| Show KNOWLEDGE KNOWLEDG OF FRENCH NEEDED Travelers Wo Who Speak Ony Elsh at at ata aP a Disadvantage RISKS OF OF AMERICAN GIRLS STORY OF ONE OF THEM WHO WENT ABROAD i New York Tribune Are you walking up the avenue this afternoon inquired the man in al all gray of the girl in al all brown She shook her hea head half regretfully No only as far a as street Im rm due at this ver very moment for n a French lesson ad and tomorrow U Uis t is to be German Going back to your governess step days Inquired the man falling into Trying to undo the mischief the governess did She never taught me French or German intelligible in their native land The prIncipal result of our summer in Europe Is a collection of art works for which we paid twice as much as we should and a deeply rooted suspicIon of the European shop shopkeeper shopkeeper keeper In fact thanks to our mutual i ignorance of French the pIte polite I language we were done at every point of the robbed And now I mother says we wi will not go abroad again until we ca can speak both French and German I am to be the spokes my industry But I thought English was gener generally aly ally spoken in Europe inquired the theman theman man Quite s so You approach a a shop shopkeeper shopkeeper keeper and tel tell hIm what you want in English and he says I send for my boy and the boy comes and interprets incidentally suggesting to papa that the lay lady is a good thing and ought to tobe tobe be properly worked Papa does the rest That is where I had one advantage advantage tage I could understand Fench French just enough to hear what guides waiters cabbies and shopkeepers thought of us We did d nothing change gides guides ad and each was worse than his predecessor One day a woman stopping at our I pension vension showed me a beautiful piece of Roman sik silk for which she had paid three lre lire or 60 cents a yard I asked my guide to take me to the same shop and the woman would not part wih with it for less than five lre lire or la 1 a yard aim sim simply ply because the guIde informed her that I wa was wih with bodles boodles of and could not money even make change In Italian coin let aone alone know the of Italian wares I pieced that much together from scraps of Ial Ital ItalIan ian hue be dropped as he fumbled over the silks When I turned to leave heave the shop after much haggling in which he pretended to advise her to drop the price she offered the sik silk at 60 cent cents a ard yard rd but I wa was so agry angry Ti 1 refused to take it I just wanted to pay off that guide and dismiss him as soon as I could get back to the hotel Shopping wih with a guide is a conies sion of Ignorance and weakness as aswell wel well as an extravagance The pour pourboire pourboire boire of the gUide is to add to your bi bill billand and i it is funny to see the guides keep track of what you buy so that they can return to the store later and col collect lec lect their commission In one city upon our arrival a por porter porter ter al all rags save for the sik silk band around his hat which set forth in git gilt leters letters his position and dute duties grabbed mothers bag and mine Half way through the staton station another man gabbed grabbed them al all from the first and the two followed us to the hotel bus both demandIng payment In vain I tried to explain to the hotel courIer in my best beat English and wih with my most eloquent gestures Unless I paid the two men who had assisted us I could not enter the bus Or would I prefer to have their charges added to my hotel bi bill Decidedly I would not I paid the bf bill We wanted to drive for three hours one Sunday afternoon The hotel rate cards advIsed us that I It would cost 20 cents or a lre lire an hour We engaged the jehu at that rate in the presence of the concierge who bowed us into the vehicle ant and went back to his sta staton station ton tion We rode through the crooked streets and saw In the distance a queer tunnel or vIaduct We both indulged indulge in ecstasies and wondered what was on the other side The driver who could not understand English mind you suddenly turned around pointed at the tunnel and said something in his native tongue which we Interpreted as an an in inquiry Would we like to rie ride through the tunnel Ve Te would and we did and on the other side stretched vine vineyard vineyard yard after vineyard beautiful vista vistas of farms and such hills We ro rode e on and on revelling in the ex amethyst tints creeping down upon the mountain sides and then we suddenly discovered that we must be bemore bemore more than an hours ride from town and two of our allotted three hours were exhausted We began to prod that man in the back wih with our sunshades When moth mothers ors ers arm got tre tired I took my turn and his Invariable reply wa was Si signora I want to go back to the hotel hote we would bawl but the man drove on absolutely unperturbed by our Amer American Amerlean lean ican hysteria Troley Trolley cars laden with passengers rolled past us and we en envied envied vied the packed in the third class seats Well the upshot of i it was that we reached our hotel after dusk duale furious and not entirely We have have never been able to figure i It out but that rIde cost us nearly 4 The concierge listened patent patiently to my ex explanation of the drivers refusal to re return return turn offering the suggestion that we made a serious mistake In going out outside outside side the city gate gates politely showing us on the rte rate cards that once outside the tho gates your charges were doubled The prodding in the back Oh yes that had mae made the driver suffer most keen keenly keenly ly but his horse was could go gono gono no faster Americans were always in such hate haste At this enormity of mis misunderstanding understanding of the most malicious sort I gave gave up the ghost and proffered it a note 5 The river driver handed I IU me back 5 lre lire or 1 U Where is the rest ot of m my change I demanded ad and suddenly he under understood understood stood English perfectly Ah signoria m my pourboire That was just a little more than I could stand and I told the concierge I would alow allow no man to dictate what my tp tip should be and I would tp tip no noman noman man who had cheated me By this time mother was on the verge of hy hysterics hysterics a number of Impertinent IQ mt hagerson of the hotel were we swallowed our defeat ad and hurrIed to the lift One day noon found us in the bust bus busness bustness ness center ot of the city ind nd we decided not to return to the pension for luncheon We had been doing art gal lerias and shops and wee were duty dusty and hot hot I asked te the gide guide it tere there was no dressing ressi room