The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1893-05-29
LYING AWAKE TO CATCH A TRAIN
It's Mighty Mean Experience, But
There is No Help for it.
From the New York Heral

From the New York Herald.
The man who has to catch the early
train to SomewhereviIe is to be pitied.
He retires early, the earlier the more sad
his case. Every passing sound from the
street falls upon his strained ears. He
falls at last along toward 10 O'Clock into a
light slumber. His dreams are broken;
there is no rest for him. for he has to
catch the early train.
Along toward midnight he awaken with
a start, grasps out in the darkness wildly,
fumbles for match and knocks his heels
and his favorite Corns against the spikes
on the rocker There are always spikes
on the rocker of the fellow who has
to hunt match in order to look at the
clock in order to see the time in order not
to oversleep in order to catch the early
morning train.
He blows out the match in disgust 1t
is only II o'clock His train time is 40,
o'clock so he turns in for another snoOZe.
The man who has to catch the early
train-what awful dreams he has! Over
his pillows dance all his grandmothers
since the food, singing in wild discOrd-
ant way. He sees sights and hears
voices; he rolls uneasily, now and then
catching little cat-winks, only to be
awakened again and again and again-to
find that it is too early to get up.
The man who has the train fever is
pitiful sight to behold. He signs des-
perately in the darkness. He thrashes
around in bed He hits his head against
the wall. He curses his evil luck. Why
has he to catch a train when all the rest
of the world is asleep Why must he be
a slave2 Confound those awful early
trains, anyhow! Why cannot the world
be run on common sense ideasI If the
managers of the railroads of the land
only had a grain of sense-iust a grain
what a world this would be!
1t is in this fashion that the catch-a-
train man passes the earlier part of the
night. But the worst is yet to come.
AS the night wears on, or off, his fears
grow more and more pronounced. Now
he is not only afraid that he will not
catch the train, but he fears that he will
actually 90 to sleep In the first
part of the night he tried to
sleep and couldn't succeed now he
could succeed, but he dare not try.
All his efforts are thus directed toward
keeping awake-hopeless task!
The catch-a-train man rolls uneaslly in
his bed. he drops into ghastly night
mare of a sleep. This is what he sees:
Horrible visions of railroad wrecks.
The figures 4 40 in blood, written by
DESTROYING angel on the side of an open
grave
Four-forty! four-forty! four-forty!
Now he sleeps a moment, and now he
has left the tOiling millions in the big city
and is rolling away, far across the wide
land, when hiff, bang-there is a grand
railroad wreck, and he wakes up, or
rather starts up, to strike his thirteenth
match to look at his watch to see what
time it is so that he will get that train
After tossing, rolling, pitching, heaving,
groaning moaning and all the rest for the
better part of the last terrible hour he
finally sinks into a soft, dreamless rest,
such as the beloved poet loves to figure as
blessing the sleep of the innocent little
child, or the Me chy-ldee" of the
Bowery stage recitationist. All, that sleep!
Blessed be the man who invented it
Enough that the poor, weary, catch-a-train
tiend can sleep at all, even if it be but mo-
ment. And sleep he does. He is snoring
away like saw-mill
Then a whiteFobed figure, bearing a
large lamp, suddenly appears like an APP
partition in the intense Indian ink gloom.
II is his wife. Dear, patient, loving soul,
faithful to the last, has somehow, in a
way known only to woman, managed to
keep awake, or, rather, to sleep until the
proper time and now she is here, and is
saving, as she shakes him in lively fash
ion:
Jim! jim jim! Wake up; it is time
for the trainI'
"Train? Wager train--what is it,
anyway Go away now! yes I'm coming,
com"
You bet you are!, 'gasps the woman,
taking him by the hair and tugging away
viciously; and then he awakens with a
start, to hear her say; "You have just
ten minutes to catch the four-forty Now
hurry, dress and come down to the
kitchen, where there is pot of hot cot
fee for you: have been up half an hour
and have everything in readiness"
Aud the man rises and says:
Hump! well, there is no need of all
this fuss was Just on the point of ris-
ing as you came in the room and all made
this internal racket! Where is my socks
anyway"