The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1902-12-12
IT HAPPENS EVERY DAY.


From the Chicago Record-Heralu.l
She got on the Illinois Central express
at Randolph street just before CLOCK
IN the evening, and just as the tram
was trembling on the start. SIle was
young and looked as if she might nave
known better but she mad a green
pastebOard box about four teet loIlSs
two feet wide and a foot deep. She
hadn't time to choose her car 50 sns
got into the nearest one and found tnal
every seat was occupied. She edged her
way in between the seats when race
forward and backward, and heid her
box so that it scraped gently Dut HIihly
against the Whiskers of an elderly man
who really meant to be reading MS
evening paper. When he began TO no
tice that everything else was Impossible
IN the presence of the green box ne SUD
denly was seized with a sense OF rare
chivalry, and said
Have my place, madam?
"Oh thank you" she smiled, ana
gwooped into his place. Then she set
her box down in the narrow aisle. Al
Van Buren, street man looking eagerly
ahead for a possible vacancy fell over
the box, and the nettled young woman
glowered at him muttering, such stu
pidityi" Several passengers cominS
from the other end, expecting to pass
through the whole train in search OF
seats or comfortable standing room,
were blocked by the formidable green
box and huddled in the head end OF the
car.
Along about Douglas park the con-
ductor came in crying: Tickets,
pleasei" He bucked the center and ran
around the ends till he came to the
green box over which a man was
standing Colossus-like.
Take that trunk into tn baggage
end o. tn smoker, please" said the con-
Guctor. punching his ticket
"OhA 1 guess not" said the man
I'll do it for you. then. grOwled the
man with the punch, this amt a
freight carl"
Tie demure little woman said nothing.
but coyly thrust up her ticket, and
Smiled, oh so sweetly. at the conductor.
Pretty soon the latter, having finished
his collections, came back and grabbed
the green box.
cited creature who owned the box
please don't take it. don't shake it like
that; its Anew party dress" And she
Smiled with many bushes.
"Oh, it's yours. is it?' exclaimer the
conductor; AL right, miss Excuse
me-" And he glared fercely at the
nervous man astride OF II.
One night the theater train, coming to-
ward the city. filed up at Hyde Park so
that there but one vacant seat A
fashionably dressed woman with a very
Observation-Disclosures escort made for it
with all the speed consonant with decor
um. She was one of those unctuous,
plump ultra-prosper0us looking women,
rather short on stature and long on jeWelry
of the most expensive and authentic kind.
Her hat was a marvelously becoming
thing-a ballade in blue. The tOppiest lit
tie seal coat you ever saw snuggled about
her pink ears. The white gloves, which
she was still fitting to a nicely with dain-
ty pol1es that displayed a most acute
sense of the fitness of things were brand
new. Her dress was of blue-very blue
cloth OF a particularly dressy and yet pat
ternless fabric. 1t fitted perfectly.
While this picture of pretty prosperity
preened herself she began to glance
patronizingiy at her neighhors in the car.
But the look of self-satisfed delight
upon her face faded when her eyes rested
upOn the attire of the girl next to her.
The sirl had a hat that didn't look any
better than 49, and-it had evidently been
made over" Her astrachan jacket was
out Of date and lacked a button. She had
q pink ribbon round her scrawny neck
and her veil had been darned. Her gloves
were very sOiled-the dainty creature next
10 her shifted as though she smelled gasO-
line. Doubtless the gloves had been clean
ed. and needed another cleaning They
had been mended and the hands that were
in them were neither small nor shapely
The exposed wrists were red and the
whole carriage of the girl was that of an
awkward. hardworking different young
creature who is dressed up" and feels
that way.
The uneasy manner of the Hyde Parker
beside this ungainly maid increased mo-