Mexico Missouri message. (Mexico, Audrain County, Mo.) 1899-1918, 1912-07-25
CHAPTER XIV.
The pormitory on Wheels.

human history, the sleeping car Is the
most shocking-or would be. II we
were not so used to H. There can be
no doubt that we are the most moral
nation on earth. for We admit 1t our
selves. Perhaps We prove II, too, by
the Arcadian prosperity OF these two
story hotels on wheels. where mis-
cellaneOus travellers dwell in com.
plete promisCuity, and sleep almost
side by side. In apartments, or COM
partments, separated only by a plank
and a curtain. and guarded only by
one sleepy negro.
After the fashion OF the famous
country whose Inhabitants earned a
meager sustenance by taking In each
others washing. so In Sleeping Car
pathia we attain meager respecta-
bility by eyerybody's chaporoning
everybody else
SO topsy-turvled, indeed, are our
notions. once We are aboard a train,
that the staterooms alone are regard
ed with suspicion; We question the
motives OF those who must have a
room to themselves "a room with a
real door, that locks!
And, now, on this sleeping car, pref
tily named "Snowdrop," scenes were
enacting that would have thrown our
great grandmother into tits-scenes
which, IL we found them in France, or
Japan, we should view with alarm as
almost unmentionable evidence OF the
moral obliquity of those nations.
But this was our own country-the
part of 1t which admits that 1t is the
best part-the moralest part, the
staunch middle west. This was I'M
nois. Yet dozens OF cars we're behold.
ing similar immodesties In chastest
Illinois, and all over the map, thou
sands of people, In hundreds OF cars,
were permitting total strangers "a
view preparations which have always
hitherto, been reserved for the most
intimate and legalized relations.
The porter was deity Transforming
the day-coach into a narrow lane en-
tirely surrounded by draperies. Behind
most OF the portieres, fiuttering in the
lightest breeze, and perilously follow
ing the hasty passer-by, homely OF
fees were being enacted. The popu
lation OF this little town was going ia
bed The porter was putting them &c
sleep as If they were children in q
nursery, and he a black nanny.
The frail walls OF little sanctums
we're bullying with the bodies OF peo
pie disrobing In the aisle, with moth
ing between them and the beholder's
eye but a clinging curtain that ex
planned what it did not reveal From
apertures here and there disembodieC
| feet were protruding and mysterious
/ hands were removing shoes and othei
/ things.
Women in risky attire were scoot
ing 70 one end OF the car. and men IL
shirt sleeves, or less, were hastenint
10 the other.
When Mallory returned to III,
"Snowdrop," his ear was greeted b.
the thud OF dropping shoes. He foun,
| Marjorie being rapidly immured, Xix
Poes prisoner, in a Jail OF closinj
walls
She was unspeakably Ill at ease
and by the irony OF custom, the on
person on whom she depended for pre-
lection was the one person who's
contiguity was most alarming-an
all for lack of a brief trialogue, wit
a clergyman. as the tertium quid.
When Mallory's careworn face al
pearcd round the edge OF the partitio
now erected between her and IN
abode OF DR.. and Mrs. Temple, Mai
iorie shivered anew, and asked wit
all anxiety:
Did you find minister"
Perhaps the Recording Angel ovel
looked Mallory's answer: Not
damn minister"
When he dropped at Marjorie's sid
she edged away from him, pleading
on, what shall We do?"
He answered dismauy and inc
fectively: Wen have TO 20 on pr
tending 10 be-just friends"
But everybody thinks were ma
} ried."
That's SOL" he admitted, with IN
imbecility Of fatigued hope. They So
. a while listening to the porter sill
ping sheets into place and thumpin
; pillows into cases, a few doors dow
the street. He would be ready &c
. them at any moment Something mui
be done, bat what? what?