uggage as head-rests, or being content with the cold hard steps. The
few seats upon the platform were speedily occupied but the occupants
were denied more than a brief repose. At the end of 15 minutes officials
came round and emptied the seats of those in possession to allow other
parties to have a quarter of an hour's rest.

While the worn-out passengers slept the light-fingered German gentry
passed swiftly from bag to bag, the conditions offering favourable
opportunities for the light-fingered gentry. They appeared to suffer no
molestation from the officials, who could plainly see what was going on,
but possibly officialdom regarded the belongings of tired and exhausted
foreigners as legitimate loot to those who were prepared to take it.
Outside the station the heavier baggage was stacked in barricades in a
wildly haphazard manner with the heavier articles at the top. These,
crushing the lighter and more fragile packages beneath, spread the
contents of the latter in the roadway to serve as sport for gamins and
other loungers who prowled around.

The utter chaos was aggravated by the rain which pelted down with
torrential fury. Mothers with their little children drew closely into
corners or sat upon doorsteps seeking the slightest shelter. As I turned
out of the station my attention was attracted by a woman--she had come
up on our train--who was sitting on the kerb, her feet in the gutter,
the rushing water coursing over her ankles, feeding her child at the
breast, and vainly striving to shelter the little mite from the
elements. The woman was crying bitterly. I went up to her. She spoke
English perfectly. She was Russian and had set out from England to meet
her husband at Kalish. But she could not get through, she had very
little money, could not speak German, and knew not what to do, or what
would become of her. I soothed her as well as I could. There were
hundreds of similar cases around. Notwithstanding their terrible plight
not a hand was moved by the authorities on their behalf. They were even
spurned and roughly moved out of the way by the swaggering officials. It
was not until the British colony got busy the next day that they
received the slightest alleviation, and the majority, being strangers
in a strange land, were sent back to England, the Germans mutely
concurring in the task. The wild rush from the Continent may have
precipitated congestion at our ports and railway stations, but there
never could have b