Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1890-07-03
A COUNTRY RAILROAD STATION
BY KATE THORN,
New York Weekly.

If there is anything specially planned,
and specially calculated to try mans
faith in the Internal wisdom and fitness of
all things, it is having to wait for train
at railroad station.
The train that he is going to take it
is generally behind time. And he is in
hurry.
Ali people who go on train are in hur-
ry
The station is always located in the hot
test and most uninviting place in that
part of the country. Sand is all around it.
Shade trees are unknown. Grass, which
is one of the most democratic species of ali
vegetation, fights shy of it.
The station itself is an anomaly in the
way of architecture.
The man who planned the first railroad
station ever built in the country town has
reason to congratulate himself on having
struck something new under the sun. And
it was so near perfection that no succeed
ing architect has ever felt himself able to
improve upon 1t.
And there it stands to-day, hundreds of
it, all over our land, as perpetual monu-
ment to the genius of that first builder
No blinds, no shades; the states yellow
settees, the water supply pump before
the door, the ornaments on the walls
framed advertisements of steamship lines,
and ''Eizzleton' s Great Soap Discovery;
and the flies are there in full force to cheer
the heart of the weary waiter, and make
him feel that though the world may fown
on him in other places, here he is well
come!
The ticl1et-office is generally closed,
which proves that the official Ii charge is
a wise man. He knows better than to
wear out his precious life dancing before
that window locking for travellers who
never come to buy tickets.
He takes his rest ON the shady side of
the house, on a settee, with cigar and a
novel to Ehelp him take it easy. He is q
philosopher, land indeed he needs to be,
since no other man could survive a month
of life at country railroad station.
He las his little diversions, no doubt.
When the Sundayschool picnic starts out,
and when the circus comes to the next
town, and when some farmers COW is run
over and killed, and the people round
about drop in to talk it over, and specu-
late on whether or not tine owner of the
animal is likely to get damages.
But the man who is waiting for the train
has none of these little interests to cheer
him. When he has read the advertisements
on the walls, and looked up and down the
track, and peered at his gIowering image
in the cracked looking-lass, and looked
twenty times at his watch, and the same
number of times at the timetable, he is
ready to give his kingdom for a sound of a
locomotive whistle.
And the old woman who comes in with
hersbundles, and the young woman who
comes in with her crying baby. are as
welcome as Tie flowers in spring. He
never before realized how entertaining a
crying baby nai ght be under some circum-
stances. Something to look at-some-
thing to listen to.
He studies the old woman's bonnet, and
he counts the buttons on the baby's cloak,
and he wonders what is in the big bundle,
and what is In the little box, ana then he
looks as his watch again. and compares it
with the clock, and finds that the clock
has been stopped for an hour, at the least
calulatlOn.
By and by comes the ticket-seller leisure
ly in and opens his little window. Oh,
what AN encouraging sound it is ?-sweet-
er than music to the ears of the weary
waiter He rushes up and gets his ticket.
Then he sits down and reads it all over.
He never dreamed that railroad ticket
could be such interesting reading. He
has never before looked upon that sort of
literature as worthy of notice Well,
circumstances alter cases, and you do not
know what you might be driven to con
slider as entertainment until you have
waited for train at some country rail
road station