Part 35 (1/2)

A man with a fat run--lower berths all occupied, with at least a sht to be able easily to put aside a hundred and fifty dollars a month as his inco this very thing; and there are at least dozens of porters n real estate, automobiles, and other such material evidences of prosperity

A tip is not necessarily a huiver or to the taker On the contrary, it is a token of ood care that he gives such service But how about the porter who is not so smart--the man who has the lean run?

As every butcher and every transportation man knows, there is lean with the fat And it does the leanto buy a secondhand automobile On the contrary, it creates an anarchist--or at least a socialist--down under that black skin

Here is Le to eniality Leo and St Louis Every passenger-traffic man knows that er hours, and so are perh fare between those cities, are called--have had a hard time of it in recent years It is the excess-fare trains, the highest-priced carriers--which charge you a pre you in the terminal--that are the crowded trains And the differentials have had increasing difficulty getting through passengers

It seeoes froenerally so well paid as to make it worth dollars to him to save hours in the journey It is er travel But the differentials, having local territory to serve, as well as on account of so-car service--even at a loss There is little or no loss to the Pullman Coe fee for hauling a half or three-quarter e the Pullman system to take all the revenue from the car; but Lemuel sees his end of the business as a dead loss

He leaves New York at two-thirty o'clock on Monday afternoon, having reported at his car nearly three hours before so as totrip He is due at St

Louis at ten-fifteen on Tuesday evening--though it will be nearly two hours later before he has checked the contents of the car and slipped off to the bunking quartersat seven o'clock he starts east and is due in New York about dawn on Friday ets to his little home on the West Side of Manhattan Island sometime before noon; but by noon on Saturday hesure that it is fit and ready by two-thirty o'clock--the ain

This tio, which is not reached until about six o'clock Sunday night He bunks that night in the Windy City and then spends thirty-two hours going back again to New York He sees his hoain--started on a fresh round of his eternal schedule

Talk of tips to Lethens You may not believe it, white man, but Lemuel made fifty-three cents in tips on the last trip froave him the Columbian antique; but Lemuel believes there can be no future too warave hiht at least have coal tender to him

All that saves this porter's bacon is the fact that he is in charge of the car--for so as sleeping-car conductor, for which consolidated job he dran a proportionate share of forty-two dollars a month This is a small sop, however, to Lemuel He turns and tells you how, on the last trip, he cahts on the road--without ever a ” a berth No wonder then that he has difficulty infifty dollars a month, with his h Lemuel is permitted three hours' sleep--on the bunk in the washrooht to three o'clock in the ins to nod And those are sure to be the ti aboard Biff! Bang! Pull has happened to Lemuel's pay envelope, and his coffee-colored wife in West Twenty-ninth Street will not be able to get those gray spats until they are clean gone out of style

What can be done for Lemuel? He must bide his time and constantly make himself a better servant--a better porter, if you please It will not go unnoticed The Pulls--inconsequential in the to raise the standard of its service

Then so-car autocrat, in the s to err He is going to step on the feet of some important citizen--perhaps a railroad director--and the i to make a fuss After which Lemuel, hard-schooled in adversity, in faithfulness and in courtesy, will be asked in the passing of a night to change places with the old autocrat

And the old autocrat, riding in the poverty of a lean run, will have plenty of opportunity to count the telegraph poles and reflect on the s The Pullman Company denies that this is part of its systeain

George, or Lemuel, or Alexander--whatever the nao upstairs soht to the rear bedroo tin roof which you reserve for your relatives--andit between tiular position Let your fa each ato on the electric bell and places shoes and leather grips underneath your feet

I face and a courteous tongue throughout all of it!

Or do this on a bitter night in s of the bed in the overheated rooe one and go and stand outside the door from three to ten minutes in the snow and cold In soe's job Racially the negro is peculiarly sensitive to pneumonia and other pulmonary diseases; yet the rules of a porter's job require that at stopping stations he must be outside of the car--noand ready to say:

”What space you got, guv'nor?”

However, the porter's job, like nearly every other job, has its glories as well as its hardshi+ps--triumphs that can be told and retold for many a day to fascinated colored audiences; because there are special trains--filled with pursy and prosperous bankers fro the trip fro the porter at the last hour of the last day

There are er Pryor, who has ridden with every recent President of the land and enjoyed his confidence and respect And then there is General Henry Forrest, of the Congressional Lie of one of its broiler cars, who stops not at Presidents but enjoys the acquaintance of senators and ambassadors alnitaries by their feet When he is standing at the door of his train under the Pennsylvania Ter down the long stairs from the concourse And he cantime in advance

Once Forrest journeyed in a private car to San Francisco, caring for a Certain Big Man He took good care of the Certain Big Man--that was part of his job He took extra good care of the Certain Big Man--that was his opportunity And when the Certain Big Man reached the Golden Gate he told Henry Forrest that he had understood and appreciated the countless attentions The black face of the porter wrinkled into smiles He dared to venture an observation

”Ah thank you, Jedge!” said he ”An' ef it wouldn't be trespassin' Ah'd lak to say dat when yo' cowine to be President of dese United States”