The Indianapolis journal., 1903-08-30

THE 1NDlANAfOA1
the funny ones the man from the country
town. taking his first meal In care, per
haps is the limit. The exaggerated COM
posure he exhibits. the desperate struggle
to appear at ease and surprised at nothing
are unfailing signs OF this Kind OF cnap.
The steady stare with which he scans the
menu card, twisting his tongue around the
French a la this and a la that, Is almost
pitiful. But at that he does not want 10
be pitied He has probably picked nd up p wt, ri
a splurge Now j think 1t is a sianoer 10
tell stories about our rustic guests drinking
out of finger bowl, taking IL Ior CITY
way OF serving lemonade 1 never saw any
body do that and don't believe IL ever nap
pened, but / have seen some people IRON
back counties who wanted to put on ,ot
of dog" make long-eared asses OF them
selves. One night after the theaters nSa
emptied their chattering burdens a red
faced individual. pretty well dressed; put
still marked with the sod and the bark,
stalked i'm awkwardly and took seat he
squinted for ten minutes at the card with
the waiter patiently shifting from one tired
foot TO another without finding out what ne
wanted. Suddenly his eye lit up. happy
smile chased away his perplexed frown- he
had thought of something he once saw
Waiter ne said pompously. bring me 81
worth of something in a chafing dish. L
want some fire on the table.
The head waiter paused to mix salad
dressing-no small mark of favor on MS
part. You ask about tipping. Well, 1T has
grown in Indianapolis like 1t has every
place else. AS far as L concerned
can't see any harm in il if people do not
carry it to excess, but the tendency is TO
do that very thing. You see travelling men
come along and give a waiter a quarter or
a half dollar. They don't care for the
money, the house mas to stand for IL on
the expense account; but the practice spolls
walters. They get so they turn up their
noses at modest ten-cent d0uceur It's
human nature to do more for a man IL he
human, or nearly so, anyway. Conse-
quently they give better service and sort
o. put on the frills when tip is in sight.
But they should not be spoiled. The good
spenders' are responsible for no end of trou-
bic in this direction. L am helpless and so
is the hotel. We can't abolish tipping, be-
cause we could not get good walters If there
good walters are as scarce as hens teeth
any time. Tipping in moderation hurts no
one, but something ought to be done to
keep it within reason.
The saddest thing in all the world is
death-not so sad to those who die as to
those friends who live and suffer and cam
not forget. To them even sadder still are
the last moments of life when they are
helpless and powerless to give aid The
saddest incident i'm many a long night oc-
CURED last week on the 2 o'clock Irvington
owl that runs between that quiet suburb
and Mount Jackson. The passengers on
that car are not many and they have come
to know each other pretty we'll from con-
stant association. They are never very
loquacious for they are tired and weary
from a night of work, but there is a silent
mutual bond i'm night travel. They never
pay much attention to the strangers, for
these are usually unsteady of foot and
bleary of eye. But on this particular night
there was a stranger who carried heavy
secret and carried it only a man can.
There were no outward signs of inward
suffering to attract the attention of the
sleepy passengers. He sat as stolid and i'm
passive as stone.
They did not know it-those sleepy un-
sympathetic passengerS-but his wife was
dying. AS they learned later she had been
sick-very near to death-for long time
at the hospital and he had been at her side
constantly for almost week without sleep,
without rest. AT last she seemed to grow
stronger and the doctors said he might go
home and in high hopes for her recovery
he went home 10 get much needed sleep.
Along about / o'clock the next morning he
was awakened by a meSSenger-hiS wife
was dying; she could not live an hour. In
haste he dressed, saying over and over, no
doubt She is dying. If L can only reach
her bedside before she goes" He hastened
into the street and TO the car track. Alas,
there was no car in sight, no yellow light
in the black distance. He walked up and
down, up and down the street, his grief
deep, the minutes long. Nowhere was there
a friendly light that perchance he might
call cab. All the world seemed dark and
cold ard he was alone and his wife was
dying. At last, after twenty minutes of
waiting that seemed hours, the car came
and he boarded it and took his seat, the
lone passenger on lonesome journey.
Under such thoughts as those have whose
wife or child or friend is dying and they
are Fastening thither, racing with death,
he became the stolid, impassive figure of
stone. Such grief as makes men uncon-
sciouS of things about them-in his case
all things but his wife and she dying-was
his. He did not see that the car passed
took up a few regular owl passengers and
sped away towards Irvington. Not until
the trucks clattered and rumbled over the
belt tracks did he awaken from his reverle
of grief. Conductor, conductor" he cried.
will we never CONT to Illinois street,?
The conductor told him where they were
and that the car would have to complete its
trip to Irvington before he could get back
to Illinois street. 1t was then that the
passengers learned his story, learned how
deep was his grief. There is no describing
such grief as that. 1t would seem affected.
There he was further away from his dying
wife than when he started almost an hour
earlier and the message had said she could
not live longer than an hour. He had been
so close to her until the last and even then
sot so far away but he should have reached
her and been with her as she passed away.
The race had been lost He might as well
have been across the continent Death is
irrevocable One by one the passengers got
off until at last he alone remained-the lone
passenger that had started, on three-fold
more lonesome journey.
A young newspaper man on one of the
local dalies recently became a benedict
/ The ''other half of the sketch was most
accomplished young person, decidedly
clever and with all the high ideals and
notions that a four years course at a
girls's school in the East could give. They
had been married but a short time when
the young husband discovered that not
wthstanding that his wife could play
beautifully on the piano and could shine
in most any drawing room in town, she
was decidedly deficient in the culinary art.
The young reporter was game and stood
his wife's cooking as long as possible
Finally his diminishing avoirdupoise
warned him that something must be done
and that soon. Accordingly a family con-
ference was held, the matter was handled
as delicately as possible and it was finally
decided that the services of a cook should
be secured.
After some difficulty one Of these house
I