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32 [[left margin in red]] Liege [[/left margin in red]] [[red underline]] manners, [[/red underline]] then ditto customs officials all less businesslike than the Germans, but only a very perfunctory examination of one of my five packages. - I was in first class carriage. Perhaps they were more particular in second and third. Arrived Liege 5:25 P.M. - [[red underline]] What a sudden difference. [[/red underline]] Kaki wool clad soldiers everywhere and officers [[red underline] ]swaggering [[/red underline]] in cafes drinking beer etc everywhere, and making a [[red underline]] rather unfavorable impression [[/red underline]] by their slouchy, loitering ways. Belgian flags everywhere in this quarter of the city which seems to celebrate its particular saint. General types of men and soldiers [[red underline]] do not make a favorable impression. [[/red underline]] - Went to the very best hotel in town - Hotel de Liege only frequented by foreign visitors. Got a room with bathroom attached for 45 francs + 2.50 for city tax which with the [[red underline]] Belgian franc at less than 3 cents, [[/red underline]] makes about [[strikethrough]] $1.35 [[/strikethrough]] 90 cents Am. per day. A very elaborate [[strikethrough]] luncheon [[/strikethrough]] ^[[dinner]] very well prepared, including half bottle of wine costs me little over a dollar. Luncheon was less. [[red underline]] Almost every third house sells drinks, [[/red underline]] and light eatables. Distilled liquors are unobtainable in restaurants or [[strikethrough]] bur [[/strikethrough]] drinking places but may be obtained by the bottle in grocery stores or wine stores at low prices. Most [[red underline]] streets very narrow [[/red underline]] and winding except the newer ones. Sidewalks very narrow so [[red underline]] most people walk in the middle of the street, [[/red underline]] while jumping [[end page]] [[start page]] 33/ [[left margin in red]] Liege [[/left margin in red]] now and then out of the way of loud honking autos. The life and behavior of the [[red underline]] people reminds me more of Spain than of Germany, [[/red underline]] but they seem more jubilant and noisy. Cinemas and [[strikethrough]] sale [[/strikethrough]] ^[[loud noise]] of victrolas [[strikethrough]] every- [[/strikethrough]] or gramophone, or radio seems everywhere pursuing me. But [[red underline]] no sign of poverty [[/red underline]] if it exists. [[strikethrough]] Evidence of women [[/strikethrough]] In cafés and restaurants there is quite some evidence of [[red underline]] women carrying on their oldest profession [[/red underline]] and trying to attract attention, [[red underline]] same as I saw in Adlon [[/red underline]] and on the sidewalks of [[red underline]] Unter den [[/red underline]] Linden. As in all European hotels the bed linen is not changed every day as in the U.S. I [[red underline]] feel a perfect stranger in my native land. [[/red underline]] I hear [[strikethrough]] agai [[/strikethrough]] the [[strikethrough]] low pe [[/strikethrough]] lower class speaking their ununderstandable "Walloon", and even those who speak French speak it carelessly except the better people. [[underline]] June 15. [[/underline]] Took taxicab to drive to [[red underline]] famous forts, [[/red underline]] which Germans demolished in 1914. - [[strikethrough]] Drove over [[/strikethrough]] Drove over the heights, Belgian pavement. City lies below on both sides of the River Meuse, [[red underline]] looks gray and somber, smoke and coal dust [[/red underline]] turn all white or red into gray. Big dumps of coal-mines look like pyramids. Miners, men & women all walk, some in wooden shoes, the women still bearing the coal dust on hands & face and clothes. - The miners a sullen gloomy looking lot, so are the women. Most coal pits work at [[red underline]] much reduced employment. [[/red underline]] Their clothes however modest are well mended.
Transcription Notes:
I understand the instructions that if a word is hypenated across two lines, to type as one word. The last word on first page is hypenated with the ending of the word on the 2nd page. I transcribed as one word on the first page based upon my understanding
