New-York tribune., 1905-11-19
hopeful Indications That we
Are Going From Bad 20 Verse
BY NIXON WA TIE r. Nj AN

refuse tor time to glance u- IT,
there will the moment ul.1
tired and Indifferent as to what happens. we
permit the eve to find recreation wherever it
will. and from that time forward the poetry
reading habit is fixed upon us. As Tenays9n
truly says:
No rock so hard but that a little wave
May beat admission in THOUSAND years
Finally with everybody in the strce.-ca- ding
poetry the next step is for them to reflect and
repeat it in their daily walks rides Naturally
we may expect the conductors who are ah9u. the
cars all the time to be the first TO show their
mode of speaking the effect of such intimate ass7-
citation with so much poesy. Henc- student Of
conditions rs they exist to-day must not BE- sur
r)rised to hear a conductor say, IN addressing
woman who by burying her face in a book is seeking
to convey the Impression that she has been ON the
car ever since it started from away out in the open
lotted suburb:
Please pardon me. but may dare
TO ash, YOU, lady for your faree
Some may think that this manner of speech Is
too polite for strcet-car conductor to employ,
but let it be borne in mind that one of the chief
missions of poetry is to promulgate Pohteness. A
more general use of the former VIII insure more
widespread employment of the latter
In the winter time when the occupants of the
air-tight nOn-venti1ated OvercrOWded car are
breathing the so-caled atmosphere it had in 1t
when it first left the barn fourthirty that morn
ing. some wo nan with weak lungs will summon up
Just enough strength and courage to venture to
say to the conductor:
Do YOU presume that it would rob
You of public-serving job
If. Just to life. you'd dare
Admit a tlimbleful of air.
And then that wise conductor, Of years
and long suffering will bend down close the weak
wo-nan's and whisper:
I'd like to- lady, but you see
That red-haired there said to
That if | dared let in jot
OF frosty air he'd have shot
1t isn't what we do that counts for much IN
this world as it is the way in which do it. Man
ncrs are everything. The general employment II
poetry ought work a great change for the better
in the street-car department of the public IL HlI
certainly be lots nicer for all concerned when the
blunt remarks and the sarcastic retorts are re-
placed by smoothly flowing softly modu'-sl
couplets and quatrains. 1t is possible even.
that in the DAYS to come when a conductor attempts
to collect a fare for carrying youth nearly Is large
as his mother the latter will be content t' express
herself less crude1y than she is likely 10 do at the
present time
He's ridden nine years this route
And you're the first say that he
Is than five years old, you brute,
And I'll report YOU sir You'll see.
And then too there is a chance for big reform
to he brought about in the manner in which The
average man gets out of a seat and a woman gets
into it. 1t is usually done in a bunghng. un.- liz
gent and unintelligbe sort of way. But once the
street-car public becomes fully inbued WITH the
spirit of poesy which the present display of vrtl
ads seems certain to bring upon It We shall then
expect a Young man to know what to say and -.t
to say it:
PRAY. lady have my seat, but not
Because YOU look out or hot
Or ancient, for it is not so.
,la- Loot OUT