Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1895-05-03
A BAG OF MYSTERY.
IT UPSET THE EQUILIBRIUM. OF A CAR
 LOAD OF ACCOMPANIES


 Clothes Greatly Disturbed by the Strange
 Young Mans Actions.
 Thore was an odd little episode in a Brooklyn trolley car of the Flatbush line on recent Sunday afternoon, which gave rise to an amusing comedy of con- flict between the natural curiosity of ]. human nature and tho civilized obliga- tion to restrain it.
 Tho Flatbush and Flatlands line runs away out into tho regioa@f cornfields, truck farms and forests, lately gathered into Brooklyn's municipal area. When the car started from the end of the route it had aboard one passenger, pleasant faced young man who carried a large leather handbag. He was we'll dressed, but his clothes were covered with dust and his shoes with mud, suggesting that he had been roaming across lots ill the rural wards. AS the car approached and passed Prospect park it filled up with Sunday strollers.
 The young man sat beside the stove, with his bag on his knees. After awhile he opened the bag 0 trifle shook it gently and poored attentively inside Then he put his hand in and seemed to be gently stirring up its contents The passengers sitting directly opposite to him became interested in his doings, but he didn't look up. After shaking the bag from side to side for little while he bent over and became interest ed in somo mysterious business which for tho rest of the trip absorbed his en- tire attention and also that of his fellow passengers.
 He reached down into the bag with his right hand. lifted out something carefully i'll the hollow of his palm, weighed it carefully, held it to his ear, j. shook it, held it to his ear again and then deoisiyely reached around and put it into his overcoat pocket. Then he reached into the bag again and went through the same motions, except that this time he placed tho something care 5fully in one corner of the bag First one and then another of the passengers be- came interested in tho young man and his performance until very soon every one was peering closely, some almost painfully, over at him and his bag. But he never looked up. By and by the con- duetor came in and walked neryously the length of the car several times, peer ing into the young mans bag as he passed. But the bag was open only trifie, and he could sec nothing of it's contents. He went outside and discussed the matter with a man who stood on the platform.
 Tho young man, intensely absorbed ill his performances and seemingly aI- together oblivious of the intense inter est of tho other passengers in him, kept steadily on, lifting out invisible some things, weighing them, listening to them, shaking them and sorting them over Once in awhile he lifted out bits of twigs and leaves and threw them on the floor. The passengers eyed them over attentively, but could make noth iasg out of them. Soon they began whis- p6ring one to another about tho myste- rious doings of the young man, and the women moved nervously around, and one or two men looked as though they wero determined to ask the young man for an explanation if ho looked up. But he didn't look up. Onco in awhile a passenger got out and tried hard to peer into the bag as he passed it, but useless ly. The situation was painful and was also intensely oomical to one passenger who was almost as much interested in watching the ill concealed curiosity and strained nervousness of tho passengers as in trying to fathom the mystery of the young man S performance. Probably If it had been any other day than Sunday some one would have pluoked up cour- age to ask n simple although maybe inn pertinent question and so relieve the general strain. But the restraint inn posed by Sunday clothes hold every one back.
 A Finally when the car was entering Fulton street, tho young man suddenly looked out of tho window, closed the bag with nap and hurried out of the car. There was q movement on the part of the other passengers, partly of alarm at tho escape of the young man with the mystery unsolved and partly perhaps of relief at tho end of the suspense. One man made quick jump after the mys- terious young man and caught him for q few seconds as he was about to leave the car.
 "What've y got? Whatcher doing?" he asked, regardless of all proprieties.
 The young man looked surprised and then smiled and said:
 ''Oh, cocoons, ohrysalides, moths, you know. Eve been gathering them out i'll khe country. and sell them to the nat nfalists ;" Then he jumped off the car
 The impulsive, inquisitive man re- turned to his seat, and the remaining passengers were eagerly waiting for him. He explained that the young man was naturalist or naturalist's collector He evidently made a business of going around the eountlt hunting over the fences and bushes for the ehrysalides. or pup@, of moths and butterflies. Some of these are attached to fence pickets h.,N ba hn1s ara