The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1896-11-22
THE TICKET CHOPPERS GIRL.
Romance of Two Young Lives Which
May Have Escaped Notice.

New York Heral

Did you ever the ticket choppers
girl? Perhaps you are generally in too
much of a hurry to notice the young wom-
an with a short jacket and big hat who
brings luncheon to the man who watches
the tickets at the elevated railroad station.
Sometimes she brings him carnation and
very often. The rules OF the company will
not permit him TO talk to her very long
when she does come.
She works in cloak factory down town
for twelve hours day. She isn't exactly
pretty and her social status is not lofty.
Yet in all this town there is no young
woman more devoted to her fiancee.
1t does not make much difference how
they first met. Their names are not in the
social registry Perhaps 1t was at the an
nual chowder of the Timothy j. Campbell
Association, or ii may have been on the
way to Coney Island one summer day. She
may live down in Jefferson street or some
other crowded bypath of the great East
side.
A blue uniform and brass buttons at
tract young women everywhere, and, be-
sides that, some Of these ticket choppers
are handsome, broad shouldered fellows.
1t may have been that she passed him
every morning on her way to work, and
from q smile and nod it came to be
Good morning."
Then he may have asked her II she would
fiected a moment and said that at she would
think 1t over. incidentally, she may have
sald that pa was very strict and that
they had better meet on the stoop of the
big tenement house where she lived. or
just around the corner
Then he may have found that, after ALL
there were sterner and fiercer men in this
world than the girls father. He may have
called there once and, by diplomatic sug-
gestion with regard to the 'growler'' and
the price, have won his way into the
good graces of the head of the house
So it happened that the ticket chopper
began to keep company" as they saw
down on the East Side. and before MANI
months was recognized as the girls
steady Then the mother may have be-
come very much Interested in this young
man with the blue suit and brass buttons.
She may have inquired tentatively if ticket
choppers made very much money and if
this young man was straight and at
The report which she received must have
oeen favorable. Tor It was soon generally
that Mrs. o Riley's Mary was going to mar
~ a ticket chopper"
The date of the wedding has not been
set yet, for the ticket chopper has an idea
that one of these days he may get promo
ton 1t was only the other day when Mary
came to the station that he was pacing up
citement.
Say. May" he said. what de We fink
The old man just went trough here and
asked me how long I'd been wild de COM
pany."
BY the old man he meant the superin-
tendent of the road. Old Giles, the ticket
agent at the station. has been ailing for
the last few months. and Mary's steady
Is sure that il is only a question of time
when the company will want a new man ar
the window.
Isn't that great?'' said Mary "stln. 1
cant see how he could help noticing YOU
The next time they meet there is talk of
fiat up town and of furniture on the in
stallment plan. Mary and her mother go
shopping every week now. They don't buy
anything. IL is true. but they think it just
as well to know what things cost.
III you have noticed this little romance
you can tell by the way the ticket chopper
acts how things are faring with him and
Mary. Sometimes he gives the handle of
the ticket box vicious snap as though he
had spite against the innocent iron lever.
had few words about that Smith fel-
low" who wears good clothes and parts his
hair In the middle, Smith aspired to be
the girls steady" before the blue suit and
the brass buttons supplanted store clothes
and dangling watch chain.
The ticket choppers face the next day Is
all aglow and there is a PARKWAY look in
all as they fall into the box. He is kind
and indulgent TO the old man who has for
gotten to drop the red stamped passport OF
the Elevated Railroad Company. He smiles
and tips his hat 10 the nervous woma n
who is afraid that she is on the wrong side
OF the street. He even shares his luncheon
with the negro porter and has q plea sa nj
word for the official newsboy The little
dlfhculty about the Smith fellow has
been adjusted.
He sees hat with a big feather over the
heads OF the pas Sengers who are pouring
out or the downtown train. He recognizes
the red feather for there is not such an.
other bit of millinery to be found outside
back from work. The station platform is
crowded, passengers are hurrying to and
tro, and no one noticess> perhaps that the
girl with the big hat puts her hand upOn
the ticket choppers arm and gives him \
vigorous nudge before she is borne alone
| by the crowd.
morrow as everybody around that station
knows, Is the ticket choppers holiday