Oxford Democrat. [volume] (Paris, Me.) 1833-1933, 1896-12-15
FROM PARIS, MAINE, TO PARIS,
FRANCE.
No. 4.
LIVERPOOL TO LONDON.
From our Special Foreign Correspondent
Is QUEENS GATE PLACE, !
I

From our Special Foreign Correspondent
Is QUEENS GATE PLACE, !
LONDON, ENGLAND.
There is nothing particularly ecstatic
about landing in Liverpool from an
ocean steamer, even IL you have been
travelling the raging main" for twelve
days and nights-especially when you
reach harbor about midnight, and for
two hours thereafter you are nearly
torn limb from limb with the stopping
short, then Observation-Disclosures, OF
the steamer. till az last she Is hauled up
TO the dock, and from that time till you
leave il. the most terrific yelling, shout
ing, swearing and cursing of the men
who Immediately begin TO unload IL, and
the humping, rolling, scraping and
tearing that goes on over you, and under
you, and all around. you, makes you
think bedlam is let loose and falling
about your poor defenceless head. And,
to make the experience doubly interest
ing, Immediately on the stopping of the
vessel there ensues recurrence OF the
mslsdy that has reduced you to the
verge of Standardization and from
that time till o'clock, when YOU are
routed out Of your bed. all the pains and
agonies of death seem 10 rend YOU. But
YOU must get up, dead or alive, and
when the foot first steps on the floor,
YOU 90 headlong, for the floor that you
expected TO come up and meet you, this
time does not come
After while by patient perseverance
YOU manage to get your clothes on, by
first standing on YOUR head tn put on
YOUR shoes, and rice rersd. Then YOU
stagger 10 the breakfast table, walking
up the side Of the wall part OF the time,
and at last out into the air, and on TO the
face Of the earth once more, where you
ind the rest of the wretched passengers
waiting for their baggage 70 be examin-
ed hy the custom house officials. You
hunt yours up, and they come and ask II
YOU have any tobacco or liquors. lou
answer that YOU neither drink nor
smoke. but they can look into all three
OF your packages IL thev wish. man
unlocks your trunk and stuils his hand
down In one corner, but does not disturb
ANYTHING. Then he makes chalk marks
on all your luggage, which means that
IL has been examined and Is all right.
Then the agent Of the London and
North Western Railway appears. as your
baggage is marked for that route, and
leads the WAY 10 sn omnibus which takes
YOU 20 Lime Street station, about half
hours ride: and OF all forsaken, dirty, |
places on earth, Liverpool
must be the worst. IL you were TO tell
Of some Of the sights on the way to the
station people would think you prevari-
eating. For instance, big fat Nanny
goat, rearing up like horse and walk |
ing on its hind legs, then on its front |
legs-and IL was not a performing goat |
either. And a girl with beautiful golden |
hair dressed seemingly in the most APP |
proved coitiure, pushing big two
wheeled tip-cart before her, And a
woman on the top OF load OF bales OF
cotton. unloading them. Also an old |
woman wheeling wheelbsrrow load OF
something, to somewhere; besides all
the miserable, bloated, ill-yissged beings
that iuhabit that rum-infested district |
for breweries and gin-mills seem To be
the only traffic, which accounts for the |
wretched condition OF the inhabitants.
The vehicle which bears you Is gener-
ally called an omnibus, and II Is usually |
employed either 10 carry baggage to the
railway station or smallpox patients To |
the hospital The springs are Ike those
Of hay-wsgon, and the cushions re-
mind YOU OF what the lrishman said,
who after going 10 sleep on rock, re-
marked that IL he had pick-axe he'd
make up his bed. The unhappy animals
L. @1,. a RI Ia
vehicle, must have been raised on the
same nutritious diet that was used by
the man who wished 10 economic by
feeding his horse on shavings, and then
Just before he got used 10 IL, the animal
died.
When YOU arrive at the Lime Street
station. and the driver smilingly assists
you 10 alight, YOU ask what Is the fare,
aud he blandly replies: Whatever YOU
nay wish TO give the driver, aud when
YOU afterwards find that the railway
paws the transportation, you understand
why the man stared when you gave him
A shilling. as IL you were either an idiot
Or a princess-with II strong predisposi-
ion in favor of the idiot, theory.
Then 10 find the bsggsge-or luggage,
Tor il ceases 10 be baggage here-which
was sent In a separate ran. lou sue
seed in rescuing IL at last, and the porter
who puts IL on the train comes in also
Tor his fee, for you must know that Eng
and i a country Of fees. IL anybody
ioes any little service for you, II will
cost YOU from five 10 twenty-five cents,
TO the state of your liberality
,r ignorance.
Then YOU go searching up and down
he place trying 10 find where 10 send
,ablegram to America, and after about
dozen people have told you, every one
different way, you at last find 1t your
,elf. In order TO send cable despatch
,ou must first have had an address IN
Boston-ours being "Cushmal, Boston
and cable code, which is, one word
meaning several. For instance, Abba
ion" means, "Arrived-all well-pleas-
mt passage" but as we 'c0uld not tell
, lie" we simply sent two words, Ar
lived safe" which cost four shillings
81. .00). II seems almost impossible
hat in less than two minutes that mes
,sye would be in Boston, but il Is even
20, though there would be delay OF an
hour or so in sending ii by telegraph to
he home address.
As you have about two hours TO walt
'or the train to London, you go in to SIT