Charlotte messenger. [volume] (Charlotte, Mecklenburg Co., N.C.) 1882-18??, 1886-10-09
UPPER FIVE.

Why left the Pullman car service at
II O'Clock at night at water tank in
Middle Arizona will also explain why,
although am not yet thirty-tive years
old, my nervous system is shattered. nv
health wrecked, ard even my mind SO
effected that now and then my ideas get
uncoupled in curious way and 90 run
ming wild all over tire division and break
ing into sidings where they have no bus
mess to be. The doctor says must have
had bad fail some time and perhaps
taken too much bromide of potassium
since, but know better. It is all on ac-
count of "uppcr FIVE" was a conduc-
tor on the Southern Pacific system at the
time it happened, and my run was from
Tucson, Ari., TO Los Angeles. Gid tour
lists will remember my car. 1t was the
Grenada. Most men say the business is
dogs life, but | own rather liked it. A
sleeplng-car is proscenium box in the
theatre oil life. S ngle acts of every
oody's little dramas are continually
played before me. eople become
naturally unreserved ard communicative
on train. You get down beneath the
surface. their peculiarities are laid bare,
their oddities stand out like bumps, YOU
see their hopes, disappointments, preiu-
dices, likes and dislikcs, and feel before
the end of the division as if YOU had
known them for years. This was par-
ticularly true of car load we carried out
OF Tucson one certain day in August. |
remember we had bridal party on board.
two or three drummers, couple OF stock
men from s'the Nation, y and-what I
especially recollect-a portly old gentle.
man named Bliss and widow named
Paxton. who was travelling with her in
valid daughter, young lady of about
twenty.
Mr.. Bliss was not in good health him
self, and was full of querulous complain
ing. He had dusty voice, little ewes.
with large pads Of fat under them; and
can see him, sitting exactly in the mid
die OF. his seat, growing and gasping,
with his collar unbuttoned in front and
the two ends sticking up like horns on
each side of his face. Mrs. and Miss
Paxton were, on the contrary, accom-
plIshed travellers, and m ide the best of
everything. The mother was pleasant
grave, old fashioned lady, and the
da ighttr, a sweet-faced, hollow-eyed.
patient little feather of a girl, who
could not haze weighed above eighty
or eighty-five pounds at the most
The weather was scorchlng. The des-
eit Of white sand was simply big re-
Hector that threw the sun back into the
lower air until, when it stirred, it was
like breath from a furnace. Every.
body was tattooed with the fine black
cinders and hoarse with the dust. The
bride was sight to behold, and the cat
tlemen swore like pirates in the smoking
room. Bliss cursed the management ~
the road, root, tree, and branch and
grimy perspiration poured off him in
streams. Toward nioht the heat waa
still excessive, and believe il was about
y O'Clock when the porter began to make
Up the berths. The Paxtons had section
nve. There is a difference of opinion
among travellers as to the comforts of
lower and upper berths in summer and
a good many hold that the uppers are the
oest, as being nearest the ventiIatin0
windows. This was the view the lad;ao
took OF it and when the berths wcrc mado
mp lifted the invalid girl in INV orms
into upper five. remember hearing her
say goodnight to her mother. and telIina
hss she would sleep well.
About half an hour later old Bliss
came tottering and swaying into the
smoking room, where / was counting my
tickets. He was furious His berth
was lower seven, next to the Paxtons.
and he wanted to know why the upper
berth had been let down.
There is nobody in it, he sputtered.
'and i is all foolishness to make il up.
II just makes mine as hot as a bake
oven. "
! explained to him that the rules re.
quired all discngaged bcrths to be made
up to accommodate possible local travel.
But nobody's going to get on in this
desert, he insisted, testify. "Wbv
can you Just push that one upf'
II cant do it," replied a little net.
tied, unless you pay for it,"
lie abused the road. myself. and cyerv-
body else incoherently for a while, hit
the upshot OF the matter was he paid for
the upper berth, and asked in a surly
voice that il be put up at once. BY that
time | was pretty mad, and hurryine
oack INTO the car, parted the curtiins
unlocked the two wires that hold
the upper berth down, seized il by
the edge, and with one violent
push swung il up in place.
heard the spring locks click. threw the
curtains together. and returned TO the
smoking room. Meantime Bliss and one
OF the cattlemen bad got into political