Five Mile Beach weekly journal., 1918-09-06
Il Seemed Better to Parrot the Belgian.

reached right over and touched one Of
them on his bald head. 1t would have
been more than a touch, l am afraid,
if 1 could have gotten away with it
safely.
AS the officers seated themselves,
a waiter came to us with a printed
bill-of-fare and program. Fortunately,
he waited on the others first and I
listened intently to their orders. The
officers ordered some light wine, but
my Belgian neighbor ordered "Bock"
for himself and his wife, which was
what l had decided to order anyway,
as that was the only thing 1 could say.
Heaven knows 1 would far rather have
ordered something to eat, and I was
afraid to take a chance at the pronun-
citation of the dishes it set forth.
There were a number of drinks listed
which 1 might safely enough have or
dered. For instance, I noticed Lemon
Squash, 1.50," "Ginger Beer, L."
Sparkling Dry Ginger Ale, l."
"A~ppolinaris, L." and "Schweppes
Soda, 0.S0," but it occurred to me that
the mere fact that l selected some
thing that was listed in English might
attract attention to me and something
in my pronunciation might give fur
Their cause for suspicion.
1t seemed better to parrot the Bel
gian and order "Bock" and that was
what I decided to do.
One item on the bill of fare tanta-
lized me considerably. Although it was
listed among the 'Prizzen der
dranken," which 1 took to mean
"Prices of drinks" it sounded very
much to me like something to eat,
and Heaven knows / would rather
have had one honest mouthful of
food than all the drinks in the world.
The item 1 refer to was "Dubbel Ger
stein de Flesch (Michaux)." A double
portion of anything would have been
mighty welcome to me, but 1 would
have been content with q single "ger-
stem" if / had only had the courage
to ask for it.
To keep myself as composed as pos
sible 1 devoted a lot of attention to
that bill-of-fare, and 1 think by the
time the waiter came around I almost
knew it by heart. One drink that al
most made me laugh aloud was listed
as 'Lemonades %gazeuses," but I might
as we'll have introduced myself to the
German officers by my right name and
rank as attempt to pronounce it.
When the waiter came to me, there
fore, I said "Bock" as casually as I
could, and I felt somewhat relieved
that 1 had gotten through that part Of
the ordeal so easily.
While the waiter was away I had q
chance to examine the bill-of-fare ana
I observed that a glass Of beer cost 81
centimes. The smallest change l had
was a two-mark paper bill.
Apparently the German officers were
similarly fixed and when they offered
their bill to the waiter, he handed 1t
back to them with a remark which j
took to mean that he couldn't make
change.
Right there I was in a qua2dary. To
offer him my bill after he had just
told the officers he didn't have change
MOulu nave ScSIuSu SIIdHSSB dAO W. =
couldn't explain to him that l was IN
the same boat and he would have to
come to me again later. The only
thing to do, therefore, was to offer
him the bill as though l hadn't heard
or noticed what had happened with
the Germans, and 1 did so. He said
the same thing to me as he had said
70 Tho aNHoonc narhnnc a little more
sharply, and gave me back the Dill.
Later on, he returned to the table with
a handful of change and we closed the
transaction. l gave him % centimes
as a tip-I had never yet been TO a
place where it was necessary to talk
to do that.
During my first half hour in that
theatre, to say I was on pins ana
needles is to express my feelings
mildly. The truth of the matter Is
was never so uneasy in my life. Every
minute seemed like an hour, and a
dozen times 1 was on the point of get
ting up and leaving. There were al
together too many soldiers in the place
to suit me and when the German Of
ficers seated themselves right at my
table I thought that was about all l
could stand. AS it was, however, the
lights went out shortly afterwards and
in the dark I felt considerably easier.
After the first picture, when the
lights went up again, / had regained
my composure considerably and took
advantage of the opportunity to study
the various types Of people in the
place.
From my seat 1 had a splendid
chance to see them all. At n table
there was q German medical CORDS Of