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from Washington to Pittsburg I estimate.  There is no Cook office in Pisa.  I asked a the hotel where they told me they were Cook's agents in Pisa.  This is the route the man said was best--Pisa, Turin, stopping at every crossroads for several minutes to an hour, Modane, the French frontier which I can't find on my map.  The man at Pisa told me I would reach Geneva the following afternoon, but when I waked in the morning and saw we had not reached Turin, I had my doubts.  The train was not crowded that night and I could lie down all night.  We reached Modane about 4:30 and left at 6 p.m. There was the usual scramble to get baggage examined--or a bit worse for there was a trainload of Italian laborers coming into France loaded with bags and bundles to knock one around with.  When there is plenty of time between trains to do the thing without a j jam they lock the door and won't examine trunks until shortly before train time.  They did the same at Salzburg.  It must be fun for the officials but it is pretty hard on the victims.  There is no through train to Geneva, I had to change at Culoz.  Between trains I walked out of town beside a lovely little rocky stream.  I met two little boys whistling the Marseillaise and realized I was in France.  I had a hair breadth escape from going past Culoz.  I had been told that I changed at 1 am.  I was dozing and waked, looked out of the window when the train stopped about 12:15.  I saw Culoz on a sign (it isn't often you can see the name of the station)  and gathered my baggage and rushed for the door--locked.  By the time I found a door that could be opened, in another car, the train was moving.  For once there was a station agent outside.  I yelled "Geneve" and threw my baggage at him and jumped.  He was worse scared than I was.  What scares me is losing sight of my baggage.  The train for Geneva came in at 6:39 a.m.  It reminded me of hunting up Ashe's type[[strikethrough[[s[[/strikethrough]] localities in North Carolina.------

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