The Port Gibson reveille. [volume] (Port Gibson, Miss.) 1890-current, 1919-02-20
SERGEANT BROWN
Seeing FRANCE
maenifcent Scenery Of the Alps; His
Experiences With Skies and Mad
amoiselle"s.

looked out and found smooth
surface Of snow waiting for me to
atep on it, which did and then won
dered who hit melville the ''dinky
donks very carefully partock Of a
wee bit more water After few
moments reflection and two snow
halls from my companions / recovered
nv seat in the train, and we were of
acain. This time we wandered a.
ronnd through tunnells and snow
hanks for about 80 French minutes,
ii find ourselves at our destination
Al big sign said that good hotel was
IN this vicinity, SO ! procured pair
III skies. and with quite few mis-
givinps / started out with my COM
psnions-two Of them from Louisiana,
two from Chicago and one from Cal
;fornia-to reach the hotel which was
about two hundred yards above us,
I being the goat. ! was to lead the
wav and instruct in the use Of skies
which had seen used by other peo-
Die with much ease. DO of We went.
Now here let me explain that a SKI
Il nothing more than a board about
four or five feet long, about six inches
wide. curved upward in front and
highiv polished on the bottom, and is
fastened to the foot by leather strap
confrabtion. something similar to
hieh-sbeed roller skafc. With these
ef' our party started to climb the hill
by the most direct route, which was
also the .gteepest,
Let me tell you that while it is very
easy; yes, very, very easy TO come
down mountain on pair of skies,
Il is different story all together
when you want to 60 up. So twas
many 4 slip between the cup and lip,
If / may 50 call the valley and the
neak. After hsuch ado about moth
Ine | at last managed to stand up
long enough to move forward and was
progressing with great success when
| tried to cross snow drift under a
tree-which was q sad, sad mistake,
70 nv head and feet parted pardener-
ship then and there, my head be-
coming mixed up in the low branches
Of the fir tree while my feet went
wandering around through the snow
drift; and then while | vas deliver
ing a lecture to them both upon the
folly Of both and conditions in gener-
al IN words that were never taught IN
any Sunday school, heard a voice
say behind me in perfectly good Eng
lish, whats the trouble are you
stuck Turning, beheld party Of
FIVE ladies' and two men, mad as 1t
Aas Wonafl's voice that had spoken,
promptly allowed my bead to JOIN
nav feet--which you will remember
were in the snow drift.
| at last reached the hotel, and at
ter a cup Of hot chocolate, we decided
to climb to the top of the mountain
to see if / was all there, and off again
into the four foot snow like Flan-
ninaanls train wreck, down again
un again gone again. We at last
reached the very top Of the mountain
/. and found a nice little tower on the
far side Of small level space l
started to show them how TO skate
with skies, and was making wonder
ful progress in the direction OF the
tower when / suddenly saw that the
tower was built right on the edge Of
sheer drop Of almost 1000 feet, AS
1 was going at very rapid rate
fully realized that II ! happened 70
miss that tower would not be play
ing fair with the man who had sold
me my round trip ticket, so sudden
ly decided to stop. However, my
feet were cold and one Of them may
have even been asleep for they re-
fused to obey my desire to stop
kept on going until my head became
angry with my feet and buried II
ss'f IN the warm snow thus leaving
say contrary feet sticking up IN tne
air, very much to the amusement ol
5+| - u n
vance on foot. l watched them af'
ter had managed to shake the snow
out Of my ewes. Then / looked be.
hind me, and suddenly sat down very
quickly, for / had stopped only Il
time. Five feet more and I woult
never have used my dear return tick
tank that had just served as hiding
place for my head. 1t would havl
cost my dear government a coolSlO
COO had not stopped, and Of course
am too devoted to my country 9
ever wilfully incur such an expens
upon my government.
After Ishad carefully removed M
skies and once again stood in m
old "hobsH, even tho | sank severs
feet in snow, I felt that as ! had jus
saved my country $4,000 / could en-
joy the scenery. had come to SCI
carefully and slowly made my wa
70 the observatory tower and climbe
up IN it, but as the sur was taking
little rest just then I couldn't see
very much except the other noun
aims, SO / amused myself and CON
panions by trying to translate II
long-winded snowecoxered Frenc
signs which adonned the tower. Afts
n much talk We at last discovered th'
It was very unwise to GO very mes
the cliff and that we were $500 fe'
above the level Of the lake we sa
below, and 5000 above the level
the sea and lot of other such thing
But it didn't give the railroad tin
schedule, nd as we had forgotten
ask about it we decided to go bas
% the hotel. As luck would have
Just at that time the sun came o.
n and we looked around US to beho
me most wonderful sight | have evi
NJ seen. 70 our right as far as the e,
could see were the snow clad noun
~ Ems OF the Alps with Mount Blal
u lowering in the far background III
pine among slender willows, VIII
III q our left almost below US lay A
N les bains with its towering hotels
81 grey among the little red and viii
n buildings Of the home-dwellers. Tn
II nke rainbow was the lake curv
a around the city, flashing back to.
n AZ the glory Of its wonderful beaui
NJ Mlxlng and blending its colors
II rapidly that one marveled that it "
II nature. Here dark blue there
II so1s light green, lille yonder
Sunlight danced and nlnNed unon Vi