Evening star., 1914-01-11
Street c ar
Rules Code
That Helps
Some Bits of Advice
That One Ought to
Take to Heart if De-
string to Get Best
| Results.

y F you are a street car rider. don't
delude yourself into thinking you
ride in a taxicab or your own ltmou-
~ sine or brougham. There is nothing
to be ashamed OF in riding in q
street car; the majority of civilized men
do It when they have the fare in their
pockets. But there is a little code OF
street car manners that every street car
rider should heed.
Elevated surface and underground cars
and buses Of various sorts are all in
cluded in this big class
To begin with, act as If you were In a
street car. Wear clothes suitable to the
car. Remember that the small fare you
pay entities you only to your own place.
A baby with sticky fingers or laborer
with muddy feet may sit next to you.
Such condition is, of course. unfortu-
nate. but it is quite legitimate You can
ask the baby's mother to keep the baby's
fingers from your coat and you can pull
your skirts away from the laborer's boots
But you cannot ask either the laborer or
the baby to get out of the car.
In the big cities 1t is quite necessary
for many hundreds and thousands of men
and women to use the various subway,
elevated and surface cars and the pubic
buses when they are going about in the
afternoon and evening bent on pleasure.
Therefore 1t Is necessary for them to
appear In these public conveyances some-
times clad in their very best clothes.
A man can wear dark overcoat to
protect his evening clothes. His suit. any
way, is dark, and not SO easily injured
as a weman's clothes. But the woman
street car patron should always wear q
long, dark coat when she goes about in
elaborate dress in the afternoon or even
ing This protects her frock. To be sure,
her soul may iong tor an opera cloak OF
pale yellow velvet or light pink chinon, but
such coat would look so.led and pedrag-
gled after halt a dozen excursions in most
street cars. A dark cloak holds its own
and. at the same time, performs its duty
far better.
The same thing is true of suits. Ii
| she Wears street suit in the afternoon
| she had better choose one of a moderate
ly substantial color and fabric. light
suit comes to grief much more quickly
than darker one, and velvet shows the
wrinkles of a crowded subway train or
| surface car much sooner tnan cloth does.
| AS for the question of headgear, that
delph.a. for instance, women go aoout
| in the street cars with scarfs thrown
| over their heads in the evening quite as
| If they We're in their own carriages or
automobiles. In some cities a woman In
| street ear with her head uncovered
would attract attention. possibly ridi-
| cule. 1t is quite safe to do as other
women do in this respect.
| The car kicker IS known to every
one. He complains, to begin with, be-
| cause the car is too hot or too cold.
Then the crowd gets on his nerves, and
he wonders why in the word such a
rabble has to use the cars. Why can't it
| walk, as it ought to? Then he feels a
draught and caus the conductor to close
| a ventilator. Then he thinks the conduc-
| tor gives him wrong change and kicks
ABOUT that.
| He forgets to ask for transfer when
| he pays his fare and rails at the rule
Of the company that directs passengers
| to ask for transfers at that time. He for
gets to get off the car at the street he
| wishes to reach, and rails at the con-
ductor for not letting him off. He is an
noyed to evaporation with the feathers
| in the women's hats and he blames the
passengers over whose toes he stumbles
| for having such big feet
So much for the kicker. We have all
put ourselves in his class from time to
| time In some way or other And his is
good class to keep out of. The street
car kicker gains little by all his kicking
save the dislike of passengers and con-
ductor.
On the other hand, don't be imposed
on just because you are paying single
carfare. That fare entities you to the
| rights of the car. If a man is smoking
where smoking is forbidden and the
smoke annoys you, call the matter to
| the conductors attention. Insist on right
change. If a drunken or rowdy passen-
ger is in the car. call the attention Of
1 the poor, long suffering conductor to
that, too.
Many accidents to passengers iii street
cars are due to the carelessness of the
hundreds Of women have been thrown
| from the car steps because they have
| stepped off from the car backward, much
! as they would go down a ladder. A few
years ago a vigorous campaign was
/ started to teach women how to get Off
cars properly, facing the front of the car
and swinging from the hand rail with
one hand. Nowadays few women get off
q car in the stupid. oldfashioned way.
It is no easier; it is simply more dam
gerous.
There are other ways in which women
| can help TO avoid accidents. One is to
| keep their skirts free from all doors. This
is especially necessary in subway and
elevated trains. For sometimes a skirt
or even a sleeve tightly closed in door
has dragged a woman along with a car
after 1t has started.