The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1918-08-16
Desire To Be Of Assistance
To Woman Might Have
Cost Straps
HEAVY RAIN rs
- SAVING FACTOR
And Young Subaltern, On
Special Mission, Thanks
His Stars
(By RHETA cHILDE DoRR)


classic, Where Do We Go From
Here?" without remembering a young
lieutenant l tried to be q mother to
in France. l really led the young
man terribly astray, and but for a
bit Of luck at the end 1 might have
got him court -martialed.
The whole thing grew out of the
fact that SO many of the men in
France are modified that they
haven't enough left for train con-
ductors and station guards. You
can travel for hundreds of miles in
France and never have your ticket
taken up by anybody. l have a col
Election of French railroad tickets
which 1 bought and used. but never
had to show to conductor
One of these tickets entitled me
to ride first class from BOurges to
ia certain large American military
camp about Is or so miles, distant.
bought the tickets one morning last
spring and was informed by the
polite Frenchman behind the wicket
that it would be necessary for me to
change at a junction about midway
in the journey.
'"They ollow you barely five min
utes to make the Change,i' he warned
me, but you cannot miss the train!
1T Is the Paris express"
ar~ The Train Marches.
We were slightly delayed, and
when I reached the junction l made
q quick leap to the station platform
and looked around for my train.
There were several standing there,
so I ran, suitcase in one hand and
typewriter in the other, in frantic
search for a guard. There was only
one, but nailed him and asked him
to indicate the Paris express.
Platform g." he exclaimed. But
hurry, hurry, madame. Already the
train he marches" And surely
enough the queer little tin whistle
which is characteristic Of French
trains was 4 shrilling it's starting
signal and the doors Of the carriages
were slamming.
1 dashed across the tracks and al
most into a young officer who was
looking wildly around and calling in
English for a porter. Seeing my O..
D. uniform, he recognized a COM
patriot, and implored me to tell him,
il I knew, which train he should take
to go to Y.
come along" I flung over my
shoulder for I was still racing for
that moving train. I'm going there,
too
We just made it, fllnging Jny suit
case and typewriter in, and falling in
after them ourselves. The lieuten
ant had no luggage.
I was tired. having been up late
the night before, and without any
more conversation I Curled up in a
corner and went to sleep. l must
have slept for an hour, and after I
awoke the train rolled on for an
other hour without coming to Y.
We were alone in the cOmpart-
ment, and no conductor appeared.
So I spoke to the young officer Il
thought Y was only about an hour
and half from the junction." re-
marked.
II thought so, too" he answered.
"But I don't speak a. word of French,
so I don't always get very precise
information"
Paris Express, But
E1ion from which we had started and
was the Paris express" said. 1--WE
must be on the right train
We commented on the singular
lack Of train conductors and the
lieutenant said yes, you could travel
all over France free, If you had luck.
He had travelled for 48 hours for one
franc and 80 centimes. At least, the
only ticket he had been asked to
surrender cost one franc eighty. The
rest were in his pocket.
But he didn't enjoy travelling alone
in a foreign country. He couldn't
even ask for a match in French,
much less inquire about trains.
Eresolved that 1 would be nice to that
Eyoung man and see that he got safe
lily to his destination. But when an
! hVF g4i
didn't reach Y it occurred to me
that 7 might not be very much Of
a. guide. opened my suitcase, got
out a map Of France, found the juno
ton fro which we had started and
watched for the name on the next
station.
we were on the Paris express all
right, but we were going to Paris in
stead Of away from it, as had in
TENDED. We were within a mile or
two from the city Of Orleans.
broke the news to the lieutenant and
he turned a little pale. He simply
had to get to Y that night, he said.
He was on special mission and had
been charged to deliver his message
as quickly as possible.
5'Even il we get there this even
ing" he added, 'I don't know how
am going to get out to the camp.
! They don't allow officers to sleep in
the town, you know. They know I'm
on the way because I sent all my
luggage on ahead"
Some More Hurry.
perhaps there is train back
very soon" I suggested. "We'1l get
off at Orleans and I will inquire"
We did, the lieutenant carrying
my suitcase, and both of US hurrying
as fast as we could to the ticket Of
fce. What was the next train for
Y? The next train was about to
start. Hurry, hurry, madame and
monsieur. You will miss it unless
you run. It is necessary to change
at X" mentioning the very junction
where our unfortunate lives had
been Joined.
We ran, without stopping to buy
tickets, and scrambled breathlessly
aboard the moving train. Nobody
asked us for any tickets, and we
actually Travelled the entire distance
back to x without paying the French
government a single sou. We ar
rived about Z o'clock, dusk, with our
ffilai destination still As miles ahead
Moreover, there was no train before
midnight.
The young lieutenant was very
blue, but he agreed that there was
no use worrying. and we might as