The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1922-12-13

D ALPE TUSKERMAN had land
 N ed that day in Liverpool after A. N stormy winter voyage, his first across the Atlantic. The ship had slowly come up the Mersey in a fog, and the special boat train had dashed through the same dense at mosphere to the home of fogs and soot, London, and in the whole journey to his hotel the young American had seen nothing of the mother country but telegraph-po poles scudding through opacity on the railway journey, and in London the loom of buildings and lights dimly red through the fog.
 Although he had no acquaintan- ces among the millions of dwellers in the city, he did not feel lonely in the comfortable coffee room of his hotel, where cannel-coaI fire flick cred. The air of the room was sur charged with pungent fumes of the coal smoke which had blackened the walls and ceilings, and had con- verted the once brilliant red of a Turkey carpet into a dingy brown, but the young American would not have had the air less laden with the characteristic odor of London, or the carpet or walls less dizzy if he had had a magician's wand
 The concept of a hotel in his na- tive city of Chicago was q steel structure of many stories, brilliant ly lighted and decorated, supplied with a lightning elevator service running through the polished mar bIe halls which swooned in q trOp- ical atmosphere of steam heat em- anating from silvered radiators So it was no wonder that the young man felt more at home in this inn in old London than he had ever felt in an American caravansary
 The shabby waiter who had served him at dinner appeared to him to be a true representation of the ser ving-man who had eaten most of David Copperfield's chops, and drained the little boys half pint of port when he went up to school It may be that Tuckerrnan's age pro tected him from any such invasion Of his viands. but in justice to the serving man it seems probable that he would have cut off his right hand rather than been disrespectful to a guest at dinner
 q F'TER the cloth was removed, A Tuckerrnan ordered a half 4 A pint decanter of port out Of regard for the memory of Dickens, and, slipping it. looked about with admiration at the room with its dark old panels. Comfortable as he felt, after his dinner, he could not help regretting that he had not had with him his old friends MT. and Mrs Micawber and Traddies to share his enjoyment-the guests whom Copperfield entertained when MT Micawber with more shirt col far than usual and a new ribbon to his eyeglass, Mrs Micawber with a cap in a whitey brown paper par eel. Traddles carrying the parcel and supporting Mrs. Micawber on his arm arrived at David's lodg ings and were so delightfully."- en- tertained. He wished that he could see 'Micawber's face shining through a thin cloud of delicate fumes of punch so that at the end of the evening MT. and Mrs. Micaw- Der would feel that they could not have enjoyed a feast more if they had sold a bed to pay for it.''
 These cheery spirits seemed to come back to him from the charm ing. paradise where they live to de- light the world for all time, and it seemed to him that he could dis tinctIy hear Mir. Micawber saying: We twa have rin about the brae, And pu'd the gowans fine" observ-