"I am afraid that seat's taken, sir," said B. when he had recovered
his surprise at the man's coolness. "In fact, all the seats in this
carriage are taken."
"I can't help that," replied the ruffian, cynically. "I've got to
get to Cologne some time to-day, and there seems no other way of
doing it that I can see."
"Yes, but so has the gentleman whose seat you have taken got to get
there," I remonstrated; "what about him? You are thinking only of
yourself!"
My sense of right and justice was beginning to assert itself, and I
felt quite indignant with the fellow. Two minutes ago, as I have
explained, I could contemplate the taking of another man's seat with
equanimity. Now, such an act seemed to me shameful. The truth is
that my better nature never sleeps for long. Leave it alone and it
wakens of its own accord. Heaven help me! I am a sinful, worldly
man, I know; but there is good at the bottom of me. It wants
hauling up, but it's there.
This man had aroused it. I now saw the sinfulness of taking another
passenger's place in a railway-carriage.
But I could not make the other man see it. I felt that some service
was due from me to Justice, in compensation of the wrong I had done
her a few moments ago, and I argued most eloquently.
My rhetoric was, however, quite thrown away. "Oh! it's only a vice-
consul," he said; "here's his name on the bag. There's plenty of
room for him in with the guard."
It was no use my defending the sacred cause of Right before a man
who held sentiments like that; so, having lodged a protest against
his behaviour, and thus eased my conscience, I leant back and dozed
the doze of the just.
Five minutes before the train started, the rightful owners of the
carriage came up and crowded in. They seemed surprised at finding
only five vacant seats available between seven of them, and
commenced to quarrel vigorously among themselves.
B. and I and the unjust man in the corner tried to calm them, but
passion ran too high at first for the voice of Reason to be heard.
Each combination of five, possible among them, accused each
remaining two of endeavouring to obtain seats by fraud, and each one
more than hinted that the other six were liars.
What annoyed me was that they quarrelled in English. They all had
languages of their own, - there were four Belgians, two Frenchmen,
and a German, - but no language was good enough for them to insult
each other in but English.
Finding that there seemed to be no chance of their ever agreeing
among themselves, they appealed to us. We unhesitatingly decided in
favour of the five thinnest, who, thereupon, evidently regarding the
matter as finally settled, sat down, and told the other two to get
out.
These two stout ones, however - the German and one of the Belgians -
seemed inclined to dispute the award, and called up the station-
master.
The station-master did not wait to listen to what they had to say,
but at once began abusing them for being in the carriage at all. He
told them they ought to be ashamed of themselves for forcing their
way into a compartment that was already more than full, and
inconveniencing the people already there.
He also used English to explain this to them, and they got out on
the platform and answered him back in English.
English seems to be the popular language for quarrelling in, among
foreigners. I suppose they find it more expressive.
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.
