Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1914-09-10
Gets Telegraph's Cable

DIR. Eager wrote this article for the
Telegraph in response to a cable mes
sage sent by this newspaper to him
when he was in Berne, Switzerland
August 20.
| II almost missed the message,
laughed DIR. Eager to-day in telling OF
his receipt of the massage, "and / re.
ceived 1t Just in the nick of time.
was on the special train leaving Berne
for Paris when l heard someone shout
Doctor Eager! Doctor Fager!' on the
station platform. / raised the window
and a messenger showed the cable in
to my hands just as we steamed away
for the French border"
DR.. Eager was back at his desk al
Tech this morning shortly after
o'clock and at noon he was given a
rousing Homecoming reception by the
students. Here is the European situa-
ton as DIR. Eager saw it:
BY DIR. Charles b. Eager
I'VE had been in Venice fo reight
days having a>quiet and peaceful time,
visiting churches, museums, picture
| galleries, riding in gondolas and feed
ing the pigeons at st. Marks when We
learned that Austria had declared wal
| on Servia. That did not disturb ui
/ in the least because there was always
war in the Balkans and there had
been trouble in Albania so that we
thought 1t was the usual summer out
breaks that they have had in the Bal
kans flor some few years. But one
day in talking to the porter of the
hotel he told me in his broken Eng
| lish that some day we would hear of
terrible things; that all the countries
| in Europe were getting ready for war
and while he didn't think 1t would
come this year. yet some day we
| A nrin
There was nothing in Venice to indi-
cate in the least that great Euro
| pean war was coming. Venice was
crowded with Americans English,
Germans and Austrians and the band
was playing every night in st. Marks
Square. They had their annual sum-
mer tombola. which is a lottery for
the benefit of the poor, and every
thing was quiet and peaceful and hap
py There was no evidence at all of
anything coming to disturb us.
Everything Seems Quiet
We left Venice on the morning of
July 81 and travelled through North
ern Italy to Milan and the only thing
we saw on the road that looked at all
warlike was trainload of Italian ar
| tillery on a side track. But in Milan
everything was absolutely normal We
remained only an hour in Milan to
change cars and took the train by way
of Simplon Tunnel to Brig. We were
held up on the Italian side of the
Simplon Tunnel by an outbreak of hot
water and did not arrive in Brig un-
til late at night. EVERYTHING in Brig
was perfectly quiet that night. How
ever, / was awakened the next morn
ing (August y by roll of drum and
the reading of a proclamation in Ger
man directly in front of the hotel in
which 1t was stated that there was a
state of war in Europe, that the Swiss
army would be modified at once and
that the Swiss people should be pre-
pared to protect their country from an
invasion by foreigners. It came over
night!
War in Twelve Hours
$50 in twelve hours we were sud
denly plunged from a feeling of abso-
lutte security into a state of war.
found it impossible to obtain any
money on checks or letters of credit In
Brig. l could not pay my hotel bill
and the landlady told me to take it
with me and pay 1t when the war is
over. In the morning we came to
Berne in a train crowded with Ger
man tourists and their wives and chill
dren who were making every effort
| to get back to Germany by way of
Berne and Basel The Germans were
intensely excited. One German and
his wife, who sat opposite me, was
particularly anxious and nervous, his
wife every now and then would leave
the compartment and go on the plat
form of the car where I could see her
shaking and crying. He would follow
her out, quiet her and bring her back
into the car. He probably belonged
to the Reserve and had been called to
the front to Join his colors.
| ofa
dreds of English, Americans and GER
mans and the Swiss soldiers who had
very quickly modified so that by the
! time we reached Berne, about hys