STORY OF A SLEEPING-CAR. The Grey-Haired Capitalist Who Wanted Just One Kiss

Te Aroha News, Volume IV, Issue 160, 10 July 1886, Page 1

STORY OF A SLEEPING-CAR. The Grey-Haired Capitalist Who Wanted Just One Kiss

The story begins, and is likely to end, with a certain capitalist and railroad operator, who was prominent in a syndicate which built a paralleler 500 miles long, and made money by selling it. The gentleman, ~who ia well known j n (Jhicago, not many weeks ago occupied a stateroom of a Wagner sleeping car going east on the 3.30 express on the Michigan Central. During the evening, a lady, whoee seat was located near the middle of the car, asked the porter to prepare her berth for the nighfc, and while this was being done she occupied a seat in section 12, nearly opposite the stateroom. Here she was in plain view of the great railroad builder, and though he is old and the father of a family, he knows a pretty face when he seeß it. This young woman had a pretty face, and in the course of a half-hour the occupant of the stateroom was seen sitting in the seat beside the ! young lady engaged in an animated and, on his part, somewhat cavalierish conversation. Thus an hour or so wore away, and then the railroad man retired to the smoking saloon to enjoy a cigar or two. During his absence the young lady re» turned to her own berth and retired for the night. While the train was crossing the Detroit river, u little before midnight, the gentleman retired to his stateroom, and soon the berths were all muffled, the lights turned down, and the car rumbling on with its sleeping passengers. But all were not asleep, tor half an hour later the occupant of the stateroom appeared at the door of his apartment, cautiously opened it and peered out. The conductor was in another aleepingcar,and the porter was dozing over his boots at the other end of the coach; The railroad man stepped into the aisle, looked around, parted the ourtaine of] berth 12, stuck his grey head and his rather fleshy arms therein and whispered : "Just one kiss, dear, before I go to sleep." Then there arose a scream which nearly lifted the roof from the car, and which b ought the porter, the conductor, and several passengers flvingtothe scene. The occupant of berth 12 -an elderly lady who had got aboard the train and retired at Detroit was found in a state of hysterics, weeping and screaming alternately. In vain the railroad men made profuse apolo* gies, vain were his pleadings that he had made a mistake, and that he meant no harm, that he was very, very sorry. He was threatened with arrest, with chastisement, and with ejection from the car, but no such punishment was inflicted upon him, and he finaUy retired to the smoking saloon to seek eolace in another cigar. Despite their sympathy with the elderly lady whose nerves bad been so rudely shocked, the passengers could not avoid laughing at the ludicrous blunder made by their fellowtraveller of the stateroom. Among the most amused of them all was the roguish young woman who occupied a berth near the middle of the car. The story is not yet at an end. It will be fiuished in the courts. The occupant of berth 12 is the wife of a New York merchant, and upon her return to that city her husband at once began collecting evidence concerning the midnight episode, and has brought suit against the eleeping-car company for $20,000 damages. The company, of couree, will be compelled to fall back upon its rich passenger in the stateroom. Just see what a row can be kicked up by an ill-advised effort to steal a good-night kisa in a sleeping-car.