Evening star., 1921-12-11
Heard and Seen

Street car types of the disagreeable
sort abound in Washington street
cars. Probably they are relations of
the old "end seat hog" of whom we
used to hear SO much. Anyway, they
are nuisance. one and all.
AS far as memory serves. there are
seven distinct varieties of disagree
able street car rider. First, there is
the manor woman-who blocks the
aisle. Pleas of conductor and motor
man to move up front" fail miser-
ably. No power on earth can bulge
| this person from the place where he
takes up his stand. Let us leave him
there, since nobody can move him.
Second comes the individual who
sits sideways in the long seats, taking
up almost twice as much room as
| necessary, thereby depriying some one
else of a seat This type usually may
be conquered by a. resolute show OF
sitting down upon him.
Equally disagreeable is the man-lt
is usually a man-Who Sis on 1ne
| long seats with his hands in his
| pockets, his elbows thrust out AKIN
| bo, whatever that means. sometimes
| he secures the same effect by poor
! manipulation of his paper while read
| ing.
Then there is the bird who insists
on keeping his knees crossed whlie
| he sits on the short seat at the end
| of the car, where everybody must
stumble over him as they pass out.
Little it troubles him if you glare at
, him. He is getting a free shoe shine
from the trousers and skirts OF the
passengers.
On a par with the above nuisance is
I VII
it to sit with its feet sticking out,
these same feet continually KICKING
and threshing about IN ths JOY anu
abandon of childhood. BLESSINGS on
thee, little man." but mama shouio
keep your feet quiet
insists on putting his knee INTO the
back of your seat and pushing tle
back of the seat forward giving YOU
sliding-down-hiil feeling, ought 10
be restrained by law.
Last scene of all. TO end TINS nttui
comedy. comes the person-usualiy
woman-Who invariably gets up "
leave the car just as the vehicle Is
roundinp a curve at good speeu;
Even a conductor would be boWied
over if he attempted the s,1nt' 80 ~
| this nuisance is precip!talsu ~ a
snarote clutch at the nearest arm
The foregoing are but few types
met in local street cars. No iheh'io''
| is made of the loud takers VINO en-
terrain the car with their opinions
nor Of that opposite type. the cold
faced person that acts as if he were
the only human being in the world.
| perhans the most human crowd OF
| ,.angers tn he encountered onsany
local street car is that made up by
the employees of the bureau OF en-
craving and printing. Persons VINO
come from small towns, and some
times miss the jovial types OF neish-
borhood greetings prevalent there.
will be encouraged by the bureau
crowd"
The cars are always very crowded
but nobody is angry about IT. The
time is early in the morning, lhe
people all have had warm breakrasIs
and Washington is pretty soon olc
place, after all. The motorman thaWs
ont. greets the familiar faces with
grin. and informs the crowd on ms
platform that he had little nip
this morning.
Hot coffee. 1 suppose" says some
one.
NO, it wasn't coffee says the
motorman, positively.
There is laugh all around at that.
and then the bell rings for the start
Anybody who happens to be aboard
! who is not going to the bureau, but
must get off at the next corner, has
no difficulty in getting to the door.
Going to leave us?" asks some
bureau worker.
Yes. got to 60" you reply. But
honest, you feel like staying aboard.
There may be some skilled typists
who can handle every word in the die
tionary with unconcern, but most
people have some pet word that trou-
BILE them in the mere writing. One
man l know has difficulty with the
name Ohio"
This man invariably writes it
"Ohion." Why his finger jumps down
and puts that final m on the word he
does not know. Probably the finger
doesn't know. either. But it does it.
One man confesses that he has to
slow up on "anthropological" An
other. that he has been writing
archaeological for many years, but
has to slow down to nothing an hour
every time he writes it. Nor can
you blame him Try it yourself, if
you are inclined to.
CHARLES E. TRACEWELL.