The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1914-10-09
TRIP THROUGH GERMANY
Or. Wilson and Wife Travelled Under
Difficultieo

our experiences after the war started
| in Europe In Austria and Germany
they began calling it the "Welt
| Krieg' or ''world war" Immediately.
The Archduke of Austria was
assassinated on July %. The people
of Austria did not like him at all,
but they considered his death in that
| manner a horrible thing.
y couple of days later it was Civ
en- out in the papers that the funeral
would be held at ten o'clock on a
certain evening so we went down TO
see it.
FIRST came company of police,
then men on horse back dressed in
the old costumes and carrying the old
style lanterns. Following these came
a guard of honor walking in front of
the archduke's hearse which was the
hearse that had been used for cen
turtles to bury the Emperors of Aus
tria. Ordinarily it would have been
a red hearse. but the Emperor. to
show his feelings in the matter allow
ed the use of his own hearse. Fol.
lowing this came the Archduke's own
regiment, then more police men.
guards of honor and the hearse of
the wife followed by a regiment of
infantry, and last came carriages
with members Of the royal family.
militia and different representatives
these followed by more policemen.
TO give an idea of the size of the
| crowd, we stood in the 18th row and
the streets were lined for miles. 20
To 20 rows deep. The day after the
assassination the people began put
ting out black flags on every building.
Some of these flags were 100 fee
long and 10 feet wide.
After the ultimatum to Servia went
into effect we began to hear rumors
OF big war but paid very little at.
tention to it until they began to
empty all the hospitals and stop the
work of the American Medical AS.
sociation. After that there was a
grand scramble to get out. | was
sick at the time but managed to Get
around and join crowd who we're to
pull out on the 4th of August. We
were told to bring all our baggage
to the station because ARRANGEMENTS
mad been made for two cars and a
baggage car. This arrangement was
supposed to have been made by En-.
bassador Penfield OF Vienna. When
we arrived at the station we found
mat nothing had really been done
and that we could not leave. After
great deal of wrangling the station
master said that they would send MS
to German border. So a party of
about fifty of us decided to try and
see what we could do and sent our
trunks to the American Express com.
pany. Later we heard that they were
received there. We reached Pas.
sau on the border about one O'Clock
that day and after some time they
allowed us to get into TRANSPORT
train as they we're not running any.
thing for ordinary service
After being kicked off and ON n
number of trains and riding in all
Kinds OF cars we finally landed I'm a
place called Regensberg about 8 D. m.
and were told that we could not 60
any farther but after a great deal of
arguing and little money changing
hands we were allowed to get into a
transport going to Nuremberg. We
started at 1890 p. m. and arrived i'm
Nuremberg about $50 a. m. We
should have made it in about two
hours. The tracks were guarded
every 300 feet. Also all the bridges
were heavily guarded.
At Nuremberg we we're told that
Great Britain had declared war
against Germany, and the original
plan was to reach London in thirty.
six hours. We felt as If we we're in
mess. We got together and talked
the thing over and decided TO get
just as near the Dutch border as
they would let us. Well. We went
through the same performance all
that day as we did the day before un.
I'll along in the afternoon when we
were all ordered out of the train. sur.
rounded by soldiers, and arrested.
After awhile they put all of us into a
third class car under guard and sent
US on to a place called Aschanen.
berg, because no one could read Eng.
fish. At this place we were made TO
PASS through double line Of soldiers
into a small room where our pass.
ports were examined. Then we we're
put into second class cars and allow.
ed to go on to Frankfort where we
arrived about 40 D. m. We were
informed there that If we wished TO
go any farther we would have to 20
TO the station at the other side OF the
city. so we all picked up what lug.
gage We had and got into cabs and
ioolishly stopped right in the center
OF the station. We were surrounded
by a mob in a very few minutes and
as they had just mobbed two English.
men. they wanted to tackle US. But
German, who had ben in America
and realized who we were stepped in
and helped us out and advised us
not 70 90 any further because all traf-
&c would be stopped az midnight and
We might be stranded in some little