nt, but it is impossible that German
officials would surrender a trunk without receiving a _Schein_ in
exchange; at least, not without months of rigmarole and delay. Even
when it is the official who blunders the public suffers for it. We
were travelling some years ago from Leipzig to London when the guard
examining our tickets let one blow away. Luckily some German gentlemen
in the carriage with us saw what happened, gave us their addresses,
and offered to help us in any way they could. But we had to buy a
fresh ticket and trust to getting our money back by correspondence.
Six months later we did get it back, and this is an exact translation
of the letter accompanying it:--

"In answer to your gracious letter of the 26th September, we
inform your wellbornship, respectfully, that the Ticket
Office here is directed, in regard to the ticket by you on
the 23rd of September taken, by the guard in checking lost
ticket Leipzig-London via Calais 2nd class, the for the
distance Hanover to London outpaid fare of 71 m. 40 pf. by
post to you to refund."

One must admire the mind that can compose a sentence like that without
either losing its way or turning dizzy.

But if you want to see what Germans can give you in the way of order
and comfort you must leave the railroad and travel in one of their big
American liners. Even if you are not going to America, but only from
Hamburg to Dover, it is well worth doing. The interest of it begins
the day before, when you take your trunks to the docks and see the
steerage passengers assembled for their start. They are a strange
gipsy-looking folk, for the most part from the eastern frontier of
Germany, bare-footed and wearing scraps of brighter colours than
western people choose. When we arrived the doctor was examining their
eyes in an open shed, and we saw them huddled together in families
waiting their turn. There was no weeping and wailing as there is when
the Irish leave their shores. These people looked scared by the bustle
of departure, and concerned for the little children with them, and for
their poor bundles of clothes; but they did not seem unhappy. In the
luggage bureau itself you came across the emigrant upsides with
fortune, the successful business German returning to America after a
summer holiday in his native land, and speaking the most hideously
corrupt and vulgar English ever heard. The most harsh and nasal
American is heavenly music co