Evening Republican, Volume 14, Number 219, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 September 1910 — STRANDED IN PARIS [ARTICLE]

STRANDED IN PARIS

Mishap Often Occurs to Americans in Big French City. Many Tourists Fall to Engage Return Passage and Are Unwilling Prisoners—Otea meti Ip Companies Unable to Carry Them. Paris.—lt will come aa a surprise to many Americans to hear that every year a few of their compatriots are actually prisoners In Paris and London. There are two classes of prisoners, the willing and the unwilling; neither is to be envied, even though confined In a city of pleasure. “There is no doubt that the number of Americans touring In Europe la greater this year than ever before. It is Impossible to obtain the exact figures, but one can realize the magnitude of the invasion when it la known that up to date more thnn

75,000 Americans have attended the passion play at Oberammergau. Furthermore, one must take into consideration the thousands of Americans who couldn’t see the passion play If they wanted to. Every returning steamship now Is crowded to the gunwales, and, consequently, the number of stranded Americans Is larger than ever. Of those who become prisoners,' the unwilling are the tourists who have failed to engage return passage on the steamships. Owing to the general exodus of tourists in the autnmn the steamship companies are unable to accommodate these people who have trusted to luck to get tickets at the last moment. Then the money that wes set aside for their passage goes to pay for their “prison fare” and for "begging" cables to friends at home. Occasionally one of these unwilling prisoners degenerates into a willing prisoner. Hopelessly stranded, the

latter make desperate attempts to earn a livelihood in Parts, a city offers employment only to the most Parisian of foreigners. On the boulevtrds you frequently are accosted by an obvious American, who either sells questionable picture cards, offers to show you what you shouldn’t see, or asks you for money that you probably haven't got ' In fact the begging American Is now an institution in Paris. He h«n« from the same town that you do; he knov» of your father; f perhaps he once worked on the staff of the leading daily. There Is only one dodge to get rid of this “broke” compatriot—give him the address of some one yon know or don't know, who, you tell him, “will be Interested In his case." The name you give should be. of course, that of an artist who is starving and who has a sense of humor, and there are plenty of them. Though the willing prisoners are oaf the increase, it Is a fact that this year comparatively few Americans have been stranded In Paris through faiilng to engage their return passage. The actual number Is a record. Nowadays not only do many Americana pay their European hotel bills, railroad fares and steamship tickets before leaving New York, but their expenses are figured so closely that they arrive back In New York with Just about uptown carfare in their pockets.To those who figure too closely the pawnshops of Paris are a boon. A watch often pays for an emphatic cable.