Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1871-06-02
The Back Seat in the Cars.

The eXigencies of spring millinery
Obliged our friend Polly to take trip TO
Springfield the other day. Somewhere
up north a freight train had run of the
track, or hand car been inopportunely
encountered, or some of the usual things.
had happened, so that when the train APP
peared behind time, it offered only one car
TO the crowd impatiently waiting its ar
rival. Of course there was grand Amer.
lean rush for seats.
Polly, who disdains to push and scram-
BILE, who thinks there are few things in
this world so debasing to ones self, found
herself oblig d to take the back seat-that
uncomfortable little back seat by the door,
usually occupied by The bewildered for
elgner unused to travel. However, she
had her OWN selfrespect, at least.
And presently she discovered that the
universal law OF compensation holds good
even in respect to back seats. Through
the back window of the car she obtained
such wide, new outlook on the world.
Away hind her sped her native noun
tains, shifting into new beauty OF shape as
the track twisted this way and that, until
they grew blue in the distance, and finally
vanished behind new ranges that gradually
appeared in the picture. Broad and green
the meadows spread out each side III the
| W
ing" out by the brook sides, the elms hazy
with their tender mist of tiny new leaves,
the black ponds in the woods.
There was a certain fascination, too, in
watching the track unroll itself from be-
meath the cars, and speed away iuto the
distance, now plunging into deep gorges,
then out over embankments, through the
arches of bridges, over brooks and rivers,
now in the depths of solemn woods, now
just skimming the corner of an old farm.
mouse built years before railroads were
dreamed of
Then Polly caught all the after. glimpses
OF people-little bits Of human nature
entirely lost by the occupants of from,
seats. She saw the young man who kissed
his hand from the back platform, and the
girl he had lett behind him." waving
her handkerchief across the rapidly
widening space between them; the ole
man getting slowly into his empty wagoI
gazing wisttully after the train that wa!
Whlrling his boy off to the greedy West
the depot loungers lazily picking up thei
feet and sauntering of; the men plowin,
in the fields; the women hanging ou
clothes; the Irishmen at work on tn,
track going on again with the work in
terrupted by the passing train; the run
away horses SOLDERING down; the truan
boys who "huTrahed" the train, climbing
down from the fence and scrambliug Of
toward school,
ut is like liTe," thought Polly, VIII
felt in particularly moral mood thi
morning. SO we come and go. Their
Is little stir, little brief importance
then we are gone, and lo the world goe
on just the same"
, IL was curious to notice how everythin
seemed to catch the infection of hurr
from the tram. The dead leaves whirle
and leaped in the air; the very sand, &C
the earth, earthly" flew on the breeze "a
II 1t had Wings" the sober old trees
the wood waved and tossed their branche
and seemed to stretch their arms out in
ploringly, saying, Take US with you, OF
from this solitude AID silence into tn
world Of hurry and hustle and life to whic
you CO."
And the picture was always changin,
, Polly never knew what might come mex
Z she decided it was altogether the bei
t panorama she ever attended. She fe
) positively sorry for the young man wit
2 the slightly bloated, red face, in one {
. The best seats on the shady side in from
7 who looked so intently out the windo'
r Whenever a woman entered the car unit
= some gentleman had given her a seat an
Tor his neighbor, the fat old gentleman
who secured the same end by burying h
5 face in newspaper, They were losin
9 so much, and they never knew it. A
I this changing scene of life, and beauty
and human nature, going on around then
/ and never the wiser or better for it eI
!. urely shut up in their own selfish, disi
5 greeable selves.
1 And, being in moral vein, Polly wor
0Hrpn a hf, faly l..
: seats in life don't always have the best {
: 1T; the people who are not in fret an
i hurry, and ready to push down and tran
+ pie ON their fellow travellers to secure th
a best place, the highest positions, the firs
d nollce, the mont seats generally; VIII
e don expect much, are not eager to thrus
/ themselves forward, don't think muc
q about themselves anyway. Whether ther
= was not certain peace and serenity a
: ways attendant on the back seat a leisur
Q from ones self that gives room for des
4 OF outside living. And, after all, the lou
a ney is SO short and so swift that, reall,
Y the seat one occupies is of very little COZ
t sequence. The people in the back Sea
e reach the journeys end just as soon, an
c once there no one asks how they cam,
: There is a day after to- day" That a
e should be good natured and unselfsh an
i helpful to their passengers, an
: possess their own souls in peace, are tb
e important things At least SO it SCENE
u 70 Folly. this bright spring morning." i
: 1HoTne,' IN tie Christian Register.
+
AT late meeting of the Providenc
! Conference of the Methodist Church. m
e candidates for membership in the ministr
e were severally inquired of if they use
tobacco. All answered "no," except on