Evening star., 1924-06-22
THE REAL FAST MAIL
BY FREDERIC ]. HASKIN

| Midafternoon in a tank town on a
main line railroad. A vague restless
ness permeates the place even as a
vagrant breeze might stir the NAPLES
and elms that line Main street
Woman folks lay aside household
duties and step out on verandas, call
greetings to neighbors, and then
move down paths or across lawns
| improvising sunshades out of aprons
| as they cross sunny spots, to gather
in groups of twos and threes and
exchange idle comment and gossip.
! Man folks who are footloose yawn,
rise and stretch lazily. reckon" it's
about time to be moving, and go
lounging and numbering down to the
| station, while those who are task
| bound move to windows to doors
and 10 sidewalks and follow the
others with vainly envious eyes.
Over in the town lot a ball game
| is suspended by common consent and
| by common impulse the future Wal
| ter JohnSons and Ty Cobbs join the
| station-ward hegira.
Dogs whimper uneasily in their
sundreams, awaken snap at pestif-
erous insects. rise, yawn and stretch
even as their human prototypes, and
| then trot slanting gly down sidewalk
and street toward the common OBJ
| jective.
Doc Peters, returning from a coun-
try call, bumps across the tracks and
pulls his flivver up by the slowly
| forming assemblage at the station.
| Mods and howdys are exchanged, crop
and weather opinions announced, and
the village wit inquiries, Was you
Docr That sally falling to score.
and feeling that he can do better. the
wit continues: "Talkin' to Andy Por-
ter while ago. Doc, and he's feelin'
| right bitter toward you-says you
amt been doin' right by him this
undertaken, and the wit is rewarded
with a general laugh, in which Doc
Peters joins, with due modesty.
There She Comes:
Then-out of the west, or the east
or the north, or the south-is heard
a faint, long -drawn-out whistle, and
even the dogs prick up their ears.
The telegraph wires begin to hum,
the rails click and then seemingly
groan in protest against the burden
thew must bear. Again the whistle,
and nearer. and louder. All eyes are
| turned in one direction and all talk
| ceases. The station agent, overalled
and shirt -sleeved, but with his VI
| sored cap of authority, takes his post
in front of the crowd, midway OF the
platform.
| mill il is as the thunder of some
| titanic torrent, a blast of heat from
| the monster engine, a ianguidly
waved hand from the engineer. a
Slimnse of a yawning furnace and a
| finaI crash into comparative silence,
a rush of the hot air. cloud of dust,
| a swirl of stray papers, ana the snarp
| click or biting sting ng,,s OF vatchss 1ai,ing
cinders Eysry6ody anS the spisf visored oes au
Fright "Rieht on the dotr'
TSa fast mail has gone through,
at fifty, fifty-five. or even sixty. miles
an The Fe big event of the day in Tank
'op oppsycboIogists have their explana-
lions of the fascination that the fast
mail train exerts. They say 1t is the
speed, power. action; -isd OF drelnenoGns the ims
nortance Of its burdens and its mis-.
sion: the mystery of its rush out OF
the unknown into the unknown. or
the imagination stirring visions II
conjures up of all that modern
G1a NAV not understand that: but the
average adult knows that he always
wanted to see the fast mail go
through, and the average boy knows
that he'd rather be engineer OF tne
fast mail than President, or anything
Dramatists understand 1t, or at
least they know how to use It. In
the good old days, before the motion
picture had made everybody pre-
| ternaturally wise and blase, when
melodrama retailed at ten. twenty and
| thirty, one of the greatest thrillers
and biggest successes Of the stage
was the play called The Fast Mail +"
l 1t scored such a hit that rival pro-