Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1882-09-28
oRe sSH.Posdessed Man


Among the noticeable persons on the
tralns you win not fail to discover the
self-pOssessed man. He is easily recog-
nizable by his rotnndity of form, his Sc
rene unconsciousness OF the frets and
worriments which make railroading a
misery to the ordinary mortal, and his
supreme indifference to the comfort of
his fellow passengers.
The self-possessed man inevitably
secures, by sort of natural selection,
the best seat in the car, always on the
shady side, and manages, by the aid of
his hat, his traveling-bag and his unas-
Stunning tact and mastership of the situa-
ton, to keep it to the end of his journey.
Ihe self-possessed man, having calmly
settled himself in the center of the seat,
with his hat upon one side and his trav-
ellng appurtenances on the other, slowly
produces bis newspaper, and proceeds
to its perusal with digni6ed delibera-
or conrsAfhe self possessed man has his
window VIDE open, but equally of course
he does not open it himself. The brake
man does that for him, and as the
brakeman chambers over the UNDER
standings of the self-possessed man to
do 1t, the self-possessed man continues
his reading with the utmost complacency
and without losing q word.
As the time for starting approaches,
every other seat is filed, but nobody
disturbs the self-possessed man. There
Is q something in his Nova Zemblan
GOODNESS which deters all attempts to
rob him of his monopoly. Nobody has
the temerity to ask: ssIs this seat en-
gaged?' much less to squeeze himself in
without indulging in this conversational
remark.
If the cold wind blow into the ear of
the neuralgia individual in front, or set
the valetudinarian behind to shivering,
or if the cinders rush in sooty showers,
to the destruction of the eyes and good
temper OF the passengers in his vicinity,
the self-pOssessed man minds it not. So
long as his personal tranquility is not
troubled, a rain of pitchforks or cats
and dogs might dash into that open win
dow, and he be entirely oblivious of
both it and its ruinous results.
The self-possessed man is also self.
possessed when the conductor comes
through the car. The other passengers,
at the cry of "Tickets, please" cease
their reading or conversation, and go
straightway to fumbling into their pock-
cts with inordinate haste, that the ticket
puncher may not be delayed; but the self
possessed man budges not until he has
been asked again and again for his ticket,
and then he leisurely lays down his pa
per, advances on his pocketbook in
funeral order, and finally produces the
pasteboard just as the conductor has lost
his last particle of patience.
The sharp, short whistle which strikes
terror to every other heart and sends
every other head out of the window, af-
fects neither the heart nor the head of
the self-possessed man. His heart beats
on with the regularity of an eight-day
clock. and his head, bald though it may
be, maintains its level, notwithstanding
the hungry fly which is boring into his
medulia oblongata, or the babel of voices
that is dinging into his ears.
None of the major or minor incidents
affect the self-possessed man in the
least. IT, the train is ahead of time or
behind time, IT, is all the same to him
If anything break, his serenity remains
unbroken; if q man or cow be run
over, he runs over his newspaper as
calmly as ever. If the cars should leave
the rails, and be dashed down an en-
bankment, and broken into ten thousand
splinters, it rs more than probable that
the self-possessed man would be found
amidst the wreck of matter, still self
possessed deposited in the most desira-
BILE place and position among the dead
and dying, himself unhurt and un-
disturbed, and still reading his paper in
a leisurely way, unmindful of the hor-
rors of his environment.-B Tran
script. ;sa'a2..s'af1-