times of warlike turmoil many unexplainable things occur. Here is
an incident of a different kind, told by one of the escaping
host: "I went into the restaurant car for lunch," he said. "When
I tried to return to the car where I'd left my suitcase, hat,
cane and overcoat, I couldn't find it. Finally the conductor said
blithely, 'Oh, that car was taken off for the use of the army.'

"I was forced to continue traveling coatless, hatless and minus
my baggage until I boarded the steamer FLUSHING, when I managed
to swipe a straw hat during the course of the Channel passage
while the people were down eating in the saloon. I grabbed the
first one on the hatrack. Talk about a romantic age. Why, I
wouldn't live in any other time than now. We will be boring our
grandchildren talking about this war."

The scarcity of provisions in many localities and the withholding
of money by the banks made the situation, as regarded Americans,
especially serious. Those fortunate enough to reach port without
encountering these difficulties found the situation there equally
embarrassing. The great German and English liners, for instance,
were held up by order of the government, or feared to sail lest
they should be taken captive by hostile cruisers. Many of these
lay in port in New York, forbidden to sail for fear of capture.
These included ships of the Cunard and International Marine
lines, the north German Lloyd, the Hamburg-American, the
Russian-American, and the French lines, until this port led the
world in the congestion of great liners rendered inactive by the
war situation abroad. The few that put to sea were utterly
incapable of accommodating a tithe of the anxious and appealing
applicants. It had ceased, in the state of panic that prevailed,