more than half day in reality,
in another country, where different mon
ey is used and an entirely different Ian
guage is spoken.
This seems strange to an American who
can travelin his native country for weeks
and never get where the spoken Ian.
guage is changed. We Observation-Disclosures
who were able-at hotel here, and I
now began to realize the inconvenience
OF being among people whose language
I did not understand. I would have
been entirely lost had / not joined one
OF Cooks parties at London which was
provided with an interpreter. A word
about Cooks. This firm does general
tourists business, and think the travel
er in foreign land, where the native
language is not understood, would do
well to travel with his parties. Cook
has officers in every part OF the world,
and employs thousands of men. You
make arrangements with him for rail.
road fares, hotel bills, cab fares, admis-
sion to all points OF interest and pay for
it all at once. 1t is great convenience
to do this, especially in a country in
which the money is not familiar. He
has guides to meet you at the trains, to
show you to hotels and in every way
make it convenient for you. Besides
this convenience it is as cheap and even
cheaper in some cases than the usual
rates. There were about fiiGy in our
party, in which was represented nearly
every nation, but I think Americans
were in the majority.
After breakfast we took the train for
Paris. In every compartment there was
Frenchman, with whom we endavored
to talk. 1t was amusing at the modes
we contrived to make ourselves under
stood. But he was a good natured
Frenchman, and evidently enjoyed our
efforts as much as we. He could not
understand a word of English, and we
could not word OF French, but as there
were many places and objects that we
wanted to know about, we endeavored
to ask of him in sign language. The
eyes, mouth and various motions were
resorted to as means of conveying our
wants, and often we were happily under
stood. We bid the Frenchman good
day at Rouen and were then soon in
Paris. When we arrived at Dieppe Sum
day morning I was surprised to see a
gang OF workmen busily putting up a
new building. Thinking was possibly
mistaken in the day, reassured myself
that it acas Sunday by asking our inter-
prefer. He teld me it was not an un-
common sight to see people in France
working on Sunday, a statement I found
verified by numerous instances along
the road to Paris. l now had new
system OF money to study, which for the
benefit OF those who visit France, I will
briefly explain. The standard in France
is the franc, which is silver coin and
is little smaller than our quarter, and
is worth 20 American cents. Fifty cen.
times or half franc is of course ten
cents. Ten francs is gold coin. Ten
centimes is copper coin about the same
size and value OF our copper two cent
pieces. One sou or FIVE centimes is
about as large as one OF our old one cent
pieces and is the same in value. This
will be all that is necessary to know, in
order to intelligently handle French
money.
We found Cooks carriages awaiting us
at the train, and we were soon rolling
away to our hotels. Arriving here we
found one person who spoke English,
and our wants were readily understood.
In all the leading hotels are one or more
who can speak English, and in most
hotels German is also spoken. Lunch
over four of us started out alon" 10 see
Paris. We were careful no, 20 get
lost as we would have been utterly
helpless in finding our hotel. One hard
ly knows how entirely lonesome he feels
surrounded by sea of men and women,
who are glibly chattering in a language
that sounds like so much gibberish to
him. Here, Sunday was equally disre-
earded as elsewhere along our Journey.
Nearly all the places OF business were
open, and people were eating and drink