Evening Republican, Volume 22, Number 112, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 May 1919 — LONGED FOR NATIVE LAND [ARTICLE]

LONGED FOR NATIVE LAND

“Good Old United States” Would Satisfy This Exile for the Rest of His Life. An amusing story that Mr. E. H. Sothern tells in a recent number of Scribner’s Magazine is apropos of the yearning for his own land so characteristic of many an American traveler and soldier; but it also reflects pointedly on a less-pleasing trait, of which too many of our fellow countrymen have been guilty. I stood ii\ the douane, or customhouse, on the border between France and Switzerland, says Mr. Sothern. A portly and prosperous-looking American paced to and fro impatiently as his wife and; three grown-up daughters fussed and fumed over a number of trunks full of clothing. My friend and I stood patiently awaiting the investigation of our small belongings. The portly man circled about us twice or thrice with inquisitive eyes. At last he approached. -■ ■ “American?” said he. “Yes, sir,” said I. „ “Hasaid he. “I thought so,” and again he went to his women and regarded them with disfavor. Then he paced the floor again. Once more he approached us. “Holiday?” “Yes,” I replied, “we’re op a holiday,” “Ha I” said the restless one, and his glance ■wandered to his four women with no love therein. “How much longer have you?” said he., “I have about two weeks more,” said I. “I wish I had! I’ve got eight,” said the exile. What to him were the everlasting hills, the storied cities, the pellucid lakes, the sacred sanes, the legends, the immemorial halls? “Give me Pittsburgh I” I can hear him cry. “Little old Louisville is good enough for me!” And who shall mock his longing?