Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1928-08-06

Americai huMorist. especially. famous for his
'Huckleberry Finn" Yankee in King Ar
thurs Court" "Innocents Abroad" etcJ
came across these jingling lines in
a newspaper a little while ago and read
them couple of times:
Conductor, when you receive the fare
Punch in the presence OF the passen-
jare!
A blue trip slip for an 8-cent fare,
A buff slip trip for Scent fare,
A pink trip slip for 3-cent fare,
Punch in the presence of the passen-
jare!
Chorus:
Punch, brothers, punch with care!
Punch In the presence of the paSsen-
jare,
They took instant and entire pos
session of me. All through breakfast
they went whirling through my head,
and when at last / rolled up my napkin
l could not tell whether / had eaten
anything or not. L had carefully laid
out my days work the day before, but
all l could write no wwaS Punch In
the presence of the passenjare."
fought hard for an hour, but 1t was
useless.
MY head kept humming, "A blue slip
trip for. an Scent fare, a buff trip slip
for a scent fare" and so on, and sc
on, without peace or respite. The days
work was ruined So / gave up and
drifted downtown, and presently dis
covered that my feet we're keeping time
| to the relentless jingle. When I coulc
stand it no longer I altered my step
But it did no good. Those rhymes ac-
| commodated themselves to the new
step and went on harassing me just al
before.
| / returned home and suffered all aft
ernoon, suffered all through an uncon'
scious and undressing dinner; suf'
| fered and cried and jingled all evening
went to bed and rolled, tossed ane
| iingled right along the same as ever
got up at midnight frantic and tflec
| to read, but there was nothing visible
on the whirling page but Punch!
Punch in the presence of the pas
senjare!" BY sunrise was out OF m!
mind, and everybody marveled at thu
idiotic refrain of my Punch
Oh, punch! Punch in the presence o.
1 the passeniarel''
Two days later, on Saturday morn
ing. arose, lettering wreck, and wen
forth to fulfill an engagement with
valued friend to walk 10 miles. HI
stared at me, but asked no questions
We started. My friend talked, talked
| talked-as is his wont. said nothing
I heard nothing. AT the end of mills
| he said: Marx are you sick?
never saw man so haggard and worT
and absent-minded. Say something
dor'
Drearily without enthusiasm, said
Punch. brothers, punch with care
Punch in the presence OF the passen'
jare!"
My friend eyed me blankly, looked
perplexed, then said: II do not ge
your drift, Mark There does not seen
to be any meaning in what you say
certainly nothing sad. and yet-mayb'
it was the way you spoke the words
never heard anything that SOUNDED
so pathetic"
! We went on. We got there. NJ.
/, friend asked my opinion of the Autumn
| landscape.
1 sighed YEARLY and murmured: Il
buff trip slip for a 6-cent fare. pini
| trip slip for a Scent fare. Punch II
/ the presence of the passenjare"
| NV friend stood there, very grave
full of concern, and looked long at me
| Then he said: Mark. there is some
thing about this that cannot under
stand. Those are about the samI
words you said before. There does no
seem to be anything in them. and We
| they nearly break my heart when yot
say them Punch in the--how is it thes
goa"
| began at the beginning and re-
peated all the lines. MY friends fact
| lighted with interest. He said: Why
| that's a captivating jingle. isn't it? I
Is almost music. It flows along 81
nicely. Say them over just once mor'
and then I'll have them sure"
| I said them over Then he sais
them. He made one little mistake ant
was corrected. The next time and thu
next he got them right Now a grea
| burden seemed to tumble from m.
shoulders. That torturing jingle de
parted out of my brain and a grateful
sense of rest and peace descended upor
me. I was light-hearted enough Il
sing, and I did sing for half an houl
straight along as We went joggins
hopleward. Then my freed tongu'
| found blessed speech again. and thu
| pent talk of many a weary hour begar