Weekly Trinity journal., 1875-12-04
CIVILITY AT DISCOUNT.

sitt a pumpkin, but, on the other hand,
she refuses to wear hustle, is not affect
ed, and agrees with me that goats are a
great nuisance in cities.
saw the other day an assertion by the
lady aforesaid that the present generation
of men, both married and single, was a
terribly selfish generation, and she added
complaint OF general lack of civility
towards unprotected females. don't
want to deny that am man, nor yet
deny Miss Dickinson's assertion. Iwant
to explain.
When | got into an omnibus one eve
ming not long ago, at Chicago, to change
over to another depot, some ones maiden
aunt was my fellow passenger. She had
three or four bundles and trunk to come
by the baggage wagon and she was not a
handsome woman, nor yet a young wo-
man. IL l were to be put on oath, I'd
swear she was the homelest woman that
ever saw, and I've been all over New
Jersey and Indiana.
l knew the woman had to change cars,
and | knew she ought to be glad of a little
help, SO | slid along the seat and asked,
;, Going East P''
She didn't reply, and thinking she
might be little deaf, called out again
"Going East ?"
She whirled around, gave me look OF
rage and contempt, and Kissed out.
Il know you, young man, and it you
speak to me again IN have you jailed. 4"
There | was trying to be civil and
obligng and to disprove Miss Diokinson's IS
assertions, and the woman took mo for IA
pickpocket or murderer. | maze another
effort when we reached the depot, saying /;
"Madam, am going East, and if you
take the same train III cheerfully show
you to the ticket office and help you to
get your baggage checked"
"I'll help you if you don't go away
from me, she snarled, and she added that
"if justice were done I'd be in State
Prison."
She got confused in the crowd, failed
to find her trunk, and when the train
went out she was cantering around the
depot with a certainty of having to wait
there eight long hours for another train
| could have had her aboard the train
with five minutes to spare, but she wouC
not let me. | expect she will some day
publish an assertion that men arc unciVi
and selfish.
When the clouds gathered the Other
night and the rain came pouring down
had an umbrella. This may seem incred-
ible to umbrella owners, but am on oath.
Remem bering Miss Dickinson S assertion,
and overtaking lady with new hat
and choice raiment on, said
Madam, l shall be glad to loan you
my umbrella. You can send it to me in
the morning"
" Yes, know you woud,' she snarled
in reply.
"Take it, please, and save your new
hat"
She halted, turned around, and then
and there remarked as follows:
It's none Of your business about my
hat, and if you don't leave me III have
you arrested.",
Now, may be ugly in look, but she
couldn't have seen II on account Of the
darkness, and no one has a right to judge
of peoples motives by a high keyed or
and obliging, and would cheerfully have
suffered rhumatic twnges in order u
save her raiment, but she wouldn't let me.
Two or three weeks ago | sat in a
a passenger coach, with young lady in
the next seat ahead | suddenly remem-
bered that the magazine which | had
finished an hour before, might help to
relieve :he monotony Of her journey, Sc
passed it over with the remark
Perhaps this may help you to while
away the time"
She turned square around, her eyes
flashed, and she spitefully hissed
"IIow dare you speak to me !"
There | had it, but | am naturally
obstinate, and | replied:
81 merely wished to be courteous"
She turned around again, and again her
eyes flashed as she said
If you speak to me again III tell the
conductor"
Now, then, l assert on my solemn oatl
that the girl had over seven hundred
freckles on her face, a stubnose, red nair
long, bony neck, and two Of her front
teeth were gone. She couldn't have
reasoned that | was stuck with her beauty,
or was about TO propose an elopement, or
intended To follow her and carry her of
10 some cave, just as novelists have
pirates and brigands do. I'd like Miss
Dickinson TO explain why she wouldn't
let me be obliging and civil.
These are not the only cases. I've
been Tebuffed so often that now when
see woman galloping around the depot
to fall over satchels and run over trunks
in her wild efforts to find her missing
bundles, I'm strictly glad, and hope she'll
miss the train. II / sit in "a car and hear
them anxiously asking each other if it i.
the right train, hope it isn't, hope they'll
get carried thousand miles out of their
route. If notice one trying TO put down
the car window and it refuses to bulge
| look the other way, and hope the cold
stream Of air will give her the quick con
sumption and devastate healthy hearth
stone. Let Miss Dickinson remember
that wanted to be courteous, civil and
oblging, but that her sex drove me into
being selfish and mean.