The Montgomery advertiser., 1901-08-25
SMILE AT THOUGHTS
SOME MEN ENJOY sELF-INTRo.
 sPEcTIoN.
They Find Good Companionship an Fugitive Recollections--one Fer son Who Learned Illuminating
 Idea From Cows.

a couple of hours a mans attention gets rivited on a fellow passenger across the aisle. whose face-continually lights up with a happy smile and who every now and then breaks out in a half audible little laugh. No one IS sitting beside him. telling him amue- ing stories or tickling him with face | tious jests. He is no fool either laugh l ing for want of thought. One reads in | his mobile, expressive face that he is a man of exceptional intelligence and l character.
 But what a contrast he offered to | the other passengers. anxious only to have the confunded railway ride over. | Evidently he does not care how long | it lasts. Why should he? Plainly he | is in the best of company-his own company. There he sits all the weary Miles from Nashura to Boston, smiling away as pensively as though he were Cervantes telling himself for the first time the whole delicious story of Don | Quixote and Sancho Panza. Hang | him." exclaims some irate passenger;
 lis the fellow so conceited over the infatuated idea that he Is whole library inside of Shakespeare and Mark Twain as to flatter himself that he stands in no human need of a news paper a paper bag of popcorn. stick of chewing gum or of joining anybody | else in a rubber of whist?"
 Smile at Their Thoughts.
 Now there is no use in getting angry over such a man. That were only to
 betray spite and envy that one has such a dull and stupid time in ones own company. and finds ones self So dreary a bore that a column of adver- 1 tisements of soap or shoe tags would | be a positive relief from ones own thoughts. Far better would 1t be to say: T wonder whether the fellow could be induced to give body les | sons? He must have some secert 1t | would be worth a round, sum to find out. What makes me restless as flea or irritable as a mosquito affords him positive delight. Evidently he likes to | talk to himself and to tell himself all sorts of nice things. I never tell my self any nice things. at any rate for more than half a minute at time. l One thing is certain. The railway company ought to supply him with free yearly season tickets from Nashau to Boston and back. so as to keep him | always on the road to stimulate the rest of the pasengehs to try 10 guess | his conundrum.
 When one reflects how many thou sands of people are travelling to and | fro every day from no end of towns te their places of business in Boston and | how few of them ever impress their | fellow passengers with over-addiction | to internal smiling, but. on the con- | trary, to settled habits of yawning, | beating tattoos with their knuckles and even overindulgence in popcorn and
 profanity, 1t will hardly he wondered at that-in the interest of this restless, shuttle -darting element of our popuia- | tion. which is weaving the fabric Of our business prospeIfty-The Boston Herald | should have resolved to send one or It's most sagacious and philosophlcaily minded reporters to try to coax an in- teryiew out of a prominent specimen of this internally smiling species or the genus homo. A marked instance or It ewhose name. however is for reasons of delicacy. suppressed-havtng been
 indicated, the reporter duly boarded his train. made an excuse for sitting down | beside the man and watched hls | chance. ~,.A
 For some time the proposed inter | viewer said never a word, though De- traving all the while that he was in a | very restless and uneasy frame or
 mind He crossed and recrossed his | legs. shuffled his feet, bought ana con- sumed three several paper bags or
 popcorn and at intervals yawned por- l tentously, Excuse me, sir; excuse mel" he finally began. Il fear l annoy
 you. but railroad travelling and having
 nobody but myself to talk to does make
 me nervous as a witch. Doesn't 1t act
 that way on you?" Why, no! placioly
 rejotned the unsuspecting victim; on
 the contracy I find 1t pleasant seoa-
 tive" "A sedative!" was the reply.
 "It makes me seethe and fizz like the
 hiue and white papers of seidlitz
 nowder in a tumbler of water" "So
 it used to be, but have got over that,
 replied the unsuspecting gentleman
 "Got over 1t; wish to heaven l could!
 quickly interposed the reporter. "You
 must have a secret worth knowing couldn't you help a poor devil like
 me out of the bog? Pray, from whom
 did you learn your blessed secretF
 Whereupon. to the amazemept of th' interviewer, the gentleman Tin hanc simply smiled a benevolent smile ant
 placidly replied, From COWS"
 Excuse me, excuse mel! eJaculafet
 the astonished reporter. but the trail
 keeps up such an internal rattle tha
 failed to catch your reply. It's yer!
 funny. but 1t sounded exactly a
 though you had said from cows You heard me perfectly" replied tn gentleman: that is precisely what did say. Yes 1t was from cows. an cows only, that I learned the mos precious secret of life. While l wa |. sitting in darkness they were livini
 in the full sunshine" You will par don me If I say I do not grasp you ! meaning" rejoined the reporter; "coul you not make it little clearer? Ger , tainly." was the reply. "A young ma l of your ingenious turn of mind an avidity for self Improvement alw4y , interests me So will openSup littl more fully to you the import Of m secret.
 Some years ago. while myself stil q victim to that state of restleneS bore dom on being left to my own compan which you say afflicts you, chanced t
 spf nd a whole summer on dairy tarn where I was brought Into close asso citation with cows. On enviously watch ,, ing them as. after cropping the ric! raslure a coupe of hours, they cou II
 ,ff respectfully under the trees. rhyth
 mically moving from side to side thei jaws. as a poet weaves his lines, am wholly possessed with feelidng Of in
 ward self-evolved content, l woul'
 often heave sigh and say: I wish , were a COW! What keeps them so con tented? one day I asked farmer. O.
 they enjoy chewing the cud,' was hi
 reply. As city bred l had only tn