Omaha daily bee., 1910-01-02
AN AUTO IN FRANCE
CONTINUED from Page one.l


and W feet wide. In the extreme rear
these troughs were two deep, the back
ones being In the overhang Of the stern,
and it was in these last that we were to
sleep. To get to ones punk or to leave
1t required crawling over two layers Of
PROSTATE forms. The whole compartment
was filled with a dense atmosphere Of
'ostlers, gentlemen's gentlemen and a job
lot Of dlsreputable looking folk such as
used to hang on the outskirts Of a race
track over here in the good old days.
1t was quite a rough crossing. and it
was hard to get to and from our berths,
for IL you did not put your foot in one
mans face, you were likely to step on the
stomach Of another. Well, we had a hard
dose OF the channel, and It was a haggard
and rocky quartet that stumbled off the
next morning upon the quay at Havre. A
marvellous breakfast, however, made us
face the day with a degree of optimism.
ut was $3.50 before the automobile drove
up It was a weatherbeaten sort of car,
but that we did not notice at the time.
The others eagerly questioned the guar
nteed-to talk English chauffeur, but his
knowledge OF our tongue was limited to
two words, Yes, sir 1 speak a little
French, SO when / had settled the break
fast BILL 1 gave the order. ON to Rouen.
But another blow was to fall.
The chauffeur, with many Pardon,
Monsieurs,' drew from his pocket a docu-
ment. / scanned it. 1t was a bill for the
equivalent Of $12O. He said his instructions
were not to start until this had been paid.
approximations were vain. L explained
that we had already paid s1O6 and that
the whole sum now. due was only STA,
- = - an- --I - b., nh.
chauffeur shrugged his shoulders and said
OF that he knew nothing. His orders were
to collect $l2O or not take us. He finally
got excited and threatened us with the
police, so we had to go to a bankers and
settle up.
When we had once got out on the high
road, we sighed with relief that all OBJ
stacles had now been surmounted. Just
then we struck a hill and the car came to
a halt. The chauffeur explained that the
machine had not been acting very well.
In fact, he added, he had had to stay up
all night to make it go at all. The clutch
was slipping, but a little rosin would
help 1t.
''NVell, he took almost every thing apart
and when he mad put the machine to-
gether again we pursued our way to Rouen,
though we had to stop several times for
repairs.
Next day when the bill was rendered
the hotel people had put the charges for
the chauffeur on our own bill, and the
explanation and argument necessary to
have them removed delayed us half an
hour In starting.
The car made its wa intermittently to
Trouville, and that afternoon it took us
two hours to get to Dives, twelve or four
teen miles. However, we made the $50
miles to Paris the next day in fine shape.
We had one blowout, but that was a minor
matter. The chauffeur felt so gay that
he pointed out to US along the way spots
where various Americans had been killed
In automobile accidents.
"As we neared Paris the chauffeur
stopped and put on a .arger pair OF Cog
giles and muffled his face. We wondered
If he was afraid Of being arrested. He ex-
planned that his running the car for us
was only a temporary job, that his regular
employer, a Belgian gentlegan, had been
away from Paris when he himself had left
and he did not wish him to know that he
had been with us. If his employer had re-
turned he would have to leave us, but the
garage would furnish another chauffeur.
Sure enough a strange individual
showed up with the car the next morning.
We thought we had got rid Of the first
chauffeur, but when we returned to our
hotel in the afternoon he was there wait
ing to receive us, and he expatiated at
such length on how he had stayed up all
night at Dives working away at the car
so that We could have a pleasant trip to
Paris that l had to quiet him with gold.
when 1 called upon the automobile
dealer in Paris 1 found that the $50 1 had
paid in London was the merely nominal
charge for sending the car to Havre, and
quite independent OF the $3.50 mentioned in
the contract. l found, too, when we had
finished with that rickety old trap that
there were many places in Paris where l
could have hired a fine automobile for
from $50 to SOS q day, so that by not wait
ing until we got to the other side, and
taking a pig in a poke, we were out Of
pocket from $3.50 TO $500 unnecessarily and
had had a lot Of worry and trouble that
we might have spared ourselves"