The Wellington enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 1867-188?, 1879-03-20

been paid for whatever has been gained |
in this Constantinople Cor. Chris |
tian Union.
People You Meet on the Cars.
TFINK the Adjuster is the most OBJ
servant man l ever met on a train. He
sees everything, and notes the peculiar
tiles of the people he meets before he
has seen them. We sat in a car to-
gether up in Wisconsin one day, and
he said:
"Don't you always notice, in every
car in which you ride, the fool that al
ways sits directly before you, and al
ways opens the window every time the
engine whistles, and sticks his head
and shoulders out to see what they are
doing at the station, and never closes
the window till the station is out of
sightP"
Yes, had; and he never saw any
body he knew at any stationp"
Never" said the Adjpster, and
he never sees anything anybody is do
ing at the station, and can't tell the
name of the station while he is in itp"
"And always scrapes the back of his
head against the sharp edge of the win
dow sash when he pulls it in," said,
and then dismally rubs his head while
he turns around and looks suspiciously
at you, as though he believes you did
it, and did it on purposep"
"And the man who is waiting at the
station to see the train come IMP" con-
tinued the Adjuster, "the man with
butternut overalls tucked into his boots,
tawny beard, arms crammed into his
pocket up to the elbows, mouth wide
open-you never miss him; when you
go down, he is standing there at sun
set; when you come back at sunrise, he
is waiting for you; never sees anybody
he knows get on; never expects to;
would be astonished to death if he
should happen to see an acquaintance
come or 60; isn't paid for it, but it's his
business. Has nothing else in the
world to do. Is always there. If the
train comes in fifteen minutes ahead of
time, he has made allowance for it and
has been there twenty minutes; if the
train is four hours late he waits for it.
You see him at nearly every station"
Never speaks to anybody" I said.
Never" said the Adjuster, "and if
anybody speaks to him he says Dun
no. If the baggageman runs over him
with truck, he says "Huhr' and
shrinks up q little closer against the
station, but he never gets out of the
way"
.sAnd do you remember the man
who sits behind you and whistles" l
asked.
"And when he gets tired of whist
ling in your ear, sings bassP" suggested
the Adjuster.
"And never whistles or sings any
thing that you knowP
"Or what he knows?"
"And the .masher,' whose breath is
nearly as bad as his morals, who wants
to tell you all about the daughter of
wealthy merchant who was Just dead
gone on him the last time he went over
this road?,'
"And the man behind you who bites
off half an apple at one bite and then
puts his chin on your shoulder and tries
to talk to you about the weather and
the cropsP'
"And the man who comes into the
car at the front door, walks clear back
and out on the rear platform, looking at
each one of a dozen empty seats, hunt
ing for good one, and then turns back
to find every last seat taken by the peo-
pie who came in after himp"
"And have you never seen the girl
get on at some country station" said
the Adjuster, fixed up mighty nice
for that town, the belle of the village
dressed in more colors than you can
crowd into a chrome, half the town
down at the station to see her off; she
walks across the platform just a little
too rich to look at, come es into the car
with her head up and plumes flying,
expecting to set every woman in that
car wild with envy as she walks down
the isle; she opens the door and sees a
car full of Chicago girls, dressed in the
rich, quiet elegance of city girls in
their travelling costumes, and see how
she drops like a shot into the first seat,
the one nearest the stove, and looks
straight out of the window and never
looks anywhere else, and never shakes
her plumes again while she stays in the
car"
land the man who wants to talk"
said, "the man who would probably
die if he couldn't talk five minutes to
every one he rides with; who glares
hungrily around the car until his glance
rests on the man whom he thinks is
too feeble to resist him. and then
pounces down on him and opens the
intellectual feast by asking him how
the weather is, down his way; the man
who is always most determined to talk
when YOU are the sleepiest, or when
you want to read, or to think, or just
sit and look out of the car window and
enjoy your own idle, pleasant, vagrant
day dreams?"
"And the man." said Rogers, "who
gets on the train and stares at every
man in the car before he sits down, and
stands and holds the door open while
he stares. Who always carries an old
fashioned oil cloth carpet bag with
him, as wide and deep as a fire screen,
and before he sits down, he takes the
carpet bag by the bottom. rolls it up
into a close roll, and puts it in the
rack. 1t is always dead empty. When
he leaves home he never puts rag or
q thread or q button in it. When he
comes back it is emptier than it was
when he went away. 1t never had any
thing in it that he knows of since it
was owned in his family, but he will
never travel without it."
"And the other man." said, "who
carries nothing in his carpet bag but
lunch, and eats all the way from Chi
cago to Cairo?"
"And the man." he said, "who
rides on pass, and stands on familiar
terms with the company, and calls the
brakeman johnny"
"And the man." said, "who is
riding on pass for the first time and
stands up and holds his hat in his hand
when he sees the conductor approach
ing, and says sir to him as he answers
the officials questions, and is generally
more respectful to him than he is ever
going to be againp
And the man." he said, "who
walks through the entire length of an
empty coach looking for a seat, and