IN A TRAIN WITH SCHOOL GIRLS.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXV, Issue 2, 27 December 1912, Page 7

IN A TRAIN WITH SCHOOL GIRLS.

WHAT HE HEARD. The Rev. S. Baring Gould, who is more widely known as a novelist than as a clergyman, travelled from Switzerland to England recently with a party of British schoolgirls, who were on their way home for the holidays after a term spent in a boarding school at Borne. He was alone in a compartment when the girls swarmed into the train at a. junction, but in a few moments he was wedged among half a dozen of the short-skirted young persons, and he had an opportunity to observe “the flapper” at her ease. His companions assumed with the confidence of youth that he was a foreigner who could not talk English “Oh, what a. bother,” said one girl, as the train started. “Can’t we kick him out?” “We shall pass through a long tunnel when entering France,” giggled another, “and then we will have him by the heels and shove him out *of the window, and we’ll shout ‘Home, Sweet Home’ to drown his squeals';”. Soon the train paused at a station, and a girl from another compartment appeared at the window. “Have you a man in your compartment?” she demanded. “What is he like?” “Not much to look at,” was tlu> answer. “We fancy lie is a German professor.” “Oh, bosh!” said a girl, “he’s an acrobat. I know there’s a circus travelling in Switzerland. I’ve seen placards.” “But he wears spectacles !”' objected a more observant young woman. The visitor volunteered th(> information that in her foumartment there was a young Swiss, “with a white face as flat as a dish,” who was “already frightfully gone upon Mabel.” _ Mr. Baring Gould remained silent until the train was approaching the frontier tunnel and then said in English: “Now, young ladies, I’m not going to he chucked out. I’ll show fight.” There was a moment’s silence, followed by a shout of laughter, and the “Pampers” vied, with one another in kindly attention to their elderly companion. Mr. Baring Gould suggests that it is time a capable naturalist undertook a study of the schoolgirl.