1899 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
727 
A Convert to Electricity. 
If Miss Selina Emmons had known 
just a little more about the company 
their tracks never would have crossed 
her land. 
When there was a rumor that the 
electric cars were coming through 
Brooklyn she disapproved very strongly. 
When the rumor was confirmed, and the 
additional information given that the 
cars were to run by her house. Miss 
Selina was indignant and a little 
alarmed. She wondered if it would be 
safe. 
But when the company wrote and 
wanted to know if they might buy a 
strip of her land along the river, about 
two acres in all, on which to lay their 
tracks, thereby avoiding the building of 
two bridges and a half mile or more of 
unnecessary track, she was decidedly 
and unmistakably angry. 
Sell her land for an electric line, for¬ 
sooth! She wouldn’t have the horrid 
things within sight or sound of her if 
She could help it. What if it wasn’t any¬ 
thing but sandy pasture land, growing 
up to huckleberry and bayberry bushes. 
They shouldn’t have it. It was nothing 
to her if they had to build a dozen 
bridges and go twenty miles out of 
their way. 
She thought of all the scathing replies 
she might make to them, repudiating 
their proposal. Then a happy thought 
struck her. She got her pen and wrote 
on the bottom of the company’s letter: 
“You may have the land for $500 an 
acre. Yours truly, Selina Emmons.” 
She smiled when she had done this. 
How they would feel when they got that 
answer! Five hundred dollars an acre! 
Why, she wanted to sell the whole 10 
acres for $100, and that had been 
thought too much. For a day or two 
she smiled whenever she thought of her 
answer, and she wished she could have 
seen the faces of the company when 
they opened it. 
Then came the shock of discovering 
that her offer had been accepted. The 
company had her statement in black and 
white, with her name signed to it, so 
there was no possible escape for her. 
This was in the Fall, and work on the 
electric road would not begin till Spring. 
Miss Selina felt thankful that the evil 
day was so far off. Perhaps there was 
a chance yet that the road would not go 
through. Nevertheless, she worried and 
fretted over it all Winter, and it was the 
worry, the doctor said, that brought on 
the spell of sickness in March. She was 
not seriously ill, and by the first of 
April, when work on the road began, 
she was around doing her work as usual. 
“I’m not going to have folks say I got 
sick on account of that company,” she 
said. “Anyway, it won’t do any good to 
worry. Let ’em come, but if they expect 
me to patronize them, they are mis¬ 
taken, that’s all. I wouldn’t ride on one 
of those cars, not if Queen Victoria or 
the President of the United States told 
me to. If other folks want to risk their 
lives they can.” 
The thought of the $1,000 was a great 
comfort. It seemed like a fortune to 
her, and she planned what she would do 
with the interest money. She would 
have a new carpet for the parlor the 
very first thing, and have the room pa¬ 
pered and painted. 
By the middle of April the workmen 
came in sight of the house, and for a 
day or two Miss Selina watched them 
with a hostile eye. Then, in spite of 
herself, she began to be interested in 
the work, and as it came nearer she 
spent more and more of her time at the 
windows. When the men wanted to eat 
their dinners out under her chestnut 
tree and get water from the pump in the 
yard she gave a willing consent. “They 
MOTHERS.—Be sure to use “Mrs. Wins-- 
low’s Soothing Syrup” for your children 
while Teething. It is the Best.— Adv. 
are not to blame for what the company 
does,” she said. 
One of the men carried in a pail of 
water for her one day and got to talking 
with her. He found out that she wanted 
her little garden spaded up, and the next 
day the men shortened their nooning 
and did the work in a little while. The 
day after that Miss Selina carried out to 
them a huge dishpanful of doughnuts, 
which melted away like snow before the 
sun. 
When the rails were all laid by the 
house and the work was no longer in 
sight Miss Selina felt very lonesome. 
Still she could see the men go by at 
night and morning, and the young man 
who had carried the water for her al¬ 
ways smiled and waved his hand. 
The first of June the cars were run¬ 
ning, and Miss Selina saw them go by 
crowded. It was amazing. “I didn’t 
know there were so many reckless folks 
in the world,” she said. She had to ad¬ 
mit that there was a certain companion¬ 
ship in seeing all these people. 
On warm days the motormen and con¬ 
ductors would stop nearly every trip and 
get a drink of water at her pump, and 
she took pride in the coolness of the 
water and in having the tumbler out 
there clean and bright. After a time 
these men, seeing her always at the win¬ 
dow, would speak to her, wish her good 
morning or comment on the weather. 
There was one young motorman who 
was her especial favorite, and he was 
the first one to discover her aversion to 
risking her life on the cars. 
“Any time you want to try it,” he told 
her, “just come along on my car, and 
I’ll be extra careful of you.” 
Miss Selina laughed and told him that 
she would go on his car when she went, 
but that she didn’t think either of them 
would live long enough to see the day. 
In August he told her one day: “You’d 
better go with me to-morrow. It’s my 
last day on this line. I’ve been trans¬ 
ferred.” 
“I’m very sorry, Mr. Baily,” said Se¬ 
lina. 
“So am I,” he answered. 
On his last trip in the afternoon he 
said: “Be ready at seven sharp”; then 
laughed and swung on to his car and 
clattered away. Miss Selina watched it 
across the pasture. Then she took a 
long breath, straightened up and said: 
“I’ll do it.” 
She looked about her. “It’s as good a 
time as any. I’ve got the washing and 
ironing and sweeping done for the 
week, and everything is in good order. 
And, besides, I have faith in that young 
Baily, and it’ll be my last chance to go 
on his car.” 
The next morning at 6:45 she was all 
ready, her work done and the door 
locked behind her as she sat on the step 
waiting. Baily could hardly believe his 
eyes when he saw her. 
“Going?” he called. “Well, that’s 
good. Sit on the front seat here, then 
you can see and get the air.” He no¬ 
ticed that her hands shook and that she 
was a little pale. A mile farther on he 
looked around at her. 
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“Like it?” he asked. 
She nodded. Her eyes were very 
bright. 
On their return they had to wait at a 
turnout for another car, and Baily sat 
down beside her. Her hair was blown 
about her face, and her expression was 
animated. “She must have been pretty 
when she was young,” he thought. 
“Do you usually go faster?” she asked. 
“Oh, just about the same, I guess.” 
“I was going to say you needn’t go 
any slower on my account. It doesn’t 
scare me a bit. I like to go fast.” 
When he stopped at her house she sat 
motionless. “I guess I won’t get out 
yet,” she said. “I think I will ride a 
little more.” 
The next time there was a wait she 
seemed abstracted. She was busy with a 
problem in mental arithmetic—namely, 
how many car rides can be got out of 
the interest on $1,000? 
The solution seemed to please her. 
' “I can get along without the carpet,” 
she said to herself, “and the paint and 
paper don’t look very bad, anyway.”— 
Susan Brown Robbins, in Chicago 
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ENTERPRISE 
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CHOPPER 
