The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1880-02-27
THE PRESS.
Street Car Etiquette.

The etiquette of the street-car is worthy OF
place in the list of fine arts. A morning down
town car presents the appearance of newspa-
per folding machine. The gentlemen passen-
gers hold their journals at convenient angles
of vision, showing wide range OF eye-sight
AS the car gradually fills the journals are
raised and brought nearer to the faces of the
readers, until, when the last vacant seat is &C.
cupied, they completely hide the passengers
like succession of window shades drawn close
Then an extraordinary quality of human vision
is developed. If the last conner, for whom
there is no seat, is a cook, washerwoman, or
an ugly sewing girl, the shades remain close
drawn, and the intense application of the jour
nalistic readers is something wonderful to be-
hold. Accidents, crimes, politics, religion, SUI
isides, divorces, the markets, everything is de-
voured with the relish of an epicure. No man
raises his eyes or lowers his paper. But at the
next crossing pretty woman, dressed to the
top of the mode, trips lightly into the car, and
displays well-rounded arm as she extends her
hand to seize a strap. Instantly all the eyes
are raised and all the papers lowered. The
equity old fellow who appeared to be devoted
to the markets is the first to totter to his feet.
He stumbles over his neighbor in endeavoring
to attract the attention of the coquettish look
ing beauty. His eye-glass falls into the hay on
the floor, and the old gentleman falls back in
to his seat, loses his hat, and displays shining
bald head, while the young merchant, the old
doctor, and the middle-aged lawyer struggle
for the honor of surrendering seat in exchange
for smile from the young lady. How did all
these excellent fathers of families happen to
observe the entrance of the beautiful young
woman? There are women who will dispute
the fact just stated, and they will relate expe-
riences i'll contradiction of it. But careful OBJ
servation of them will disclose defects in their
list of personal attractions, or faults of toilet
1t would be rash to assert that no beautiful wo-
man was ever forced to depend upon strap in
a street car between two rows of gentlemen
devoted to newspapers. But the rule is never
theless as stated.
There is a class of street car passengers Of
the male sex who refuse to give up their seats
on the ground of high moral principle. They
assert with much warmth that the company is
bound to provide every passenger with seat.
To rise, with them, is to pander to the selfish
interest of the company, and so prolong the
firmly to their feats while women stand, they
present in strong light the odious character
of the outrage of which the company is guilty.
II they sit in the presence of a venerable old
lady, or woman who is on the verge of faint
ing from exhaustion while forced to stand, the
heinouS nature of the company'S graSping and
niggardly conduct is made the more apparent.
This class of passengers remain in their seats
while the tired seamstress stands, in obedience
to a strong sense of duty, and suffer all the
agony of suppressed sympathy while they sit.
They look forward to the time when a seat
meantime are becoming gray or bald.-West-
ern Paper,