The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1900-05-16
HE HAD FORGOTTEN.

.
corner of Corcoran and Fourteenth streets
and then walked out onto the asphalt to
await the passing Of a downtown Four
teenth street car. He took his stand at the
near side of the street. as usual. After about
four minutes a two-car train came along at
full speed The man, who had been glancing
over the headlines of his paper, folded it up
and p.acidly waited for the car to stop for
him. 1t didn't stop 1t went by like an ice
yacht, there being few people crossing the
street at that hour As the train whizzed
by the man waiting at the corner Of Cor
corau and Fourteenth streets, the motor
man Shouted some indistinct directions and
pointci To- the other side of the street.
The man looked mad.
whats the matter with that internal
idiot, I'd like to know" he growled. "And
what the dickens was that he yelled at me?
You'd think the darned old train was going
to a fret If there's any one particular
thing that makes me hot all over it's to
have a car shoot by me this way and leave
me standing like a blasted hobo that's been
ditched from hog train! I'd give $3.50 to
have that condgned motorman's number.
I'd take a day off and go to the superin-
tendent of the line, and if 1 wouldn't
burn that dog.goned-but | suppose they'd
schedule, or some such fuzzy-wuzzy excuse
as that, and I'd get famed, like everybody
does that goes up against a bloated corpo-
ration"
Thus the man stood and growled to him.
self, looking all the time up toward the
curve at Florida avenue for another train.
The looked-for train curled around the
curve presently, and in a few moments it
was at r street. The man at the corner Of
Fourteenth and Corcoran streets stroked his
mustache and prepared to swing himself
aboard. He was surprised to observe that
the motorman made no move toward shut
ting off the power and putting on the brake.
The car shot by him, and again the motor
man pointed across the way and yelled
some things that couldn't be heard by the
citizen, owing to the rafting of the cars
and the buzzing of the power.
Then the citizen turned purple with wrath,
and the veins stood out on his forehead.
What he said can't be set down. He shook
his fist at the train growing smaller down
Fourteenth street, and he raved and tore
around like a man whose good thing" horse
has been left at the post. He whirled around
and jumped up in the air and all but
frothed at the mouth.
ooh, you dad-binged coyotes!" he shouted,
shaking both fists at once, as if he had the
whole board of directors Of the line in front
of him and was giving them what was
coming to them. you'll get yours, all
right! Just wait, dod-gast you! l hope
congress'll reduce the fares on your line
to one-eighth of cent a ride, consarn you.
Oh, you"
Well, the citizen just stood there and
worked himself up to the verge of apo
plexy, rehearsing the things he was going
to pour into the ear of the conductor of
the next train when it came along and he
got aboard. He was going to find out the
numbers of the two motormen ahead, and
he was going to blow the gaff on them to
the boss of the line if it was the last act
of his life. If they thought they were CO.
ing to make a monkey and pin-head out
of him, they were up in the air, that's all,
and if he didn't get even with somebody.
then he didn't know the multiplication
table, and you heard him shouting, etc. No
one really did hear him shouting, for the
streets were still deserted, but if anybody
had been by and seen and heard him, he'd
no doubt have been put down as fugitive
from the large government foolish house
across the Eastern branch.
He was still breathing fast and hard
when another tram bore down on him from
R street This time the man was going to
see to it that the motormar should have no
excuse for not stopping. He raised both
arms and tagged the train like freight
brakeman on top of a caboose tackled
on to a train of 81 cars. But it was
no go. The motorman didn't choke off
the power nor did he give the brakes airy
a twist. Instead, he pointed down the
street, smiled good and pro.
nounced a number of indistinct words. The
car continued on its charted course
To look at the citizen then you'd have
thought that he'd been marooned on a
desert isle, or that he'd been clinging to
raft in the middle of the Indian ocean and
steamer had just passed him by and de-
clined to pick him up. But he was TOO mad
to say anything He just looked it all. After
awhile he managed to articulate:
"All right It's all right. The next trair'll
stop-I'll bet five hundred billions on that
or | go to slab in the morgue, one or the
other. Oh frabious day! Calico callay!"
He didn't use these latter Calculations ex
actly, but they'll serve to give an idea of
his state of mind
When, few minutes later, the rext train
gained the little rise at the corner Of r
street, the citizen deliberately spread out
MS newspaper III Ine mluule OF lne track
and sat down thereon, claspng his knees
with his hands. Then he looked around
calmly, seeming to be quite oblivious to the
swift approach of the train. The motor
man changed his footbell and shouted, but
the citizen seated in the middle of the track
seemed to be immersed in a study Of the
signs over the shops on Fourteenth street
The car came to a halt about five feet away
"Hey, die want to git run overt" ex.
claimed the motorman, wrathily
But the citizens mad made him speech
less. He rose from his sitting posture.
walked back, and swung on to the platform
of the first car, just as the conductor was
pulling the bell. The motorman was growl-
ing: "If cop'd seen that duck, he'd ha'
been pinched, all rghtW
When the citizen sat down in the car he
pulled the conductor over to him.
81 would like about two thousand words
with you'll" he muttered, in tone of subdued
ferocity. 81 want you to make me a per
sonally-conducted explanation, here and
now, how it was that three pulp-headed
pollywog- Drained imbeciles employed by
your company to run trains deliberately
disregarded my signals and whizzed by mo