New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1891-09-20
NrH LIGHT ON PORTERS.

Tho report of any investigation by Professor
Ralston. of Boston, is always bound 10 atracO
attention. lie is not man to speak unless he
has something to say. Few scientific discoveries
Of the last year awakened more interest IMAM
did his, that elephants, in the course OIL IT"
hundred thousand years, through evolutionary
changes. would be swinging from the branches
of tropical trees by their tails as monkeys 90 now
The attempt by the Professor to head an expedl-
ton to Africa to prove his theory that even no"
elephants sometimes wrap their tails around low
hanging boughs in a vain effort to raise ohen-
selves. was q failure, owing TO his noh-succesS
in raising the necessary funds, but many peopie
believe that he is right in his surInise JusO ho"
the Professor has made public the result vi lid
observations concerning the habits oil ahouner
African product-the sleeping-car porter lhe
Professor in this case has been able TO STUDY Ills
subject in his native jungle.
The American sleeping-car porter leads such q
thoroughly nocturnal life that little has ever
been certainly known of his habits The cyclic
paedias and the scientific works are almost
silent on the subject. The student has searched
in vain for any trustworthy account of the sleep
ine-car porters methods of hunting for his nightly
prey-mens shoes-or his motives in applying
dark but unnatural compound to Them whlcn
he is pleased to refer to the next morning as
shine" At what hour does he go abroad ior
shoes? Does he hunt singly or in packs
Whence comes this strange taste for foot cover
ings? These have been questions to when inc
scholar has received reply.
Professor Balston made his observations while
on a lecturing tour this summer The extreme
secretiveness of the porter while hunting Daueo
the Professor for some time, but with the true
Investigators spirit he persevered. " L was first
rewarded" he writes "while travelling between
Buffalo and Cleveland 1t was dark, rainy
night, and the car was filed with passengers
l had an upper berth 1t was almost O'CLOCK,
and l was watching through small hole wlcn
I had cut in the curtain. / feared that l would
soon fall asleep and again be disappointed Inc
harsh snore of the Syracuse young lady in lower
No. filled the car with it's echoes. The Chicago
man in upper No. was talking in his sleep about
the Worlds Fair. Suddenly there was a move
ment Of the curtain at the further end of the car
and in another second the porter stepped noise
lessly in In one hand he carried pillow-case in
the other piece of chalk He ran a large white
eve along down the aisle, and seeing he thought
that the coast was clear he seized up the nearest
pair Of shoes with wild clutch put some strange
hierogyphics on the solos, and threw them into
the pillow-case 1 held my breath and glued my
eye to the hole On the other side there were
no shoes in sight but he dived under the curtain
and brought out two pairs. one mans, the other
a woman's. The latter he threw back. but he
put the mans in his bag. He repeated this pro-
gramme at the two following sections, but at
the next one he was drawn into an error by the
shoes Of woman-suffrage lady from Kansas who
occupied lower No. s. he mistakng her shoes Tor
those of a large man from Louisville who had
upper No. g. Afterward, however, as he started
TO polish them he saw his mistake when be noticed
that they had always been buttoned with hair
| pin, and returned them and got the mans. l
watched him pass the whole length of the aisle
and make a clean sweep of the mems shoes, with
the exception Of those belonging TO the Phila-
delpha man In lower No. 10. He had taken his
shoes to bed with him. The porter was furious
when he discovered it. Again he dived under
the curtain This time me brought out the Phila-
delphan's ruSset-leather handbag, which he sub
sequently returned neatly blackened.'
We cannot follow the Professors account FUR
Their interesting as it is but will refer the reader
to "The Cape Cod Review" where it appears IN
full. We will say, however, that he is undoubt-
edlv the only man who ever saw sleeping-car
porter while in pursuit of his nocturnal prey
The Professor followed him to his lair and through
a crack saw him apply the backing Its COM
position. as near as he could judge, was molasses
castor-oil and lomp-black. He gives sprighty
account of the porter's CONSERVATION on discover
ing the hair-pin marks on the suffrage lecturers
shoes. thus identifying them as belonging to mem
Der of the weaker sex. The Professor afterward
observed other porters and found that they never
stirred abroad for shoes before quarter OF two
nor later than half past three.
The public will anxiously await Professor
Ralston's forthcoming great work, entitled "
Comparison Between the Life of the Ancient Cave
DvveIers and that of the Modern Flat-DwellerS-'