The Ward County independent. [volume] (Minot, Ward County, N.D.) 1902-1965, 1919-02-06

tions, which one can carry on to the
next station. The trouble l spoke
of is with baggage. There is abso-
lutely no system of baggage in Eng
land. You bring your baggage to
the station, put in on the train when
you arrive at your destination you
must rush up to the baggage car, take
off your baggage, and carry it away
with you. OF course, all this is &C
tually done by porters, for a consider
alton, but you must see it all done,
as there is no checking system, what
ever, nothing to prevent you from TAX
ing any trunk which looks good to
you. It speaks well for the honesty
of the English that such a system
works at all. l lost part of my bag
gage, but finally got it again about
week later 1 was lucky, some of
the others haven't gotten theirs yet.
London is very pretty, that word ex-
London is very phetty, that word .ex-
presses it exactly. The tiny fields
mostly with hedge fences, the picture
esque little farm houses, the little
brooks and bridges, made a lovely
scene. All the fields and hedges were
green and the farmers were working
in the fields. The horses are always
hitched tandem for blowing, requiring
one man at the pillow and another at
the lead horse. Imagine two men to
pillow one furrow.
We reached London about $50. An
other scramble for baggage, unsuc-
cessful on our part. Then we found
that we would have to spend the night
in London. The nurses were taken
in charge by the chief. so
we were relieved Of that responsible
ity. We separated for the night and
began to search for rooms Lon
don is crowded all the time now, and
was especially crowded that night,
because General Haig was coming the
next day. But Capt. Brani and my
self were lucky enough to find room
in quiet family hotel near the sta
ton where we arrived By that time
we were some hungry, and have re-
manned so ever since | have been in
England. That night we dined sun1p-
tuously on cold ham, dry bread and
tea without milk and sugar, and that's
more than most of the fellows got.
Everything is rationed in England and
without ration card it is almost i'm
possible to get meal
Then we started out to see London.
We got as far as Piccadilly Circus
really only street, but very famous
one. don't know exactly what
makes it famous-or rather know,
and don't care to say. We roamed
around, seeing the sights, such as they
were, tuntil midnight. Then we walk
ed back to the hotel, which was con-
siderable of a feat at that time of
the night. London is queer looking
city;Seto western eyes. 1t doesn't
look it's size, mostly, think because
the buildings are low and the streets
are narrow. There are no skyscrap-
ers. four or five stories seem to be
the limit, and there is none of the rush
and hustle that is so marked in Chi
cago. Everybody takes his time.
There are very few street cars-there
wouldn't be room for them in the
narrow streets. At night there are
very few lights-no electric signs and
no lighted store windows, in fact most
of the windows are covered by bomb
proof steel shutters relic Of the air
Idlu udyS. 1 Hc only progressive
thing in London is the tube or under
ground railroad.
The next morning we had rather
unsatisfactory breakfast porridge
with condensed milk and no sugar is
hardly success then took our bag
gage from Euston station to Charing
Cross by taxi, of course there is no
express service in London. 1t took
us most of the morning to find our
party and get everything squared
away, so we didn't see much of the
city. Charing Cross Station is in
a rather famous neighborhood, though
right near the Strand and Trafalgar
square, where we saw Nelson's statue
and the big stone lions. BY noon
we began to be very hungry-you can
see by now that my biggest occupa-
tion in London was getting enough
to eat, has been ever since too. But
that time we were lucky enough to
find a flying corps officer who got
us some meat coupons and we had
almost real feed.
/, After dinner we waited on the
Strand Ia see General Haip. The