THE YOUNG WOMAN GOT THE SEAT.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXV, Issue 9142, 25 August 1888, Page 2 (Supplement)

THE YOUNG WOMAN GOT THE SEAT.

FOUR MEN OFFER A PRETTY GIRL A PLACE, WHILE A SPINSTER STANDS.

A TALL, thin old maid waved a parasol at a I down-going Broadway car at Fifteenthstreet the other morning. The seats on both sides of the car were lined with men, except in the far corner, where an old woman sat with a big bundle in her lap. A number of the men glanced up as the thin maid entered the car and then became suddenly intent on their papers. A fat man with a shining bald head looked fixedly out of the window and seemed profoundly interested in the passing sights. A young man opposite him, who had been humming a tune the moment before and was as merry as a grig, pursed up his mouth, put on an air of deep melancholy, stared steadily at his left shoe, and seemed lost in an interesting calculation of its length and breadth, Those who had newspapers in their hands, found them so immensely inteiesting that they could not look up even for a moment. Meantime the spinster clung to a strap and stared at one young man " who, bolder than the rest, looked at her. He shifted about uneasily in his seat for a moment and then, with a poor attempt at having suddenly remembered something of vital importance, plunged his hand into his inside coat pocket and drew forth a bundle of old letters, which ho began to assort with lie utmost diligence and care. At Twelfth-street a pretty girl got on. She was dressed in a tight-fitting cloth dress, which set off her well-rounded figure to advantage. There was just the hint of coming colour in her cheeks, and when she smiled white teeth peeped through the red of her lips. She shook out her dress with a pretty little air of irritation. The fat man with the bald head all at once ceased to take any interest, in the street sights, and rose precipitately to offer his seat. His head bumped against the young man on the other side, who had discovered all lie wanted to know about his left shoe, and who also rose to tender his seat. The man who hail been reading his letters, and who appeared to be so careful with them, stuffed them all into his pocket in a confused mass and fell over his neighbour's legs in his frantic efforts to be the lucky man. The baldheaded man glanced about triumphantly and smiled like a harvest moon when she accepted his seat and gave him a merry glance and a sweet " Thank you. ' The three other men scrambled back for their seats and the older woman still clung to the strap. —New York World.