The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1914-10-01
BEDDING RECALLED
 BY WAR LECTURE
Returning Tourist Describes Foreign Observations to
 Delighted Audience.
Special Correspondence.)

l
 | Bedding, Oct. Before a large au- dienoe gathered in the Center Congre- gattonal church on Tuesday evening, David YMaoLuckte, head of a foreign tourist agency, delivered an entertain ing lecture on "A Few Impressions of Europe and the War; Having been caught at Geneva with his party when the storm broke the speaker saw noth- ing of actual hostiltties and suffered less hardship and inconvend fence than many other of the marooned Amer1- cans. Their detention of nearly a month at Geneva was, the speaker said, one of weary as well as watchful waiting. All sorts Of expedients were resorted to for killing time-wa1king, reading, language clubs. card playing and on the part of the men the all most constant smoking of poor cigars With what would otherwise have been the equivalent of ready money it was very hard to get cash One woman with a. draft for g. GOO was nearly fran tic because the. most she could get from the bank upon it was $20 in any one day. In the five trips which Mir MacLuckie made across southern France to Marsed1les in 8. discouraging effort to expedite arrangements for homeward transportation he saw par ties of German prisoners and was struck by their o1Itwardly- seeming superiority over the French soldiers Their uniforms looked as if they were tailor made and in physique, carriage and equipment they. appeared far ahead of the average French soldier, However, the latter were giving 8 good
 account of themselves on the fighting
 line
 'Tt was remarkable,' said Mr. Mac- Luckie, ''how universal was the sus- picion of strangers and how thorough the system of espionage exercised in tT6RaT6 ned to be spying for spies. My first ex- per1ence of the kind was when Ithoughtlessly overstepped the line di- viding Switzerland from France while taking a, walk with my wife. After lmy credentials had been carefully scrutiniEed they were adjudged suf11- ciently exculpatory to permit of my further living on French soil but only l for little while longer as my new permit stipulated that I must be back In Switzerland by sunset.
 Later on, at Lyons, I was forced td make hong wait and noticing the p1a- i carded copy of a proclamation from the mayor took out my note book and began copying it. A crowd began col 1ect1ngs and suddenly an old woman carrying a market basket shouted. l German ispy! Then she rushed down to the soldiers guarding the tracks be- low. Quickly there came up a dap= per little French officer, and these | ac 1SIlcn OItcerS are wonderfully Chic and questioned me. showed kim my passports and cables from the steam ship compan yand told him in my best French that I was an American on a. business mission. I further set forth that had been moved to copy the proclamation because Impressed by it's
 line dfction and from a desire to inn prove from it my regretab1y imperfect knowledge of his incomparable Ian guase.s. The officer smiled, bowed and plauded"
 The homeward journey of the party from Geneva to Marseilles by rail was one of much discomfort. After reach ing Amberien a French railroad cen
 ter, they were driven out of the station
 ten minutes after arrival. This was 1 about 8: 30 D. m- while it was raining | The crowd of several hundreds had to
 stay outside, unsheltered until 2:30 in ! the morning, when, wet and bedrag- gled, they were allowed re-entry to
 the station. They then observed that
 the train they left had meanwhile
 been standing on a siding with the cars unoccupied. The interior of the
 station had been bedded with straw
 to make sleeping place for the sol- diers, but why the waiting tourists l were not allowed the use of the empty
 cars no one could understand.
 The lecturer sketched rapidly many
 phases of the present conflict and said
 that it was 'bewildering to think what l changes in national boundaries and
 probably governments as well would
 be the outcome, no matter which side
 prevailed.