Evening star., 1899-02-11
ASK FOR INFORMATION |

~ ON " n lNfOHMAItON
''Oh. yes, just about know 1t all,'' said
the young man who sits within the window
marked Bureau of information" in the
main waiting room of one of the railroad
stations to Star man. That's the reason
I'm holding this job-because / know so
| much. When 1 was still very young be-
came addicted to the habit of knowing
everything, and so 1 just naturally driftad
behind this window. You think, / sup
pose, that I'm Just here for the purpose of
informing travellers when trains arrive and
depart, and to furnish them other bits Of
dry, commonplace data like that, eh? Well,
that's where you overlook a bet. They ask
all kinds. I've got so used to 1t now that
l like II better when they put hard ones
to me. lady asked me yesterday If l
thought her husband I'D be at the station in
Eindlay. Ohio. to meet her train when ii got
In there told her hoped SO, for his sake,
and she looked at me queerly, as IL she
didn't quite get next to my meaning. III
bet IL he didn't meet her he's pulverized
by this time, for she was rawboned and
about six feet high. Maybe It seems funny
and out of the question, but people often
poke their heads in this window and ask
me when the 4:10, or the 6:l2, or the II 30
train is going to start When | remind
EN- that they've just named the hour of
the trains departure, they usually get out
OF 1t by saying they thought the schedule
might have been changed
When a trains late j stand by for a
hefty bunch of queries through this Win
dow. They ask me if the train was late
yesterday, ii it's likely to be late tomor-
row or next week. If the snow is as deep in
Baltimore as it is here, if the weather man
over in Philadelphia predicted snow, if
there's any danger of the train being
showed in for week or so between here
and jackson City, if there's much differ
ence in time between Washington and
Alexandria. /
on the train when it arrives after all. and
so on.
I'm supposed to have hit up all the old
cities in the country long enough to know
all the hotels and boarding houses in each
of them by heart. Lots of ladies ask, for
instance, If the table of the Umtarara
House in Pittsburg is good the grub
served out in the Smokette Hotel in the
same town. l never let on that 1 don't
Know thing about 1t, but toss out what
ever reply seems to be wanted by the ques-
tloner. L did confess to elderly lady last
week that / really didn't know the latest
schedule of cab fares in Omaha, and she
asked me why ] didn't resign my job and
let some man have 1t who knew someth hing.
A few days ago another elderly lady with
corkscrew ringlets asked me If / thought
the 'Mardy Grass festivities down in New
Orleans We're too disgracefui to permit of
a respectable unmarried lady remaining in
tEat city in seclusion until the celebration
was over. told her that If she'd lock her
SELF up in her room probably no harm I'D
sleeping car berths here to me- do some of
the ladies, and ask me what sort of per-
son is going to occupy the other half of
the section to which they are assigned, and
when l pass it up they look at me as if
they regarded me a dismal frost in the
capacity of bureau of information man.
Since this window was started the train
callers don't answer any questions at all
and they pass al! of the travelling colored
people who want to know things along to
me- Ihey ask some queer questions. Last
week old nanny, with one of those
black-varnished and en-eagle-ornament
ed Vaiises tightly clutched In her hands
and an old-tne red bandana tied round
her head, came up to the window and
asked me:
do yo' all know much bout Loud
county?
Il told the old nanny that I knew
something about the. trains that pass
through Loudoun county.
But dat ain whut All wanted tub
know, she said. 'Ah he'd uh son-he
names 'Zekeei Jackson-dat dun got it into
he fool haid six year ago tub go down tub
Loudn county, an All thought yo' all
might know wheah dat ngguh is now. SOS
All kin fin him wen An gifts tub Lees
bug
I'D like to have helped the old nanny
out but there's nothing doing in the clair
veyant line 50 far as L am concerned.
People just arriving in Washington come
to me with all sorts Of inquiries, and I'm
seriously thinking of '<sand-bagging' the
Dropretors of a lot of hotels here to which
l.
guests. I've got list of boarding houses
and hotels in Washington right in my head
that l have use for twenty times day,
and l think | ought to get a rake-off. /
even know the alleys and Afro-American
settlements in this town to which in
quiring persons of color from Virginia may
be sent for lodgings.
Fresh ducks make their way up to this
window a few times a day l had one of
them this morning. He A countrfed-
looking sport, with dead-new clothes all
va m 40 along
He leaned over to me and said:
Shay, ZiS buroo inf maShun, amt it.?
Yep / said
"'Well, shay he went on, what want
f. out is zis: Was l married yistdy aft
noon, er wasn't /? 'Nif SO, wheresh m
wife?
Pass it up l said. She's probably
started for South Dakota to sue for di-
vorce.'
But she hadn't. She showed up before
I got through talking, and she was about
forty-three, with a face as hard as nails
and pair of maulies on the ends of her
arms ike an iron Inolders. The way she
yanked her jagged spouse through the gate
and aboard the western-bound train was
worth watching