Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-05-31
TAKING IN NEW YORK.
Bessie Bramble, in the Lowly Role Of
a Provincial, Visits
THE. ONLY CITY dN TOP OF EARTH.
Amusin' Ways of People Who Imagine
There Are No Other People.
STOLlDITY AND STUPIDITY GALORE
WRITTEN FOR THE p1spArcH.,

y
wis.," saith Shakespeare. 1t may be TO
this reason that people who travel but littl'
find the "sleepers" on the railroads such
tax on temper, mind and body. 1t may b.
that in their country freshness, or provincial
greenness, they are not up to the rush of the
present age, which requires, for the pur
poses of locomotion, the housing-for the
time being-of men and women in shelve:
lndiscriminately. The Pullmans, of course
are up to the knowledge of their maker, but
they are behind as to practical comfort-and
modesty. L1-....-
Hogs are common everywhere, sad to say,
but on ga sleeper" they are more than
usually abominable, when the exigencies OF
travel compel women to 60 at night and
"put up with things as they happen. Pull.
man, they say, has great head, but if he
cannot contrive better plan than the pres
ent he should retire on his millions. Great
Improvements are to be desired in the way
of night travel. Before the Worlds Far
comes off at Chicago some radical changes
should be made, if it takes the best brains
in the country.
Coming Into New York.
New York is an overpowering sort of a
place. On approaching Jersey City on the
Pennsylvania Railroad the people begin to
rush. Overcoats, grips and traps are seized
upon with an air which seems to slap into
them the conviction that they are to be
ready for a great bounce over deep preci-
pice, or to take their last chance of sur
vival in million. Before the train stops
men and women are all in the aisles, as if
their final salvation depended upon Jump
ing off before the last snort of the engine,
or the final turn of the wheels. Helter
skelter, pel nell, off they madly rush for
the ferry, hurry-scurry on to the boat
Tearing through with devilcatch-the-
hindmost sort of expression, they never
stop nor take breath until the prospect of
engulfment with the menacing waves
doth give them cause. The prospect
of landing sends everybody to the
front with apparently one idea animating
the entire multitude, which is to get off that
boat in the shortest possible time achievable
by mankind. 1t would seem as if there
would never be another boat, or train, or
car but the first, which they are stretching
every nerve to reach, and yet everybody
''gets there" finally. This incessant, ever
lasting rush is one of the distinctive features
of New York life. 1t strikes the traveller at
every turn. -
Must Rush or Get Left.
In the Pittsburg local trains passengers
are implored and commanded "to remain
seated until the train stops at the station"
but passenger who does so on fthe ele-
vated" in New York will get cleft" for a
certainty. A mora hunted, harassed and
heartless set of men than the train and street
car conductors of New York have yet to be
discovered. Where they will 60 to when
they die is not known, but it must be soul
narrowing to any human being to know that
he has no time to answer civil question, that
he is too much rushed to Speak plainly,
that he is too full of business to Jerk out
more than a rude yes or no when asked any,
thing, and that the company does not pay
him to be otherwise than disagreeable and
domineering. Oh, these poor conductors of
New York, both on the Gel" and below!
What driven, forlorn, tramped-down fel-
lows they seem to be! How much they do
look as if they needed good, well-cooked
meal, with plenty of time to eat it! How
much they seem to require long, home
made, refreshing sleep to set them up and
bring them to good terms with the going
about world!
On my way to the Central Park the other
day, 1 was conducted" by poor scrub of
q fellow, who was as crusty, snappy and
cross grained as the law allows, and as. he
shipped" off the answers to passen-
gers right and left with a brevity
born Of short temper, ugliness of dis
position, and general meanness, we could
not but think how his wrinkles would
have been smoothed out, his smiles en-
and his general .''get up'' bright
ened and sweetened if his hours of labor
were shortened, if his meals were good, and
the company were not so "devilish greedy"
rs to his pay.
Perhaps It's in 'Em. ~h
But still, after all, who knows? Some
men are born ugly and hateful and mean.
The wealth of Vanderbilt would not i'm
prove their morals or manners If they
could 'tknock down" or take extra toll on
,very passenger, some conductors would not
De any more polite or less sulky than at
present. Whether it is due to New York
lir, the regulations of the companies, or the
otal depravity theory as to mankind, do
lot pretend to say, but the manifest truth |
IS to horse car and elevated conductors is |
hat they are sour, ,snappy, and uncivil. |
The rush in which they live, and move, |
hattered nerves, Indigestion and eonse- |
Iuent crossness and ill-nature-the fact re- |
mains. Wier Mitchell, DR.. Hammond and |
'ther experts on nervous strain would SO |
lecide, doubt not, if they could bring |
heir great minds down to "rapid transit
ubjects -.
The transient traveller little heeds or cares
or these minor discords or diseomforts, but |
hose interested in social science could |
ardly fail to note them as factor in the
tudy of mankind. Another corresponding
lass to these, noted, were the shopgirls. /
they have wits so quickened and sharpened |
hat they know outsiders at once. Every
'ody oat of New York is Country jake
o be maltreated accordingly. Nothing is
nore funny than the airs they put on. No
ne on the face of the earth
Can Be More ColdIy Condescending
han the -dollar-n-week girl of a New
tork store, when she has "sized up" her
ustome- as from the country, or from the
utlying districts of fheathendom-say Pitts
urg. She furnishes type and no end of
un to such customer, bnt she is serenely un-
bother" over such people. While in con-
emplation of her ways and manners, we
ometimes think what hauling over the
oals she would get if ''the boss knew of
er ''goings on" We have some of this
condescension of shop girls to
ustomers in Pittsburg, but we are quick to
cknowledge that in this respect, at least,
lew York ''takes the cake. There really
hould be school of manners for business,
5 well as society. Clerks should be in
tructed not to "scowl," not to look as if
ley wished the customer a thousand miles
way; not to gauge their politeness by a
sliding scale' as to appearance
1t is now the "swel1 thing" to dress with
Sceeding simplicity and absence of show.
My those outside of the ''Four Hundred"