Evening star., 1923-01-07


the distance is only thirty-five miles
longer.
Ny dinner in the French dining car
at the present rate of exchange, cost
IS cents, and it was better than the
meals on our trains at home. Every
thing was red-hot. We began with
an excellent soup, served in largs
cups, after which came fish with po-
tatoes, followed by course of roast
| beef with green beans. The meal
ended with dessert of cheese and
ripe grapes. We were both charged
10 cents extra for coffee, and / could
have had a bottle of excellent wine
for 25 cents. The dining car prices
are about the same here in Belgium.
In both France and Belgium they
are discussing electrifying the rail-
ways. The French scheme is asSo-
ciated with the harnessing of the
waterpower of the Rhone river. an
excellent report upon which has been
made by DR. William G. Huntington.
former commercial attache to the
American embassy in Paris. He says
that the Rhone basin is theoretically
capable of producing 100, 900 horse
SOC, 900 horsepower all the year round
which is equal to the importation of
100000 tons of coal per annum.
France has a program to electrify
more than 5000 miles of railway.
covering large part of the most inn
portant French systems. The total
expense is estimated at more than
100000, 900 francs.
The Belgium scheme Of. eiectrIfca.
tion is based upon it's coal mines. II
proposes to begin with the Brussels.
Antwerp line and to go on from here
to the Luxemburg line. 1t will haW~
! both self-propelling trains and trairG
| drawn by electric tractors. The speed
| made will be forty-five or fifty miles
| per hour.
7 AM surprised at the lack of motor
4 Il car transportation in both Bel
! gium and France. The United States
has an automobile or truck for every
two families, and France, even at five
people to the family. which is q high
estimate for that country. has only
one for every forty families. It is
about the same here in Belgium.
| where there are 5000 cars to 1900
900 or 100000 people. Nevertheless,
Belgium has three times as many au-
tomobiles as she had before the war.
and about one-seventh of them are OF
American make There are a half
dozen or more firms manufacturing
| motor vehicles. The three largest
1 the Minerva, Metallurgique and Fab
rique National-are making only light
cars. The great part of the motor
vehicles made in France are also o.
| low horsepower and light weight on
account Of the high upkeep of car
! here, which far exceeds the cost of
| our cars at home. Gasoline in France
costs 60 or rs cents per gallon, though
| II is much less in Belgium. We often
filled our car during our motor trips
from square cans as long as a stick
| of stove wood. each holding a little
more than a gallon. 1t took ten OF
these cans to fill our tank, and the
man or woman who sold them brought
them out to the car and poured them
in one by one. Occasionally we found
a gasoline pump like those used
everywhere in the United States, and
most of these were imported from
America. Gasoline is called "es-
sence" in France, the name coming
from the essence of petroleum, which
is just what it is.
In Paris our automobile was always
stopped at the gate, to see whether we
had taxed in any essence" outside
4 the city and thereby avoided the pay
] -,
posed upon all goods entering Paris.
There were usually half dozen or
more cars waiting to report to the tax
gatherers the amount of gasoline they
had on hand. Each motorist meas
ured his tank with a stick going out
and stated whether he had bought any
more gasoline before coming back. If
there was any doubt as to his report
the tax collectors made their own
measurements, and, if their sticks
showed he was lying, a heavy fine
was imposed
One striking thing about the pri :
vate car is it's smallness, and another
its individual character. They have
cars here SO small that you could
put one into the tonneau OF an
American seven-passenger machine
and it would rattle around. In some
Of the smaller cars the body hangs
down to within eight or ten inches
of the roadway: and it runs on only
two or three horsepower. The most
popular of the cheap machines has
from five to ten horsepower, and the
largest and best seldom have more
than thirty or forty.
x i: i x
MANY of the cars, small and large
1t1 have especially designed bodies
When q rich Partisan orders an auto.
mobile he has plans and specifica-
tions made out as though for a. house
often these fancy bodies are placed
on an American chassis, the body
sometimes doubling the price Of the
car.
The cars are of every color and shade
A favorite is snow white enamel
with decorations of silver and brass
Blue and yellow are common. Red is
much used in both France and Bel.
gium, and in Paris one of the most
common taxi-cabs has the hue oi
fresh blood 1t looks like a huge
sun bonnet turned upside down and
placed upon wheels. The passengers
, sit In the crown of the bonet, and tht
chauffeur drives, as 1t were, with the
strings.
, The auto buses Of Paris are brigh'
, green and those of Brussels the color
of cream The bus driver sits in the
hood of what looks like snowpioV
; on a Rocky mountain locomotive, ant
} the brass-buttoned traffic policeman