RAILROAD REPARTEE.
A very smart young man wishing to supply amusement for a group of young ladies that accompanied him, accosted the conductor of a railroad train as follows:
"My dear conductor, what—er—do you call an up train!"
"Why, a train that blows up, explodes, goes to smash—anything of that sort."
"Ah, yes, to be sure. And—er—what do you call a down train?"
"Down train!—why, that's a train that goes down an embankment, or through a trestle-work; has some sort of a fall, you know."
The young ladies were laughing heartily at these answers, which embarrassed the young man, and desperately pointing to the train they were about to board, he asked,
"And where might this train be going?"
"Oh," replied the conductor, "we never agree to answer those questions beforehand."