Punch (58.1870)

January 8, 1870.] PUNCH, OR THE LONDON CHARIVARI,

MORE HAPPY THOUGHTS.

A

T THE RAILWAY STATION, ANTWERP, en route for Aix.— j and don't speak like les vrais Parisiens. (When in Paris I can look
Rather a crowd bX the ticket place, and I come in at the tail, j forward to saying that Belgium and Germany have spoilt my accent—

satisfactory.)

We cross the frontier, and suddenly hear nothing but German. Very
strange this at first. Dyngwell thinks it would be a rum sort of a
start if one went from Kent to Sussex (from Tunbridge Wells to
Brighton, for instance) and didn't understand the language at Three
Bridges Station. Dyngwell, I note, has more in him than meets
the eye.

Aix at last. When you get there it is called Aachen. Dyngwell
explains this happily; he says a Frenchman expects to find Londres,
and it turns out to be London.

Examination of Baggage.— Questions in German : answer in dumb
show, like a pantomime. We have too much luggage for one trap, so
Captain goes on alone. He calls his coachman a Cockalorum, and the
man touches his hat. I feel somehow desolate : wish I hadn't come.
Everything looks dreary. 1 think of Fridoline, and the baby with
the rash, and my mother-in-law at Brighton. Wish 1 'd gone with
them. But as I have come all this way to find out whether I've got

My ear not having become accustomed to rapidly-spoken French
(by-the-way, I wonder how a Frenchman ever masters the names of
our stations as called out by the porters !) I am unable to grasp the
exact sum demanded of me for my ticket.

Happy Thought.—Put down a Napoleon, and see what change comes
out of it.

Clerk doesn't take it, but says something more rapidly in French.

Happy Thought.—Say bien, and put down another Napoleon.

I am not able to count the change, owing to being pushed away by
an excited person behind, and led off, at once, by an intelligent porter
to get my luggage weighed, for which I have to pay almost as much as
for myself.

I suddenly come upon Dyngwell in a smoking carriage. We are
the only two—the Captain and myself—out of our original party, going
to Aix. He informs me that Chilvern received some money this
morning from London. End of Chilvern.
I make a point of asking the guard at jevery station, whether we

change here. Nothing like being certain. Dyngwell wants to know latent rheumatic gout anywhere about me or not, I am determined to
how long we wait at Liege. I advise him (knowing his peculiar 8° through the ordeal, whatever it may be. I am put into a fly-
French) to ask the Guard. The result is that the Captain addresses such a machine! Three miles an hour, and an unwashed coachman

in a glazed hat. Destmation, I'Hoteldu GrandMonarque. Sounds well.

First Observation in Note-Book — Strasse means street. Mem. Will
learn German while here. We descend the broad Theater-Strasse.
Happy Thought.—Then there's a Theater here.

him thus : " Hi, Old Cockalorum, do we stop the waggon here, eh ? "
Cockalorum returns some answer, and Dy'ngwell asks me what he
said. I interpret it as, " We hardly stop here five minutes." The
result is, in point of fact, that we don't go on again for nearly half an

hour. After ten minutes Dyngwell decides upon going to the buffet. I We pass a large hotel—we pass a colonnade. More hotels—plenty
He immediately asks for bitter beer loudly, and gets it at once. I can't ! of people about: nearly all, apparently, English

make up my mind whether it's more Continental to take coffee and a
cigarette, or vin ordinaire and some roast chicken. 1 have decided
upon the former, and am trying to attract a garf on, when Dyngwell

Second Observation.—That at the first glance Aix has a highly re-
spectable appearance, but not gay.
The Hotel at last: courtyard as usual—very fine place. Like a

says, " time's up : the bulgine's on again." Bulgine with him means courtyard. I descend : a bell rings—sort of alarm of visitors. More

Engine ;" but I somehow fancy that he imagines it to be French. I
remark that everyone (with the exception of such Cockalorums as the
Guard, who rather stands on the dignity of his uniform, I imagine)
understands the Captain's English, while they don't seem to get on
very well with my French. Dyngwell notices this too.

Happy Thought.—To explain it to him thus, that these are Belgians,

bells. Two porters, an under-waiter, a head-waiter (evidently, though
more like a Low-Church Curate in an open waistcoat), and in the dis-
tance on the stairs two chambermaids come out to receive me. Fore-
see donations to all these when I leave.

Happy Thought.—Commence in French (French carries you every-
where) Je desire une chambre ate seconde, et-■

Vol. 58.