The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1886-10-03
SCENES ABOUT THE DEPOT.
The System of Handling the Crowds Of
Arriving and Departing Visitors.
People of Various characteristics Who May
Be Seen in the Daily Throngs of Strang-
erS That Come and Go.

1t is to be hoped that the majority of those
who came this week to the State fair will not see
the present Union Depot, its grimy openings sug-
costing so many entrances to the bottomless pit,
on their next annual pilgrimage to Indianapolis.
1t is not expected that the new depot-vast, mag
nifcent. and bewildering in grandeur-will be
completed in year from this time, but it is ex-
pected that most of the preliminary conversation
will have been exhausted and that part of the
old depot will have been removed or, what is
more probable, will have fallen down.
Thirty years is quite enough of it, and yet
what an ever-changing picture book its interior
has been and is every day 1t seems to be
great clearing house of humanity, and no NOR
tai, no one but the Almighty, can give the daily
balances. The occasional visitor to the depot is
more able to note the figures in this ever-varying
human kaleidoscope than he whose business
takes him there every day Those who look
after the thousands who arrive and depart every
day have come to recognize only half dozen or so
types and no longer indivduaize. They move
tine passengers about in different crowds much
like sheep are herded by an intelligent collie,
but without the passengers being aware that
they are moved about and tended in this gre
garious way. This has come to be system
without the officers who perform the service
knowing how it came about or thinking any
thing of 1t at all Were it not for this sys-
tenn there would undoubtedly be many accidents,
whereas now it is extremely rare that anyone is
injured The depot officers have cot into the
habit of looking at people collectively, and never
note the individual unless he seems out of har-
mony with the human herd in which he may be.
h1onl CHI fhnxy wi md
unerriug instinct. They may never have seen
him or her before, but they know there
is something wrong about them. and that they
are not genuine travellers, such as they repre-
sent themselves to be- A depot policeman Is
frequently able to pick out thief whom he has
never seen before, and without even seeing his
face. There are experts who can tell counter
felt note if shown but fraction OF the corner;
so there depot policemen who can tell
CROOKED man" by the twinkle of his legs as he
gets on or off train, or by his attempt to
sumo the department of an honest traveller as he
saunters about the waiting rooms and platform
Of the depot.
The persons employed about the depot become,
to certain extent, mere pieces of machinery,
wound up each day. to answer a certain never
varying set of questions. 1t is certainly
wonderful with what speed and accuracy
they perform this work. The men in
the ticket Office will have your ticket
stamped, laid before You and your change
turned before you have hardly begun to ask the
first of series of questions. You have been
told how far it is to Kokomo. the time your train
will arrive there, that you have eight minutes
for lunch, to take the train on the second track
the number of pounds of baggage you are al
lowed, and other information worth quite as
much as the price of the ticket
You look about to see who are passing through
this CLEARINGHOUSE. You see people phenom-
enally wide awake and people who look as drowsy
as Chinese malefactors deprived of sleep for
fortnight. You see the wayfaring man who In
vites your confidence, with whom, in less than
two minutes, you feel that you have found
kindred SOUL and the traveller with the doubling
eyes, who claps his hand on his pocket-book if
you intimate a desire to know the time o day
You see the awkward traveller, who every few
minutes escapes as by miracle be
ing run over by the express trucks,
and the bilious traveller, who wanders
about with moody air, If considering the
advsability of throwing himself under the
wheels of the next departing train. There are
slim women with fat babies and fat women with
lean babies and the babies usually in better
humor than their mothers, contemplating all the
strange surroundings with roundeyed wonder,
and seemingly not caring three shakes of a rub
Der rattle whom their train" goes out There
are furtive-eyed men, with steel ornaments upon
their wrists accompanied by wary-eyed sheriffs.
Some are going north for sojourn on Lake
Michigan, and some to the south for a residence
near Jeffersonville made as provided under the
statutes Here is long and ominous pine box,
and near by gathering wedding party about to
step upon departing train There are all sorts
of people, with all sorts of parcels and
bundles, There are blonde ladies with
poodles, and brunettes with black
and tan terriers There is the cautious
old lady who never forgets anything, and having
read the admonition to beware of pckpockets.
keeps sharp eye everything masculine that
comes within her horizon: as we'll as upon
dozen bundles of various geometric patterns OH
the seat beside her. She follows with her eyes
every movement of the man who is perpetually
advising everybody in a voice of boanergian vol
ume to take this. that or the other train for
some place nobody apparently wants to go to,
and with her suspicious fully aroused when he
offers to assist her with her bundles. she rises
to take her train, shakes him off Indignantly,
and as she seats herself in the car and the bell
rings, thanks her stars that she has escaped the
snares of the deceitful, and will soon be at her
village home.