Life — December 29, 1892 — page 26: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

12 cially to be noticed by any one who has an eye for the beau- tiful, or who is a manufacturer of oculists’ supplies. After their train had passed the Harlem River many of these ladies noticed that the snow was falling rapidly, and that the train did not proceed with the merry hum which usually characterizes the expresses between New York and Boston. Time wore on slowly with these ladies, although they had many topics for extended and particularized con- versation. Aunt Mary Otis, who was largely interested in the things her sister delegates were talking about, found the On the other hand Miss Dolly who treasured in her heart a sort of melancholy at leaving the street brightness and street gayety of New York, began to feel that food would be a really more enjoyable thing than talk about the lovely sentiments that the Reverend Mr. Jow- ler had put into dictionary language. She dared to in transit not especially slow. quire of the conductor when dinner would be ready, and was told that she would have to wait until the dining-car people gave the first call. The trainmen had left the ladies of the Women's African Temperance Association largely to themselves. In fact they had been careful enough to leave all the spring-locks on the doors of the cars so arranged that, so far as the outside world was concerned, each car was a province by itself. As the train jogged along with reasonable slowness and many stops, the lady passengers began to forget their desire for conversation in their desire for food, Hunger, in these civilized times, is a master not often con- fronted, but when he comes not even a member of the Women's African Temperance Association can stand up, much less keep her seat against him. ‘There began to be mur- murings and complainings against the dining-car service, when of asudden there came a stoppage of the train and a blood-curd- ling cry in masculine tones which set not on fire, but into a frost, the blood of the ladies on the special train of the Women’s African Temperance Association. Miss. Dolly Otis was perhaps the least disturbed lady on the train, She knew there were no Indians to speak of in Con- necticut, and that the persons who cause other persons to hold up their hands have their existence mostly in the wild and alleged woolly West. Therefore Miss Dolly kept her seat, while older and presumably more experienced ladies ing her Aunt Mary, fainted or screamed, as seemed to them the best thing to do under the circumstances. It was a nota- ble fact that the stout ladies fainted and the slender ladies screamed. ‘Then came a crash as of broken glass, and a head with an unmistakably dyed moustache poked itself through a broken pane with these words * Say, leddies, are ye goin’ to let loose that dinin’-car, or are we goin’ to take possession of de whole business? Speak quick cos me fren’s is waitin’ outside, an’ they ain't got_no patience with folks wot can’t make a quick play. See ? WHE’ our friends from the prize-fight left. their train they left behind them a young man who was very sound asleep. He had been obliged to start for the tight at thirty “LIFE * minutes’ notice on an assignment from his editor. He had wired the last paragraphs of his story from a way-station, and the pleasantries of the gentlemen on the train had very little interest for him, Sleep was quite an important factor in his career at that time, and he never failed to get all he could of it, even under such discouraging circumstances’as the present It was not any fear of his mastodonian build, or of his well-known prowess with his fists that kept Fred Lans- dale’s slumbers from being disturbed by handfuls of snow down the back of his neck, and similar jocularities on the part of his fellow-passengers. Among toughs the newspaper man’s person is in a way sacred, for no one of them knows when next he may become the subject of newspaper com- ment. Aroused by the yell which greeted the arrival of the dining: Lansdale looked out of the window and saw the onslaught of the hungry crowd. “ Break away dere !" he heard one voice exclaim. don’t you get a motion on and let the rest of us in?” Then there came an angry murmur, and other voi announcing with emphasizing profanity that the doors were locked. “ Whydthell don’t you smash ‘em in then?" several voices inquired at once. The only reply was a number of kicks and bangs directed presumably against the stout panels of the din- ing-room car doors. Lansdale stepped to the platform just as a train-hand carry- ing a trains, ¢ ones. “Why lantern came floundering through the snow between the shout went up, and he was greeted with numerous and emphatic remarks. “ Say, cul, open dis door.” “ Wotdthell’s the matter, pardner ! us in to eat.” “ Soi, young feller, d'ye tink we kin live on snowballs ?” “ Wot's that? Shut up, youse fellus, an’ let's hear wot his nibs has got ter say f'r ‘imself.” The train-hand explain- ed that this was a special train with none but women on board, and that no one else had any right there. There was a howl of indignation, and some talk of “a tump in de neck” for the train hand, when Lansdale’s attention was attracted by a sound of breaking glass and a num- ber of feminine shriel He went in the direction of the noise, and from the platform at the other end of the car saw Mr, Fourfinger Keefe, a gen- tleman who had retired from the safe-break- ing business to engage in the less hazardous Them coons won't let comicbooks.com