The Durham daily globe. (Durham, N.C.) 1889-1894, 1892-03-28
SEPARATED BY ACCIDENT.
tne Of the Embarrassing Things About
Travelling I'm N Big City.

1900
Travelling I'm n Big City.
Did you ever get separated from your
wife at an l. station, you on the depart
ing train and she left on the platform,
and then try to find her again? No?
Well, never try it as a funny experiment
lust to see ho<v it works" So spoke a
country merchant. MY wife and |
came from T~arrytown. We arrived all
right at the Forty-second street station.
| got on the down train in something of
a pushing crowd, only to look around
and see Miranda, my wife, on the plat
form looking around for me in a startled
the gates were closed. tried to get off,
but the guards shook their heads. So
my wife and | were separated. What
was | to do about it?
There are several things that look
feasible enough which would suggest
themselves to you at once, but, sir, none
of them Is feasible at all except on one
condition-that both you and your wife
have already agreed on it. Then that
plan is feasible enough. ANY plan is
feasible then. But how many out Of the
great hosts Of people who ride ON the
l. agree on such a plan? Certainly not
many of them. My wife and l do now
but we hadn't then.
The first thing that occurred to me
at the moment was to get off at the next
station and go back. My wife would
wait for me. | had to cross over in a
hurry at Thirty-fourth street, ride up
and cross over back again. This cost
me two extra L tickets, and as | got
them | remembered with horror that
my wife did not have either money or
tickets with her.
IF she were lost, how could she get
about town, how even get her fare again
home to Tarrytown? We were com
muters, and Of course |, as the man of
the family, carried the communication
book. AS these things REQUIRED TO me
it was with a sense of terror that |
looked around the Forty-second street
platform. She was not there. | looked
inside. in the ticket Office, in the sitting
room. Nowhere was she to be seen.
How beautiful would her old face have
appeared to me at that moment! | asked
the ticket cruncher if he had seen such
and such a lady, and if she had asked
him anything.
"Tickets!' he remarked in reply.
Then ! remembered that as / had
walked into the sitting room | would
back and got a ticket. Then | asked him
again. There was some che who had
tried to tell him something about having
got separated from her husband and not
knowing what to do, but there had come
a rush, and he told her that she had bet
ter ask some one else, as he couldn't be
interrupted. So she disappeared. and he
knew nothing o
Then there came to me a thought
which to this day | thank heaven for,
and thank heaven also that the idea
came to her. She must have gone back
to the Grand Central station to wait for
me. With no money or tickets she
could go nowhere else except down, and
then she could not get back. She would
not want to veer very far away from
the Grand Central, because she would
understand that however much | might
run around town after her, | must come
there at last. There | found her, very
comfortably looking over the list of
things we were to buy, and not at all
disconnected at the incident Of our sepa-
ration. She even laughed at my dis
turbance. Then and there | tucked a
dollar bill inside her glove, and told her
that if we got separated again to remem-
Der that we would meet at the Central
in time for the 5 p. N. train. Then we
went on our shopping tour.
"Some of the officers Of the road say
that the thing to do is to wait for the
one that's left at the City Hall station,
and for her to take the very next train.
But suppose she had taken a South ferry
train and landed at the Battery? With
nc money, how would she yer have got
to the Grand Central again? If two sep
arated people think just alike in such an
emergency, all we'll and good; but how
often will they do SO? If one has all his
wits about him and thinks ont exactly
the correct thing to do, is it sure that
the other one will? There are possibili-
ties for h~eartrending disturbances in a
CASE like this. The only way to do is to
fix on a place and hour to meet again,
and hen see that your wife carries some
money with her."-New York Tribune.