LAUGHABLE SCENE IN A TRAIN.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 4136, 24 October 1884, Page 4

LAUGHABLE SCENE IN A TRAIN.

It is probable that no more exciting scone has been witnessed, burring a run on v bunk, than the one on a North-western train between Milwaukee and Chicago one day last week. The train took on, at Lake Blui*, ii lax-go nu.iu.bor of pooplo returning , home from camp meeting in session tltcro,_ mid every seat was fail, four deep, of preachers, deacons, old ladies, liundayschool teachers, giggling girls, and children, destined for all of the stations letweuii Lake Bluff and Chicago. The big conductor was going through the forward car, takin," , up the half-rate return tickets, when something struck him on the back of the nook that felt like a sabre, and ho made use of a word that caused the hair of the deacon from Highland Park to turn grey. The conductor looked at the front door, and it was full of bees. It appears that a tree had been cut down near the track, which contained a swarm of wild honey bees, and the bees had settled on the bank beside the track to rest, and when the engine came iilon ,, and the engineer squirted steam and hot water amougot the bees they got mad, and all that were not killed came into the cars to see it' such things could be, and not overcome them like a summer squash. The conductor, though bitten in a vital part, on his neck, held his position, knowing that he -would have fun enough with the passengers to make up for his A middle-aged Sunday-school teacher of the female persuasion, who was holding a big .scholar on her lap, suddenly jumped up and said she was stabbed, and asked the conductor to protect her, and she looked around quite saucy at a travelling man in the seat back of her who had an umbrella. The conductor said ho guessed she wasn't «tabbed, but she began to yell, and while he was trying to soothe her a preacher from Jivanston reared up and said something about Hades, and began crawling over the back of the seat in front of him, where a deacon from Lake Forest was explaining a passage in the Bible to a young -woman from Itoderers' Park. The deacon and the young woman were mad, and just then they felt .stings from the bees, and they jumped out into the aisle and accused tho minister of behv'amean, horrid thing. A quartette, two "iris and two boys in a couple ot seats that were f acinar each other, were singing a hymn, when a bee struck the soprano in front of tho neck, and it broke her voice all up and she yelled murder and grabbed the coat-tail of a colored porter who was going through the car on a gallop with a bee on his trousers leg. The tenor and bass singer thought tho porter hud done something wren" to the soprano, and were going to whip him, when the alto got a bito and yelled for the police, and a Sunday school superintendent in a uea opposite thought the tenor had insulted the alto, and ho took the tenor by the neck. Just then a bee struck the tenor, and ho thought it was the superintendent who had Lit bTm, find ho was just get!ing ready to wallop him when thi< conductor told him f<. lio quiet or he would have to pul; I hem ofl ! , and (hen he explained that. Hie train hud run over a swarm ot'bcv, and llic-y had got in the car. That settled it Every pwsoi. that Uad not been stung didn't want to be, and they all pulled their feet oif the floor "and tucked them up under them on tno -•■eats, and there was yelling m all tho lan -mages known to camp meetings, llio windows were opened to let the bee. out, .and lxioro bees came in, and it was a paneionium for ten miles. The bew seemed to

run to female arms that were covered with thin lace, or that were bare, and silk stockings presented no barrier at all against the lnisy little bees. A girl would suddenly turn pale, hold her breath a minute, and then scream. One girl climbed up tho water cooler as quick as a cat would climb a tree if a dog was after it, and when the conductor came along she grabbed him around the neck and asked him to save her. fie untangled her and sat her down on the coal box, and told her he was a very saving man, but he couldn't save a whole train load of girls at once, as he was no bee keeper. A Chicago minister put his foot up on the stove and began to roll up his pant's legto catch a bee, and the women ail screamed again, and the conductor told him he would have to take a berth in a sleeper if ho was going to disrobe. He rolled his pants down and left the bee there, but every little while he would take hold of his pants with his thumb and finger and hold them away from his leg and shako his foot and leg like a Scotchman dancing tho Highland fling. When the train stopped at the first station the passengers all got out on the platform and kicked bees out of their pants, as the case may be, tho conductor and brakesman drove the bees out of the cars and tho passengers got in again, but every little while somebody would jump about eight foot, and then began to hunt in the plush cushion for something. Everybody got stung more or less, and several ministers and deacons looked, when the train reached Chicago, as though they had been trying to knock out I Sullivan in four rounds.--Peck's Sun.