Just as we were starting, I overheard an altercation between the baggage-man and a woman of a rather masculine appearance, “with angular outlines and plain surface, hair like the fibrous covering of a cocoanut in gloss and suppleness as well as color, and a voice at once thin and strenuous—acidulous enough to produce effervescence with alkalies, and stridulous enough to sing duets with the katydids.” He was asserting that she had too much baggage and that she must pay freight; the woman demurred to this, and protested that as she and her husband were travelling together they were entitled to a double quantity of luggage. In this she was clearly right, as, though the law considers that a man and a woman joined together in the bonds of wedlock are one, still as respects baggage they are two,[313] or half a dozen, if one may judge from Saratoga trunks. The disputants moved off and I did not hear the functionary’s decision.
As my companion opened his pocket-book to put in his checks, I noticed that he had nothing therein except a few cents, so I remarked jokingly:—
“You don’t appear to have much of the needful about you.”
He replied, “Pshaw! I am not such a goose as to carry money in my pocket to afford the light-fingered gentry an opportunity of enriching themselves at my expense.”
“But how do you manage to travel without money? I should like to learn the secret,” I said.
“So should I. I carry my cash in my trunk.”
“In your trunk! Suppose you lose it?”
“Well, the company’s liable,” he replied.
“Shouldn’t think so,” I said.
“But I am sure of it. It has been held that common carriers of passengers are responsible for money bonâ fide included in the baggage of a passenger, for travelling purposes and personal use, to an amount not exceeding what a prudent man—like myself for instance—would deem proper and necessary for the purpose.[314] But they are not responsible for money beyond such an amount, or intended for other purposes, unless, of course, the loss is occasioned by the gross negligence of the carriers or their servants.”[315]