The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1873-04-18
Ladies' Waiting-Rooms.

l.
suffered for several days afterward.
Ladies' Waiting Rooms.
Therois no place in the world where
human nature shows to such sad disad-
vantage as in waiting-rooms at railway
stations, especially in Cthe g Ladies
Rooms" In the g Gentlemen's Rooms"
there is less of that CHASTITY, apathetic
silence which seems only explainable
as an interval between two terrible cat
astrophes. Shall we go so far as to
confess that even the unsightly spit
toons, and the uncleanly and Ioquacious
fellowship resulting from their common
use, seem here for the moment, re-
deemed from little of their abomin-
ableness, simply because almost any
action is better than utter inaction, and
anything which makes the joyless, tact
turn American speak to his fellow whom
he does not know, is for the time being
a blessing. But in the Ladies'
Rooms there is not even community
of interest in a single bad habit, to
break the monotone of weary stiffness.
Who has not felt her very soul writhe
within her as she has first crossed the
threshold of one of these dismal ante
chambers of journey? Carpetless,
dingy, dusty two or three low sar-
cophagi of greenish-gray iron in open
spaces, surrounded by blue-lipped wo-
men, in different angles and attitudes
of awkwardness, trying to keep the
soles of their feet in perpendicular
positions to be warmed at what they
have been led to believe is a steam
heating apparatus a few more women,
equally hst1ess and fweary-Iooking,
standing in equally difficult and awl-
ward positions before a counter, hold
ing pie in one hand, and tea in cup
and saucer in the other, taking altern-
ate mouthfuls of each, and splitting
both the rest wedged bolt upright
against the wall in narrow partitioned
seats, which only need a length of per-
forated foot-board In front to make
them fit to be patented as the bets
method of putting whole communities
of citizens into the stocks at once. All,
feet warmers, pie-eaters, and those who
sit in the red-velvet stocks, wear so ex-
actly the same expression of vacuity
and fatigue that they might almost be
taken for one gigantic and unhappy
family connection, on it's way to what is
called in newspapers " a sad event. y
The only wonder is that this stiffened,
desiccated crowd retains vitality enough
to remember the hours at which Its
several trains depart, and to rise up and
shake itself alive and go ON board. One
is haunted sometimes by the fancy that
some day, when the air in the room is
unusually bad and the trains are de,
layed, a curious phenomenon will be
seen. The petrifaction will be carried
a little farther than usual, and, when
the bell rings and the official calls out
Train made up for Babel, HinnOm
and way stations !" no women will come
forth from the Ladies' Room, no eye
will move, no muscle will stir. Hns-
bands and brothers viii wait and search
vainly for those who should have mel
them at the station, with bundles of the
days shopping to be carried out homes
will be desolate, and the history of rare
fossils and petrifactions will have
novel addition. Or, again, that, i
some sudden oonvulsion of nature, Xix,
those which before now have buriec
wicked cities and the jewellers in them
We're to-day to swallow up the grea
city of New Sodom in America, anC
it under ground for thousand years
nothing in all its circuit would so puz
zle the learned arch@ologists of A. d
1878 as the position of the skeletons il
these same waiting rooms of railroad
stations. .-..--
Aa6oNo the curious female avocation
We find recorded in the tables of the re
cent census, Independently of wome1
in the agricultural districts who assis
in the field work, there are forty-fiv,
female Stockholders, six female ap
prentices to BARRIERS, twenty-four wome1
dentists, two female hostlers, two fe
male professional hunters and trappers
five she-lawyers, five hundred and TWEEN
ty-five she-Fhysieians and surgeons
sixty-seven female clergymen, two wo
men scayengers, seven female sections
ten female e" canal men, one hundre
and ninety-six women draymen, one f.
male pilot. six female guano laborers
four -gas-stokers. thirty-three VIC
men gunsmiths, seven female gunpow
der makers, and sixteen female ship
Triggers.