Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1880-12-11
A PULLMAN SMOKER.
How the Girls Of New Mexico
" Orry Conductors.

Chicago Times, Sante Fe letter.l
As was before mentioned, the cars
have been run but a little time into
this strange old, and indeed the oldest
town in America, and the officials Of
the road have not yet mastered the
sweet language Of this people. The
train stopped at Galisteo, and passen-
gers from III Paso and Albuquerque
entered in large numbers, because the
next day was to be the annual gradu-
alton Of the students of the Christian
Brothers college and the commence
ment Of the Academy u Our Lady of
Light was to occur. There was but
one Pullman car, and its was ~scantily
occupied. Into this velvet-cased,
brilliant little fitting salon these
solemn-faced, immaculate lovers OF
liquor, color, luxury and music
hurried, with far more eagerness and
alacrity than their blood would have
consented but for the locomotive
ahead of us, the hasty habits of which
even the Mexican had learned by OH, =
side observations. As the senoritas
had no other method of calming
their perturbed nerves, they began
TO smoke, hindered by their
inherited adherence Of expression
from screaming out, Good graciousl'
as you or |, dear sister, would have
done in semi hysterics. The wretched
conductor Of the parlOr car Wrung his
hands. He could not utter a SEN
tence, except perhaps he might have
arranged a few ornamental words of
Spanish profanity, and, besides, could
he have spoken their dulcet language
could he have ordered to the smoking
car those native aristocrats of Mexico,
these infsntas, senoritas, and donnasi
BY no means. Their embroidered
shawls, which they wore as gracefully
as the Castilian her veil, their dia-
mond ornaments, which glistened and
elowed, allured and defed interior.
ence, and forbade an application to
them Of the rules of the road. Some
Of the younger Spanish ladies were
dressed in a most astounding assem-
blage of brilliant colors and fabrics
that must have been crushing tc
the sombre national pride of their
mothers.
Whether their toilets were an &C.
acknowledgement that they no longer b.
longed to the old regime from which
republicanism had rent them, OF
whether it was a compliment to saxon
barbarism, | am unable to inform you
but certainly this unwonted and lately
adopted sarcasm uyon Partisan fash.
! ion gave no little lily suppressed worry
: to their mammas, who enacted the
roles Of duennas with a vigilance that
was possibly as wise as it was relent.
less.
10 return to the calm Of the pretty
smokers and the worry of the conduc
! tor, who dared not order them to the
I proper car for fumes, nor could he asl
them for an extra fare. He was
spectacle quite worthy of pitiful at
| tontion. The cigarettes could not b.
! in the least offensive, even to the mos
delicate of feminine nerves, provide,
{ those iibres were not keyed and tone,
up by a subtle combination Of tempe
: and principle, which by the way, i
not an %unfrequent union of socia
U forces. 1t passes under the guise of
tender elegance" or "a delicacy Q
organization" in many instances
! This official, poor wretch exhibite,
u the only evidence of uncomiortabl
Warmth that we saw in all the deliciou
, days that we have spent in New Mex
! leo. He longed to be faithful to bi
. duties, but all he could do in the wa.
Q of their execution was to look misera
bic, pace up and down the luxuriou
Z aisle and perspire copiously. Thes
5 Spanish ladies travel but little, whicl
fact is doubtless more gratifying t
! the parlor a conductor han to tn
. rail way company, and the former, b
! the way, win very soon acquire thei
sweet methods of speech.