Ellsworth American. [volume] (Ellsworth, Me.) 1855-current, 1909-07-28
THE TELEPHONE As
An INTERPRETER
sy r. A. mitchell.

ciation.j
Hello. Simmons. Got back all safe,
| see. Had good timer"
well. yes; rather"
you look as II you hadn't. Any
Thing unpleasant happened?"
Il don't exactly-you see-they tell
Inc there's certain time in mans
life when he doesn't know whether he's
done very big thing or very little
one"
Haven't got into trouble on account
Of one Of your practical jokes. have
youy'
Its something like that. Come here
and cit down. I'll tell YOU"
They had met In city park. Sim
mons led the way to a bench. They
seated themselves, and he began his
tale of woe.
when was in Paris. at the pension
where stopped-they call 'em pen
sions over there; we call 'em boarding
or hash houses here-was a French
girl. | took a kind Of shine to her,
and fancied she took kind Of shine
to me. but neither of us could speak
word Of the same language. l met
Turpin over there Remember Turpin?
Red headed chap with big mole on his
left cheek. He and 1 played jokes on
zach other. One day told gendarme
to watch him for suspicious charac.
ter and had lot of fun out of it,
"Oh. you did. did your
all 81
you about-it was a tantalizing bust
ness. sitting along side Of her without
being able to say anything to her, so
wrote out some things such as I'm
sorry I can't talk to you and VIII
you walk with me this afternoon in
the Bots de BoulogneY and all that.
Then l asked Turpin-Turpin speaks
French tolerably well. you know-to
write out the French for these SEN
fences. He did so. and 1t helped things
along amazingly with the girl. Tur-
pin told me that Good morning In
French was Toi que Jaime or some
thing like that, and noticed that she
blushed every time l said It,"
do you know what 'Toi que Jaime
meansT
Yes: good morning. of course"
Rats! 1t means i love you"
Simmons stood paralyzed with sur
prise for a moment and then went on;
II learned from people in the house
that the girls father had been well
OF. but he had lost all his property
and then up and died. leaving his
daughter with little or nothing. l felt
sorry for her. and-wcll. expect 1
looked 1t. At any rate when April
came. and staIed for Rome saw a
tear In her eye. 1t made me uneasy.
for l wasn't thinking about getting
mixed up in any affair. especially with
q girl couldn't talk to. but when !
got on the train forgot all about 1t.
supposing the girl would do the same.
Turpin and / went down to Rome to-
gether, and he didn't seem to think
I'd done anything out of the way, and
this satisfied me.
Zone day, a month later. while walk
ing down via Cavour-that's Cavour
street, you KNOWN Rome. who should
I meet but my French girl. and what
do you suppose she was doing?"
WHAT"
"Crying. She was so distressed
about something that she didn't see
me. l spoke to her, and you should
have seen the relief light up her face.
1.-THE only thing 1 could remember
to say to her in French was Good
morning. so l said Toi que Jaime She
burst into fresh crying spell. was
dying to know why she was in Rome
and what was the matter. but how coulo
l since she could only jabber French
at me? Then a happy thought struck
me. Turpin could act as interpreter
OF course couldn't take her to Tur'
pin, but l might get him on tele.
phone and he could tell each of ua
what the other said. Good idea, ehY
very"
II stepped into a place where there
was 'telefono' sign and succeeded IL
getting Turpin just as he was starting
out to visit the Roman aqueduct ruins
| told him what had happened: then
the girl told him her situation; then
| took the receiver and he translated
the story to me. She'd answered an ad
of a Roman family for a governess tc
teach the children French and haC
been sent for to come to Rome. She
was delayed for want of funds, ant
when at last she arrived found the
family had been called suddenly tc
Berlin. Well, she was In a pickle.
II telephoned Turpin to tell her thai
begged she would accept funds from
me to return to Paris. Turpin told
her. She dropped the receiver on
table and her head on my shoulder
Then she took my arm, and the next
thing knew we were in one Of those
measly thousand-year-old churches
over there. The girl jabbered French
to priest. which he seemed to under
stand, and a little English, too. for he
told me that to be married I must &C
through the proper forms.