Audubon County journal. (Exira, Iowa) 1884-1993, 1909-03-25
HER TRIP
TO EUROPE
Mrs. Brown Wanted Very Much to
Hear About 1t.

iih'Ns 49,
that most delightful of all excursions,
her first trip to Europe and While she
was still bubbling over with the eXpe,
rience of travel and longing to pour
them into some willing, listening ear,
she met her friend Mrs. Brown Just
outside of that ladys door, and was
promptly seized upon and carried
within for a cup OF tea and a good,
long talk.
y want You" said Mrs. Brown, en-
Enthusiastically TO begin at the very
beginning of your trip, from The mo-
ment you stepped onto the steamer
that took you over, and tell me every
thing that happened up to the moment
| you stepped off of the steamer that
brought YOU home. Let me make you
| perfectly comfortable in this big chair
and put this cushion at your back be-
fore ring for tea
Mrs. Black thrilled with her first
real opportunity to tell anybody any
thing about Europe She had always
| seemed such a novice before when the
| conversation turned on trips abroad
| and she realized that she was about
| the only person in the world who
| hadn't been over half dozen times;
| but here was kindly Mrs Brown, who
had never been over at all, and who
was perfectly willing to take a second
hand tour personally conducted by her
| friend
| AS soon as the tea arrived and the
two ladies began to sip that innocent
| beverage before the cheeriest of fires,
| Mrs. Brown turned to her friend.
Now, begin at the very beginning,
mind you" she said, "and don't skip
an incident till you come to the end
Mrs. Black cleared her throat expect
antly. Il shant weary you with the de-
tails of preparation for the voyage, "
she began, just like a story book, but
come at once to the time when Jim
and | looked down from the upper
deck TO the pier, which for a few mo-
ments looked like brisk handker-
chief sale on bargain day. Everybody
was fiuttering his or her bit of cam
brio, hats We're being hoisted on sticks
and waves of hearty good-byes swept
over us till we were out of hear
ing"
| Yes" interrupted her friend, Mrs
Brown sympathetically Il know just
| how ii looked You know, Win and
went to Atlantic City this summer on
Wills new catboat, and the whole fam
lily came down TO the wharf to see us
off You would really have thought
that we We're going TO cross the ocean
they made such tremendous fuss
about it.
'Will got The idea from the trip that
Jack London and his wife are taking
only, of course, they crossed the ocean
while we stuck pretty close to shore
but it was no end of lark Will says
If P. & @. goes up, and it's pretty Ger
tain to go, he's going TO have small
schooner next summer with room fol
four of us, and he has already decided
that you and Jim are to go cruising
with us if you can be content with
American waters after your European
experience.
20, but you are not telling me any
thing about your trip. That's always
, the way with people who come from
Europe. You can't get anything out O
them about what they've seen or done
It's really downright selfish of them,
think, not TO talk about their travel!
TO the poor souls who have only
chance of seeing Europe through othe
f peoples eyes. | am quite sure if | eve
went over ! should have plenty to tel
about it when ! came back
: But then, as Will says, | am natu
rally very observant. Why, often hi
sister Jane and | go down town to
gether for a mornings shopping, an,
' when we come home | can tell VIII
0 about a hundred things that I've seen
and while she sits perfectly quie
and silent. don't mean that She
stupid, my dear. Far from it, bein;
a graduate of Vassar, and all that
but she just seems to be one of tn
l unobseryant sort.
why, when she came from Atlanti
!. City in the spring she scarcely told u
] anything about her trip except to sa
|
of her time in a rolling chair lookin
Z out at the ocean Fancy going to Al
lantic City to look out at the ocean
when there is SO much to see on tn
boardwalk.
Il like to study life, as | so oftel
had to tell Will when he refused to b
dragged into those fascinating shops
And speaking of shops, | got thes
. very tea cups at one of those distrac,
ing Japanese places on the boardwalk
Aren't they frail and delicate looking
But they were really quite a bargain
my dear. There were very few peopl
at the auction that morning, and S
4 they We're knocked down to me at tn
t most absurd price imaginable II
r ashamed to tell you how little | pal
), for them. We brought them ali tn
way home in the catboat, too, withou
:, so much as chipping one of them
saved the expense of express to shi
themselves, as Will said He