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TTTE SUNDAY OREGOXIAX. PORTTjAXD", STTPTTrn'FTt 27, 1914,
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Switzerland
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BY STERLING HEILla.
LAUSANNE, Switzerland, Sept. 15.
(Special Correspondence.) "At
noon today Signor Vanderbilt and
400 rich Americans sailed for New York
from Genoa on the Principe di Udine.
chartered by Signor Vanderbilt from
the Italian Lloyd, but still flying the
Italian flag-."
So ran the news in the Milan "Cor
rlere della Sera," copied by Swiss pa
pers and read by thousands of Ameri
cans who remain stranded and without
funds to pay hotel bills, steamship
passage or even railroad tickets to an
other city. They have not cash to -cable
home for money; nor is money
being sent by cable.
"Such is the situation today," says
William Morton Payne, of Chicago, ed
itor of "The Dial." By the time you
can read these lines (September 27)
he says that "the great mass of Amer
icans In Central Europe will not yet
have been rescued; nor will they be
within sight of rescue until sufficient
American gold can be actually arrived
in Europe for the purpose. European
KOld has simply disappeared. The ca
bling of 'credits' is Insufficient."
Professor B. F. Woodward, formerly
of Columbia University and assistant
commissioner-general for the United
States at the Paris Exposition of 1900,
nays that another Italian ship sails
from Naples soon and that 2000 Amer
icans In Geneva. Switzerland, have or
dered passage on her. "Why, there
are 2S00 Americans in Genoa and 1500
in Naples who can't get shipping or
money to pay their accumulated hotel
bills. Ambassador Page sends word
from Rome that the next eeven Italian
vessels sailing are already engaged,
chuck-full. He adds that there are
9000 Americans actually In Italy, and
more coming. Embassy and private
firms are trying to charter vessels,
but there are none. Money, i. e.. gold,
is needed in great quantity to pay
hotel bills."
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As to Switzerland positively con
gested with our refugees the 230
Americans who left Interlaken by a
special train for Genoa the other day
are considered ill-advised. The Amer
ican advice committee of Vevey-Lau-sanne,
with 915 Americans on its list,
advises us all to sit tight and wait.
Bemsen Whltehouse, long of the
United States diplomatic service, dis
tinguished historian and the richest
American resident of Lausanne, is
chairman, and Dr. Thomas Linn, of
, Nice, is secretary, nominated by Ven
erable WlLMam E. Nlea, archdeacon of
the American Episcopal churches of
Europe. Keeping in touch with the
United States Minister and the various
Consuls, the advice committee freely
and painstakingly gives out a hundred
times a day advice. Every steamer
calling from no matter what port, every
dollar visible In no matter what bank.
It has an eye on all.
"There are 200,000 Americans in Eu
rope," says the archdeacon. "Imagine
1000 per ship, and 200 ships will be
required to send them home. They are
not only the 19J4 tourist crop, but
students, artists, Invalids, parents edu
cating their young children, foreign
residents. The first two French ships
out. the Franca and the Chicago, car
ried 2000. The Cunard and White Star
lines announce weekly sailings; and
there are the Italian boats every 10
days. You see. Does your Swiss hotel-keeper
give you credit? Splendid!
Perfect! Sit tight. Wash your socks,
handkerchiefs and underwear In your
bedroom. Wear shirts two days. Stop
smoking. And wait for the United
States warship Tennessee."
Genial archdeacon! How many dead
broke mammas, how many trembling,
old ladles has he not cheered with the
Tennessee, actually crossing the At
lantic with $2,600,000 In gold voted by
Congress for the relief of Americans?
If there are 200,000 of us, it will be
$12 a piece. Tet there are hundreds
and hundreds who can never pay their
board bills which the splendid Swiss
hotelmen have so freely trusted them
unless relief comes. Forced to over
stay their time, they have forfeited
their return tickets and their bills are
running up because they cannot get
away. .
