We all watched the group from the window. We were amused and
interested. In the middle of the argument an early gendarme arrived
on the scene. The gendarme naturally supported the station-master.
One man in uniform always supports another man in uniform, no matter
what the row is about, or who may be in the right - that does not
trouble him. It is a fixed tenet of belief among uniform circles
that a uniform can do no wrong. If burglars wore uniform, the
police would be instructed to render them every assistance in their
power, and to take into custody any householder attempting to
interfere with them in the execution of their business. The
gendarme assisted the station-master to abuse the two stout
passengers, and he also abused them in English. It was not good
English in any sense of the word. The man would probably have been
able to give his feelings much greater variety and play in French or
Flemish, but that was not his object. His ambition, like every
other foreigner's, was to become an accomplished English quarreller,
and this was practice for him.
A Customs House clerk came out and joined in the babel. He took the
part of the passengers, and abused the station-master and the
gendarme, and HE abused THEM in English.
B. said he thought it very pleasant here, far from our native
shores, in the land of the stranger, to come across a little homely
English row like this.
SATURDAY, 24TH - CONTINUED
A Man of Family. - An Eccentric Train. - Outrage on an Englishman. -
Alone in Europe. - Difficulty of Making German Waiters Understand
Scandinavian. - Danger of Knowing Too Many Languages. - A Wearisome
Journey. - Cologne, Ahoy!
There was a very well-informed Belgian in the carriage, and he told
us something interesting about nearly every town through which we
passed. I felt that if I could have kept awake, and have listened
to that man, and remembered what he said, and not mixed things up, I
should have learnt a good deal about the country between Ostend and
Cologne.
He had relations in nearly every town, had this man. I suppose
there have been, and are, families as large and as extensive as his;
but I never heard of any other family that made such a show. They
seemed to have been planted out with great judgment, and were now
all over the country. Every time I awoke, I caught some such
scattered remark as:
"Bruges - you can see the belfry from this side - plays a polka by
Haydn every hour. My aunt lives here." "Ghent - Hotel de Ville,
some say finest specimen of Gothic architecture in Europe - where my
mother lives. You could see the house if that church wasn't there."
"Just passed Alost - great hop centre. My grandfather used to live
there; he's dead now." "There's the Royal chateau - here, just on
this side.
