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Show Mishap to Auto Stirs All Slovania So'dier Cuts Telegraph to Make Repairs and Results Are Astonishing. HAS DIPLOMATS WORRIED. Ties Up Railroad Traffic and Results In Congestion That Takes Month to Straighten Out Week to Restore Wires. Szabadka, Slavonia. When a wheezing wheez-ing little automobile of American make, driven by a Serbian soldier, broke down on a country road 40 miles from here, it started an international interna-tional tangle which rolled up until It had the diplomats of four countries worried. Here are some of the things that began be-gan to happen : "Three hundred cars of French merchandise mer-chandise bound for Itoumanin piled up on fhe four switches of the railroad yards here and congested things until not a wheel could move. A Hed Cross supply train of 30 cars, bound for Bucharest, came up behind the French trains and completed the tleup of communications. Ten Americans were marooned for pine days on board the Eed Cross Mm. Sends Train to Investigate, Roumanian merchants who were relying on the prompt delivery of the French goods sent a special train from Bucharest to investigate the delay. Szabadka, an Important town on the frontier between Hungary and Serbia, was cut off from all communication with the outside world. The Serbian soldier who was the innocent in-nocent cause of all this trouble was driving his car merrily northward one day when the steering gear went wrong. He stopped, found the cause of the difficulty and decided that he needed a piece of stout wire to repair the damage. He reached up to the long-hanging, single-wire telegraph line and cut off a generous section. Having fixed his car, he drove blithely on. The wire gave out presently and he renewed it twice, thrice, four or five times, from the telegraph line beside the road. Meanwhile the trains of French merchandise mer-chandise had begun arriving at Szabadka. Sza-badka. Official sanction was necessary for the cars to proceed. The frontier officials framed the proper sort of telegram, tele-gram, and it was duly countersigned : and presented to the operator. Trains Congest Yards. He reported that the wire was "not working." So the frontier officials decided de-cided to wait until it began to work. 1 hey waited two days, while more and moio trains drew into the congested vatds. Szabadka was cut off from wire communication. Mails go only once a week, and then only if trains are running. The telegraph officials finally decided de-cided to send out a line-repairing party. The, party returned after another an-other day's delay, with the announce ment that so many breaks had been found their supply of spare wire had given out. Meanwhile, congestion In the yards Increased and the appeals from the French eonvoyers, the American conveyers con-veyers and the Roumanian merchants became more urgent. It was a full week, however, before the wires had finally been restored and the official vises obtained. By that time the blockade block-ade had become so complicated thaf It will probably take a month to put Szabadka back on a normal basis. Uncertain. - "I know a fellow who is very successful suc-cessful in handling a gr.'p." "Is he a doctor or a bellhop?" |