"The great mass are far from being
rich expatriates," says Professor Os
good, of Harvard. "And the proof of
it is that more than half, in Geneva,
Vevey and Lausanne, have applied to
the committee for second-elass passage
home."
Professor Osgood showed rne a paper.
He was hunting $20 for a lady.
"It is a well-known form of travel
ers' check," he said. "The lady asked
me to collect It for her, and left her
name blank. The Lausanne banker told
me to fill it in. When I had done so
he objected to the discrepancy of hand
writings; the lady must write her
name. And when she had done it, he
refused to pay because the name was
written twice. She is a dear old Amer
ican lady, all alone at our hotel. I
dare not go back to her without the
$20. She is all of a-tremble."
Imagine the distinguished and
wealthy Harvard professor running
about Lausanne in vain to find $20.
He finally found It In his own pocket.
And it was half his available fortune,'
$40 worth of travelers' checks, the
weekly limit which the Lausanne
banks are paying out.
We must not criticise the Swiss banks
for advertising (as a few. are beginning
to do) that they will "advance money
for moderate -weekly expenses" on
"approved letters of credit." One day
last week the great Federal Bank here
had only $200 in cash to open its doors
with. There has been a craze among
the European natives to draw out and
hoard. Paper money can be Issued only
against gold to secure it. And there
is no gold. It is folly to talk of '"ca
bling credits." America must send
gold, gold, gold, and more gold!
Even American and other foreign
banknotes have lost their purcahslng
power. Advertisements Ilka the fol
lowing are seen constantly:
"Edmond Chauvannes, banker, buys
gold of all countries and, in moderate
sums. French banknotes, American
greenbacks and English . banknotes.
For more important sums he accepts
them on deposit and pays out Swiss
banknotes up to $100 per week."
I saw an Englishman sell a' 5-pound
note for $20 and an American sell a $20
gold certificate for $15. So. in the
cities, where you may arrive at a bank
with your good American, French or
English money and find that the bank
has no more Swiss cash to buy with. A
man may have his pockets full and not
be able to buy an apple until he can
make a dicker tomorrow, if he gets up
early. In the mountain resorts, iso
lated, ignorant, without facilities, it is
infinitely worse. At Engelberg, above
Lucerne, an American lady gave her
pearl necklace for a family board bill
and $30 railroad fare. The 24 naval
officers arriving with Mr. Brecken
ridge on the Tennessee ought to scour
the mountain resorts for Americans
eating the bread of afflllctlon in hotels
where they owe so much, yet cannot
get away.
An American who has done great
good is E. P. Frazer, consular agent at
Vevey. There la no getting out of
Switzerland without money and pass
ports. Passports have become utterly
essential. With passports (and
money) one can move on into France
or Italy. They are worthless for Ger
manyeven to get out. and pitiful ap
peals come from Americans in Munich,
who dare not venture into the street.
Four entire days the American com
mittee rounded up the 915 Americans
who now have their emergency pass
ports in Lausanne, and Mr. Frazer and
his capable wife come up from Vevey
four times to a Lausanne garden to in-
teroogate them personally and deal out
the precious papers ... gratis!
Not a cent of consular costs. "No fee."
The British pay $1.60, and I know two
tearful old maids who had to borrow
it. The French vise costs $2 and the
Russians pay $4. I was proud of
America.
They were golden afternoons, as hot
as Lausanne can be in the dog days,
crowds and crowds of worried Amer
icans, all joyful to meet each other in
that Lausanne garden. Gone all that
American suspicion and hauteur. Fear
made the "humblest dear. Equally with
out money, proud and meek clasped
hands. The Consul sat at his desk
and Bweated. Everybody filled up
blanks and sweated. Nobody took a
drink drinks cost 10. cents.
