Show SOMETHING ON HIS MIND Absence of Mind and a Garrulous Ticket Chopper It was a downtown elevated railway station A young man with an air of abstraction of his face and a cigar in his mouth deposited five cents on the glass slab at the ticketsellers window win-dow and without stopping to get his ticket walked on calmly passed the ticketchopper and stood on the platform waiting for a train Please sor said the ticket chopper who was a genuine son of Erin civilly you didnt put in no ticket Eh whats that said the young man nervously thrusting a hand into his waistcoat pocket That cant be I always put a nickel in my vest pocket to pay for a ticket and the nickels gone Shure its myself that kin swear to that sor for I saw yer take it out at the ticket winder but yer didnt take no ticket Oh thats too absurd If I paid for a ticket I got it and if I got it I dropped it in the box Im no swindler swind-ler Well sor if the ticketseller dont tell yer the same phat I do the divils a witch thats al The absentminded young man consulted the ticket agent and of course everything was explained satisfactorily satis-factorily Yis sor the ways of min and wimin is mighty queer said the Irishman to a reporter who had observed the little scene Its strange how many people pass thru here ivry day thout drap pin in their tickets an yit theyd swear by all that holy theyd done it an haf th tiome they belave its me sef thats lyiti Shure I dont love the company so well that Id lie fur it Its all bekase theys got somethin on tneir mpinds sor Sometimes they pocket th ticket and drap th nickel in th box an is dead shure they aint done notbin p th sort Its all bekasp they be thinkin o some thin elseth money theys makin or the money theys losin or if its th ladies the toine dresses theyre goin to put on But a man wid no eddicashun at all at all knows phwat he s about all th toimeYis Yis sor continued the Irishman encouraged by finding that he had a good listener its a grate country this is for people havin somethin on their momds that keeps em from I knowmpwhat theys adoin Theyll run up th stairs like mad sor for no rayson at all sor cept somethins on their moinds thats no way to enjoy life sor Why in ould Oirland th pigs themselves has more sinse than to do loike that Shuro if meself had money > i Hero a train came along and the reporter re-porter joined in the mad lush for the gates leaving the philosophical Irishman Irish-man to his meditationsNew York Tribune C |