‘I seem to be getting myself into a scrape! It’s all a muddle; I can’t make head or tail of it; it never happened before; they always knocked under and never said a word, and so I never saw how ridiculous that stupid order with no penalty is. I don’t want to report anybody, and I don’t want to be reported—why, it might do me no end of harm! No do go on with the game—play the whole day if you want to—and don’t let’s have any more trouble about it!’
‘No, I only sat down here to establish this gentleman’s rights—he can have his place now. But before you go won’t you tell me what you think the company made this rule for? Can you imagine an excuse for it? I mean a rational one—an excuse that is not on its face silly, and the invention of an idiot?’
‘Why, surely I can. The reason it was made is plain enough. It is to save the feelings of the other passengers—the religious ones among them, I mean. They would not like it to have the Sabbath desecrated by card-playing on the train.’
‘I just thought as much. They are willing to desecrate it themselves by travelling on Sunday, but they are not willing that other people—’
‘By gracious, you’ve hit it! I never thought of that before. The fact is, it is a silly rule when you come to look into it.’
At this point the train conductor arrived, and was going to shut down the game in a very high-handed fashion, but the parlour-car conductor stopped him, and took him aside to explain. Nothing more was heard of the matter.
I was ill in bed eleven days in Chicago and got no glimpse of the Fair, for I was obliged to return East as soon as I was able to travel. The Major secured and paid for a state-room in a sleeper the day before we left, so that I could have plenty of room and be comfortable; but when we arrived at the station a mistake had been made and our car had not been put on. The conductor had reserved a section for us—it was the best he could do, he said. But Major said we were not in a hurry, and would wait for the car to be put on. The conductor responded, with pleasant irony:
‘It may be that you are not in a hurry, just as you say, but we are. Come, get aboard, gentlemen, get aboard—don’t keep us waiting.’
But the Major would not get aboard himself nor allow me to do it. He wanted his car, and said he must have it. This made the hurried and perspiring conductor impatient, and he said:
‘It’s the best we can do—we can’t do impossibilities. You will take the section or go without. A mistake has been made and can’t be rectified at this late hour. It’s a thing that happens now and then, and there is nothing for it but to put up with it and make the best of it. Other people do.’