Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1912-02-11

Of If there were two or three in there.
I'd consider my chances for peace and
quietude rather better, for they'd enera "
be uncoil.ng chatter among themselves.
and I'd figure. that maybe they'd permit
me to stay out of it and think things for
myself. But II there happened to be only
one occupant of the smoking compart-
ment, / learned, after much bitter expert
ence, to dish out the nix sign as to my
going in there I'd know for certainty
that just as soon as l got in there and
got my smOke-pill ag!ow that one Occu-
pant, after carefully surveying the cut of
my jury rig for nearly thirty seconds.
would begin to spill chatter about such
consequential things as the snowstorms of
last Thursday week, or the nudity Of the
trees (aS If trees haven't a perfect moral
right to stand in state of mud ty in the
winter). and other such utter junkishness
as those. And SO. after having suffered
more than l can write for fear of break
ing many little hearts, I'd just let that
smoking compartment curtain drop back,
and wend my way to the deadly cold YES
Thule, and furtively light up whilst sway
ing with the train rounding sharp curves.
and wait for the porter or somebody to
stroll along and tell me that that vesubule
inhalins stuff was in avoidance of the
rules and regulations and must therefore
Immediately be canned on peril of my
losing my license to a seat in the parlor
car.
But it was long time before l picked
up all of this sageness. And l started
out to talk about the chatter-spillers in
the very act of their spilling.
One forenoon, riding from Philadelphia
to New York, 1 traipsed into the snok-
ing compartment and was overjoyed to
find 1t unoccupied. Not only did | stand
in urgent need of a film smoke, but it
Was highly incumbent upon me to comb
49, lit, H. Er,2
sible, the plot of a short story which had
been ordered by magazine, and for
which l stood quite fairish chance OF
OBTAINING regular money Ha! Fine!
Nobody whomsOever In the smoking
compartment. Two large and prolific
hours for me to snuggle back on the
leather-cushioned bench and unravel the
details of short story, which, In the
cheerful language of the ordering maya
zine editor. must have punch at the
start, interest sustained all through and
a snapper at the end" Two hours of
beautiful. not to say rapturous, lone
someness in smoking compartment! On,
furiOuSly lovely shushfulneSS.
So I Topped into corner of the
leather davenport by the window SOS
to be dimly aware of the flying scenery
while untangling the tale, got the smoke
into good forced draught condition, and
began to concentrate like saturate
solution. Within ten minutes the story
thing began to burgeon. Just the out
line. No details but the mere nucleus
the details could be arranged and sifted
out during the rest of the ride to New
York.
Then it happened. corpulent, highly
bald person with heavy watch chain
and an over-large diamond ring and an
excessively ruddy countenance and other
unesthetic exterior attributes numbered
into the smoking compartment and took
a seat directly opposite mine. 1t was
discomposing, if not disquieting. But 1
tried the new thought method.
"Oh, WE'LL. said 1 to myself. maybe
this one is different. Perhaps he himself
has some little foolish old thing to think
about. 1t may be-Deo vOlente-that he
does not belong to the Grand Lodge OF
Chirpers. Maybe he'll remain Quiescent.'
But. in order to sort of point a hint, l
picked up a book that had with me. and
Immediately went through the motions Of
beng intensely absorbed In the volume.
l scanned the lines Of that book like
novelist reading his first novel over for
the five hundred and nineteenth time. l
even went the length of tracking the
lines as I read them with a busy fore
finger.
Did 1 nudge by with it?
Not on the gentle readers everlasting
and absolutely necessary goloshes for the
"balmy' winter Of Washington, d. c.
The corpulent one illuminated weed
to himself, indicating that he was there
for a long session. Then. although l was
pretending to read, / became aware that
he was gazing steadily at me out of his
little, porcine fat-l:dded eyes. ! became
buster than ever with the book. even be-
ginning to humble the passages therein
as IL trying to commit them to memory.
Vain and fatuous dope on my part.
"Leetle raw outside he said, In a
husky. malt-thickened tone.
"Yeh" said I, knowing all too sadly
we'll the nature of that bait and declining
to rise to It.
ar ooks like if might snow he ohsery
ed. a:rping me like punk detective