Show BRISBANE THIS WEEK descend among 0 bicycles many strikes and worries two fla flags V a that clash two national hymns this column ake others to follow written in europe tr traveling avelin g about by auto 77 mobile will rep resent an effort to see things clearly and describe them simply according to the old formula Y you 0 u descend from the ship at havre into a 4 al world on wheels bicycle wheels a change from the world on automobile wheels left on the other side arthur lie of the atlantic i here working men and women thousands of them ride to and from work ten to thirty abreast depending on the width of the street they have the right of way properly in a democracy so it used to be in america when automobiles were new small boys shouted get a horse and new york state law compelled the automobile driver to stop his car and engine while a fam wagon passed if the farmer raised his hand or even lead the farm team past his machine if the farmer requested it here the car stops while bicycles circulate around it on both sides similarly you stop later meeting flocks of sheep on roads across the salt marshes of the vendee france is a land ot of bicycles of many political parties and at the moment a land of strikes like all other european countries it is a land of permanent war scares america looks upon war as a distant improbable possibility and when it comes spends billions on airships that do not fly ships that never go to sea and similar evi evidences of patriotic dollar a year efficiency fici ency Eu ropes nations live in a state of fear as an american family might live if it knew that at any moni moment ent well equipped gangsters from next door might enter shoot up the household and set fire to the house american travelers leaving the boat by railroad descending in paris at the saint lazare station were surprised to find crowds fighting each other not waiting for i germany crowds made up entirely of frenchmen of different political opinions some wore ribbons with the red white and blue colors of the french flag others more numerous wore the plain color red one side sang the marseillaise Marseil laise national hymn of france since the revolution others wearing small red flags sang the internationals ale official S song ong of the communists the world over from moscow to harlem crowds grew bigger the frenchmen sang the two hymns at each other more and more violently with excellent voices not one out of tune all knowing the words of their respective hymns the mar seil laise says let us go children of the fatherland the day of glory has arrived the other says arise ye prisoners of starvation arise ye wretched of the earth it was a scene never to be described bed now that dooley is dead and artemus ward nobody bothered the descending foreigners from across the water A f few ew frenchmen hit other frenchmen not hard then agents ol 01 ol 01 f the kurete whom we should call pa policemen li cemen gradually dispersed the crowds that met and sang at each other again the next day they live in the suburbs and work in paris or vice versa and meeting in the railroad station it enrages them to encounter those that sing the wrong hymn and wear the I 1 wrong colors 1 those singers have chests like I 1 drums complexions completions complex ions that reveal countless billions of red corpuscles corpus cles A and voices that could be heard almost from los angeles to santa monica one of f them broke oft off at the sad word starvation and said to your narrator who had politely congratulated him on his vigor batez nion mon bras et jai soixante soi xante I 1 sept ans meaning here feel A my muscle and I 1 am sixty seven years old the muscle rose in a biceps like a small melon the duty of a visiting foreigner is to observe describe and not comment but this writer had he accepted the invitation to speak at the american club in paris pans recently would have suggested that the french whose only earthly possession is france should be careful not to tear that property apart especially with germany ready to gather up the pieces this crosses the water by mail is not new and not news when you see bee it only heaven knows what might happen in a week fk Q king Fea tines inc U t er lee |