The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1908-12-12
Special 10 The Union.
LETTER FROM ABROAD.
The Excitable Frenchman-What Finally
Becomes of HIm-Correspondent Has
New Travelling Experience-In a
Pinch Acts as an Interpreter
What Delights a Days
Journey Brought, sc.

we utter, the French are thrice damned for
thousand eternities, but my sympathies are with
the angel rather than the lost souls, for he must
needs be habile stenographer and ceaseless
toiler. truly pitiful figure, with wings denuded
of the feathers which he has whitfield into quill
pens, and with perspiration streaming from his
celestial visage. How they talk talk, talk, these
nervous, mercurial Frenchmen The tongue
alone does not suffice they gesticuate, shrug
their shoulders, grimace like chimpanzees, and.
If a serious question of two sous or the price of
a handful of chestnuts is involved, they leap and
dance and pirouette to emphasize their tor
rental, endless arguments. learn from relia-
BILE sources that deaf-mute asylums are unknown
in France. They are useless. When French
man is stricken dumb he begins to swell and
bulge as If inflated with Illuminating gas. his
body grows round like a balloon, his skin
stretches to the last resisting point and then he
explodes. Sorrowing kinfolk gather the scanty
remains in basket-nothing survives the catas-
trophe but battered fragments of words, man
gled sentences and mutilated phrases, dangling
from adjacent tree -tops-and lovingly transport
them to the cemetery.
Last week on board railroad train WITNESSED
an incident admirably illustrative of this ma
tional failing. Taking Paris as a central point,
had been rambling afoot. with knapsack and
staff, in the environs of Versailles, Vincennes
and Fontainbleu, when cold weather came to
drive me southwark and my tramp trip tempora-
rily lost its distinctly pedestrian qualities to
become headlong flight toward warmer climes.
One frosty morning newspaper had fallen into
my hands predicting snow at Blois, and 1t was
then changed my plans, bought loaf of bread,
a bottle of wine. and boarded the Mediterranean
express for an eighteen hour journey to Mar
seille, with the ultimate intention of resuming
in Provence my interrupted pilgrimage. The
only comfortable man on the train this frosty
morning was a member of the English light
house service, on his way from Yorkshire to
Alexandria, to rejoin his corps. He rejoiced in
the possession of quart of brandy, a travelling
rug and big plum cake. cultivated his ac-
quaintance and when the train reached Lyons we
were seated face to face, the rug was wrapped
around our knees forming sort of double lap,
the bottle was under the seat, and as for the
plum cake it had fulfilled double destiny.
Among my travelling companions was party
of italian peasants, bound for their home in the
Piedmont they did not understand word of
French and were in evident Distress Between
Dion and Macon a conductor entered the car to
examine our tickets, and upon inspecting those
of the Italians Immediately threw his arms into
the air and suffered frightful series of convul-
sons, ending in a hemorrhage of words uttered
with rapidity of which only French railway
official is capable.
"Nom de Dieur'
"Seigneur Jesus!"
antilles diables ~
And in desperate, impotent agony, he waved
aloft his ticket punch. "Coquins, villains, betes,
sales cochons," did they not know that they
should have changed cars at Dion? Now they
would have to spend the night at Macon and
then retrace their route. 20 grand malheur
Of this TRADE the Italians understood not a
single syllable, but they we're keenly alive to
the fact that some mistake had been made. The
conductor chartered on necessarily, one instant
invoking the aid of st. Marie, and the next pro-
nouncing a long discourse upon the general
ignorance and bestiality of the italian race Gas
matter of fact it was the officials duty to see
that his passengers descended at the proper sta
tion.) But the Italians only comprehended that
something disastrous had occurred for which he
was holding them to blame. One of the women
was crying, and the leader of the party had
arisen with hands clasped in the attitude of
prayer, and was murmuring:
mon capsico Parlo Italiano! Parlo In
gleso!"
The situation was pitiful, and when the I'M
happy traveller declared he could speak English,
1 offered my services as an interpreter. The
conductor willingly accepted the offer.and asked
me to explain the situation to the Italians.
These latter had been fruit peddlers in New
York and understood English sufficiently to
render exchange of ideas possible. so it was easy
to explain in dozen words. But this summary
disposition did not meet with the approval of
the conductor. The occasion. to his way of
thinking, required more falkland then more
talk. Charmed by his own eloquence he re-
viewed and elaborated all phases of the situa-
ton, eulogized the benevolence of the railroad,
which permitted travellers to commit such errors
without subsection to criminal prosecution,
commiserated the ignorance of the Italians,
dwelt at length upon the keen pleasure it had
afforded him to welcome my distinguished in
PREVENTION and aid, multiplied adjectives ad in
finitum. fell upon my neck and referred with
emotion to the fraternal ties that had bound
America and France since the days of Lafayette
and Franklin-and while this harangue was tax
ing place, Macon slipped past us in the night.
Alas, poor Italians
With motley crowd, in which we're represen-
tatives of many nations, we were travelling third
class, but were very comfortable in one of the
big trans continental cars that have only re-
Gently made their appearance on the main
French roads, The old closed compartments
have been relegated to the shorter lines, and
these new wagons" with their spacious aisles
and plate glass sides. are on par with the best
American day coaches. The third class is more
sanitary, though slightly less comfortable than
the second. AS for the first class cars on through
trains, they are nothing more nor less than roll
ing palaces, in which, according to the epigra-
matte observation of a celebrated English jour
nalist, nobody rides except fools, princes and
millionaires.
At Marseile the weather balmy and de-
lightful. By single days travel dismal Pari-
sian winter was exchanged for smiling summer
skies. Before beginning my tramp I spent
day in the great Mediterranean seaport, linger-
ing in the evening on the quays, where the an
cient fortress striving in vain to hide the sun
set lowered above the forest of masts and cor
dage, threading my way among sailors and wan
derers of all nations, Turks, Yankees, Arabs.
grinning, half naked heather, who had come
from unknown Oriental ports to sell their par
rots and Persian pussy cats stopping to listen
while some native troubadour faithful to the
traditions of these legend-laden hills, twanRed
his guitar and sang in Provencal the glory of
King Rene and the Counts of Baux; or to attend
a troupe of Spanish gyps1es, or barefoot Nea-
politan with his mandolin. Toothless old wo-
men besought me to buy their CLANS or moules
de Toulon, and uniformed employees of "L'
Enterprise du Donjon du Chateua dr. insisted
that take advantage of their cheap boat rates
to visit the spot made famous by Mirabeau and
Mont Christie. The right to exhibit the Chateau
diff, it seems, is leased by the government to an
amusement company. and exploited as if the
Ill x,sI< Ava
horse. SEABR0OK.
THE APPLE GROWERS of the State of Washing
ton have built up large and profitable bust
ness by the most careful culture of their Or