The Marietta journal. [volume] (Marietta, Ga.) 1866-1909, 1895-10-24
THE CLUB cAR NAN THE ARIsTOCRAT.
Social Crates on Suburban Trains-Tke
Commuter Puts on Some Airs.

Social grades are distinctly recog-
nized among suburban railway pas
sengers. The club car man is the
aristccrat. a colored porter attends
to his wants and TO those of his fell
Tow c!ubmen. a man entering the
railway station to take the afternoon
train to his home may appear like
other passengers and may bear the
full complement of bundles incident
to existence in the suburbs. AS he
approaches the waiting train sharp
eyed oolored man, who is on the
lookout, sees him at distance. He
PUSHES up to the traveller, takes his
bundles obsequiously, and, bowling
and scraping, ushers him into the
club car. Here he is sure of finding
seat, and he and his fellow aristo-
Gratis throw off their coats, take
seats in wicker chairs and lean back
to smoke and read their papers or
take part in games of cards. The
club car man belongs to social or
ganization governed like any other
club. which hires q special car from
the company for the use Of it's mem
bers. The car is attached to GER
tain morning and evening train, and
only the members are allowed to en-
ter it.
Next in social importance among
the suburban passengers is the bust
ness man who has been commuter
for many years and who has known
the conductor ever since he was q
brakeman. He is recognized as man
Of property and is possibly stock
holder in the road. He bows even
to the conductor with an air of con-
desoension and issues orders to the
brakeman as to the opening and
closing of windows and doors or the
raising and lowering of the lights.
He generally manages to secure a
whole seat for himself unless some
fSt9nd enters the car with him.
The smoking car commuter forms
another class. He also is on familiar
terms with the conductor, but in a
different way. He does not take
liberties with him, but greets him
each morning. With the smoking
car brakeman he is on the closest
terms of friendship, calling him by
his first name and inquiring as to
his health and that of all the other
employees in the suburban service.
The smoking car oommuter is of
course an inveterate card player. He
is usually either a clerk or young
business man, but sometimes elder
ly men are not graduated into the
aristocratic classes, but remain all
their lives frequenters of the smok-
ing car and devotees of the card ia
BILE on the trains.
What the club car man is to the
ordinary v SS99m!.amuter the oommuter
commuter, even if he s9Ga2'5geEc. The
long experience, enjoys the distinc-
ton which a monthly ticket gives
to him over the bearer of a single
trip ticket. He presents his book Or
computation ticket with a careless
air, and the conductor, recognizing
his face, gives only hasty glance
at his ticket. He remains engrossed
in his newspaper while the train
is passing through the open coun-
try, yet views with resignation
the approach of the tunnel which
impels him to lay it down. He looks
with disfavor on the unaccustomed
traveller who raises window on the
dustiest day and who takes an in
terest in the scenery along the route.
The occasional passenger-just the
holder of an ordinary trip tickets
so far down in the social scale in the
crowded morning and afternoon
trains that he sometimes wonders
that he is allowed to exist at all. He
looks about with distrust, and if he
has a seat beside a commuter he
hurriedly produces his ticket as the
conductor approaches and conceals
it in his hand in shamefaced way
until he can pass it to the conductor.
If he is sensitive man, he is afraid
to touch the window until he finds
whether the commuters raise the
other windows or allow them to re-
main closed. If the window beside
him is open, he may wonder at one
part of the route to see other pas
sengers closing the windows, and it
is not until he enters the tunnel that
he realizes that he has shown his ig-
norance by failing to recognize the
scenery near the entrance to the
tunnel, which has warned the COM
muters that the outside air must be
excluded. This and few other ex-
hibitions of his lack of familiarity
with travel on the road put him in
a condition of proper humility, and
he is ready before the end of his