Harper's New Monthly Magazine Volume 139 June to November 1919 . it lost no moretime. With a subtlechange in faces,garb, and architect-ure, plainly evident,though it is hard tosay exactly in whatit consisted, camea smoothness thathad long been di-vorced from travelby train. Therewas a suggestionof calmness in theair as we pulledinto M e t z soon after noon which recalled pre-war sta-tions. The platforms were ample andlightly peopled, at least until our trainbegan to disgorge the incredible mul-titude that somehow had found ex-isting-place upon it. The station gatesgave exit more quickly than t
Harper's New Monthly Magazine Volume 139 June to November 1919 . it lost no moretime. With a subtlechange in faces,garb, and architect-ure, plainly evident,though it is hard tosay exactly in whatit consisted, camea smoothness thathad long been di-vorced from travelby train. Therewas a suggestionof calmness in theair as we pulledinto M e t z soon after noon which recalled pre-war sta-tions. The platforms were ample andlightly peopled, at least until our trainbegan to disgorge the incredible mul-titude that somehow had found ex-isting-place upon it. The station gatesgave exit more quickly than those ofParis, though they seemed no wider, andevery traveler was compelled to displayhis permission for entering the city. Theaspect of things was still chiefly the platform were ranged thosesame awe-inspiring beings whom the un-initiated among us took to be Germangenerals and field-officers instead ofmere railway employees; wherever theeye roamed some species of Verbotengazed sternly upon us. But the iron handhad lost its grip. Partly for conven-. LIEUTENANT HARRY A. FRANCK ience sake, partly in retaliation for aclosely circumscribed journey years be-fore through the land of the Kaiser, 1had gone out of my way to descend fromthe train by a window. What horror theundisciplined barbarism would haveevoked in those other years! Now theheavy faces under the pseudo-generals caps gave no gri-mace of p r o t e s t,presaging sternermeasures; not evena shadow of surpriseflickered acrossthem. The grim-featured Verbotensigns remainedplacidly expression-less, like dictatorsremoved frompower and office bysome force too highabove them to makea show of feelingsworth while. The French hadalready come toMetz. One recog-nized that at oncein the endlessqueues formed atevery guichet. Onemade doubly sureof it at sight of aharried and tem-perament - harassedofficial in horizonblue floundering ina tempest of paperasses, a whirlwindof papers, ink, and unfulfilled inten-tions, behind the w
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, bookidharpersnew13, bookyear1919
