Little Falls herald., 1914-10-16


ever saw. but every body happy and
ready to cheat his neishbor out OF his
seat. At Bellgarde the real fun start
ed, It is on the boundary OF Switzer-
land and France and therefore is bless
ed with the custom house,. Now the
trick was how to get out Of the train
with all your baggage. get through
the custom examination and finally
land back in your own seat. First
through, first to get seat. Talk
about excitement! Lost baggage.
lost seats. lost people. everything
seemed lost but the train. People
were yelling for their friends. others
were yelling for their baggage, still
others were yelling for others to get
out of their seats. Women were COM
ing the closest thing to breaking their
necks trying to take bigger steps than
their hobble skirts would permit.
others were chasing excltedly up and
down the platform. a piece OF bag
gage in one hand, smelling bottle in
the other. After an hour or more Of
this kind of thing, the train once more
got started. Lyons called for change
Of cars. Here things went from bad
to worse. As soon as the train stopped,
everyb body began to chase for the train
about to pull out for Paris which sad
to say was already filled with Ameri.
cans who had been left. the train be-
fore. It meant spend the night in
town, With hotels crowded and hotel
proprietorsEc double the usual
price for room. At that some slept
- l;~:s
rooms, anywhere they could stretch
trying to get to Paris and from there
to Havre as soon as possible as they
feared the Germans would soon take
Paris.
We arrived at Lyons at 9:45 p. m.
My train left at 2:50 the next morning,
80 meandered around the town and
depot by way of killing time. In the
waiting rooms saw sight to melt
the hardest heart. Stretched on the
benches. on the floor, on each other,
we're old men, women and children, go
tired that they all slept souEdIy in
spite of the chill, hard bed. the noise.
Two old women were telling their
story with wild gestures to group of
soldiers. As l could not sreak French
u understand it / was unable to find
out what it all meant. Very likely
they were fuRitives from the scene of
war and the old women were telling
their experiences to the soldiers. On
the train / took next morning we're
several women with their children,
nothing to eat and poorly dressed. At
the different stations Red Cross nurses
and the good people of the places
brought them something to eat.
Just after arriving at Lyons. a short
time after the excitement, saw
another funny thing. On one track
was q train filled with French soldiers,
about to start for the scene of battle
On the track across was q train filled
with Americans bound fer Paris. The
soldiers were kicking an awful row.
singing the national hymn. cheering
and yelling. waving the French, Eng
lish and Russian flags. From the train
across, somebody sent box of candy
across the platform to one OF the SOL
diers, and this led others to do likewise,
the soldiers cheering to beat the band.
Both trains started at the same time,
amid yelling and cheering, one to the
scene of war, the other to the land OF
safety. ..
At all the stations along the way
crowds Of people were gathered. look
ing for the arrival of wounded soldiers
At every large depot was Red Cross
station. You can't imagine the num-
Der OF wounded daily brought from the
scene Of war. AT Narbonne our train
passed another of more than IL cars.
filled with nothing but wounded SOL
diers with bandaged arms. feet, heads,
arms In sings, etc., the bandages
stained with blood. We passed another
train just 40 long which had just been
emptied of it's cargo of wounded
shipped from the battlefield.
At 5:46 p. 10. Thursday. Aug. 28.
arrived at Cette. This town 10 on the
Mediterranean sea coast Of France.
After supper l strolled through the
town. Here also were gathered divi'
sions of French soldiers and soldiers
from Africa. dark complexioned fel'
lows, red hats and big, baggy knee
pants-real Africans. The next morn
ing before leaving on the train went
down to the harbor and there saw
these together, With French infantry
and cavalry taken aboard cruisers,
very likely bound for the Austrian
! coast. "
70 get my ticketI was required te
show my passport which bad gotter
from the American consul in Bern
Seeing that was an American NJ
further fuss was made. boarded thu
train Z 10 Friday morning.
Entering the large depot at Mar
bonne, crowds Of people were gathered
on the bridges over the tracks ant
around the depot fence. for only thosl
who can show tickets can get through
the depot gate to where the train
come and 60. The cause of the excite
ment soon became clear. A troop O.
soldiers about six With bayonets Of
their guns followed an officer to a Ger
tain car az soon as the train stopped
When the door opened two women ant
two men with baggage we're made t
get between the soldiers aud march t
the basement Of the depot. ! asked
soldier in my department what i