GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



him to change his mind; but I am most 

 emphatically opposed to that kind of dis- 

 crimination. Not only millionaires but men 

 of moderate wealth are accustomed to being 

 put ahead of common people by the aid of 

 their money. I am glad to know there is a 

 strong movement of late to do away with 

 this whole "tipping" business. Well, the 

 porter did not get to our berth until pretty 

 well toward midnight, and Mrs. Root was 

 very tired. Finally, when our berth was 

 ready and the little girls sleeping soundly 

 in the berth above, we were ready to retire. 

 We were down in the region of hot weather, 

 mind you, and the porter objected to more 

 ventilation because the most of them did 

 not want it. You know how Mrs. Root and 

 I sleep — doors and windows wide open, no 

 matter where we are. .Just as soon as Mrs. 

 Root got into her berth she said she could 

 not live in that hot place — there would have 

 to be a window open. After exhausting my 

 strength without avail I applied to the 

 porter. He replied he could not open the 

 window and put in a screen for anybody 

 until the berths were all made up. Should 

 I have given him half a dollar, as in the 

 case before? I was undecided, and I was 

 urging Mrs. Root to put up with the bad 

 air until the porter had got the rest "put to 

 bed." She said she would much rather sit 

 up all night than to stay in that hot place 

 without any fresh air. I think my little 

 prayer rang out again (like an alarm clock, 

 as I have told you), "Lord, help!" and 

 help came so swift that I was really startled 

 (as I have been so many times before) at 

 the prompt answer to my prayer for deliver- 

 ance. A baby's cry diverted the attention 

 of the crowd that was hustling to get to bed 

 and to sleep. If there is any thing in this 

 world that will rouse up Mrs. Root, and 

 bring forward her best qualities, it is a 

 baby's cry. She soon found out that it be- 

 longed to a young mother. The young 

 mother was car-sick, and she, like ourselves, 

 had been assigned to an upper berth, as 

 there was no other. Now just listen. I 

 had been trying to 2nrsuade Mrs. Root, 

 ever since we had been assigned an upper 

 berth, that the air was better, and I could 

 manipulate the ventilators myself, etc. 

 But she stoutly objected. When, however, 

 she found out about the baby belonging to 

 the sick mother, to be put upstairs, when 

 she was already vomiting, our own lower 

 berth was placed at their disposal in an in- 

 stant; and Mrs. Root smilingly assured the 

 mother she did not mind climbing up at all; 

 in fact, that she was glad to make the ex- 

 change, which was true. Sometimes a 

 little of that " love " for humanity we have 

 been considering enables us to change our 

 minds and "opinions" very quickly. Our 

 new berth upstairs was about the last one 

 to be made up. We did not get to bed un- 

 til about midnight. I noticed the passen- 

 gers had been climbing up without the usu- 

 al step-ladders. When I asked the porter 

 if there was not a step-ladder to enable Mrs. 

 Root to get above he replied, "Sure; it is 



back at the other end of the car. If you 

 want it just go and get it." You see the 

 "half-dollar" came into view again just 

 here. I started to go for the step-ladder, 

 but a bright young woman (dear me ! what 

 glimpses of sunshine these handsome wo- 

 men do occasionally bring to this world of 

 ours !) got past me, tripped to the back end 

 of the car, got hold of the big step-ladder, 

 and came rushing with it up to Mrs. Root, 

 laughing in a roguish way as she did so, be- 

 cause she had " turned porter " for the time 

 being. As I noticed her beaming smile, 

 with a little hightened color from the exer- 

 tion, I thought she was about the hand- 

 somest woman I ever saw* — except Mrs. 

 Root when she was a girl of about the same 

 age. Now lest you criticise too severely 

 that particular porter, listen to what Ernest 

 said when I told him about it: 



"Father, don't be too severe on these 

 porters. During the height of travel they 

 are overworked. This fellow had probably 

 been working night and day, and he was 

 tired out to start with, and with that car 

 crammed full of sick babies and sick women 

 he probably had had no chance to sleep 

 much, for several nights past." 



When I got into that upper berth I open- 

 ed the ventilators — I think there were four 

 of them; and everybody else seemed to bs 

 too tired and sleepy to object; so Mrs. Root 

 had a very comfortable night's rest after all. 



Just as we approached Cincinnati our en- 

 gine, oq account of its great load of passen- 

 gers, gave out; and instead of making con- 

 nections so as to reach Medina next morn- 

 ing we were obliged to stay in Cincinnati 

 over night. As the locomotive kept both- 

 ering, it was again about midnight before 

 we got into the depot. As a rule I avoid 

 patronizing any hotel that keeps a bar. 

 Two difficulties stood in the way just then, 

 however — the lateness of the hour, and the 

 difficulty a.t any hour of finding a hotel in 

 Cincinnati without a bar. As we came out 

 into the street several asked us if we wanted 

 lodging. One of the most gentlemanly-ap- 

 pearing men of the lot took us into a hotel 

 near by — 75 cents each for a comfortable 

 room. As we passed through a neat dining- 

 room I asked him how much more for 

 breakfast. He said, "The dining-room is a 

 separate affair. But you can have a lovely 

 breakfast here, as early as you wish, for on- 

 ly 25 cents."* 



A little after our usual time we sat down 

 at a very neat table for breakfast. I no- 

 ticed at once that there were full-sized 

 plate-glass mirrors on each side of the room. 

 The mirrors, being exactly opposite each 

 other, produced the effect of a series of din- 



*As we passed into the good-sized bedroom I 

 caught hold of a large window the first thing, to 

 raise the sash. As it had evidently been undis- 

 turbed for a long time I failed to make it start, and 

 appealed to our host. "Why" said he, "do you 

 want the window open? Is there not a great plenty 

 of air in a big room like this?" I submit this as a 

 sample of the contracted Ideas of a great part of 

 the world. No wonder people are dying at such a 

 rate that they keep the doctors busy In studying up 

 names for "new-fangled " diseases. 



