The age-herald., 1901-02-17
BY FRANK HARVEY MILLER.

please" One man wildly excited through fear of missing his train rushes in knock ing people right and left to find that he has three hours to wait Probably three out of five people are turned away, their train not being ready.
 Where can l leave my bundlesY'
 Anywhere you wish.''
 Where can 1 get a shaver"
 'At a barber shop" are some of the questions and answers.
 Then comes d family-father, mother, four children and a baby. The father carrying the baby heads the line. and they all make rush for the gate in d flying wedge formation. The gatekeeper stops them to show their tickets, and then that the father may find them the baby has to be snapped back like a foot ball from one child to another un- til 1t reaches its mother
 Some people who are turned back get angry. Sometimes a woman tries tor fas- cinate the gatekeeper with q winsome smile. She has no ticket or her tratn is not ready but she relies on her face to get her through. The gateman Is a sphinx. No smile .'goes' with him, noth- ing but a ticket with the right date stamped on 1t gets you through. The doorkeeper at theater Is soft com pared to gateman.
 
 Railroads carry an enormous amount of freight in the shape of hand baggage. Besides the ordinary hand bags, travellers carry band boxes, canaries, bird cages, baskets, fruit, celery, tn buckets, toy balloons. small trees, and bags as big as trunks. The average Is about three bundles to a man.
 The first thing that impresses an ob- server is the vast consumption of fruit, ha t.t. Peanuts pies, apples and candy all to- gether are not in it with the banana. The banana Is king of the railroad lunch stand. They are so easy to eat 80 un- wholesome and the skins so linble to break somebody's neck that they are dear to the heart and stomach Of the average passenger. With q constant shower of banana peels thrown from car windows and other directions the num- Der of accidents at the Birmingham sta tion would exceed all the accidents on all the railroads were 1t not for the fact that men are employed to pick up banana peels day and night Thus these acc- dents are eliminated and the station kept clean.
 Much has been said and written about the consumption of pie by Americans, but the pie is distinctively on the wane, and it is seldom that anyone is seen eating them Of course the glass pie box Is historic and classic, and lt Is still to he seen at the lunch counter as q sign of the business just as the red and green jars in window indicate a drug store.
 A stricking characteristic of the Bir- mingham station Is that It is clean. It Is not only clean by contrast with the rest of the city and other passenger sta tons, but 1t Is clean In fact It is not only clean, but Is not disfigured by large terra cotta or papier mache basins known as spittoons. 1t has q few comparatively modest cuspdors. which are not placed in the most conspicuous spots, and which require at least two Glances to locate them. Must be enforcing this splitting ordinance in Birmingham" said a mar with his head out of the car window "l don't gee no spittoons anywhere" With that he drew in his head and Birming- ham suffered dimnution in its tobaccc receipts.
 Inside the railing where the trains como and go, there is constant changing and hurried movement of trains that would harrass the nerves of the occasional trav eler if he possessed any. Time and agail some absent-minded farmer is jerked of the track from in front Of a moving train just in time to save the railroad company from d damage suit. Ii is peo pie of this type who weary the policemen at the exit gate with questions. A mai