Santa Fe daily New Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1885-1897, 1897-03-29
A POLITE OLD LADY.
The NIadding Crowd Was Behind, but sht
Needed 1t Not,

Heeded III NOT.
| 1t was late in the afternoon and a con-
| tinuous flood of humanity poured into the
"L' station. She was IA very polite old
| lady a trifle deaf and unused to city ways
"Young man." she began, coming to
! the left hand side Of the window.
"You re out of your turn" yelled tho
ticket agent, shipping off tickets at the
\ rate of 60 ships a minute and manipulate
I ing the flood of small change that came
pouring into his window like II handed
ogre.
you'll have to take your place in line,
MADAME cried the gateman.
And without word of protest the old
lady allowed herself to be thrust into posi-.
ton. The crowd did the rest. And in a
very few minutes she had reached the win
| dow again.
young man." she commenced in O.
actly the same tone of voice as before, ana
at the same time placing three parcels-a
| ported plant, an umbrella and huge grip
sack--upon the small shelf in front of the
window, II want to go up to my daugh-
ter's house. Her name is Mrs. Summers
Mrs. Charles Summers. I've got her
address right here on this letter. and I'll
read it to you, so that you can tell me the
nearest station to it. 1.-Two hundred and
Il can't see very WE'LL the light is so poor
two hundred and eighty seven East
Eighty eighth street. Now, want you
to-
Eighty sixth is your station" anwsered
the agent hurriedly, and passing out a
ticket, "Money, pleased"
"How much is the fare to Eighteenth
street," plaoidly inquired the old lady.
eighty sixth street. Five centsI' yelled
the agent, dancing upon his stool In wild
excitement, while the whole waiting line
groaned in concert But the old lady was
eral excitement.
II understood you to say Eighteenth
street BEFORE" she continued genially, at
the same time very slowly extracting IS
bill from out the small change In her
pocketbook. "You must excuse me for
Misunderstanding you, but am a trifle
hard of hearing. 1t runs in our family,
although my daughter, Mrs. Summers,
does not seem to have 1t, but she always
did take more after her father than me. "
She carefully smoothed out the bill and
handed it in to the agent, and he, despair
ing of remedy, hastily counted out the nee
essary change and showed it toward her.
The old lady added it all together herself
slowly and carefully examined each piece
in order to be sure of its genuineness.
By this time the line reached away into
the street below, and traffic was at stand
still for blocks around. Vituperation and
kicking filled the air from those ignorant
of the real cause Of delay Even those at
her very elbow had commenced to lose the
very little patience they ever possessed
"When does the next train leave, young
MANI" she questioned placidly as she start
ed to remove her varied impedimenta from
the shelf.
He was tempted to say that she had
missed it, but feared the result. And upon
informing her that it was just about to
start and she must hurry if she wanted to
catch it the old lady gathered up her skirts
and sprinted for the platform in a style
calculated to make professional runner
wilt with envy.-New York Journal.