Alpena weekly argus. [volume] (Alpena, Mich.) 1871-1893, 1873-11-18
Somebody's Baby.

iudnhClo oo OitCh WIN thOi pCo0
clothes, or cover them up with dust
cloaks. Here you see just what
men and women will do when they
are strangers to each other and
meet on the common footing of
tickets that cost the same for the
factory-hand, the senator, the SER
want, and the millionaire. 1t is
not always either pleasant or whole
some to study human nature one
needs to have a sound heart and a
sweet temper not to be altogether
cast down by such researches ;
above all, one has to remember
that which they are themselves,
and out of their own conscious
weakness excuse their neighbors.
Still / do think, after much obser-
vation, that the woman who offers
half her seat to another woman
with baby, for long nights ride,
and does it with a smile, is a crea-
ture calculated to redeem ones faith
in their kind. l could not do it
unless the baby was remarkably
handsome and very good l felt
cross myself that hot October night
going from New York to Boston
on the late train. The cars crowded,
the night foggy and sultry, the
dust raising in clouds, for the past
summer had been long drought,
and all the country looked exhaust
ed about us. | was not the only
cross woman either there were a
dozen at least in that car; women
whose grimy faces, bleared eyes,
crumpled linen dust-cloaks, rough
hair and scolding, or fretting tones
betrayed their disposition when
nature was "unadorned." l was
alone, so did not scold-audibly,
but | felt a certain savage satisfac-
tion in seeing and hearing so much
companion misery. The men gen.
orally went to sleep, if they did
not go into the smoking car, and
afforded extraordinary spectacles
to the beholder. If there is one
position above another in which a
man is not picturesque or beauti-
full, it is with his head thrown back,
his ugly travelling cap set on askew,
his whiskers gray with dust, his
forehead pepperd with cinders, his
mouth wide open, and his manly
nose uttering horrid snores. Ro-
nance and sentiment expire at the
sight; you would laugh out if yor
were not exasperated, and there
arises in the mind of an ill-condi-
toned person like myself a wild de-
sire to throw something at them,
or to have a pea-shooter and take
aim at their open countenances. /
don't know what | might have been
left to do of this frantic sort if my
mind had not been tranquillized at
an early point of the journey by
the aspect of a refreshing woman
who sat across the aisle from me.
Some women are refreshing to look
at they may not be young, nor
beautiful, nor fashionable, but they
are as pleasant as green tree to the
sight. Somthing fresh or clean, or
graceful about their dress, some
cordiality and cheer in their faces
sort of unworldly look, like a
luxuriant blossom-simplicity, un-
consciousness, peace, goodwill.
There was another woman in front
of my neighbor, dressed in a travel
ing costume, de regle, of embroid-
cred linen and finest palmetto hat,
adorned with a whole hay-cock of
grasses, kid gloves and elaborate
satchel even her shawl was Indian,
and odors indescribable perfumed
her atmosphere, colongo and san
dal-wood and amber; her face was
beautiful. with delicate regular
features, fair skin, and large gray
blue eyes with long lashes brown
as her hair but what wretched
face it was, alive with intense self
consciousness and egotism, miser-
able with disgust and discomfort,
every cinder caused look or ejac-
ulation of peevish complaint, every
fresh arrival she glared at as if the
car were her private parlor and
they came uninvited, she did not
sit in one position five minutes, and
her pale, weary mother and atten-
tive husband tried in vain to make
her comfortable /; they might have
tried all her life just as fruitlessly;
that woman would find dust in
heaven, and scold at the angles
wings for being in her way. But
my neighbor was of different metal.
She was young or handsome, she
was not fashionable or fine her
round comfortable face bloomed
with some hardy rose-tints yet
though she must have been near
fifty, her bright, dark eyes were
as soft and pleasant as they were
perceptive; her steel gray hair
curled in brisk little rInglets about
her wide full forehead and her
cheerful, sensible mouth disclosed
that rare American beauty, a set of
faultless teeth, when she smiled.
She had on an honest straw bonnet
little out of date, but so fit and
decent that you did not remark its
behind-hand style F.; it was gray and
tied down with CHEEKY green rib
bons. ] should think that woman
repelled dust someway, for her bon
net was fresh as a lettuce after four