| OCR Text |
Show Took the Starch Out of Station Axitocratt imii mi B i iii M with pleading, that to send it would involve ru'a for his career. "It was I'll turn to assume the role of dictator; and if ever a fire was kindled in k hurry, then was the time. With all tin. dignity due to a prince and his su.Ue the freezing family and I were tre:ltid. "Passing through a year after, I asked the 'bus man how the agent was getting alorix1;. The story had evidently evident-ly leaked out in McLeansboro, for he said: 'He got a dressing down last winter from an official of the road who happened a!ong in disguise, ,and it has made n man of him.' I was that official, a plain traveling man, but the 'bua nan was none the wiser." Indianapolis News. "That reminds me," said the traveling travel-ing man, "of an experience at McLeansboro, Mc-Leansboro, 111., years ago. It was a bitter cold Sunday morning when I went to the depot to take a train west. It was the only one that day and due in about an hour. The waiting room was cold. Huddled in a corner was a country woman, a waiting passenger,, with two small children, both crying from the cold. An empty stove, no ooal, no matches, no agent in sight. "While debatlnfe wha- to do to relieve re-lieve a trying situation, I thought I heard a noise from within the ticket office, which was hidden from view by a window covered with paint. I listened lis-tened closely and soon distinguished tie hum of voices from within. "A little scratch in the paint covering cov-ering the ticket window revealed on close examination four young men on the inside by a warm stove playing cards. One was evidently the agent. "Enraged, I kicked on the door and alternately rattled on the window till, with a slow, hestitating shove, it went up a little and from within the agent, a youth with a surlv air, demanded, 'What do you want?' Boiling with rage, yet imperturbable as a millpond, I asked for a telegraph blank, which was flung to me, and this is what 1 wrote: "General Manager, B. & O. S. W. r. R Dear Sir: Send competent agent to care for McLeansboro station. sta-tion. Present agent playing cards in office; waiting room no fire; passengers passen-gers freezing." "As placid as if nothing was out of the ordinary, I handed him a $5 bill with the request to take the pay out of it and send the message at once. Before half the words were counted by the autocrat of a moment ago, he was an humble servant of the present. 'Apologies and explanations by the score were forthcoming, intermingled |
