Oxford eagle. (Oxford, Lafayette Co., Miss.) 1876-current, 1911-07-20
IN SUNNY FRANCE AND SPAIN.
President c. R. Hightower Tells
Interestingly the Story Of His
Trip Abroad.
From the Union Advocate.
CONTINUED from last week.

thousand miles. | did not see a
railroad conductor in my COM
partment. or have a. chance to
ask question during the entire
route. No one came to punch
my ticket. | was simply let
through the gate at the station at
Barcelona by presenting my tick
ct and surrendered it at Paris
when | passed out at the station
gate. Local travel between small
stations is very much the same
way. One buys ticket, gets on
the train, gets off when he gets
to his destination and surren-
ders his ticket.to the station agent,
there of course being no iron
fence and gate keeper at these
small stations. He could get of
and on without the ticket just as
easily, but if caught attempting
to ride without paying, he would
be severely punished by the law.
These are some of the disad-
vantages and the Objectionable
of European travel, yet in some
respect, railroading in those
countries excels that in the Uni
ted States. Their best express
trains make better time as a rule
than the best express trains make
in America. They make no stops
except at the large cities. rode
on a number OF trains which made
an average of sixty miles an
hour. Railroad accidents are
far less frequent than in America.
| think this is cue to the fellow
ing reasons: In the construc-
ton of the road beds much care
is taken. They do not make the
abrupt curves; they do no; have
any steep grades and when it il
absolutely necessary to round n
sharp curve the engineer knows
to obey orders from head-qua Z.
tiers and slackens his speed on
rounding curves. Generally
speaking, the railroads are very
much straighter than in the Uni
ted States. They do not wind
about over the country to get to
county seats. They start at a
given point and go to a given
point. If they come to 4 gorge
they I'LL it; If they find an eleva-
ton they cut it down; il they are
! confronted with an abrupt rocky
mountain cliff, they tunnel it,
hence the straighter lines ana
more gradual grades, which con-
tricute very greatly to the safety
OF railroading Another thing
which contributes equally as
much TO the safety Of railroad
travel is the fact that the en-
ployees have been taught from
childhood to obey instructions,
and they have no thought except
to follow instructions as given by
the railroad management.
The Europeans drink more than
the Americans; but they don't
drink the same thing. They
don't drink much water, while
this is true they don't drink much
corn juice. Instead eff taking 20
the extremes, they take a middle
ground; they make tea, coffee,
beer and wine supply the place
OF water and whiskey. The
American drinks water and whis-
key. The result is you rarely
find 2 railroad engineer with his
mind tired or his nerves unsteady
from drink. They are sober anc.
cool, and are therefore, better
qualified to stand at the throttle
and protect the lives of their
passengers. | do not mean, OF
course, by this to intimate tina,
the American railroad men are
not as rule sober. This simply
applies to the exception to the
rule.
The road leading from Paris tc
Havre follows the Seine Valley &c
Rouen. This is qnite beautiful
valley. To my surprise a great
deal OF it seems to be grave
bed; apparently the least fertile
valley | saw in the French Re-
public. At Rouen the railroad
turns across the country and ira
verses rather very mountain
Gus section devoted mainly tc
fruit and dairying. Considerable
quantity of small grain is grown
The great quantity of apple:
, grown in this section make the
: cider industry quite an item
me clover heliS are as fine az
can be found anywhere. Tn.
section is SO densely populated
until there is no room for pasture
The cattle are grazed by stalking
! them on the clover. Everywhere
you will see the farmers herd,
standing in rows across the fIels
, OF clover. Each day the stake i.
| moved up, as the animal is al,
, lowed just enough for that day.
feed. On one side of this row oil
, animals is the fresh tall clover
then there is a trown streal
where it has been nipped-tc ths
ground. A few yards to tn,
other side is streak of brown
and gradually as you reced.
from the cattle the field become:
green as the clover stuoble puts
! up another growth.
Havre is an old-time CITY. anf