The morning call., 1895-01-20

with the baggage, spill the smelling
salts and face powder and mix things up
generally. Your heavy luggage has been
sspassed through to Paris and gives you
no trouble.
Those who had recovered sufficiently
from the uneasiness of the channel went
into the buffet and had breakfast In
London it is always morning till you have
dined at night, and in France all that you
eat, no matter how often, is breakfast until
dinner, which is seldom before PM
Sliding back into my engine clothes I
went forward to where the locomotive
stood steaming and sizzling, ready to be
off,
Just as l reached her the driver began to
whirl the reversing wheel, for he had heard
the signal bell, and the long train moved
away. I showed my pass. The driver
smiled and waved me out of the freman's
way. The cab was the same wretched,
comfortless cavity that 1 had seen on the
"Dover," only not so clean. The tank or
tender where the coal is carried, was filed
with slack and dust AS fast as he shoyeled
into the heap where the slack was dry, the
fireman turned the hose on until it was
shoveled this slop into the firebox and kept
the locomotive bowling hot. 1t would be
impossible, of course, to fire an American
express locomotive with such fuel, for
there the engines are worked so much
harder to draw the heavy trains. When
we had whipped around a few curves l
saw that the best place for me was behind
the driver and 1 stepped over to his side.
There existed between the engine, the
enginemen and me a feeling of estrange-
ment that was almost melancholy.
1 missed the sleepy painting of the air
pump and the click of the lotch on the re-
verse lever. There was no bell to relieve
the monotony of the rasping, phthisicy
whistle. wondered if we could ever IN
derstand each other-if she would respond
to my touch, for the driver talked to her
in a strange tongue.
Ave, and these twin threads of steel
stretch away through foreign land but
it's all Gods world. The same sun lights
up the fields with that matchless brilliancy
so missed by Americans on the English
isle.
The trains here as in Great Britain, are
light and it requires only few moments
to get them going. The country is rough,
or rather rolling, and there are plenty of
curves, heavy hills and deep cuts, whose
scooping sides are paved with the native
stone, cut smooth as the walls of house.
The track is good and the riding easy. The
country grows more beautiful as the town
of Calais is left further and further behind;
but all so strangely new. The fields are
small and well cultivated; and here and
there on the terraced downs women trudge
by the side of OK teams that are hauling
heavy harrows by their heads, having
sticks dashed TO their horns.
The line runs along the coast, and the
happy peasants toiling in the fields that
tip gently to the west watch the sun set in
the sea- Some OF the little wales that face
the water are extremely beautiful, lit by
the mellow light OF the dying day. And
now my new strange horse of iron quick
ems pace, for we are descending a long hill
and the fields wheel and whirl by so rap
idly that can scarcely count the horses in
the long tandems that draw the high
wheeled carts.
The enginemen wore no gloves and
handled the door-chain and hot levers as
though they were wood. The driver held
a piece of burning waste in hand to furnish
fire for his cigarettes. l did not reproach
him nor blame him for smoking cigarettes
III was Gllc WHICH, ~ dOuUI GIldb UTON0
him to it.
If the cabs had seats, running locomo-
tive would be much easier in Europe than
in America. The ways are all walled or
fenced in, and there is no necessity for the
constant straining of the eyes or nerves,
from which American drivers suffer so
much.
The first stop is at Amiens, eight miles
out There l saw what [ had never seen
before-women working the switches in
signal tower. There were two of them,
and they appeared to have the station quite
to themselves. l make no doubt that they
find their work very agreeable and inter
esting; that they are faithful; that their
homes are happy and that they consider
themselves very superior and refuse to ex-
change calls with their sister, the 'bull-
whacker" over in the field
AT Amiens we met night on her way to
the West, and gave up the engine for the
more comfortable carriage. This compart-
ment was very like the one assigned our
party on the Chatham and Dover, except