Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1890-10-04

up with me, having started q square behind;
but being tired, jumped aboard.
Among other things that interested me
| noticed a sort Of procession of people who
went through the car from one end to the
other, coming in at the front door and going
out at the back. Ny understanding of the per-
formance was not very clear, though per-
ceived 1t had something to do with the taking
on OF passengers and the disagreement Of
other passengers III the shopping quarter. For
example, when 9Th street was reached three or
four persons with baskets ON their arms
rushed hastily through the aisle Of the vehicle,
SO that felt as il were witnessing a humpty-
dumpty show and looked in vain for the clown
to ROB the baskets of their contents in transltu.
STRANGE PROCEEDING.
Suddenly there came through the front door
of the car, slamming it behind him, an in
tensely business-like individual carrying
huge bag filed with some thing that might have
been half bushel OF potatoes. Hastily max
inS his way through the crowded aisle, he
stepped on the end Of a ladys umbrella and
broke about three inches of it short off. With
out seconds hesitation as If such occurrence
were quite matters OF course with HIM, he
halted and, extrlcating blank book from the
rear pocket OF his trousers, said:
Permit me, madam, to give you my ad-
dressr'
The thing was done with such astonishing
CELEBRITY that the lady had no time to protest.
Receiving the address in question, which was
intended to express its owners responsibility
| for the accident, the lady began to feel in her
pocket for her fare, because she saw the con-
ductor approaching Now, for the reason that
womens pockets are not constructed for the
purpose OF being readily discoverable, she
could not find the opening in her skirt, and, q
hand being extended for the nickel she owed,
she became somewhat embarrassed and clawed
around as if painfully apprehensive lest the
pocket had got away altogether. The con-
ductor waited for what we're almost two agoniz.
| ing minutes to the unfortunate passenger and
| then Remarked:
well, madam, when you have got through
the fare"
On the way down town 1t was noticeable that
the conductor and driver had time to converse
and clean the windows of the car. This is not
usually possible, have understood during
busy hours in other cities. One thing observ-
'hl" in Philadelphia 10 the manner in which
ever so many old women keep the money they
90 shopping with. They tie it up in handker-
chiefs, which serve them in lieu Of purses and
unite them each time they want to get a COIN
saw an aged female yesterday rake out .
knotted handkerchief from the bottom Of q
huge market basket filed with vegetables to
procure a nickel for her car fare.
HE HAD ToMATs.
followed the passenger who had broken the
lady's umbrella all the way from Chestnut
street and It'll to the market, block off, merely
by chance. It turned out that he did not have
potatoes in his sack, but tomatoes. He spoke
Of them as "tomats." asked him why he sb.
treviated the word so much and he said that it
was because sit took so long to say tomatoses."
The same man told me Of some trouble he had
had incidentally to mis- farming. One day he
had caught some one in the act Of stealing his
the predatory one. holding q choice speci-
men of the fruit under each arm,
replied that it was pretty mean
man who would not give q stranger water
melon. Another time he had come across an
intruder in his orchard who had made bags of
his trousers by tying strings around the bot
toms very tight and filed them full Of apples
to the extent of possibly bushel. When be the
owner) came along Unexpectedly the person
in question exhibited no symptoms OF embar-
rassment, but simply cut the strings that bound
his pantaloons, permitting the apples to drib-
Bile out as he walked away as innocently as If he
had never dreamed Of robbery. This man told
me about some difficulties he had had in con-
quoting a dairy business. One day he came
upon picnic on his own grounds superin-
tended by vice president Of the Philadelphia
Society for the Prevention Of Cruelty to AMI
mails. The vice president was an exceedingly
humane man. SO much 50, indeed, that when
the owner of the cows appeared the humsni-
tartan official was introducing tin pail-it was
toward evening-beneath the udder Of one Of
the cows, saying as he did SO: "Poor thing, she
must be suffering"
1t is the New York people who have given
Philadelphia the reputation of being slow. As
a matter Of fact this town is most intensely
rapid. Coming from Washington one is imme.
diately struck with the remarkable commercial
hum Of the city. 1t is shabby, II you will, and,
arriving from the cosmopolis by the Potomac,
one feels as il the blocks of houses that line
the narrow streets had shrunk up around one,
as it were. But if you will go out in society
In Philadelphia and be q bird you will find
just about the liveliest set that 10 to be discov.
cred on this continent