The Portland daily press., 1890-09-08
NIGHT RAUCHEN


NIGHT RAUCHEN
the ladies travelling within might induce
the porter to turn out any man who
should venture to smoke. In all proba-
bility, however, no man would venture
to light up or even enter any such COM
partment. German carriages OF each class
are usually divided into three compart-
ments-one marked as above, another I'M
marked and another plainly labeled for
smokers 1t frequently happens that
only one compartment in an entire train
is reserved for those who do not smoke.
The result is, therefore, that ladies have
to travel in Germany In most cases with
men who find in cigars their only relief
from IL tedium of a long journey. And
in the course of many trips, short and
long, through that country never saw
one woman object to the practice, or
one man light his cigar with any apol-
ogy
A good example of what woman
must expect to meet in European travel,
and of the best way to put up with it,
was shown in my first journey from
II p. IN. for thirteen hours run with
few stops. | had been advised to go
second class, on the grounds that the
first class is not whit better, which is
true, and that the rare sleeping wagons
are no more comfortable than the ordi-
nary compartments. This is not strictly
true Europeans have accustomed them
selves to sleeping bolt upright in narrow
quarters, where the American finds only
wakeful discomfort; but the American
who had stretched out upon a bed in
sleeper would find his rest substantially
destroyed by the necessity of getting out
every now and then at the frontiers. 1t
takes a half hour to pass the customs Of
fcers at frontier stations, during most
of which time the passengers are locked
up in pen; and if traveller suffers
this twice between II p. m. and 8 a. m.
he will find that his sleeping berth has
been useless expense.
The carriage entered at Paris was in
tended for eight persons. On this occa-
sion it held seven during the entire
journey-a Frenchman and his wife, an
other Frenchman, two Germans, Rus
sian and the historian. My six compan-
ions were asleep before the train started.
The French woman had decidedly the
best of it, for she occupied two places.
Her head rested on q pillow-an actual
bed pillow placed on a travelling bag at
the window end of the seat; her feet
leaned against the slight projection in
the middle of the wall that serves as an
arm to divide the seat into two parts.
Her husband covered her all over with
neavy rugs and shawls. Then he snug
gled into the opposite corner with an
other lot of rugs about his legs, and in
another moment began to snore.
All might have been well, and this
narrative might have been lost in the
dreamy oblivion that began to shroud
my senses, if it had not been for that
young wolnan's feet. Understand me,
they were invisible, but were neverthe-
less distractingly present to my senses;
for happened to occupy the place just
the other side of the arm against which
leaned my head, initiating the example
of the other passengers. l had just be-
gun to doze away when the train started
with jolt. The young woman lurched
slightly and in bracing with her feet
to secure herself she pressed the upper
lobe of my ear firmly against my skull.
started up with an apology in bad
French on my lips, but nobody heard it.
So | settled back, and presently my
head fell back against the arm. Then,
by reason of the motion of the train, her
feet beat gentle but steady tattoo, now
on my shoulder, now on my face, and
whenever the location changed it was
with Il thump that would have awaked
me in fright had been asleep.
1t was not long before gave it up,
and devoted my energies to pushing the
Russian away from my other side when
ever he fell over against me. longed
to smoke, and in desperation held an I'M
lighted cigar in my teeth until it had
disappeared. Then came the Belgian
frontier, and we were all turned out. A
similar experience accompanied the run
to the German frontier, where we, with
one exception, were again aroused from
slumber. After that it was daylight,
and only one passenger continued to
sleep. The Russian took out box of
i'll smelling cigarettes, and to my aston
ishlnent smoked them without a word
and without opening the window. The
single Frenchman took two pint bottles
Of red wine from bag, drank them
both empty and ate meanwhile hale
.oaf of bread. One of the Germans
calmly lighted Il cigar. That was quite
enough, and as the wine loaded French
man prepared to smoke | Joined him
The young woman looked calmly out of
the window, and as the tobacco fumes
gradually took the place of oxygen in
the compartment she yielded to the
drowsy influence and went off to sleep
again.
Most women who travel Europe en-
dure the journey much more patiently
than do men. Those who are expert
enced always carry a plentiful supply of
rugs and shawls, and, if they cannot
speak various languages, a luncheon.
Beyond this their baggage is exceedingly
limited. The American woman usually
is overburdened with trunks, boxes and
bags. They are nuisance everywhere,
not only to herself at depots and Gus
toms stations, but to her fellow travel
ers. They are always tumbling down
from the overloaded racks or otherwise
getting in the way, and she is lucky if
she gets any real assistance in taking
care of them. European travellers, in
spite of the boosted privacy Of the com
partment carriages as compared with
American cars, are thrown more closely
INTO contact with each other than they
are IN America. But most men decline
70 assist their companions, even by
"oId OF two, because they feel morally
certain that such assistance will be un-
graclously received. The reason is that
occurrences of a most ANNOYING and
sometimes scandalous character have re-
suited from the acceptance of chance
accommodations from strangers in 80, GU,
tinental carriages. Experienced tno,
elers avoid the courteous approachaa ~
their unknown companions from e.
that the party may be a swindler or
something worse.