Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1927-03-06

| the last of the arrivals passed through
! the exit, he deserted the figure of a
beWildered girl standing alone. She
| saw him at the same instant and
! FASTENED to him. 1t was her future
husband. Some one else, however, was
waiting to meet the young woman,
and before a dozen words were eX-
changed between the matrimonial
column" lovers. a representative of
the Travellers Aid Association stepped
into the picture.
OF course, the girl was surprised,
but the friendly voice and engaging
! smile of the strange woman who had
projected herself into their midst was
disarming, and the fraternity OF
women asserted itself.
x X
A FTER all, there is an inseparable
bond of fellowship and sym
pathy. Woman instinctively fees TO
her own sex in the time of a great
personal crisis. It is, therefore. not
to be wondered at that the young
woman turned to her new-found
friend of the Travellers Aid, and.
with the naivete of child, told her
the story of her brief romance. She
did not know the man, she said If
she would come to Washington he
would marry her, and, to prove 1t.
had furnished her with her fare.
That was all she knew about 1t. Who
he was, how he was employed or
what his past contained she appar-
emily did not care. It was sufficient
that he loved her, and had made 1t
possible for her to meet him in
Washington.
The kindly representative of the
Travellers Aid listened attentively
and sympathetically to the pitiful
tale of a Woodworking girl who had
slipped little. If any, of the nectar of
life.
She was finally taken aside. and
the danger of her adventure explain
ed in the simplest and most UNDER
standable of words. A serious mat
ter, this, of taking the stray promise
of a man she had never met conven-
tionally How might such a mar
riage contract result?
The girl however. insisted that she
had promised to marry him and had
accepted her fare to Washington;
therefore, she would keep her part
of the agreement. 1t was a code
of honor. Kindly and gentle argyll
ment failed to move her. but she
agreed to permit the Travellers Aid
to engage a hotel room for her for
the night. until the mans history
could be investigated. The remain
sentence. They We're married the
day through the Offices of
the society. IT is to be hoped that
they have lived happily since.
Back of this incident, which occur
red only last month, is one of the
most interesting stories of SYM
pathetic endeavor. The more prosaic
might call 1t system. Certainly,
there can be nothing prosaic about an
ton which deals with the
care and help of travelling public.
A railroad terminal Is at once the
melting pot of starkest tragedy, SUI
preme happiness and, for that mat
ter, the entire gamut of human emo
lions. One needs but to ioiter a few
hours in such place to prove this.
There is something tremendously sad
dening in the departure of a train or
an ocean liner. The last warning, the
click of a closing gate, the clang OF
the bell, the receding sound of dis
charging steam are stage settings"
intensely dramatic in their signifl-
canoe.
But to revert to the circumstances
related. Was it by merest accident
that the young woman was met by
Aid? 1t was not. The system was at
work 1t is not difficult for trained
eye to spot an inexperienced trav-
eler.
An observant member of the TRAY
elers' Aid staff in the Atlanta sta
ton. where the girl had arrived to
take train for Washington. noted
her obvious confusion and engaged
her In friendly conversation. The
story was soon told. She was en-
route to Washington to meet a
strange man. Scarcely had the train
left when telegram was on its way
to the Washington organization. de-
scribing the young woman, giving
time of arrival and briefly reciting
the tale, with the result described.
lust the other day. in the north |
F" west section of Washington, a |
small boy approached a letter carrier
and inquired the road to Baltimore.
The carriers suspicious aroused, he
took the youngster to the Union Sta
ton and turned him over to the Trav-
eier's Aid. At first the boy maintained
that he had left home because his |
father beat him numerically" The |
story didn't click with the TRAY