The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-08-23
OF INTEREST TO SOCIETY
 AND THE PASSING THRONC
Miss Elizabeth Bowie to Wed MT. Edward Crawford. Drennen-Whte Engagement Announced = Parties Being Planned for Brides Elect-Last Nights Dinners At Country Club-NOtes and Personals.

1 selfish selves, we might thereby "enter- l tain angels unawares" Angels they proved The French woman was bright
 and cheerful. Could speak good English
 and made herself most agreeable in every
 way; casually mentioned that she was
 returning on account of war conditions in
 Germany, where she had been spending the summer. We asked her to tell us of | conditions there and had our eyes opened
 and imagine our surprise at what she
 told us. When we suggested the possi- l bilities of dinner with ten shillings
 our French friends said that at the sta ! tion they would not take the French bank notes not even for railroad fare. There ! are a number of people on the train who 1 have not been able to secure tickets, she | said. But we decided to see the chief | steward in the cafe, but we travelled miles 1 it seemed to reach the cafe or the dining saloon. He decided after much argument
 to let us go in after the dinner was over at 930 and give us something to eat for the money we had, but would not take any money but gold or silver. In our party We found only 15 shllings. The French lady and husband had but To- We must have something for car fare in Paris. The steward agreed to three shil- lings each and to give us what he might
 find. In Paris at station, only a few porters for hundreds of peop1e-which
 meant we must haul out our own bagga ge as best we could In Paris about mid night. Arriving at hotel we found some late arrivals, among them two gentle men who had landed that day at Cher
 bourg and by train arrived at Paris at about D. m. They had been informed of the unsafe conditions in Paris and had decided to leave the following morning
 on the earliest train. They had been told that the hotels would not take their own | the French, bank notes nor travellers checks, nor anything but gold and silver l that the banks were closed and Paris | was in the greatest excitement and com | motion possible. Well, what must we do? l or what use now was the French
 money SO willingly given in Brussels by | the American Express company? Impos- ! sibe to leave without money. We must 1 have 1t and must stay until we could go to our reliable American
 Express company again. The fcl- l lowing day we were among hun
 dreds of others In the mad rush to diff
 ferent places trying to find ways and 1 means to run away from Paris When
 we arrived at the American Express of- flee We were told that each person would
 be given s10 in gold and that we must
 force the hotels to accept our checks
 Not wishing to hurry away unnecessarily and to have the best possible advice I
 decided to see our American consult there we found a hundred men and
 women on the same mission. We could
 not waste time standing in line or on
 courtesy for 1t was case of" first come first served So left my girls and l slipped with two others into the private | office of the consul. In a few moments
 succeeded in getting his attention and asked: Shall we leave Paris as soon as | possible, or will it be safe to remain
 a day or two?" He said I should 20 on
 the first train if I were you and it is | possible to do so. I hurried out and to | n ell, | everything engaged. The streets were packed with people and vehicles We had about two hours to get lunch pay our
 pills and reach the station. We arrived
 and were told our 2:30 train had been taken off We must wait until 4:15 We
 accepted the advice of the gate keener'' | to hold on to our baggage and stand rlght there. wish I could paint picture of the excited mob which gathered | there for "the next train" Everybody wanted to stand near the gates. and
 everybody must make a mad dash all at once to get place on the train Money 1 IS the most persuasive argument you
 know In foreign countries, and as for lthat, 1t has very similar effect on the
 people of our own America. I have mo-
 tced, and to make sure I slipped a nice
 nttie Joure boie' into the hands of tho
 gate keeper. then to a porter who took my baGa~e over the railing, then finally
 was allowed to go inside myself to look
 after my bags. There were a few others who in like manner obtained the same privilege, among them my young ladies We crossed the English channel from
 bouiogne It did seem to me that not one person more could have found A placa
 on our steamer
 We heard that another train had to be
 put on In Paris to accommodate those who waited at the station. talked to A gem
 ,eman later in London. He said "that
 iast boat coming over was hell on
 earth; men. women and children were
 seasick. lying around on the floors and
 sverNwhere. We met many in London
 who had suffered in eyerv way ;msgin-
 aole Tn this mad rush from Paris. Even on the day after we left the hotels were
 .oielng their guests to leave, waking
 them up In some places in the middle of
 the night. From Germany they were
 taken to the frontier and put off the 1 ,ra,hs. No doubt you have had similar,
 rerhaps worse. accoupts of all this and
 l may weary you with what has grown
 old. So will close for this time.