smile, sad as a gleam of winter sunshine, to our faces by their artless
prattle. I remember one eventful afternoon that we were all but moved to
laughter by the gayeties of such a one, who, even after he had ceased to
talk, continued to amuse us by falling asleep, and reposing himself
against the shoulder of the lady next him. Perhaps it is in acknowledgment
of the agreeable variety they contribute to horse-car life, that the
conductor treats his inebriate passengers with such unfailing tenderness
and forbearance. I have never seen them molested, though I have noticed
them in the indulgence of many eccentricities, and happened once even to
see one of them sit down in a lady's lap. But that was on the night of
Saint Patrick's day. Generally all avoidable indecorums are rare in the
horse-cars, though during the late forenoon and early afternoon, in the
period of lighter travel, I have found curious figures there:--among
others, two old women, in the old-clothes business, one of whom was
dressed, not very fortunately, in a gown with short sleeves, and
inferentially a low neck; a mender of umbrellas, with many unwholesome
whity-brown wrecks of umbrellas about him; a peddler of soap, who offered
cakes of it to his fellow-passengers at a discount, apparently for
friendship's sake; and a certain gentleman with a pock-marked face, and a
beard dyed an unscrupulous purple, who sang himself a hymn all the way to
Boston, and who gave me no sufficient reason for thinking him a sea-
captain. Not far from the end of the Long Bridge, there is apt to be a
number of colored ladies waiting to get into the car, or to get out of
it,--usually one solemn mother in Ethiopia, and two or three mirthful
daughters, who find it hard to suppress a sense of adventure, and to keep
in the laughter that struggles out through their glittering teeth and
eyes, and who place each other at a disadvantage by divers accidental and
intentional bumps and blows. If they are to get out, the old lady is not
certain of the place where, and, after making the car stop, and parleying
with the conductor, returns to her seat, and is mutely held up to public