There is some
fresh air left in England--an abundant supply in warm weather, and
a stray bit here and there in cold. On the Continent there is
none to speak of.
Chapter IV
Jacques, the Forsaken
In Germany the last fresh air was used during the Thirty Years'
War, and there has since been no demand for any. Austria has no
fresh air at all--never did have any, and therefore has never felt
the need of having any. Italy--the northern part of it anyhow--is
also reasonably shy of this commodity.
In the German-speaking countries all street cars and all railway
trains sail with battened hatches. In their palmiest days the
Jimmy Hope gang could not have opened a window in a German sleeping
car--not without blasting; and trying to open a window in the
ordinary first or second class carriage provides healthful exercise
for an American tourist, while affording a cheap and simple form
of amusement for his fellow passengers. If, by superhuman efforts
and at the cost of a fingernail or two, he should get one open,
somebody else in the compartment as a matter of principle, immediately
objects; and the retired brigadier-general, who is always in charge
of a German train, comes and seals it up again, for that is the
rule and the law; and then the natives are satisfied and sit in
sweet content together, breathing a line of second-handed air that
would choke a salamander.
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