I found in those delightful crowds
recently the following residents of
Portland:
Mrs. C. A. Douglas, Walter George
Crowe. Herbert Q. Adams and adopted
niece. Miss Marjorie Lynn, Miss Harriet
Lynn, Elmen P. Whack, Mrs. Lucius
May and maid and two children.
These citizens are safe. All have
passports, hotels and pensions in Lau
sanne that give them credit and they
remain in touch with the Lausanne,
Geneva and Vevey committees. But
every day there drift into these cities
the most pitiable cases, destitute, with
out their baggage, without a change
of linen, without a friend but the ad
vice committees.
At the Hotel Beau-Sejour, of Lau
sanne, the more well-to-do Americans
have constituted themselves a loose
and secret committee of rescue. On
their indication Monsieur Pasche, the
staunch and open-handed proprietor,
is accepting rumpled and discouraged
Americans who arrive without a cent
and don't know whether or when or for
what weekly sums their particular
letters of credit will be "approved" by
the local banks.
Too great credit cannot be given to
these Lausanne hotel proprietors. We
hear cruel stories of raised prices and
Jewelry claimed as security from Italy,
and there may have been panic and
doubt among the remoter mountain re
sorts of Switzerland. Even Geneva may
have boosted her prices gently for
newcomers; - but Lausanne and Vevey
and Switzerland in general have aston
ished, comforted and enthused us by
their confidence, liberality and Chris
tian charity.
There are abominable cases. An
American lady and her beautiful ath
letic 18-year-old daughter were seek
ing refuge in Switzerland across a
frontier not the French one. The
mother, sick and fainting with priva
tions, was almost carried by the cour
ageous young girl; and because the
latter was so straight and strong, the
brutes pretended to imagine her a man
In disguise, pulling her hair, investi
gating her corsage and submitting her
to Indignities.
Two ladies (one of whom la down
with brain fever at the Beau-Sejour
were up three nights in succession
crossing from Germany, had scarcely
any food and were terrorised for speak
ing English. They actually hired a
baby carriage and took turns wheeling
their valises from the German frontier
station toward the Swiss and were
arrested as "suspicious" when actually
in sight of safety. The baby carriage
was the suspicious object, and that last
night in the police post gave the cere
bral congestion to the elder lady.
It is a pandemonium today in Eu
rope, and tomorrow everyone is going
to be hungry. Every American wants
to go home.
It is abominable that women, any
how, should be forced to cringe for
credit and see money doled out to them
in driblets, without any certitude of
the morrow. How can w pay out
bank bills? With big battles the finan
cial panics will begin again.
Only gold is any good. Cabled
"credits" are worthless. Europe has not
enough money for herself. It costs
$45,000,000 per day to run these wars.
If they issue paper money without gold
to back it, credit goes down in a whirl.
They know It.
Europe is no place for us today.
Frogs and Toads.
In olden times toads and frogs were
part of the outfits of doctors, who
used them to heal almost everything.
In Sir Walter Raleigh's time at cer
tain stages of the moon a salve made
of toads' fat was used by athletic
men. It is thought that the animal's
power of Jumping would, in this way,
be rubbed into the limbs of men.
In New England people think that if
a person handles a toad he will have
his fingers poisoned.
It is thought that the practice of
eating frogs dates from the end of the
16th century. Then the fasting or non-flesh-eating
monks ate the frogs to
get something as near like flesh as
possible.
Frogs serve as good barometers. If
you put a small one In a glass jar
where a plant is growing, he will hide
in the grass when it is damp, but
when there is a chance of better
weather will climb op on a little perch,
if one is furnished him.
Star of the Stationer.
A stationer is one who sells writing
materials and stationery designated
writing paper. Originally there were
two classes of merchants who dealt
in writing materials and in books.
There were those who peddled their
wares from carts and those who had
permanent shops. These latter dealers
were able to keep larger stocks and
more generally handled paper 'and ink
in addition to books. Because their
shops were stationary they came to be
known as stationers, and the materials
which they handled were called sta
tionery. The American Boy.