The Jeffersonian. [volume] (Stroudsburg, Pa.) 1853-1911, 1872-08-15

head foremost into the aisle, into the very
arms of the English gentleman Being
an English gentleman he would look the
other way if he could but how can he /?
He must hold you up! You don't know
just how you Chamber back. Nothing
seems very clear to you for some minutes,
except the English gentleman's face,
which is indelib!y stamped on your brain
You don't sit up for the next FIVE or
ten minutes, nor make sound. Then
you reflect that the night is really to be
ten hours long, and that there are hairpins
and hair. There is no need of greater
explicitness.
The feeblest imagination can supply
details and dilemmas. You sit up again.
and soon become absorbed in necessary
transactions. You glance up to the left
Horror upon horrors The cupboard
door has suddenly swung off its hinges
That is, the flank piece of the curtain,
which is intended to turn corner at the
head of the bed, and shut you off from
your nelghbor in the next section, being
not wide enough, and having no sort of
coutrivance to fasten it to the wooden
Partition, has slid along on the rod, and
left you just as much exposed to the eyes
of all passers by as if your cupboard had
DO door at all. You drop-well-all you
have in your hands, seize the curtain and
hold it in place with your thumb and
finger, while you grope for pin to pin
it with. Pin it, indeed To what? l
| have before mentioned that the cupboard
| is of panels of highly polished hard wood
and siver plating. The cars are called
"silver" and "palace" for this reason At
last you pin it to the upper edge Of your
pillow. That seems insecure especially
so, taking into account the fact that you
are restless sleeper. But it is the only
thing to be done. Having done this, you
look down at the foot of bed, and find a
similar yawning aperture there. You pin
this flank curtain to the blanket, and pin
the blanket to the mattress. You do all
these things, getting about on your knees,
with the car shaking and rocking violently
over an unusually rough bit of road
When the flap is firmly pinned at the
head and the foot, you lean back against
the middle of the back of your cupboard,
to rest The glass door outside your little
on it, aud involuntarily scream.
"What is the matter, ma am ?" says
the friendly conductor, who happens to
be passing. You start up. That is, you
would, if you could /; but you can't, be-
cause you are sitting cross legged, and
have the cramp besides. But it is too
late. The cupboard door is split in the
middle, and there are the conductors
sympathizing eyes looking directly in
upon you. 1t is evidently impossible to
have the curtains made tight at the head
and foot of your shelf without their part
ing in the middle. They are too scant
At this despair sets in. However, you
unpin the flap at the foot of the bed, re-
pin it so as to leave only small crack,
through which you hope your neighbor
will be too busy to look. Then you pin
the two curtains together firmly y in the
middle, all the way up and down. Then
you lie down, with your head on your
travelling bag, and resolve to do no more
till the cars stop. You fall asleep from
exhaustion. When you awake, darkness
reigns; heavy and poisonous air fills
your cupboard the car is dashing on
through the night faster than ever.
Timidly you unpin the curtains, and peep
out. The narrow aisle is curtained from
one end to- the other boots are set out at
irregular intervals snores rise in hidcous
chorus about you everybody has gone to
bed, nobody has opened his window, and
most of the vcntilators are shut. With
all the haste you can make, you try to
open the window at the foot Of your bed
Alas while the day lasted you neglected
to learn the trick of the fastening now
the night has come, in which no man can
undo car window. You take the skin
off your fingers you bruise your knuckles
you wrench your shoulder and back with
superhuman strains-all the time sitting
cross legged. AT last, just as you have
made up your mind to follow the illus
trious precedent OF Mrs Kemble's elbow,
you hit the spring by accident, and, in
your exultation, push the window wide
open A fierce and icy blast sweeps in,
aud your mouth is filled with cinders in
second This will never do. Now.
how to get the window partly down !
This takes longer than it took to get it up
but you finally succeed BY this time
you are so exhausted that absolute indf.
ference to ali things except rest seizes you.
You slip in between the sheets, and shut
your eyes. As you doze of, you bave
vague impression that you hear something
tumble off the foot of the bed into the
aisle. You hope it is your boots, and
not your travelling bag, with the bottles
in it but you would not get up again to
see-uo, not if the whole ear load of pas
sengers were to be walked up by pungent
odor of ammonia and alcohol proceeding
from your cupboard Strange to say, you
sleep. Your dreams are nightmares-bu
still you sleep through till daylight.
As soon as you awake you spring up
nna liStnn 4 Ii Is still Snne of the