Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1900-01-05
CITY COMMUTERS.
Passengers Who Come Together
Daily on Certain Elevated Trains
See Different Persons

''I ride down town and up town again
on the elevated road. every day at about
the same hour, as have been doing foI
years." said a city dweller, "and never
meet the same people twice. People
that go over the same ground in the
same manner on the surface roads tep
me they have the same experience, they
never see anybody they had seen be
fore. This seems at first rather GU
rious; you would think you'd meet peo-
pie, going like yourself, at fixed hours
every day; but when 1 come to think
of it, perhaps it is simple enough; &C
at hours when there are lots of trains
running, with only a minute or two,
or even less, Roadway. There are thou
sands of people who go and come as
do, at approximately the same hours,
and who perhaps vary from it less than
five minutes any day; but I suppose
the chances, if they could be figured
out, of their striking absolutely the
same train and the same car with our
selves every day would be very small
So we travel every day at the same
hours, with different people, and think
what big town it is, and what lot OF
people there are living in it"
''But I travelled on n way train. They
tell me that on the express trains on
the elevated you may find day after
day the same people together on the
same trains. The man that lives in H6r~
lem, doing business down town, wants
to get an express train. He wants to
get down at a certain time, he knows
what train he must take from his ele-
waited station to make it; and as likely as
not he hits that train every morning
with lot of other men who do the
same thing, and it's the same way going
up at night. So men that travel or
these trains come TO know one an
other, or rather to recognize one an
other as men they see on the trains
And the guards that run on the ex
! presses come to know many of the pas
sengers as regulars, and in the course
of time they may come to know some
of them personally; while the guards
| experience on way trains is substan-
TALLY that of the passenger; he may
| make certain stations at the same hours
| and minutes day after day, and yet
| pick up different passengers every
| time.
"Other times when passengers meet
on the elevated are at hours when the
! trains are all local and further apart.
as very late at night, say after one
| o'clock, and very early in the morn
| ing, say before six o'clock. These pas
sengers include besides the limited or
| binary travel the many-take them
| ltogether-workers in various occupa-
tions that, in great city, keep more
or less men busy at all hours, day and
| night. The man who works till one
or two o'clock in the morning gets
| home as soon as he reasonably can after
| work is done; he doesn't miss a train,
where trains are eight, or twelve, OF
whatever they may be, minutes apart,
| If he can help it; and so he is likely to
take the same train every morning. The
man who goes to work at five o'clock
| in the morning doesn't get up any ear
Her than is necessary to get his break
| fast and get the train that will land
him at his station in time.
''The man going home late may meet
the same men morning after morning
going by the same trains; the man go
ing to work early may see, morning
after morning, when he gets aboard al
his station the same man, who has come
from some other station further up tn,
road, always in the same corner and al
ways asleep, getting in here such ad
ditional sleep as he can on the way
down.
"And these, the men who meet, or a
least travel by the same trains goins
home from work in the early morning
the men who travel together, early, OF
the way TO work, and the people wht
travel by the elevated expresses, might
suppose, be described as the city com
/. muters."-N. Y. Sun.
| Crushed.