Evening capital. (Annapolis, Md.) 1884-1910, 1886-07-26
ANNAPOLIS Nd MoNRDAY EVENING. JULY 26. 1885,
SHE HADN'T THE CHECK.


There are perhaps few places where
one may more easily study human
nature in n variety of phases than at
the railway stations. and there is per-
haps no branch of human experience in
which the ethereal vagaries of the femi-
nine mind are more fully displayed than
in the ingenuity shown in the invention
of mistakes and wrong-headedness at
the stations. / was recently the invol-
untary listener to a controversy between
an exceedingly irate young woman and
baggage-master. which may serve to
illustrate what | mean, writes a cores
pondent to the Providence Journal
The young woman wished to claim q
trunk which she said belonged to her,
but the check for which had been
thougghtlessly left in hand bag which
a friend had taken downtown shop
ping. The young woman, who was
pretty, vivacious. and of remarkably in
telligent expression, explained to the
baggage-master, and incidentally to u
line of waiting people, half of whom
were in danger of paying for the pleas
ure of hearing her artless tale by losing
their respective trains, that she had
come to town for wedding, that she
had had gown manufactured espe-
cially for the occasion, and that tho
gown was in the trunk in question.
.sOf course she explained lucidly,
lit isn't as if didn't want the dress to
wear to-day. and then have the check,
you know; so it's all right"
'If you have tho check it is all right,
the baggage-master replied, with some
appearance, sufficiently ungallant, of
considering that the conversation had
continued as long as he had right to
monopolize the pretty young lady's at
tention; ''but l can't give up trunks to
anybody that asks for them. You
haven't anybody to identify you and
you haven't any check"
.'Oh, but Lucy has the check" she
interposed, dimpling and smiling, "and
I'll send 1t to you tomorrow. said I'd
send it down in the morning, and /
can't do any better than that, for /
shan't see Lucy till after breakfast, and
you know | must have my dress before
8 o'clock"
Her interlocutor took check over her
shoulder from hackman, and the vi
vacious lady explained all the circum-
stances to strange, but sympathetic
old lady who had elbowed her way up
to the window, so that when the un-
fortunate official came up again there
were two women to tell him the facts in
the case, and explain to him that the
gown had really been made to wear this
afternoon, and it was after II already,
and that If Lucy hadn't gone off in such
a hurry the owner of the trunk would,
of course, have remembered the check,
and that the important bit of metal
should be sent down in the morning
ssAnd / know the number" the vi
yacious young damsel added upon
second thought, as clinching argu-
ment, "or at least know it began with
seven and there were three numbers. !"
feel positive that the baggage-mas-
ter would have yielded in time. No
man could endure such siege long,
especially as the young woman, rein
forced by the sympathetic old one, pref
ty effectually blocked the window and
stopped the entire business of the de-
partment of inner baggage at a busy
time of day. Fortunately for all con-
cerned, however, at this stage of the
controversy Hurried and disheveled
young lady appeared on the scene, and
made her way through the crowd as
only young woman or fire engine
can.
s'Oh, Florence she gasped, thrust
ing forward the missing check, Il got
clear up to Winter street before / found
it, and / took herdic and came tear
ing back, and l knew what an awful
fix you'd be in, and if you hadn't got
your dress I'd never have forgiven my
self.
She stopped from sheer want of
breath, and her friend fell upon her
with incoherent but satisfactory express
sions of rapture; while the sympathetic
old lady glared through her wide spec
tacles at the offending baggage-master,
to remind him that he was taken, as il
were. rcd-handed in crime against all
that was highest in individual rights,
and remarked with biting emphasis:
There. now. hope you are satisfied,
after all the fuss you have made and the
time you have kept all these folks watt
ing"
Personally I felt that q collection
ought to be taken up for the much
abused baggage-master. but he had so
strong an air of being perfectly used to
this sort Of thing that concluded up
on the whole that 1t was hardly necessa-
ry to press the point