Millheim Journal. [volume] (Millheim, Pa.) 1876-1984, 1886-09-23
Holding a Seat.


will you be kind enough TO watch
my seat here and allow no one to get
into it while 60 into the smoking car
and take smoke p asked the presump-
tuous passenger in the opposite seat of
me.
What else could | do but to answer
yes though had started out OH pleas
ure excursion, and this mans conde-
scension quite knocked all the pleasure
out of the trip at the beginning. and
now that fatal seat lay on my mind
like my last years debts-proyided |
had some.
At the next station big man came
in. and spying the only vacant seat,p
emptied it on the spot, and proceeded
to make himself comfortable. sat a
long time considering how far my re-
sponsibility went, but | saw that | must
do something, so l mildly whispered to
him that the seat belonged to another,
and he scowled and left at the next
station, where some ladies got aboard.
AS a last resort l placed my new hat
over in the seat to preserve 1.-THE seat,
not the hat-and two of the females sat
down on the hat. They did not appear
to notice the hat, or probably thought
it was the hustle, and began to make
themselves at home. l told them as
cody as | could that the seat was Occu-
pied. They said Of course it was. l
remarked that the owners hat vas un-
der them. They obliterated me with q
frown and got up; the hat didn't get
up. It's get-up was gone. | tried to
straighten out the hat and felt sick, so
did the hat. l INDUCED inwardly in
some strengthy secular language, and
soon a tail, long fellow got aboard
whose pantaloons were poked into his
boots to rest, and whose SHIRT yearned
toward a wash-tub, and took the fatal
seat without paying any attention to
me waving him away.
had to do it, though l shuddered. l
walked to him and gently and politely
told him the seat belonged to another
man, whelI, all of a sudden, he jumped
up rs if there was tack in the seat
and gave a regular Commache howl, as
| sat back into my seat, wishing there
was trap door through the floor of the
car.
'This seat belongs to another, does
it Where is the duffer ? Where are
his symptoms ? Nothing here. Where
are his remains, lis silk umbrella, his
peanut shells, his terbacker spit, his
chewng-gum shoes, his fur.collar over
coat, his thirty eight calibre valise, and
his eye.glass ? Show me, If you please,
his assets, his liabilities, his heirs, ad
ministratoIs or assigns Where is his
mortgage, or his lion, or twenty years
lease 4? l am cross-eyed Bill from Bra
zos land he parenthasiZed the name
| with a couple of long-horn revolyers.
Are you the ozone, the canned fruit
man who is trying to preserve this seat
for the coming man, or the rising gen.
Grafton p
begged to prove an alibi, instantly,
or anything legal that was necessary or
would do any good, and begged him
not to mention il, when in came the
former occupant and asked the stranger
shortly to get out. The stranger got
out, and the owner of the seat began to
fall all oyer himself, to explore the CELL
ing with his feet, to test the floor, to
unhandle the neighboring seats, and
when the stranger laid him gently down
in the aisle and spread him out COM
Portable to rest and recumperate, and
catch his breath, and get his health
back, and try to feel better, and try to
be easier, and wait for doctor, and
gather his senses, | had time to think
that it was the right way for man to
be served who will ask another to hold
his seat during his absence.-Detroit
Free Press.