The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-12-08

shoulders and dull faces, men with red handkerchiefs tied around their necks and clay on their boots, who were crowd- ing i,fo the seats. And mingled with l it was the odor of cigarettes, which we
 were beginning to consider the curse of Scotland, rather than drink, since they seemed to be smoked exclusively and necessarily by everyone above the grade of a navvy.
 Presently the smell grew unbearable.
 |" There Is one seat left in front among tf women and children l said; I must tr:- to reach it, but be ready to catch my shattered corpse
 (" Do you think you had better risk it?' my husband asked anxiously
 CT must I said, This Is worse than the Black Hole of Calcutta
 q started on tottering voyage for 1 ward. I had got only about two seat lengths away when the tram, which had stopped for a passenger, started up again { with a violent jerk. l lurched forward, fell against the end of a seat which promptly bored hole in my side, can noned off against the end of seat on the opposite side, and with the Impetus Of my violent movements landed in the va cant space, painfully conscious of lack of dignity and of the wrathful glances of an old gentleman whose hat I had knocked over his nose in my nasty prog ress
 At any rate,' I thought. didn't catch hold of the derrick, and that is something
 "The derrick is high thing, rather like the legs of Q telescope, from which the trolley arm is slung. It has a large plac- ard suspended round its neck like a lock- ct, which bears the most awful warning to those who are tempted to cling to it when they feel their balance insecure, and both my waking and sleeping hours were haunted with the conviction that Some time before we 'eft Glasgow I should yield to panic and siege it. Providence saved me from that dreadful fate how ever. so I am still in doubt as to whether you are heavily fined, or thrown into prison, or whether you meet a deserved and instantaneous punishment by sizzling on a live wire. I wish l knew which 1t was Someone must have done 1t, else why the warning?
 Dreadful things do happen in itnose trans sometimes. A girl told me she once saw woman carrying baby. iwho, as she started to go down the stairs, lost her balance from the swinging of the tram, and the poor babys head was dashed against the side of the post and dreadfuily injured. It used to frighten me to see old men and women with little children essay that perilous passage. They managed wonderfully we'll much better than l did so l suppose practice counts for something in tramway travel as well as in other forms of exercise, but I noticed that they moved very slowly and cautiously; and I wondered what would happen if this system were intro duced in our llurrying land w.iere every moment is of importance and we are in- patient of the delay In getting off onr cars with their single level
 'I had heard a great deal said of the advantages of municipal ownership and the wonderful things Glasgow, the model city. had accomplished. It sounded very delightful, and I was completely a con- vert in theory until had little prac- tical experience of the facts. A great deal is said about the low fares and the possibility of riding two or three blocks for halfpenny That is very nice. and in Glasgow. where the population is al- most entirely within the bounds of it's own walls, it has, I suppose, distinct ad-