The evening times. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1895-1902, 1895-12-26
Mistakenin a Thief.

abroad the report that AM in Switzerland
not for the benefit of my health, but for
the purpose OF stealing bicycles, and they
added that was an expert thief, and, for
a time, at least, had succeeded in baffline
the most pra iseworthy attempts OF the police
of two towns 10 capture ME.
While this statement is naturally fiat
tering TO me. II is, nevertheless, lipei,
and, in fact. il ] cared to use strong
language, might go so far as TO take the
last syllable away from the word libel"
The whole trouble arose through SwitZer-
land not having IA proper language OF Its
own, that hiily country preferring TO express
what few thoughts it has in mixture of
French, German ana Italian, depending on
what particular ca nton You happen to be In
They say that the Swiss are natural lin
GUSTS. Unfortunately, they are. Any COM
bination of sounds you may make means
something - any Swiss to whom you happen
TO be talking, for he knows so many Ian.
guages that you are sure 10 hit one OF them,
and you convey ideas to him that you
had no thought OF expressing.
October weather is lovely III Switzerland.
Most of the visitors have then gone, prices
come do VII one half, and the i :r is sweet and
cool, with usually cloudless Sky.
Under these circumstances | thought it
would I've a nice thing, as the roads were
good and the scenery picturesque, To take
a bicycle tour right around Lake, Thun, be-
ginning at the town which gives the lake
its name. gong around the north side Of
the lake to Interlaken, apd returning by
The south shore.
The hotel keeper told me that if / went up
the street, turned to the right, went under
IN arcade until l came to a tunnel, pene-
tratei that and emerged on mother street,
turned to the left and kept ON. would come
TO the shop Of man who would let me
have bicycle on hire 10y the day or by
the hour. j followed the directions as close
ty as possible, and thought l recognized
the shop because a bicycles was leaning
against the wall The owner was leaning
against the doorway, looking at the bicycle
outside. The following conversation in
many languages took place between us:
'.Haben sic un bicyclette a louer?'' open
ri out on him with the above impartial mix
lure of German and French. 1t seems he
understood me To ask if that was his bicycle,
~hereupon he replied in four languages:
"Yaw, yaw, oui, yes, se.'
Then. throwing in a bit of Italian, led
off with:
"Quanta costa la machine a Ia hoor,
Sder per tag
Now submit that to any educated person
or even to Il university man, this sentence
said as plainly as print: How much do
you want for this machine by the hour or
The day. | tried aftcrward to get the
magistrate TO see this, but he, not knowing
Italian. siicd at the very beginning of the
phrase. The owner of the bicycle on oath
Declares that he thought l asked how
much the bicycle had cost him. He says
bhat he answered he paid 500f for that
brute OF a ma hine made in France while
| understood him to agree TO let ME have
It for ST. day, which was cheap. ] was
In a hurry to be off, and was afra Id he might
repent his offer, SO l said il was all right
md / would take it, whereupon, without
further parIey. | wheeled the bicycle into
the middle of the road, sprang on its back,
End was Off. leaving the astonished man
banding by his door, too thunderstruck,
Il seems, to make any outcry until had
passed beyond his sight at the first turn
ing of the road.
/ pedalled serenely on. little realizing
what a commotion had left behind me- and
the one funny thing about this most re-
gretIblc episode is that l spent on eX-
ceedingly quiet, peaceful. and enjoyable
day, not knowing | was pursued, making
no attempt TO elude anybody, and yet
sluding them in what appeared afterward
10 be by subtle and crafty lodges. The
magistrate could not he persuaded that my
sitting on the vcrdnda of a restaurant in the
main street of Interlaken. with the bicycle
in plain view of everybody, was not the
brazen act of a hardened criminal who
knew the police would be searching for him
IN the back streets.
When the man standing against the door
way had recovered partly frum his amaze
ment ut my sudden flight on his MAJ hinc, he
rushed TO the police station and told the
authorities there a plausible foreigner had
engaged him inpolite Ollendnrfian cOnvcrsa-
ton, and. while his mind was distracted in
trying to follow his remarks, had seized the
opportunity and also the machine and wasat
that moment making his way Ia the north
road towards Interiakcn.
Now, capture under these circumstances
seemed To Ice delicinusly easy There were
no branching off roads. The mountains were
on one side and the lake on the other on
neither side of which was bicycling practi-
Fable. Therefore all the two policemen had
to do, when they mounted their machines,
was to ride faster than l DID, and so over
fake me. As had no idea that a race was
on. plunged along in leisurely manner
and would undoubtedly have been taken
near Intcrlaken II 1t had not been for the
fact that some years ago company built
funcular railway from the margin of the
lake, n mile or sn up to st. Bcatenburg. l |
had lived in St Beatenburg once, and re- |
membcred that the road frnm there to Inter |
laken was good one, SO thought thatper- |
haps it would not be bad plan To go up on |
the railway and coast down to Interlaken. |
knew a man who had done it once. can |
well believe now that no one ever tries it |
the second time
The car goes up to st. Beatenburg three |
or four times day only, but when couple |
of miles away from the landing I saw ii |
Steamer coming in and knew if reached |
the landing about the time she did / |
would get car. / am not a racer, but |
thercupon put in my best ticks to make |
connection with the mountain railway. |
The road at this point is as level as the |
lake itself and only a few feet above it, |
My thoughts turned the railway because |
l knew that beyond the lower end of il the |
carriage road rose high above the lake. |
passed through several tunnels and then |
went down to the 1nterlakcn plain. By |
taking the up Car l would avoid III this |
and have il down hill all the way
The policemen, it seems. caught sight of |
me as l was making my squirt, and they at |
nnce put on extra steam, but there is a |
deep bay Just before enc reaches the funi-
cular, and they lost sight OF me as I |
turned the point I Lad reached the top |
Of the railway funccular and bicycled
the mile or more along the street. high |
up above the lake, On one side of which is |
scattered the village of st. Reatenburg, |
with its wonderful view of the snow noun
tains-the Jungfrau, the Eiger, the Monch
Ind host of others.
i found the ride down the Zigzag road not
ouch fun Dis l had expected. ] SAW the
brake was not going to last if kept on,
20 l had to walk most of the way down. |
Coming TO a more level ground / cycIed