The Emmett index. [volume] (Emmett, Idaho) 1893-1925, 1915-10-21
} COSgrOve's:
/ Comedy
An Incident of Travel
By EpEs WINTHROP SARGENT

IOONOOOOOOONNO OCOOOOOOOOOON
Cosgrove stepped aboard a mornin
train at Philadelphia for New York
The weather was pleasant, and, afte
he had finished his newspaper, b,
leaned back in his chair and looked
out through the window.
Why Is 1t that man is more i'm
pressible while travelling than during
the ordinary routine Of LIES duties
pleasures, rests? Animal trainers say
that II they wish to train dog they
try various dogs till they find one
whose attention they can secure. Per
haps this is 80 with Cupid. The little
god waits till he gets a man In con
tiguity with a woman when he has
nothing else to think about. At any
rate, many a man has met his fate on
q train.
Clinton Cosgrove mentally gave
thanks that the girl across the aisle
was 20 absorbed in her newspap per.
Cosgrove could not do much reading
on the train. The shifting lights made
his head ache.
crowd of noisy drummers, jubilant
over their nearness to New York, were
filling the cafe car with the smoke
from their cheap cigars and had rem
dered the place unbeara bic. 1t was
pleasant TO sit back in his chair and
study the girl opposite.
Cosgrove enjoyed mysteries, and
here was one ready at hand to beguile
the tedium Of the trip to town.
To begin with, she was rather more
than pretty and, moreover, possessed
an air of distinction that added to her
physical charm. She wore her fash
ionably tailored gown with the air of
one used to good dressing, yet the
hand bag that rested at her feet was
worn and shabby-a relic of the days
when paper limitations of alligator hide
were quick sellers" in the shoddy
shops
She occupied her seat in the chair
car as though she were used to sucl
conveniences. yet the woman who had
escorted her on board and taken an af-
feetionate farewell, with the wish that
the Job" would come quickly, sug-
gested the day coach rather than the
Pullman.
Almost before the train had pulled
out she was engrossed In a New York
paper, turning, after brief glance at
the headlines. to the want" advertise
ments. She was so Interested in these
that she was not conscious OF Cos
groves steady II polite scrutiny.
For man who spent the major por-
tion OF his waking hours In an en-
1eayor TO get the best Of the Wall
street gamble Cosgrove possessed an
Of singular fertility and
ielicacy, and from the meager facts
he wove romance about the
girl.
From between his half closed eyelids
lie observed the mass of golden hair
hat crowned the shapely head and
shaded the high. white brow. He re-
diced In the purity OF her profile and
he soft coIoring OF her skin and noted |
With an artists appreciation the 1.-THE |
ines of her slender figure and the per-
ection OF detail In her dress. From |
very point OF view she was admirable. |
Then his thoughts reverted to the
mother. with her coarse. red hands, her
Iorid coloring, the rusty hat and the
laid shawl surmounting the skirt of
ONE rough dark stuff that long since
ad faded from any definable tint.
rom the comparison the inference
pas obvious.
The girl must have inherited her re-
nement from her father. He could
icture the very type of broken down
elbow of good family-glad to wed a
'oman Of coarser fiber who would put
i'm on a pedestal of adoring love, con
mt 10 slave over the tubs and scrub
ing bucket that he might enjoy the
isure that was so clearly his due.
Those fellows seldom lived long. Usu-
Ivy they drank themselves to death.
hen the love that had worked uncom-
for him had worked for the
iby.
She should be lady as her father
Il been a gentleman. He could inn
zine the sacrifices and privations that
I'd been endured that this tender girl
light be reared to life OF gentility.
Now her education was complete,
ID she was farinS forth TO New York
search OF a job. Perhaps a few
onths in an Office and then the stage
nuld claim her for its own. .
Show girls OF her rare distinction I
ere eagerly sou~Rt Somehow he did
It like to think OF this flower girl en- S
lied In the vortex Of Broadway. i
And so. as the train sped through Z
e Pennsylvania valleys. Cosgrove
ecnlated ON the outcome of the
lest He started guiltiIy as the por- {
r gave the first call for lunch and
e girl rose quietly to 90 forward to n
e diner. The meal meant the price
a days work for the toll worn hands II
the mother. yet II seemed perfectly .
yht that she should go.
She had carelessly thrown the paper r.
the seat. and with an assumption e
indifference Cosgrove reached for It. Il
18th confident smile he turned to a
e want pages.
II was just as he had supposed. The n
lyertisements she had been clipping
ere from the wants" for typewrit- b
3 and etenoHrADhera She was look. | 81