Year: 1879

"Don't you always notice, in every
car in which you ride, the fool that al
ways sits directly before you, and al
ways opens the window every time the
engine whistles, and stick his head and
shoulders out to see what they are do
ing at the station, and never closes the
window till the station is out of sightP"


"Yes, and he never saw any body he
knew at the stationp"


"Never, and he never sees any thing
any body is doing at the station, and
can't tell the name of the station while
he is in it?"


"And always scrapes the back of his
head against the sharp edge of the win
dow sash when he pulls it in, and then
diSmally rubs his head while he turns
around and looks suspiciously at you, as
though he believes you did it, and did it
on purposep"


"And the man who is waiting at tie
station to see the train come IMP The
man with butternut overalls tucked into
his boots, tawny beard, arms crammed
into his pockets up to the elbows, mouth
wide Open-you never miss him; when
you 90 down he is standing there at sun
set; when you come back at sunrise, he
is waiting for you; never sees any body
he knews get off the train, never sees
any body he knows get on; never ex-
poets to; would be astonished to death
if he should happen to see an acquain-
tance come or go; isn't paid for it, but
it's his business. Has nothing else in
the world to do. Is always there. If
the train comes in fifteen minutes ahead
of time, he has made allowance for it
and has been there twenty minutes; if
the train is four hours late, he waits for
it. You see him at nearly every sta
| ton"


"Never speaks to any body"


"Never, and if any body speaks to
him, he says Dunno If the baggage
man runs over him with a truck, he says
'Huh!' and shrinks up a little closer
against the station, but he never gets out
of the way"


"And do you remember the man who
sits behind you and whistlesP"


"And when he gets tired of whistling
in your ear, sings bass?"


"And never whistles or sings any thing
that you knowP"


"Or that he knowsp"


"And the 'masher,' whose breath is
nearly as bad as his morals, who wants
to tell you all about the daughter of a
wealthy merchant who was 'just dead
gone on him the last time he went over
this road!"


"And the man behind you who bites
off half an apple at one bite and then
puts his chin on your shoulder and tries
to talk to you about the weather and
cropsP"


"And the man who comes into the car
at the front door, walks clear back and
out on the rear platform, looking at each
one OF dozen empty seats, hunting for
good one, and then turns back to find
every last seat taken by the people who
came in after himp"


"And have you never seen the girl
get on at some country station, fixed
up mighty nice for that town, the belle
of the village, dressed in more colors
than you can crowd into chrome,
half the town down at the station to see
her off; she walks across the platform
feeling just little too rich to look at,
comes into the car with her head up
and plumes flying, expecting to set ev-
cry woman in that car wild with envy
as she walks down that aisle; she opens
the door and sees a car full Of Chicago
girls, dressed in the rich, quiet elegance
of city girls in their travelling costumes,
and see how she drops like shot into
the first seat, the one nearest the stove,
and looks straight out of the window and
never looks anywhere else, and never
shakes her plumes again while she stays
in the car"


"And the man who wants to talk,
the man who would probably die if he
couldn't talk five minutes to every one
he rides with; who glares hungrily
around the car until his glance rests on
the man whom he thinks is too feeble to
resist him, and then pounces down on
him and opens the Intellectual feast by
asking him how the weather is down his
way; the man who is always most de-
termined to talk when you are the sleep
lest, or when you want to read, or to
think, or just sit and look out of the car
window and enjoy your own idle, pleas
ant, vagrant day-dreams?"


"And the man who gets on the train
and stares at every man in the car be-
fore he sits down, and stands and holds
the door open while he stares. Who
always carries an old-fashioned, ,oil-cloth
carpet-bag with him, as wide and deep
as fire screen, and before he sits down,
he takes that carpet-bag by the bottom,
rolls it up into close roll, and puts it
in the rack. 1t is always dead empty
When he leaves home, he never puts a
rag or thread or a button in it. When
he comes back it is emptier than it was
when he went away. 1t never had any