The Durham daily globe. (Durham, N.C.) 1889-1894, 1893-05-31

y Strange Mania That Possesses Many APP
DarentIY Sane Citizens.

n Strange Mania That Possesses Many p
parently Sane Citizens.
New York is full of men who want to
be first when there is nothing in it for
them. Two chaps will scramble for an
empty elevated railroad train and. al
though they are the only chaps on the
platform, they will push and shove
each other III order to be the first in
the train. Even when there is only
one man on the platform he will have a
sort of struggle to get aboard as If he
were competing with some imaginary
traveller.
As sOOn as Il train begins to slow up
at a station the people lining the plat
forms commence to eye each other
with suspicion, trying to devise what
plan II rest have for getting aboard
first, SO that they can circumvent it. 1t
doesn't seem to be that they are afraid
they will lose their seats. but some
imaginary triumph seems to be con-
nected with being the first on board.
It's the same way on the big rail-
roads. In a train bound from New
York TO Philadelphia when it reaches
Trenton the occupants begin to make
arrangements to be the first 20 leave
the car. They writhe in their seats I'M
easily and glare at their companions,
whom they suspect of an intention to
~circumvent them if possible.
When a ferrybOat lands at d slip
there are always three or fOur men and
BOYS who make a wild run for the
street, looking back at every yard to
make sure they are the first. After
gaining the street they fall into a
snail's pace and don't do anything more
the whole day hat costs them any
effort. They had been coached for a
spring on the boat, and in that spring
they seem to have exhausted all the
energy set aside by nature for that
days work. Commuters on railroads
practice this thing until it becomes a
sort of mania with them.
At a theatrical performance there are
persons who are made miserable
throughout the whole evening Ey the
fear hat they won't be the frst to
leave the building when it's over. They
take very little interest in the show.
ANY one who watched them fidgeting to-
ward the close Of the play would sup
pose that the management gave a
chrome or something to the fellow who
made the best time into the street.
The whole thing is due to dense ig-
nOrance about the proper value and use
of time. The chap who struggles and
fights his way to a car in which there
is plenty of room for all hands has an
insane impression that if he gets in the
car first he'll reach Harlem before the
other people, but, of course, that's all
nonsense. 1t isn't SO much that he
wants to reach Harlem in a hurry, but
once in the race he wishes to get there
before some one else. He Will lOiter
ten minutes from Broadway to the Park
place station. but as soon as he reaches
the elevated railroad steps he becomes
L comet. pushing, fighting and climbing
over people to save q second. On the
platform he dives for the car, treading
on corns and leaving a trail Of bias
phemy behind him.
And having reached Harlem he stops
for three-quarters of an hour in One
Hundred and Twenty-fifth street and
watches a man sticking posters on a
fence.
If he had any appreciation of the
proper use of time he would nave taken
five more minutes to come up town and
done it like a gentleman instead of a
savage. Then he would have appropri-
ated only forty minutes to watching
the man daubing paste on the adver-
Using fence. A little more thoughtful
ness and in the use of time
would save a lot of unpleasantncss-I
don't mean to the wild-eyed savage in a
hurry, for l have nc sympathy for him
or his kind, but to his victims.-N. y.
Herald.
fositiOn Wanted.
A lady desires a position as stenogra.
pher and typewriter. Best Of references
given. Address Editor Globe, Durham.
Enlian d~rnnnisf BIRMINGHAM. Ala =.