The Montgomery advertiser., 1902-12-19
A SEVERE STRAIN.

Referring to a recent street-car incident in Chicago, of which The Advertiser made brief mention some days ago, The Minneapolis Journal says:
 The time was even in Chicago when men would give up their seats to women in street cars. but there. as in Mtnneap- oils, regular adherence to the rule made 1t almost impossible for men to get seats at any time. and so in Chicago the rule IS no longer observed. The one who gets the seat first keeps it. This shows pos sible danger in Minneapolis. We are gen. tiemen still, but the strain is severe one.
 To charge lack of courtesy to women to the crowded condition of the ears may satisfy the masculine conscience in Chi cago or Minneapolis, but the excuse Is very weak one. In fact 1t Is no excuse at all, for if the cars were not full there would be no occasion for a man to sur renoer his seat. It Is only when the seats are all full that a real gentleman can be distinguished from the boor. The man who thinks the strain is a severe one' that requires him to give up his seat to a lady has a very thin veneering to hide the hog that is in him.
 We are not sufficiently posted as to the past or present daily life of Chicagoans to say whether they were ever governed by the ordinary rules of politeness and courtesy in street-cars or not, but if they were, and have abandoned it because the cars are crowded they hadn't much of it ! to start with. It will be remembered that | alln 1 an aged woman stood up in crowded I car and held to the strap till she dropped dead from heart disease. It Is very likely i that the exertion of trying to sustain her self by grasping strap overhead brought on the fatal stroke, but be that as 1t may, the fact that a woman of her age was forced to stand while men occupied the seats is evidence that the hog crop of Chicago is not all confined to the pens.
 On this subject a writer in The Wash ington Post thinks If man is very tired, or infers from appearances that the 1 women standing around him could just as
 we'll have started home before his car
 came along. he is justified in sticking to
 his seat He further believes that wo-
 men ought not to act as though they
 think they have an indefensible right to
 all the seats in the car; that they ought never to fail to thank men who are so
 gallant as to sacrifice comfort for them"
 It is only an excuse of the writer for
 not doing what any gentleman should do
 without hesitation. If a man Is phys-
 cally unable to stand, the case is en- tirely different, but the mere fact that he is tired is no excuse, and the further
 fact that he thinks the woman should
 have started home earlier is a still less
 tenable reason for keeping his seat. A
 woman cannot always choose her hours
 any more than man can and he has no
 right to assume that she is staying out
 late because she prefers 1t. Finally, The
 Kansas City Journal has this sensible comment:
 As a matter of right, a man has exact ly the same claim to a seat as a woman
 has. of course, and every true lady rec ogntzes the fact and refuses to feel af- fr0nted If she Is not given one. But
 as matter of fact most men are a great
 deal stronger than most women, and gall
 lantry ought therefore to prompt them
 to give up their seat in a car or do any
 thing else in reason that they can to make
 manners, little acts of kindness and self
 forgetfulness are the poetry of life and | we ought to put just as much and keep just as much of 1t in life as we can.