The Democratic banner. (Mt. Vernon, Ohio) 1898-192?, 1910-12-23
STEALING A BATH
Adventure Of a Trio Of English
Tourists In Germany.
A PRINCE AND A PRIVATE TUB

|
fully Ignored and Enrssed, and t,is
Luxurious Bath Was shsn,efuIIy Ap.
propriated and Abused. r
Parker. Wilks and had been doing"
Germany on the cheap. and I don't
know which Of us enjoyed 1t least.
Parker grumbled the most, but then
he always did, and. though wilks and I
tried to look on the humorous side Of
things, we lost desb over It. We had
happened upon heat wave and swai.
lowed a tremendous lot OF dust and
flies thrown In gratis. cheap though our
tariff was. But we couldn't swallow
the foreign titles that cropped up
around us. We had too much British
| pride for that. And, as luck would
have 1t, at the last town OF our tour
we were quartered on the top floor of
hotel where a German prince occu-
pied a suit of rooms. In our opinion,
three English tourists were worth more
than thirty German princes. and we
dropped our boots on the floor at night
in the vain hope that lie was under
meath. But, alas, his suit was on the
first floor. and we never even caught q
! glimpse of him, though once we heard
his high pitched. arrogant, penetrating
voice and the oozy fulsome rejoinders
of his valet both articulating a Ian
| guage which Parker contemptuously
described as "the limit"
1t was the last morning of our stay.
Parker and | had gone back to the
hotel to pack our bags before departing
! for the station. The weather was hot
ter and duster than ever, and Wilks,
always energetic, had gone to the pub
lie bathing place on the river in search
of swim. l had letter to write,
and Parker wandered round the hotel
to kill time. Presently he thrust his
face In at the door. 1t had lost its
familiar lowering look and wore a
bright and alert expression.
81 say" ne CALCULATED mysteriously,
almost under his breath, 1--WE just
found bathroom in this blighted hole
bath full of tepid water. with ther-
mometer In it--clean, warmed tow
els on the rail, and all that. What
! shall do?"
"Dow replied. "Get into 1t, man,
and let me know when you've finish
ed"
He wasn't long and came back look
ing wonderfully young and clean. The
mail had just arrived and had spent
| fax v,ns,, rrfa Iaf hofnrn
I also found the bathroom. following
his directions. 1t was without excep-
tion the best have ever been In,
and, to my surprise, the big porcelain
bath was half full Of tepid water, and
set of clean, newly warmed towels
hung on the rail. took what the
gods gave and asked no questions, but
wanted more cold water and ex-
perimented unsuccessfully with vari-
GUS levers on the wall. AS a last hope
! attacked cart wheel affair on the
floor and after stiff struggle man.
aged to turn 1t. A flood of cold water
gushed in along one side of the bath,
and 1t was all / could do to wrench
the wheel around and stop the flow.
As did so light came upon me In
flash. This was the princes bath, pre-
pared for him second time by his
obsequious valet. 1t was the glorious
certainty of the fact that made me en-
Joy that bath as / have never enjoyed
bath before or since. The cheap
English tourists were one up on his
serene highness, after ALL Still.
admit, when l had finished Tubing
lost no time In getting back to the
fourth floor again. told Parker the
great news, and we We're just discuss
ing it with rapture when Wilks came
In. looking supremely detected for the
first time on the tour.
'The bathing place isn't open," he
snarled. Had all the fag Of going
there for nothing. What dirty beg
gars they are"
mot all of them" replied. "Don't
you worry, old chap" And described
to him the position Of the bathroom.
and he was off like hare. During his
own bags and his. In ten minutes he
returned, fresh as mountain daisy
and bubbling over with gratitude,
| What sort of bath did you get?"
I asked carelessly.
"a cllnker," he cried, "and 1t was
all put ready for me, clean towels
and everything. The only difficulty I
had was with the cold water wheel
arrangement on the floor"
'It was a bit stiff" 1 agreed.
at turned on all right said Wilks.
"but 1 couldn't turn It off,"
"What did you do?" we asked to-
gether.
II left It," he answered simply.
"What time are we due at the sta
tionT said Parker.
"Now," replied. and we took our
bags and went.
AS we, descended the stairs with
studied calmness we heard electric
bells continuously tingling on the first
f1nnr a hi0h nitched arrogant voice