Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-10-31
ta M,,nDsrr sos e Street Northwest.
Office Opens Monday, November q
MEN LIKE BAGGAGE.
Luggage Generally Reveals Personal
ity Of It's Owner.


From the New York Tribune.
There is individuality in baggage. almost
a speaking personality. If you are in
clined to gainsay this statement Of fact,
spend an hour at the railroad station bag
gage room and be convinced of your error
There's as much caste and class distinction
among dress suit cases as there is among
the Hindoos; there's the divisions Of no
bility, landed gentry and laborer among
trunks, and in valises the distinction be-
tween newly rich and always poor is ap-
parent.
Stand beside the baggage car door and
watch them as they come tumbling out,
and inspect them more closely when they
are resting at ease on the baggage truck
Naturally. when enduring the tender
mercies proverbial of the baggagemen, the
baggage is taken at a disadvantage, and
1t is not fair to judge by it's appearance
In that time of strenuous stress. 1t Is
when it is settled firm on its legs and with
equilibrium and equanimity restored that
its traits, characteristics and mannerisms
are best displayed.
Here's a dandy of a dress suit case,
jaunty, debonair, impudently self-asSerttve
and at ease. conscious of superiority in
being at the top of the heap. A very Beau
Nash of dress suit case it is, of the latest
style, manifestly looking with disdain at
the battered telescope bag beside it. You
sent the brass check and take away this
dress suit case. His trousers will flap
around his hips. and his thinness below his
shoulder pads will be plainly observable.
He will have what in real-estate offices is
known an imposing front. light and airy
in the top story. Right you are. There
they go, a swagger in the walk of the man
and the swing of the dress suit case.
pighide valise. 1t looks like leathern
Gibraltar. with It's heavy brass defenses
It's stolid. Indifferent. too. You can see
that 1t takes no notice of its neighbors-is
conscious that 1T can stand and make its
way without hint of weakness. It's heavy,
solid, full Of prosperity as a republican ad-
ministration: has an air Of being the sort
of receptacle to which would be intrusted
the funds necessary to save a bank from a
Wrecking run. The baggagemen themselves
are just bit awed by it. and forbear to in
dulge In the personalities usually addressed
to their charges. So you are not surprised
when a portly. middle-aged man, with the
Self-SatiSf1ed air Of a Sir Willoughby Pat
terne and the Importance of n Pickwick
grasps its handle with an air of majesty
and moves away with the slow stateliness
of a royal counselor.
DiSreputable looking, isn't it, yet not with
out an air of waggiShneSS, that dress suit
case, so marred and grooved by scratches
that it might have been the first thing to
have met the gaze of a boy with a new
knife? 1t bears the marks of many a
gageman has no respect for it, for he just
threw it the length of the platform-and
thump; it's visage gives token of sleeping
in the open In rain and frost sleet and
snow. and it has evidently served as a
candlestick. for there are blotches of dirty
tallow on 1t. Its straps and buckles are
clinging to anchorages by mere threads.
Belongs to one Of those street fakirs who
travel by foot. rail or wheel from city to
city, pulling teeth and giving a lecture on
the decline and fall Of the Roman empire
at the same time. you think Sure enough,
when you see his bleary eyes, red, rum
tinged nose and dirty celluloid collar and
cuffs. you expect to hear'h him say: Placing
the index finger Of the right hand in i'm
mediate juxtaposition to the offending
molar. we describe a small circle around 1t
with 'Papa's Painless Fuller Presto! the
tooth is out! Then we apply a few drops
Of Mother Molly's Pain Puzzler' and all is
over" The frayed edges Of his trousers
show a desire to rise as he walks away,
dangling the dress suit case as unconcern-
edly as baby does a rag doll.
Real alligator hide. this dainty arfsto-
crat. smelling with Just the proper strength
of the proper perfume Of the season. 1t
centuries up visions Of dainty miss, a
vision that becomes reality when Miss Up
todate comes tripping gracefully. yet just
a trifie haaghtily, to the baggage counter
and with tinge of imperiousness lays her
check down.