Perhaps when the ladies come to vote, they will abate, with other
nuisances, the whole business of overloaded public conveyances. In the
mean time the kindness of women to each other is a notable feature of all
horse-car journeys. It is touching to see the smiling eagerness with which
the poor things gather close their volumed skirts and make room for a
weary sister, the tender looks of compassion which they bend upon the
sufferers obliged to stand, the sweetness with which they rise, if they
are young and strong, to offer their place to any infirm or heavily
burdened person of their sex.

But a journey to Boston is not entirely an experience of bitterness. On
the contrary, there are many things besides the mutual amiability of these
beautiful martyrs which relieve its tedium and horrors. A whole car-full
of people, brought into the closest contact with one another, yet in the
absence of introductions never exchanging a word, each being so sufficient
to himself as to need no social stimulus whatever, is certainly an
impressive and stately spectacle. It is a beautiful day, say; but far be
it from me to intimate as much to my neighbor, who plainly would rather
die than thus commit himself with me, and who, in fact, would well-nigh
strike me speechless with surprise if he did so. If there is any necessity
for communication, as with the conductor, we essay first to express
ourselves by gesture, and then utter our desires with a certain hollow and
remote effect, which is not otherwise to be described. I have sometimes
tried to speak above my breath, when, being about to leave the car, I have
made a virtue of offering my place to the prettiest young woman standing,
but I have found it impossible; the _genius loci_, whatever it was,
suppressed me, and I have gasped out my sham politeness as in a courteous
nightmare. The silencing influence is quite successfully resisted by none
but the tipsy people who occasionally ride out with us, and call up a