Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1918-08-20
TACATIONING IN 1913
By Raymond C.. Fuller

CEVERAL weeks ago, you may remember,
y promised myself-aloud and in your
presence, Mr. Editor-that ] would write
some articles for your editorial page. or
course. l knew that there was grave danger
of wasting my time, for you never seem to
be hard up for good stuff to print, but the
. literary urge and the fact that Fred b
(de!eted by the censor) hadn't paid back
the ten-spot he borrowed-and hasn't yet,
for that matter-comblned to spur me on to
action. And where are the precious manu-
scripts now? In my trunk-and where that
is only heaven and the United States Rail-
way Express Company have any means OF
knowing. and the express company maintains
a silence which l am forced to construe as
ignorance. My only consolation Is the
thought that Heaven knows.
GO can't send you the manuscripts until
- the trunk comes. A man in the smoking
compartment of the sleeper told me l ought
to have had 1t checked and sent as baggage.
He got on at Northampton and said he had
waited three months--I think it was-for
an express package from New York. 1t may
have arrived on the train by which he left.
The trunk-supposedly-was shipped from
Philadelphia only ten days ago, and my
vacation is up in ten days more. l had to
stay in the house yesterday while the tailor
was pressing my suit of clothes. He Informed
me over the telephone, when I called him up,
that four men had recently come to town in
the same boat-that is, being interpreted,
with no trunk and no extra suit to wear.
Cest la guerre, as they say in France.
In other words, we are living-my wife
and lin n suitcase, and having grand
and awful time
WYE HAVE been travelling, you This
w Is my wife's home town. but not our
destination. If the trunk comes tomorrow we
are going to Greenwood Lake the following
day. All her MILDLY blouses and all my fish
ipp farl n
manuscripts.)
As said, we have been travelling. Not
n Afar-not to the Rockies, nor yet to the
Sunny South--but wasn't 1t Thoreau who
wrote that man could travel without ever
going outside of Concord? Or was it Emer-
son? Neither of them however, could keep
away from. Boston. Everybody, even now,
goes to Boston. We didn't go to Boston
on this trip. 1t wasn't necessary, we used
to live there
WYE MADE the journey from Brandywine
w Summit to our West Philadelphia apart
ment in friends automobile, starting on
Monday morning. 1t was nearer noon than
morning. Did you ever start anywhere by
automobile with a party and start at the
time planned on the preceding evening. No,
you never did.
IN TUESDAY we packed the trunk, put
" ting in everything expected to need
in camp at Greenwood Lake. (Also the
manuscripts, which awaited a few finishing
touches) In the afternoon l called up the
Pullman office at Broad Street Station to
engage chairs on the o'clock train Wednes-
day. l learned that the world moves and that
you can't get reservations by telephone any
more. 1t was raining hard, so L let the mat
ter drop with the receiver, and we travelled
to New York in plain, ordinary coach next
day and had seat together.
WE DIDN'T stop in New York any longer
w than we had to. We a conductorette
while riding across town. At the Grand Cen
| tral we got some ice cream, but no Pullman
chairs. At Bridgeport we saw the Reming-
| ton Works from the car windows. Beyond
| Bridgeport we saw five ships building on the
ways. At Springfield we changed trains,
with no time to spare. On the northbound
train we secured sleeping berths and thanked
| our lucky stars, but we'd have gone on to
| old Vermont If we had had to sit up all
| night
The conductor informed me that my B.
| and NJ. and c. v! mileage bookshelf over
from last year-were no good. not having
| received the Governments official o. X. /
counted my cash, and he took it and put 1t
in an envelope But / gave the various rail-
| road and Pullman conductors encountered en-
| route a good run for the money. At the last
| junction point, at I O'Clock In the morning,
| the c. V. conductor was still figuring the
|
| fare and war tax when the station was
| called He followed me into the branch-line
| train to convince me. No. there wasn't any
| quarrel. Everything was straight. Merely
| this: l am no mathematical prodigy. I re-
| ceived thirty-six cents and four ten-cent re-
| bate slips in the envelope in which my small
| fortune had been deposited when we left
| Springfield. C'est la guerre!
| CASUALTY lists from France-boys we
| | J know or whose people we know-boys
| that went to school to my wife-sons, broth
| ers husbands sweethearts of sweethearts.
| Some dead some wounded Boys from right
| here in Barre. Rlght across the street.
| Cest la guerre.
| The neighbors have shown us letters that
they have received from the boys over there.
They are interesting letters. but more than
| interesting for they are significant by reason
| of the spirit they express. They are all
| cheerful some of them humorous. Somehow
| they make a man feel small and mean-even
| a man whose staying at home Is obligatory.
People are talking about the new draft.
| 1t concerns me, as / shall be one of the
| registrants next month
| There's no apathy over the war up in this
| neck of the country. The citizenry don't like
war any better than they ever did, but they're
behind this war in good earnest. There
seems to be sort of conservation among
the people, and yet, at other times, theirs
seems to be the feeling of the young recruit
who was congratulated on his supposed de-
sire to help make the world safe for democ.
racy.
Hell! that amt it," he responded 81
| want to get the boche that said the Ameri.
| cans couldn't fight!"
DOSTSCRIPT-I am finishing this letter In
| weather as hot as the weather was wher
| / was writing those manuscripts. Those
| manuscripts-if genius is 80 per cent perspi
| ration-ought to be important documents
The title of one is Free Verse in the Light
| of Poetry" Another is called William
| Hohenzollern in the Shadow of He'll" Sorr,
can't send them. but I've just received
| word that the trunk is still in Philadelphia
ARE we going camping9 Oh, yes; ther,
"A are some clothes we can borrow, ant
some we can buy. and some we can do with
L of doing wit L.