The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1914-10-27
(Continued.)

(Continued.)
 aI do not think it will ever revive. Paris is finished. London, too, I am told-Berlin. All the great capitals were stricken .'
 monsieur must permit me to differ.''
 @.It is so.''
 sIt is impossible. Civilizations do not end in this manner. Mankind will insist
 "on Paris?''
 "On Paris
 Monsieur, you might as well hope to go down the maelstrom and resume business there"
 q am content, monsieur, with my own faith.'
 "The winter comes on. Would not monsieur be wiser to seek house9'
 Further from Paris? No, monsieur. But 1t is not possible, monsieur, what you say, and you are under a tremen- dous mistake. indeed, you are in error. asked merely for informatIon.' When last saw him. said Barnet, .he was standing under the signpest at the crest of the hill. gazing wistfuI- ly, yet it seemed to me little doubt fully now, toward Paris, and altogether needless of a drizzl1ng rain that was wetting him through and through
 This effect of chill dismay, of a doom as yet fmperfect1y apprehended, deepens as Barnet's record passes on to tell of the approach of winter. It was too much for the great naaes of those unwilling and incompetent mo- mads to realize that an age had ended; that the old help and guidance existed no longer; that times would not mend again, however patiently they held out. They were still in many cases looking to Paris when the first snowf1akes of that pitiless January came swirling about them. The story grows grimmer. If it is less monstrously tragic after Barnet's return to England it is, if anything, harder. England was a spec tacle of fear embfttered f1ousaholders, hiding food, crushing out robbery, driv@ 1 ing the starving wanderers from every faltering place upon the roads lest they should die inconveniently and reproach- fully on the doorsteps of those who had failed to urge them onward.
 The remnants Of the British troops left France finally in March after UT gent representations from the provf- sional government at Orleans that they could be supported no longer. They seem to have been a fairly well be haved but highly parasitic force throughout, though Barnet is clearly of opinion that they did much to. suppress sporadic brigandage and maintain so- cial order. He came home to famine stricken country, and his picture Of the England of that spring Is one Of miser- able patience and desperate expedients The country was suffering much more
 
 of the oversea supplies on which it had hitherto relied. His troops were given bread, dried fish and boiled net ties at Dover and marched inland to Ashford and paid of. On the way thfther they saw four men hanging from the telegraph posts by the road side who had been hung for stealing swedes. The labor refugees of Kent, he discovered, were feeding their crowds of casual wanderers on bread into which clay and sawdust had been mixed. In Surrey there was 3 shortage of even such fare as that. He himself struck across country to Winchester, fearing to approach the bomb poisoned district around London, ana at Win chester he had the luck to be taken on as one of the wireless assistants at the central station and given regular ra- tions. The station stood in a com handing position on the chalk hill that over1ooks the town from the east.
 Thence he must have assisted in the transmission of the endless cipher messages that preceded the gathering at Brissago, and there it was that the Brissago proclamation of the end of the. war and the establishment of a world government came under his hands.
 He was feeling i'll and apathetic that day, and he did not realize what it was he was transcribing. He did it me chanically as part of his tedious duty. Afterward there came rush of messages arising out of the declara- ton that strained him very much, and in the evening, when he was relieyed, he ate his scanty. supper and then went out upon the little balcony before the station to smoke and rest his brains after his sudden and as yet inexplica- ble press of duty. It was very beau tiful still evening. He fell talking to a fellow operator, and for the first time, l he declares, eT began to understand what it was all about, began to. see just what enormous issues had been hours. But I became incredulous aft CT my first stimulation. AThis is some sort of bunkum,' I said very sagely.
 'fMy colleague was more hopeful It means an end to bomb throwing and destruction he said. It means that presently corn will come from Amer ica.'
 Who is going to send corn when there is no more value in moneyf asked.
 Suddenly we were startled by a c1ashing from the town below. The cathedral bells, which had been silent ever since had come into the district, were beginning, with sort of rheuma- tic difficulty, to ring. Presently they warmed a 1iffle fo tho work a4ld vvc