VANITY FAIR

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 74, Issue 190, 13 August 1931, Page 2

VANITY FAIR

. ON THE NIGHT EXPRESS Night comes, and all are aboard the train. 7/ie noises of the bust) station increase, as the time for departing comes nearer. There is a final dumping, a rush, and then a shrill ndiislle. Slowly the lighted monster moves off. Lights of suburban stations seem to approach with speed, then to shrink away into the darkness. Inside the train, the passengers are preparing for the night; and gradually they settle down. Lights are turned out and blinds pulled up; so the recumbent figures are drawn willy-nilly through the darkness, one moment their faces hidden, the next. It I up by passing station lights. The train rushes on through the cold night air—the one moving force tn an otherwise peaceful domain—with a roar and a speed that swallows up darkness and lights, water and trees, hills and flat land, with an insatiable appetite. Nothing is too big for its monstrous jaw s, no beauty so great that it will stop to admire. On and on through the night! And the moon rises late to look down with gentle reproach on this screaming joyous night-machine with -is inmates inclosed s o peacefully. The sleeping world is now bright in the moonlight. On the tree-fringed lakes, a.d al the feel of the mountains, shadows come alive and play with the breeze that has arisen with them. Rut on and on tushes the train! Il has no lime for such frivolities, but never objects to having its precincts invaded by the light of the moon, nor its inmates soothed by the soft caressing presence.. On and on, till the moon is tired of watching and gives over its vigil to the sun, Wnich rises slowly but surely to take over its duties; and, with the advent of dawn, the passengers gradually awaken to a cold exhilarating rus l through the freshness of the m orning air. Then the city is approached, and the tram slackens speed before disgorging the little community that it has carried so gallantly through the nigh,.