Grand Forks daily herald., 1914-12-11
THEY JUST TOLERATE AMERICANS
IN GERMANY; But Travel IS SAFE
Experiences of Two Newspaper Men From the United
States Getting in and Out of Bern-Arrested Twice,
But Difficulties Were Easily Acknowledgements
For Engishmen.

I walk past the door of our culliart
| nent III the corridor ear and look i.
At the strangers and pass On. 1t WA!
| not that they thought We were Ems
!ishmen My companion wore ,il
American flag on the lapel OF his cu;,
and another on his ovcrcuat. | wore
/ anOther--an enamel brooch. which
was the best ! could get on the pinch
| -lnd showed as much Solicitud" over
it as a hotel clerk with Il yellow dia.
mond. There was nothing doing il
/ the fellowship way.
Don't Mnrm Up to Americans.
! We had that compartment al IL
ourselves almost AL tho WAY to Ser
l!n IL journey of about eight hours
once a natulalized American canIc
in and talked to us. and again n very
tired officer sat with us for Il while
They really hld no choice. All the
other commandments in the car were
rlaNin. To standing room unS. .At
!sc:,im no one paid the least attention
to MS, in spite of the fact that our
German was SO deficient that if it had
not been for aid we would have been
obliged to live on Wcner schnitzcl.
We found Americans who had no more
German than We but Who wore no
American Bags. The explanation Was
simple.
"All The lInGliShmen are under ar
rest. so that persons speaking English
must he .\nericans.'
We got along, because almost every
German city has some English. At
Hamburg We found Il more intense at.
mosphere OF hostility. Hamburg is
the third port i'll Europe, and it is
doing no business.
The English feet made it impossi-
r.I1
and they are having Il hard time. just
before we reached Hamburg a neu-
tral vessel had sailed for America
with IL cargo Of German dyeStutfs
These are not c0ntraband of war. In
der tho conventions there was no cX-
r"se for interfering with their ship
ment But England is trying TO throt-
tie German commerce. AmbaSSad OF
Gerard and Consul Morgan had work.
"d hard to gain permission for the
passage of this vessel. Tho Hamburg
attitude toward Englsh-speaking for
oignerS was easily understood.
Possibly it was nero indifference
and possibly it was humor--but the
lady who sold us our ticket for Flush
ing. Holland, played us Il little trick.
she routed us through every practi-
rally unused town in northern Ger
many. We would ride little while
ana 7then we would get off and wait Il
little while. We probably made every
connection it is possible to make, Ger
man railroads being what they are.
1T took us two days to do Il fourteen
hour journey. TO do the railroad men
Justice, they We're kindly and helpful
They evidently regarded us as two
foreign fatheads. We .cOincided in
that opinion. having compared the
railroad map with the railroad folder
which had been sold us as a ticket.
If it hadn't been for the guards we
would have been in Germany still,
wandering around and around. maxi
ing connections every little while, like
pair of flying Dutchmen.
At BoXtel we were demanding
where we could get train for Goch,
when a soldier tagged me. He had
rifle too. hut he was such Il pleasant
looking soldier that r followed him
gladly. So did the other fellow. We
found his officer reading a London
paper which he hastily concealed
when we came in. BY mere chance
We had had photograph affixed to our
passports by Consul Morgan at Ham
burg. These saved US. A new reeu-
lation had been put in force requiring
photographs upon all passports. These
photographs must be signed by the
proper German officers. No one had
told us. although the foreign office had
vised our passports in Berlin.