The Washburn times. [volume] (Washburn, Wis.) 1896-1976, 1914-12-31
BRAVE MISS BROWN
BY n. M. EGBERT.

| tain railroad dCCOuHlOudIAOn, CA
| plained the ticket seller to Miss
Amanda Brown for the tenth time,
| YEARLY. "You see," he added, with
| what was meant to be finality, "all
| the trains in Germany have been
| requisitioned for the conveyance OF
troops"
"I'N have you know, young man,
shifted Miss Brown, that | am an
| American citizen, and I'm going to
| leave for Paris tonight, war or no
war;"
The American woman is a tradition
upon the continent Of Europe, and
Miss Browr was soon the center of a
curious crowd, which had begun to
jeer her when Miss Brown, Selling the
nearest OF the station l0afers, shook
| him until his head nearly fell off his
| shoulders.
However, it is one thing to shake a
| station loafer and another to shake
the German government. Miss Aman'
Boston, could not secure any accom-
mediation to Paris by rail-.
The little frontier village of Stur'
WITT, which was momentarily expect
| ing the arrival of the first detachment
| to entrain for the camp, ten miles
further, on the debatable border line,
was quite worked up about Miss
| Brown. A middle-aged art student,
she insisted that her niece was wait
| ing for her in Paris. The town would
| gladly have got rid of her, but orders
were strict-foreigners who wished
drive, no railroad passages could be
/ supplied.
| 81 don't care anything about your
| ORDERS" said Miss Brown defiantly,
settling the spectacles firmly upon her
nose. Il got shunted here from Stutt-
CART, and it's up to the government to
find me train
The military governor threw up his
i hands in despair. You might as well
| ask me to find a train for General
| revert" he said.
| Next to Miss Brown General Fevert
rather, his whereabouts. A French
/ officer of the highest distinction, and
/ reputed the best tactician in Europe,
/ he had been taking cure at an un.
| fashionable German watering place
/ when war was declared. II the Ger.
man government could lay hands on
him before he crossed the frontier ii
would be worth, they calculated in
i Berlin, hundred thousand men.
| The frontier was being combed
i fine for Fevert, but thus far he had
| succeeded in avoiding arrest.
| Miss Brown, baff1ed, would not &C.
knowledge defeat.
| well, get me a buggy, them" she
/. conceded.
| The military governor laughed. "You
/ might as we'll ask for a horse" he
| answered.
81 can ride" said the American
woman flercely.
| Unfortunately" said the governor
suavely, every horse and wagon is
taken over by the German govern.
/ ment." And then he pondered deeply
He was seriously troubled about
! Miss Brown. He had gathered, from
words she had casually let drop, that
she was related to somebody attached
to the American legation at Vienna. II
| would never do to create an interna
tional difficulty with the United States
| ''Pll tell you what l can do" he said
to her. "My little daughter has don,
| key cart. The donkey is old and
was going to have him killed. Do you
think you can drive him across the
frontier? Then you'll be out of my
/ jurisdiction and will have to throw
/ yourself upon the mercies of the
/ French"
| Never mind the mercy" answered
/ Miss Brown. where's the donkey
cart?"
/ Half an hour later Miss Amanda
| Brown, having grudgingly tipped her
/ hotel porter, was to be seen seated in
i the donkey cart, with an enormous
i old-fashioned portmanteau, vending
4 her way toward the frontier The
/ crowd accompanied her to the edge
/ of the town, jeering, but keeping out
of reach of the whip she piled alter
! nately upon the slow old donkey and
| upon the shoulders of those who ven
tured too near. And so Miss Brown
| disappeared into the twilight.
The military governor had given all
the time he could spare to Miss
| Brown. He gave her no further
1 thought. When an outpost tele-
| graphed a while later announcing the
arrival of a mad, middle-aged Ameri-
can woman, driving a slow old donkey,
ten miles beyond the town, and in
quired what was to be done with her,
he consigned her telegrap hically to an
| unnamable place and dismissed her
from his mind forever.
This was as well, because the troops
! came up on the night train and
! marched out to attack the French at
! dawn. When day broke the Germans.
IN their trenches, were answering a
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BEYOND REACH OF REASON