Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1883-03-31
Street Car Etiquette.

An old man, poorly dressed, entered a
around him for a seat. 1t was an hour
when many persons were returning from
their work down town, and the car was
filled with the usual assortment of pas
sengers. None Of them seemed to see
the old man, who appeared to be feeble,
greatly fatigued, and in fear of being
thrown down by the motion of the car.
Pretty soon a woman who had been look
ing over a written paper, apparently d
bill for goods bought, raised her eyes and
saw the old man. With hardly a mo-
ment's hesitation she arose, touched him
on the arm, and said: stake this seat,
sir"
The old man accepted the seat, thanked
her and seemed very grateful. No one
in the car appeared to notice the woman's.
act. The men who had seats allowed her
to stand.
"Did you see thatY we asked the con-,
ductor.
"The woman give the old man her
seat? That's common enough iowa
good deal more'n it used to be. I guess
the older a people grows the more respect
they have for old age. l mean the older
a country is. China is the Oldest of all of
'em, they say, and there's no place where
old men and old women are treated so
we'll as among the Chinese. It's a part
of their religion. What you don't see
very often" the conductor went on, after
stopping his car to take up a fat woman
with a market basket, sis one m
give her seat to another
woman. When that happens you
a put it in the papers. It amt very
common to see a woman move closer to
another passenger in order to make room
for another woman to sit down, or to see
her take her child in her lap, Of even to
take a bundle from the seat at her side,
till the conductor comes along and asks
her to do so, and then she generally looks
at him as though she had been grossly
insulted, and at the other as
though she had been the willing cause of
the insult. Until the conductor stirs her
up, she is to all appearance unconscious
that anybody is standing up, and she
looks straight past the standing woman,
and seems to be taking a languid inter-
est in the fronts of the buildings she sees
through the windows in the other side Of
the car"
"Do women remember to thank men
oftener than they used to for seats given
to themw
'Tve been out on this road a good
many years." the conductor replied some
what earnestly. "and I saw many
women take a seat from a man without
expressing their thanks in some way. A
woman don't get up on the seat and have
the car stopped, and calvin the conduc-
tor and driver to hear her make a speech
of gratitude to the noble being who has
sacrificed SO much for her convenience.
And she don't buttonhole him and tell
him he has done a big thing, and that if
he aver happens to be going past her resi-
dence he must come in and be intro
duced to her husband and stay to dinner.
But she usually says Thank you,' loud
enough for him to hear, unless he is ex-
pecting that she will fall at his feet and
weep for gratitude. If she doesn't say
Thank YOU she %inclines her head in
acknowledgment of his politeness, which
is quite as much as he deserves. The
men who are always saying that they
have spent the best part of their lives
giving seats to women in street cars, and