The Washington times., 1903-11-29
SLEEPING CAR PATRONS
and THEIR MANY WHIMS
Some Turn in at Night Wearing Their
Eyeglasses.

| A Pullman car porter is authority for
the statement that many people sleep
with their glasses on
''They are people who appear to be in
1 their right minds. too. he said when
/ I first made the acquaintance Of their
! tribe I thought they were crazy. but
have found ont better since. rhe first
fellow ever saw blink up thus accou-
tered was politician who travelled over
my road frequently stirring up the
| voters in the western Part of the State.
! The funny thing about him was that he
/ didn't really need his glasses any more
than ] did. He seldom wore them in
/ the daytime and generally read the
papers and made notes for his speeches
with his glasses dangling from his but
/ tonhoie three feet away from his eyes.
/ But the minute he got ready for sleep
! they became Indispensable. 1t bOwied
me clean over when I bumped into his
/ curtains one night ard found him sleep
/ ing with the things on. l did not know
ii WAS his custom TO wear them. L
| thought he had become so tired out with
speech-making that he had temporarily
! lost his mind and gone to bed with them
on by mistake. was afraid 10 leave
him so, for it seemed dead certainty
that if he should roll over in the night
he would smash the things to atoms and
perhaps put his eyes out. SO ] took
the glasses off myself. / did it as gent
! ~ as a summer breeze. but at the first
touch the old gentleman was wide
awake.
" Taking of your glasses. SIR said l.
You went 10 bed with them on.
or course did. said he. Il always
do 1 couldn't sleep without them. Give
EN- here
Since then I have seen lots of other
folks who were slaves to the eyeglaSs
habit The politician wore plain, cheap
pair of reading glasses that wouldn't
have been much loss if they had been
broken unless the pieces had happened
to injure his eyes, but L have seen other
travellers with specially prepared glasses.
They are provided with hooks and slaps
and other arpliances to hold them in
place and the eyeglass crank who goes
; to sleep with a pair of them on can
stand all the jolting the toughest road
in the United States can give him with
out their being dislodged. However.
the people who take eyeglasses instead
Of morphine tablets as opiates have the
knack OF holding their heads at safe
angle even in sleep. and have seen few
accidents happen TO the glasses.
False teeth, although apparently con-
tanning fewer potentiaiities OF danger.
are. according to The same authority.
, treated with mere respect by their own
, ers. Travellers who depend upon the
dentist for their grinders display good
q deal of caution about creeping into a
E berth with their teeth in their mouths
T and they tuck them under the pillow
and valises and eyen Land them over tc
{ the porter for safekeeping rather than
. take chances on swallowing them in
n the night
p Wigs are another thing about which
a sleepers have peculiar notions. Yer,
:. few people ike to sleep in a wig on ac
# count of the difficulty in combing fl
:. properly tbs next morning. but tn.
e porter tells the story OF one man VIII,
+ had the wig hahit developed to an e..
< traordinary degree.
g Re, too. was a frequent traveller o-e1
n nay line, said the porter, II had han
= many a nice little chat with him an,
(. thought him one Of the most sensiba
l. fellows ] ever knew. He was quit.
= bald from his forehead back past III
5. crown OF his head. and we often joke,
A about il being excess Of brains that IA,
ie pushed his hair out But after I foun,
out about that wig business wanted t
take back everything ! had said abou
his brilliant mind / found it out .
accident.
"One evening I had occasio1 to lool
into the old gentleman-s berth after h
q was made up for the night. To my at
z ter amazement I saw him logged out D.
ie a wig that spread over the pillow like
monstrous mop Of auburn curls.
e q" Excuse me. said I: have I made
mistake? I thought this was. Mr.. N.
! berth
= THE old fellow laughed. Sh-sh-sh
:. he said. This is me. all right Don
- say anything about f. 1t is fad o
mine. All my life long / have wiske
for fine head OF curly auburn hail
= Nature denied ME that boon. She CAV
. me nothing but sparse black locks {
start with. Now she has seen fit {
- take even those away. and / have con
Guided that since she played me such
scurvy trick I am justified in gettin
back at her ~ wearing any old kind q
hair pleasc. Fence this red wig. o
an account Of the inevitable uncharitabl
ne remarks of my friends / couldn't bios
At som out in brand-new suit of hair
se the day time, but ! have made n praC
al tice OF wearing it at night. and it give
&c me the greatest comfort Imaginable.
&c And that man was universally rate
T. a smart fellow. too
n People have lots Of other queer hal
lg it's that us fellows who travel in Pull
ny mans regularly ind out about. 1 r.
he member well one old chap with an 20
ey trumpet. Every night when he turne
les in he arranged the trumpet with III
nd tube to his ear and fastened IL SON
m way so it couldp't bulge. ! got TO kno
rs the man pretty wen, and one night
ed JoHled MIN about making preparation
no to hear Gabriel's horn II ne should tab
~ a notion TO blow IL in the midCle OF Il
- night The old fellow got quite ser
-, GUS '-Phnadelphia Public Ledger.
~ A DEFENSE OF SLANG.