If you was ridin' this car like I you'd see what
I mean.
"It's like watchin' people afterwards. I mean after they've done things.
They always seem worse off then. I suppose it's because they're all
sleepy. But standin' here of nights I feel that it's more than that.
They're tired sure enough but they're also feeling that things ain't what
they're cracked up to be.
"I seldom put anybody off. The drunks are pretty sad and I feel sorry for
them. They just flop over and I wake them up when it comes their time.
Sometimes there's girls and they look pretty sad. And sometimes something
really interestin' comes off. Once there was a lady who was cryin' and
holdin' a baby. On the third run it was. I could see she'd up and left her
house all of a sudden on account of a quarrel with her husband, because
she was only half buttoned together.
"And once there was a man whose pictures I see in the papers the next day
as having committed suicide. I remembered him in a minute. Well, no, he
didn't look like he was going to commit suicide. He looked just about like
all the other passengers--tired and sleepy and sort of down."
The mild-faced conductor helped one of his passengers off.
"Don't you ever wonder what keeps these people out or where they're going
at this time of night?" the newspaper man pursued as the car started up
again.
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