The Lambertville record. [volume] (Lambertville, N.J.) 1872-1968, 1879-03-19
MISCELLANY.
PEOPLE on THE TRAINS.
FIFTY MILES WITH THE ApJUsTER-REFLEc
TIoNs AND COMMENTS OF THE "HAwK-
EYE MAN.

Mr.. Bardette thus writes to the Burlington
Hawkeye:
l think the adjuster is the most obserYant
man ever met on a train. He sees every
thing and notes the peeuliarities Of the PEG
pie he meets before he has seen them. We
sat in a car together mp in Wisconsin one day
and he said &:
Don't you always notice, in every car in
which you ride, the fool that always sits di
rectly before you, and always opens the win
dow 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 sight?"
" Yes, had and he never saw anybody he
knew at any station.'
"Never," said the adjuster &c and he never
sees anything anybody is doing AT the station,
and can't tell the name of the station while
he is in it,"
I" And always scrapes the back of his head
agapst the sharp edge of the window sash
when he pulls it in, | said, and then dis
mally rubs his head while he turns around
and looks suspiciously at you, as though he
believes you did it, and did ii on purpose
Sand the man who is waiting at the station
to see the train come in % continued the Ad
.juster, "the man with the butternut oyerals
tucked into his boots, tawny beard, arms
cranmed into his pockets up TO the elbows,
mouth wide open-you never miss bin /; when
you go down he is standing there at sunset /;
when you come back at sunrise he is waiting
for yon never sees anybody he knows get off
the train, never sees anybody he knows get
on never expects to would be astonished
to death if lie should happen to see an ac-
quaintapce come Or go 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 nybody," | said.
" Never if anybody speaks to him, he
says Dunno If the baggageman runs over
him with truck he says Huh and shrinks
up little closer against the station, but he
never gets out of the way
And do you remember the man who sits
behind you and whistles ?" | asked.
- And when he gets tired of whistling in
your ear, sings bass ?" suggested the Adjust
er.
" And never whistles or sings anything that
you know ?'
6 Or that he knows?''
"And the masher,' whose breath is nearly
as bad as his morals, who wants to tell you
all about the daughter ola wealthy merchant
who was just dead gone on him the last
time he went over the road ~
And the man behind you who bites off
half an apple at one bite and then puts his
chin on your shoulder aud tries to talk to you
about the weather and crops? ?"
And the man who comes into tho ear at
the front door, walks clear back and out on
the rear platform, looking at each one of a
dozen empty seats, hunting for good one,
and then turns back to find every last seat
taken by the people who came in after him p
And have you never seen the girl get on
at some country station, said the Adjuster,
fixed up mighty nice for that town, the
i belle of the village dressed in more colors
than you can crowd into chrome, half the
town down at the station to see her off she
walks across the platform feeling just too rich
to look at, comes into the car with her heaG
up and plumes flying, expecting to set every
woman in that car wild with envy as shs
walks down the aisle. She opens the doc
and sees car full of Chicago girls, dressed il