TRAVEL BY SLEEPING-CAR.

Lake Wakatip Mail, Issue 2902, 17 January 1911, Page 7

TRAVEL BY SLEEPING-CAR.

QUEER WAYS'OF PASSENGERS.

"Working on the cars, we learn odd things about people's sleeping habits, said a porter of a Pullman car. 'One of the surprising items gleaned in my early railway days was the fact that many people sleep with their glasses on. The first fellow I saw go to bed made up that way was a politician who travelled oyer my road stirring up voters in the Western parts of the State. The funny thing about him was that he didn't really need glasses any more than I did. He seldom wore them in the daytime, and generally read the papers and made his speeches with his glasses dangling from his buttonhole three feet away from his eyes. But the minute he got ready for sleep them became indispensible. It bowled me clean over when I bumped into his berth one night and found him sleeping with the things on. I tried to take them off, but at the first touch he was wide awake. '"I was just taking off your glasses,' said I. 'You went to bed with them on.' 'Of course I did,' he snapped. 'I always do. I couldn't sleep without them. Give 'em here.'

"After that I met lots of people who had become slaves to the habit. "In contrast to those folks, I found that most people take out their false teeth upon going to bed. I had a good deal of trouble with the toothless contingent. Most of them were afraid to trust their teeth to the narrow confines of the berth, for fear of losing them. So they gave them to me for safe keeping.

"Then there were wigs. Lots of bald-headed people couldn't sleep without them. In most cases a special shock of hair was provided for sleeping purposes, thus keeping the regular wig spick and span for daytimd wear. One of the funniest things I ever came across in the false hair line was the case of a certain gentleman from Indiana who often travelled with me. He was absolutely bald. One night I caught a glimpse of him in his night attire. The shining pate that I had marvelled at only an hour before had blossomed out into a great mat of shaggy biack hair. " I always sleep in it,' the old fellow said. "Don't say anything about it, will you ? It's just a fad of mine. All my life long I have wished for a fine head of curly black hair. Nature denied me that boon. She gave me nothing but sparse red locks to start with. Now that she has taken even those away, I feel justified iln getting back at her by wearing any kind of hair I please. I don't dare to put on my black wig in the daytime for fear my folks will make fun of me, so I wear it at night.' "That struck me as being one of the craziest notions I had ever heard of, but, of course, it was strictly the old man's business, so I didn't say much about it.

"I'll never forget one old chap with an ear trumpet. Every night when he turned in he arranged the trumpet with the tube to his ea» and fastened it some way that it couldn't budge. I got to know the man pretty well, and one night I jollied him about making preparations to hear Gabriel's horn if he should take a notion to blow it in the middle of the night. The old fellow got quite serious.

I ''' 'lt isn't that that' I want to | hear,' he said. 'I always fix the I trumpet ready for use, .so it won't j be hard to find in case there is any trouble on the road and some of you fellows find it necessary to call ' me.' That man travelled on my Hue twice a month for two years. One night we ran into a freight train. In the excitement I forgot all about him and his ear trumpet, and neglected to call him, as I had promised, but I guess he found out about the accident, even if h 3 couldn't hear very well. "There are other folks who have a habit of sleeping decked out in all their jewellery. I found women the greatest offenders in that respect. I used to implore them to lock their jewels up somewhere, but they declared they couldn't sleep without their rings and all the rest of it. I knew one woman who never wore even the plainest band ring in the daytime, but when she got ready for bed she looked like a jeweller's advertising window. "Sleep with certain people depends upon the kind of clothing worn. One wants a handkerchief tied around his head, another must wear slippers, and still another is nervous and uncomfortable without gloves. One man who travelled often over a Western road where I was employed could not sleep unless he had a red woollen shawl wound around his shoulders. "—New-York * 'Times.''