Evening star., 1897-03-06

hat has totally wiped out the extension Of
public courtesy to wouasa by men, and the
wonder is not great, either. Whenever I
get seat in q crowded., cafle car. and a
lady enters to whom naturally feel in
clined to resign my sedt, reflect that per-
haps the very night besore that same lady
has committed the tsexpressibly brutal,
shocking outrage of EeariBg a three-by-
three plumed hat to the ,theater, COM
pletely extinguishing the vieW of any num-
ber of people behind her and 1 shift to a
more comfortable position IN my seat and
hold it down. 1 mightdhavedreminded this
Kansas City man that Washington. men
Invariably give up their street car seats
to ladies. despite the fact that the colossal
theater hat is not unkf6wn h, the national
capital. but didn't. He had too strong a
command of old English, and didn't care
to get burnt up.
WOmen'ss Ways.
Il have noticed that.The Star, as we'll as
other Washington papers, occasionally
prints jokes clipped from exchanges in
other cities regarding the infrequency with
which women are said to thank the men
VINO give them their street car seats These
jokes may hit the thing off all right in
other cities, but they certainly have little.
If any, humorous application here I've got
a fairly keen eye for things that happen
during my runs, and declare that l never
yet saw a man resign his seat to a lady
in one of my cars that he didn't get tha nked.
for it. OF course, there are different ways
of thanking man for this kind of a cour-
tesy, few of them so ungracious and stiff
as to be almost worse than no thanks at
all, but this doesn't alter the statement of
fact. Some women have got the knack OF
so thanking a fellow when he has done the
proper thing in this way that he feels good
all over and begins to think that he is all
right, and In the game after all and his
hand instinctively travels to his cravat to
find out whether it's twisted and for a lit
tie while his chest expansion increases by
at least two inches. But there are other
women who squeeze out frozen Thank
you that makes man feel that somehow
or another he has made bad break al
though he can't quite make out what he
has done to bring such polarization upon
himself. In the matter OF courtesy there
is kink in Washington street car etiquette
that 1 don't think is followed elsewhere.
When man gets on a car with a lady in
Washington. and some fellow in the car
gives up his seat to her and grabs a strap
1t is the proper thing here for the lady's
male escort to quite effusively thank tie
man who has sacrificed his comfort the
short exchange of proper talk between the
two men being followed by their lifting
their chapeauX to each other, which closes
the matter. This is rather a neat little Gus
tom just a trif1e foreigniSh, but none the
worse for that
1.-The fact that the cable cars in Washing
ton always make their stops on the hither
side Of street crossings and not on the
farther side is the custom in most other
cities, has caused vast amount of wrath
in the bosoms of visitors here this week
Nine-tenths of these visitors have calmly
waited on the farther side of the crossing
for the car, and, even when they've seen
the cable trains come to a full stop on the
other side, they have remained rooted to
their positions. apparently expecting a
double stop to be made at the same cross
ing. Then, when we'd whizz by them at
full speed, they'd gaze after US with black.
murderous looks and, If they were men.
they d shake their fists at in impotent
rage.
Good Sprinter.
"On down trip, on Tuesday last a young
lady, who somehow didn't have the look
of a Washington girl, stood in the middle
of the block between Rhode. Island avenue
and p street. and held up yher right fore
finger as we approached her under full
headway. 1 was the GRIP car, and as
the train whirled past her ! pointed to the
next corner, to indicate where she'd have
to take up her station to get on the next
train along. Did she, shrivsl up, and feel
mean, and humbly resign herself to n wait
for the next car, do you think? Not much
she didn't. She gathered up her skirts in
her left hand and did bit of sprinting
| that just made me lonesome I'd be will
Ing to back her for 190 yards in ten and
half seconds any time. She had lot of
those chatelaine things hanging to her
| coat, and, as she sped along, they clanked
| and tangled like the ornaments on a swell
team S hne harness. She caught up with
| the rear car without any trouble at all,
and she wasn't even flushed or out of
| breath when she swung on to the rear plat
| form with one hand, with all the easy con-
| fidence of railroad freight brakeman 1
| was aching to ask her If she hadn't done
her course at Vassar or Wellesley but of
! course, I couldn't.
| On Wednesday night an old gentleman
who looked as If he owned a few pretty
| cozy farms somewhere, got on my train at
| 9th street and the avenue telling me when
| he got on that he wanted to be dropped
! when l street was reached. The car be-
| came Jammed with passengers, and 1 for
| got all about the old gentleman until the
| car, having sifted out nearly all of its pas
| sensers. suddenly noticed him at street.
| hastened over to him, told him 1 had ac-
| c1dentally run him beyond his getting-off
| point, expressed regret for my careless
ness, and told him I'd pass him over to the
| next down car we met with Instructions
| TO the conductor to drop him at / street
| No. ye wunt, either, he said. BY jing,
| I'm not a-goin' to hop around these here
| kyars all night. Ye've got to jest start this
| kyar back to I street an let me off, an
| then ye kin go on abaout your business
| 1t took me all the rest Of the way to the
| power house to explain to him the theory
| of cable cars, and to prove to his satisfac-
| tfon that the cars could only go in one di-
| rection. l took so much pains at the ex-
| planatory job that his good nature was re-
| stored by the time he was started down
| town on another train.'