The daily morning journal and courier., 1902-04-21
wA1T1NG-RooM PHILOSOPHY.
OldTime Ticket Agent Tells of Oddi-
 ties of Those He Meets

l CAb l. AlllN I4GhIL SNbNDl L GllS Ol Cudl-
 ties of Those He Meets.
 Only a few days ago fell in with a
 station agent who was taking his first
 vacation in years. Half an hour in the
 smoking-room of Pullman got us go-
 gether, and he began talking shop.
 Do you know" said my new acquaint-
 ance, that the men on the inside of a
 ticket window will finally have a pecu-
 liar education?" I replied that I sup
 posed the ticket man saw all sorts of funny people.
 Not funny people, particularly" replied the ticket agent; but we see
 many things which would be worth reading. For instance, woman comes
 up to buy ticket and lays down a
 coin I can tell before pick 1t up that
 the coin Is cold. In cool weather wo-
 mems coins are always cold, while
 those presented by men are warm. I | could shut my eyes and tell whether a
 man or woman laid down certain coin.
 l once decided between two disputants | from the temperature of the coin. A | man claimed the dollar on the window was his, while woman insisted that 1 she had laid 1t there, and that the man had put down the half-dollar, which
 was also there with the dollar I deci- ded in favor of the woman, because the l half-dollar was warm and the dollar was cold" l was stumped. Tt is very
 plain" replied the ticket man. "The
 woman carries her coins away from her person. while the man carries his next to his leg and warns it up. You can tell every time.
 "A woman will hand you the largest piece of money she has, no matter if
 her ticket is only fifteen cents, and she
 has plenty of small money A man will
 give you smaller money, as rule, but
 enither will offer to present the cor
 rect change. It often happens that at the last minute a rush is made for tick cts when men and women will push and crowd about the ticket window and fight for the next ticket. Not one of them will ever think of eXpediting matters by having the right change, although they can all readily see that the delays are made on account of the agent having to change large money. Passengers will get left right along in cases of this kind, while if they would take the oi pti5e lO IldNt ltlC IIluiiGt ready an agent could sell score of tickets in half minute.
 "Women will tell little white lies about the age of their child. who is just out of the half-fre line. They are nev- CT allowed to get more than twelve un- til they are plainly fifteen. Not long since a woman was getting tickets for her girl. who was fourteen She stated particularly to me in the presence of the child that she was only twelve. Of course, we often sell the ticket when We know it should not be done: but then we caution the woman about holding the little child on her lap until the con- ductor takes up the ticket and we ire quently post the conductor who lets the fond parent carry the little thing one hundred miles. l have frequently sold Sunday -school excursion parties their | tickets, and have been lied to from start | to finish about the age of the larger | children and, to make the matter | worse, it looks as if every little sinner of them has been coached to lie.
 "A woman cannot sit in the waiting | room fifteen minutes to save her life | without finding out whether or not the station clock is correct. She may not | come to the window and ask the ques- tion herself, but in some way she gets the information. The woman without watch is worse than the one with watch. If train is on time any you announce it to the waiting passengers, and then afterward something happens to it and it becomes late, the men are first to think you have lied about it, but the women are last to be convinced that you did not. After the passengers ex- plain when and where the delay oc- cured the men understand it right off, but the women refuse to be hoodwinked after that style, and you remain still, with them, a falsifier A woman will always sign her ticket when you re- quest it, but man often argues the point with you, always holding out that t is some scheme by which the compa- ny is going to get the best of him. You ,annot make him see 1t otherwise
 "Ir a corpse is brought in to go on the l. ;ame train a woman will critically no- ice every passenger in the waiting oom, to see If she can find the relative . vho is with the read body If she can lot satisfy herself she will approach ! he ticket window and ask the agent vho the dead person is, where it is go- ng and of what it died. The men will 70 up to the box, read the notice there n put their cane or umbrella against screw head and try to look brave and A woman, when entering he waiting room, will invariably walk yer and sit down by the conmonest | ind of a man, while a man will always ry to get as close as possible to the rett fest woman. A woman always ooks at her ticket after it has been is- ued to her, but she never counts her hange. A man never looks at his tick t, but invariably counts his change. n case a piece of baggage is lost, the ,oman straightaway thinks of five undred articles that were in her trunk, he man starts in by mentioning his fight shirt and cigarcase and that is bout as far as he can go. He keeps ropping you a line each day telling of ther articles of which he has thought When a woman loses her ticket, she ants you to take her word for it and i've her another. which, of course, we