The daily Cairo bulletin. (Cairo, Ill.) 1878-1???, 1882-09-12
The Self Possegsed Man.

Among the noticeable persons on the
train YOU will not fail to discover the
self-possessed man, lie is easily recog-
nized by his rotundity Of form, his Sc
rene unconsciousness of the frets and
worriments which make railroading
misery to the ordinary mortal, and his
supreme Indifference to the comfort Of
his fellOwpassengers.
The self-possessed man inevitably Sc
cures, by a 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-
suming tact and maStership Of the sit
uation, to keep it to the end Of his jour
ney,
The self-possessed man, having calm
ly settled himself in the center of the
seat, with his hat upon one side and his
travelling appurtenances on the other,
slowly produces his newspaper and pro.
ceeds to It's perusal with dignihed de-
liberation
OF course the self-possessed man has
his window wide open, but equally Of
course he does not open it himself
The brakeman does that for him, and as
the brakeman chambers over the under
standings Of the self-possessed man to
do it, the self-possessed man continues
his reading with the utmost complacen-
cy and without losing a word.
As the time for starting approaches
every other seat is filed, but nobody
disturbs the self-possessed man. There
is something in his Nova Semblan cool
ness which deters all attempts to rob
him of his monopoly, Nobody has the
temerity to ask: us this seat engaged?'
much less to squeeze himself in without
indulging in this conventional remark,
If the cold wind blows into the car of
the neuralgia individual in front, or sets
the valetudinarian behind to shivering,
or if the cinders rush in in sooty show
ers 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 tran
guilty was not disturbed, a rain Of
pitchforks or cats and dogs might dash
into that open window, and he be en-.
tirely oblivious of both it and its ruin.
Gus consequences.
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 &C
straightway to fumbling into their peck.
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 hi.
ticket and then he leisurely lays down
his paper, advances on his pocketbook
in funeral order and finally produce,
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 heart out of the window
affects neither the heart nor the head o.
the self-possessed man. His heart beat,
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 hi
medulla oblongata, or the babel o
voices that is dinging into his ears.
None Of the major or minor incidents
affect the self-possessed man in tn,
least, II the train Is ahead of time o
behind time, it is all the same to him
if anything breaks his serenity remain
unbroken; if man or q COW be rul
over, he runs over his newspaper q
calmly as ever, If the cars should leav
the rails and be dashed down an EN-
bankment and broken into ten thousan'
splinters it is more than probable tina
the self-possessed man would be foun
amidst the wreck of natter still sell
possessed, deposited in the most de
sirable place and position amongst tn
dead and dying, himself unhurt and un
disturbed, and still reading his paper i
leisurely way, unmindful of the hor
rors of his environment. $500 Boston Tran