San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1897-08-01
EXCESS BAGGAGE.


1t is a common saying that the world
is a stage and all the men and women
in it players. No less true is it that
all the world is travelling and that
some of the passengers carry an I'M
necessary amount of excess baggage.
Along all the routes of travel the
amount of baggage that is allowed to
any one passenger is prescribed, and
for all over the regulation number of
pounds charge is made for the excess.
This charge is quite formidable item
in trans-continental travel, and those
who are wise in their generation and
know what, take good care to trim
their baggage down to the regulation
limit. There are those, however, who
consider their Importance regulated by
the amount of the baggage they carry
and these are always fiat" for the
railway porters and baggage smash
ers.
Who that has ever been patiently
waiting, waiting, waiting while some
untrayeled bundle of business has
been getting a dozen articles of bag
gage checked, has not sighed for some
cast iron law prohibiting the travelling
with more than simple trunk for
present use, compelling the half car
load lot of excess to come on by
freight. Or, who that has found the
aisles and seats of the passenger coach
es piled full of satchels, bundles, band
boxes, packages, poll-parrots, bird
cages and land knows what, has not
mourned for that good time coming
when these travellers with excess bag
gage will be consigned to separate
coaches or the lunatic asylum and the
respectable traveller allowed peace.
1t is hardly a question which is the
greater annoyance, for the discomfort
is so much greater in the case of the
small baggage fiend that there is no
comparison. There is nothing so clear
ly distinguishes the travelled man or
woman as the matter of their bag
gage, alike that which is carried in
the baggage car and that which is
taken along in the hand. Those accus-
toned to make close observations on
man and manners will make a very
close guess as to the personal habits
and characters of those he meets on
the rail, judging them solely by their
baggage. No less truly than that
character is written in the lines of the
hands and face and in the appearance
and carriage of the individual is it
written in the articles Of baggage that
the traveller carries as he journeys.
1t will be found always that it is
more difficult to confine ones belong
ings to small compass than to stretch
them out over a larger one. To
know just what is needed, to know
just how to pack that in the smallest
compass and yet not injure it, is in it.
self a matter of considerable moment.
1t comes by instinct, by travel, by ex-
perience, by a sense of the fitness of
things. 1t is just as much so in the
immaterial baggage that we carry as
In the material. And here, as in the
case Of the traveller by rail or boat o.
stage, we find the same tendency to
load ourselves down with excess bag
gage to our own cost and the dimcom-
fort Of everyone who travels with us
on the great highway of life.
Excess baggage is as a rule a sign
hung out that all may read and under
stand the self importance of those who
possess it. Just the same it is with
those who carry an excess of imper-
sonal baggage with them wherever
they go, they advertise that they are
the victim of their own personal sense
OF self. This thrusts itself into the
face and eyes of all with whom they
come into contact and results
In the greatest possible discom-
fort to the greatest possible
numbers. 1t is a positive luxury to
see a gentleman or lady come into a
car with modest little hand satchel
In their hand instead of a half dozen
grips, bundles, packages and parcels.
such a traveller can always secure a
seat in any car.
But our travels by rail are COMPARE
lively short, compared with the travel
OF our lives off the rail, and it is here
that the excess baggage nuisance most
extensively displays itself. There is
only room in the world for yourself
and the baggage that is properly
yours. To try and cover more than
this is to usurp the place that belongs
to another. If you would minister to
the comfort and pleasure Of others in
lfe' pack yourself in the smallest