attached to the restaurant restaurant rant Solemnly and Impressively the guide led us to smal small apartment assUr assuring ing us that this was th the one one cafe in inthe Inthe the city which boasted such a con he locked us in A most washstand wih with one spigot running cold water and a an impossible towel constituted it its furnishings ad and we had bad to pound loud enough to wake the dead in order to secure our liberty We dIscussed the mater matter over our luncheon and decIded that the next time wed stand the dust an and gie grime when the head waier waiter presented our bi bill CheckIng i It up we found 2 lire Ure or 40 cent cents charged to sundries and aked asked for an explanation I Signora replied the guide with wit a reproachful expression did I not say it was the only restaurant in town that ha had te the dressing roo roam Two lre lire for or such a not that very reasonable One lovely afternoon we had walked until we were tred tired looking at statuary So we told our guide to secure us a carriage for the return trip The rte rate Is three lre lire an hour outside the city gates so we e rented te the carrIage for that time bidding the driver take tako us first through the palace gounds grounds Never Neverin i in my life wil will I forget that drive The one determination was to get getus getus us to our a as son soon as possible so he could secure another fare The fact that we had rented the carrage carriage for an hour carried no moral weight wih with him He wanted to dump us at atthe atthe the hotel tat that was al all The way we tore over the streets was a cuton caution We were at the pension door in twenty minutes Tell el him to take us to the fower flower market I said to the gide guide ad and both oth men scowled Another riotous ride to the fower flower market and ten minutes more were exhausted Id Id have had my moneys ful full hour but both men looked so ugly that mother Insisted on going right home Her tendency to hysteria was worth money to the guides and their we went trough through the royal palace the gide guide aske asked me if we would like to see the kings apartment apartments There here wa was no charge of course hut but a afew afew few centimes a lia lira yes for the at attendant attendant Gullible creature that I was wasI I yIelded We went through room oom after rom room royally furnished from library to bath Beyond tIle the lat last wal wall we heard the sound of childrens a Think of I it a street Td pi piano ano in the royal palace We were very much impressed and ater after we had lef left the roya royal apartments and the at attendant attendant had bowed and scraped over his to two lire Uro one for me and one for mother I asked my guide where the king ad and queen were disporting them themselves themselves selves at midday while we could go through their apartments He looked at me with that superior air of pity ity which I had gown grown to hate and re replied pled plied The I is in England For ever every monarch in Eroe Europe there Is Isa Isa a sute suite of rooms set aside In this palace Thos Those would b be used by King Edwad Edward if he ever came here i But you see the had gIven us to understand that they were the royal apartments of the king of that countr country and his wie wife I got even with that gide guide the next night however Mother and I wished to go to a music hal hall He secured us tickets for the most hal halIn ball ballIn In the city and I gave hi him enough money to pay for them according to the prices set forth upon al all the post posters ers era Mother ad and I were resting when he came back with word that because Cleo Merode was playing playing at the house the prices were doubled I could not understand why this fact had not been stated on the posters but I was too tred tired to arge argue so I gave him the addi additional tonal price and received my tickets When we reached the theatre about 9 he wanted more money This I found later was legitimate Your seat check does not include your admission But he had doubled the price of the seat checks on me Now at this kind of music hal hall you must patronize the bar bar We allowed our guide to do that also to pay for his ow own drInk which i it seems was 25 or 5 cents in our money Te The guide proffered in payment for his glass of beer a lira Ura or 20 cents and the waler waiter in character characteristic fashion retained the change as a pourboire In vain did thur ur Angelo ar arge argue ge gue The walter waiter continued to rush past him wih with unseeing eyes and unhearing ears Finaly Finally I wearied of his corn com complaints plaints and said Oh Angelo Angela do hush I It is good for you to know how it feels to be an American and be done by everyone every one around you The experienced traveler who can speak French meets wih with none of these annoyances She ha has a sure weapon in her ability to make herself understood and to understand what those around her say She is bete better served and secures real bargains when she shops because the humblest driver French FrenchI the meekest waier waiter in Europe speaks I do not think that any girl or even two girls should travel I In southern Europe alone Many and many a time I was grateful to tomother tomother mother for more than her company We met in one city a very charming young woman taman who was doing the country for some magazine She was one of those girls so thoroughly capable of taking care of hersel herself that she had be become become come reckless One morning as she was passing the concierge he stopped her and advIsed her to remove a pretty enameled enamelled watch she was wearing pinned to her dress She laughed at him and he urged her saying it was not safe to go abroad offering such temptation to nimble fingers And still she laughed At luncheon time she came back without her watch The manager of the pension and his con concierge clerge were they caught the thIef and the girl was obliged to appear against him She had the pro protection of mother who had beco become e In Interested interested in herand herand of the United States consul A As soon as the fellow had been convicted the consul turned to the girl and said Now we wl will gO gOback goback back to the hotel and pack your trunk and you wi will get out of this city before dark Every frend friend of that convIcted man has watched you and marked you You are not safe safo here Oh if only you American girls would not be so reck reckless reckless less and so 50 lavish in displayIng your jewelry He put her on board the train and for once the girl wa was really frightened Of couse course that ha has noting nothing to do wih with a knowledge ot of French but it it shows how foolish we American girls are sometimes |
