The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1913-03-13
A FRIEND IN NEED.
Just Bit of Life as it Cropped Out
on a Railway Train.

man. =" said Providence citizen the
other day, Il am reminded of little
incident l was coming back from
Boston with a friend on the midnight
train, and, getting on board at the
Back Bay station, we found a seat
near the rear end of the car.
"Soon after the train pulled out
happened to look around and saw
the conductor apparently expostulat-
ing with a rather shabby looking
specimen of humanity who was sit
ting in the last seat. At first
thought the man was drunk, but as
l watched I saw that he was for
eigner who couldn't understand En-
glish. He was holding out crum-
pied one dollar bill to the conductor
and saying New York over and over
again.
FINALLY the conductor shook his
head, said something l couldn' t
catch and went on. The foreigner,
a rather decent looking young fellow,
gazed at him despairingly, then
buried his face in his hands and be-
gan to cry. With the usual callous
Indifference of the travelling public
to the troubles of any one else, l
paid no more attention to the man
and prepared to take nap.
Il was just beginning to doze
when l became aware that man
was standing beside me in the aisle,
speaking to me. 1 sat up and looked
at him. He was rough appearing
man, far from prepossessing, clean
shaven, with sort of bulldog face.
"'Say, gents he began, I want to-
know if you wouldn't like to help a
feller out
II stiffened instinctively, deter
mined to refuse to let him make a
touch
"'Therc is poor young foreigner
back there he went on, with jerk
of his thumb toward the alien, still
sitting with bowed head, and he's up
against it for fair. He can't speak a
word of English, and he wants to go
to New York, where he has friends.
"'He got the idea somehow he
could do it for a dollar, all he's got;
but, of course, he can't, and they're
going to put him off the train when
we get to Providence. It's mighty
hard on a fellow like him, and there
amt anytelling what'll happen to him
getting put off in strange city at l
o'clock in the morning. l thought
maybe you'd be willing to give a lit
tie to help him along.
HE stopped, looked us straight in
the eye and smiled sheepishly as if he
were ashamed of what he was doing.
We gave him dollar, and he went on
through the car, and there were few
of the passengers who didn't respond
to the appeal He came back count
ing the money, and as he got to our
seat 1 heard him say:
There's a dollar more needed
I'll make it up myself!' and he pulled
out a couple of fifty cent pieces and
| Mt
''The conductor and the brake
man were standing at the door of
the car near the foreigners seat.
Here said the man who had
collected the money to the alien;
give me your dollar
"Dumbly, but trustingly, the
young fellow handed it over, and,
giving it to the conductor with the
rest the bulldog man said gruf1y:
There's his fare
1T slowly dawned on the alien
what had been done for him, and as
the conductor punched the rebate
check and handed it to him the graft
tude in his face was indescribable.
He couldn't speak, but he took his
cap off and bowed again and again
to the official, but the latter pointed
to the passenger who was sitting in
his seat across the aisle and told the
youth that he was the one to thank.
''The foreigner crossed the aisle
till he stood squarely in front of his
benefactor, then he took off his cap
and, with tears of gratitude in his
eyes, bowed again and again. 1t was
evident that the benefactor was en-
barrassed by this unexpected out
burst. At first he waved his hand
/ around the car to indicate that every
body had had a hand in it. But
he couldn't make the foreigner un-
derstand. The latter kept on bowling,
whereupon the uncomfortable indi-
vidual in the seat grunted and turn
ed to look out of the window.
81 have never seen,' concluded the