Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1912-01-01

glimmering Of the utter abandonment
OF decency conveyed by the words and
the motif Of the tale. The boy with
the chinless face listens eagerly. It IL
. new story to him and he 10 adding
to his vocabulary as we'll. for this 10 a
maestro. a very he Scherezade OF indie
cency The fellow Of 35 across the aisle,
he. IN the cheap. flashy and formless
suit who keeps the $1SS suit case close
to his feet. is in spasms Of delight. He
evidently figures that at last he has
fallen among the roaring blades, the
royal sports" he dreamed of when he
followed the corn rows under the verti-
cal sun Of an Iowa summer. The big
roughneck from Omaha, who says he
is detective-and in reality drove a
mule team all summer in a construc-
ton gang-is hanging forward await
ing the last word of the story that he
may butt into the contest of indecency.
When Bullneck ends with a burst of
outrageous blasphemy and obscenity in
describably degraded Roughneck leaps
to his opportunity. The floors swim in
tobacco juice less filthy than the Ian
guaSe. And so it goes on thru the
night. A new one drops in to supply
the loss of the pimply face boy who
gets off the train at one of the county
seats to infect others of his sort with
the new and stronger virus of the
smoking compartment. SO it goes on,
ton while gentle mothers nurse inno-
cent babes and gray headed. sweet faced
old ladies and fresh young girls hear
the murmur and the bursts Of cachina-
ton from the smoking compartment
and wonder what they are laughing at.
The conductor comes into the smoking
tendent of a fertilizer plant might
come into the factory for his dividends.
The negro porter avoids it when
Roughneck and Bullneck hold posses
sion. Train men leave them to wal
low in the filth of their own presence.
But responsibility. which has paid full
passage" can stand UP in the aisles OF
the chair car or take his chance with
the chinless boy, the bullnecked man
ad the mule driving detective
1t is about the only resort left for
Bullneck and his ilk. Time was when
the latitude in hotel offices approached
the smoking compartment, but the man
who stops first class" nowadays need
not fear that he will be driven from the
hotel lobby by filth Of any character.
Bullueck suppresses his talent in the
hotel office lest a worse thing happen
to him. Roughneck isn't there. The
chinless boy may be registered but he
is probably up in Bullneck's room being
trimmed at poker as quid pro quo for
course in obscene language.
The question suggests itself: Is there
any good reason why these cesspools
should drain thru the smoking car
more than they should be given right
Of way in any public place? 1t may be
the easiest way for the train men who.
under the Iowa statutes. are supposed
! to police the train they have in charge.
| But is there any good reason why any
compartment in a car on which re-
| specta bility and decency have paid full
| fare should be made utterly unin-
habitable by respecta bility and de-
cency? Why should the privileges
| which decent men have paid for be
abridged and restricted or secured at
the cost of their self respect? How do
Bullneck and Roughneck acquire rights
on trains that they are denied on pub
lie streets and in public places? In
short, why not give them their choice
between bottling their filth or walk
ing? And why not add to the unin-
telligible calling of stations by train
men the duty Of protecting those who
pay in the privileges they pay for?