Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1893-09-07
AN INCIDENT IN REAL LIFE.
Showing How Unpleasant People Can Make
Themselves by Their Talk.

Themselves by Their Talk.
stepped upon Broadway car at the
lower end of Broadway and rode in it
along that fast changing highway as far
as Nineteenth street. At the corner of
Chambers street and Broadway man
of perhaps 10 and woman not more
than %, he carrying huge portmanteau,
q collection of wraps, two umbrellas
and cane. she leading by the hand a
3-year-old baby, joined the partially
crowded patronage already seated. A
cloud of dissatisfaction rested upon the
| brow of the man. The frown of an al
ready born rumpus fast unfolding into
fruitage made forbidding and ugly the
comely countenance of the woman. Her
nervous disposition made itself known
to every one in the car and particularly
to the little boy as she yanked the child
by the arm into the seat beside her. Aft
er moments silence the woman said,
'FYou might have known how it would
be-" to which he responded, well,
might have known, but didn't, so shut
upr'
Another passenger entered the car at
that moment and stumbled over the port
manteau.
Hang that bagr' said the man.
"If were you, would keep my cuss-
ing for home" said the woman, and so
on and on and on.
The ensuing half hour was passed by
these two in strain which would have
done credit to the most pronounced hag
in the dirtiest quarters of third rate
fish market. The little boy, thank heav-
en-, went fast asleep. Much of the con-
versation between the two was inaudible
save to the three or four people in imme-
diate contact with them, but every once
in awhile the shrill voice of the female
bird scared into upper attitudes of def
ance, making discordant the entire at
mosphere and attracting the attention
of nearly score of people. They got
out at the corner of Fourteenth street
and Broadway and entered a cafe-he
sullen, ejaculatory and profane; she
keyed up to G in alt, defiant, shrewish,
chock full of scold.
Well, what of it? 1t is not such very
uncommon thing for man and wife-for
lovers even, for daily intercoursers-to
quarrel and to vent serpentlike misses
from the unruly members that wag with
curious motion as they distill poison
from bitter and jaundiced hearts. 1t is
not so uncommon, admit, but isn't it
always suggestive? 1 thought as looked
at the man, with a good, square, clean
forehead, well marked brows, clear
skin and an air of self poise, that he was
hardly doing himself justice. Save that
his hands were rude and rough and that
his boots were country made, that his
portmanteau was considerably older
than the ordinary hill and that his um-
brella looked as though it might have
been utilized by Mrs. Noah when she
came from the ark, he was man of the
world in appearance.
And the woman had a pretty face.
Her hair was parted in the middle, as
women's hair should be, and revealed in
its old fashioned brushing tiny ear, not
30 small as to indicate utter selfshness.
but, on the other hand, not so large as to
TlNd4 d genuine OdQQlO hOCh OYSTER III IL
vulgarity. Her eyes were brown, soft
at that; her teeth were regular and
clean; her dress was neat, her hands and
feet well clad, and an occasional pat
upon the boys shoulder as he lay nes-
Ting against her, fast asleep, indicated
the feminine nature, the affectionate ten
derness of the mother.
Listening under the circumstances was
not rudeness. 1t was compulsory. sat
next the boy. Some of his banana skin
ornaments my coatsleeve until this mo-
ment. As he lay semicoiled up noticed
the copper nails in the bottom of his shoe
and the copper toe upon the same. The
group was easily and perfectly within
my vision. AS word after word fell red
hot I thought: How odd this all would
have sounded in that shell-like ear five
years ago. How strange it would have
seemed to the lover had he heard it or
had it been suggested to him that ever
it could be possible for him to hear such
language from such hps.-EIoward in
New York Recorder.