e parts of France
(always omitting Paris, which is not France) it is practically the
same thing; Holland and Belgium are not far behind, and neither is
the Rhine country; so that the tourist in Europe finds that creature
comforts are always near at hand. The automobilist does not much care
whether they are near at hand or not. If he doesn't find the
accommodations he is looking for on the borders of Dartmoor, he can
keep on to Exmoor, and if Nevers won't suit his purpose for the night
he can get to Moulins in an hour.

A hotel that is full and overflowing is no more a fear or a
dread; the automobilist simply takes the road again and drops
in on some market-town twenty, thirty, or fifty miles away and
finds accommodations that are equally satisfactory, with the
possibility--if he looks in at some little visited spot like Meung
or Beaugency in Touraine, Ecloo in Holland, or Reichenberg on the
Rhine--that he will be more pleased with his surroundings than he
would be in the large towns which are marked in heavy-faced type in
the railway guides, and whose hotels are starred by Baedeker.

In most countries the passport is no longer a necessary document in
the traveller's pocketbook, though the Britisher still fondly arms
himself with this "protection," and the American will, if it occurs
to him, be only too glad to contribute his dollars to the fees of his
consulate or embassy in order to possess himself of a gaudy thing in
parchment and gold which he can wave in front of any one whom he
thinks transgresses his rights as an American citizen: "from the land
of liberty, and don't you forget it."

This is all very well and is no doubt the very essence of a proper
patriotism, but the best _piece d'identite_ for the foreigner who
takes up his residence in France for more than three months is a
simple document which can be obtained from the commissaire de police.
It will pass him anywhere in France that a passport will, is more
readily understood and accepted by the banker or post-office clerk as
a personal identification, and will save the automobile _chauffeur_
many an annoyance, if he has erred through lack of familiarity with
many little unwritten laws of the land.

The automobilist _en tour_ always has the identification papers of
his automobile; in England his "License," and in France his
"Certificat de Capacite" and "Recepisse de Declaration," which will
accomplish pretty much all the passport of other days would do if