The Newtown bee., 1895-09-13
MT Barker Abroad.
ACROSS EUROPE IN TWO DAYS.
TcoNT1NUEp FROM FIRST PAGk.J

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 CONTINUED FROM FIRST PAGE.
 | there. If, perchance, some of your fei- low passengers happens to be a snorer, it is getting into rather close quarters; all you can do is to put yourself in the ! state of Paul and the crew of the grain ship who, stranded near the isle of Me- lita, "wished for the day" Things went very we'll in our section; with the exception of every half hour, with the regularity of timepiece, rising to shake out a slumbering foot, the night wore smoothly on.
 We were just settling down in good earnest, when a rap was made at every deor and the announcement came that it was time to be searched we had crossed the line into France, and this was the custom house station We did not mind this at all; it had grown to be genuine fun by this time, we had been through it so much. Shall I ever forget that scene! Ninety sleepy passengers turned out long before the gray of the morning had begun to ap- pear, all rubbing their eyes, all yawn- ing, all pulling a heavy valise along, all thowing said valise upon 8 counter, and all shouting at the top of the voice |: "Here, I've got no tobacco in this; mark me-" The less of our good French the officials understood, the more loudly we shouted, till a band of fresh Comanches, right from the free air of their native home, could not have outshouted us. It was all form. It made not much differ ence whether the valse was opened or not; the cabalistic character was written upon the outside of our alligator skin and we were allowed to pass on. And this was our very pleasant introduction into charming France!
 When making my way back to the train 1 saw gentleman, who at home is no distant neighbor of miDe, examin- ing very carefully three umbrellas and two canes tied together, which stood In a corner on the depot platform. ''Too bad 7" he murmured, "Im afraid some one will leave these here" He made many inquiries, but, not finding the owner of the bundle, he passed on.
 MET HIM IN PARIS
 the next evening. Did you see me looking at those umbrellas standing in the corner" he asked, lat that place where we came into France?'' "Yes," I replied ''did you not find the owner?" "Find him." he shouted, "why l owned them myself, and l left them there" His wife was separated from him, being with some lady friends in the sleeping car, which had been attached to the train at Turin. She had brought out the umbrellas thinking that all mus change cars, in the melee of the custom house had forgotten all about them A very good friend of mine, minister with prodigious memory for statistict and cold facts, but with an absentmInd edness truly remarkable about anything that might be in his hand, left three um brellas, l think, in as many differen places. Entering a restaurant in Gibral tar, he carried an expensive mackintosl in his hand. He threw it over the bacl of his chair, and, that he might the mor' surely remember his waterproof cloal when he came out, he repeated severa times to himself, emphasizing each worC with rap upon the table: My mackin tosh is on the back of my chair; l mus take it when 1 leave this place." My friend ate square meal, thoroughly en joyed it, paid the price at the desk anc sauntered out, calmly chewing tooth pick, to view the rest of Gibraltar. Int macintosh reposed on the back of the chair where my friend left it, and wa! thought of no more till that evening, as standing on deck, he was gazing at tht crouching stone lion, the line so forci bly, repeated in the eating-house came back like shaft of lightning-my mack intosh! You remember that the children of Israel erected 12 memorial stones in the bed of the Jordan after their miraculous passage through , the stream. There was no neeG for the "Frieslanders" to dt that; their path was sufficiently traced by the umbrellas and small loose ar GlcleS GQaL were leIG DeUInu.
 At some hour in the early part of this night-in the darkness and we being nc Frenchmen you can imagine that nc clear idea of the topography of tht . country was gleaned-we felt such ! sudden chilliness come over us that vt were reused even from our downy beds ssWhere are we?" we exclaimed. tHave our compartment cars been suddenly transformed into ice-boxes 2'' After much inquiry we learned from 8 sleepy . passenger who had been over this way , before that our train was about to pass through the famous Mount Cenis tunnel in other words, we were to pierce to the heart of the Alps. This tunnel is one of the marvels of engineering skill that these last few decades have seen. In length it is excelled by only one tunnel in the world, that at the Pass of St Gothard. The Mount Cenis tunnel is 39, $40 feet long, or seven and one half miles. If you wish to compare this with something that comes within the range of your own experience, you can recall that the great Hoosick tunnel on the l Fitchburg road has length of 25,OS0 feet, or four and three quarter miles.
 All that second day we were
 SPEEDING THROUGH FRANCE.
 I have often heard the European rail- ways spoken of disparagingly in con- parison with our own. There are cer- ftainly many conveniences in travel which we have here which have not yet been transported to the other side, especially in the matter of checking baggage and a lavatory where the dust and grime of travel can be removed. The Continental railways have not yet produced an 'sEm-, pire State Express averaging B miles per hour running time, but the speed of the trains on the main lines is good We